Installing Software

Background

Some Linux distribution come with practically nothing in the way of software. These distributions make a point of respecting you and your right to install only what you want/need on your system.

Fortunately for us, Ubuntu takes a kinder, gentler approach. You should find just about everything you need to get up and running already installed on your Ubuntu system.

Here’s a comparison of what was on your old Mac and what you might be using now:

SoftwareApple OS XUbuntu
BrowserSafari, Firefox, ChromeChrome, Chromium, Firefox
EmailMail.app, Gmail (in browser)Mozilla Thunderbird, Gmail (in browser)
Office ProductivityMicrosoft: Office, Apple iWork suiteLibreOffice
CalendaringCalendar, Google CalendarGoogle Calendar
SMS MessagingMessagesN/A
Music listeningiTunes, Spotify, etc.RhythmBox, Spotify, etc.
External storageDropbox (app), Google Drive (in browser)Dropbox (app), Google Drive (in browser)
Photo EditingPhotos, Adobe Photoshop, Pixelmator, Graphic ConverterGIMP, many others

You have four different ways of installing third-party software on your Ubuntu machine.

1. Use an application to search for and download software, possibly the Ubuntu Software app in Ubuntu’s Launcher, or available from the Applications menu in other versions of Ubuntu.
2. Going to a website and downloading an installer from there.
3. Using a Terminal window to launch

   apt-get

   so that you can download and install using a Debian’s package manager via the command line (Moderately Advanced users only).

4. Download source files from the Internet and “making and installing” by hand (Advanced users only).

What You Do

Installing software and playing around with it just to try it out is a pleasure for some people. I tend to favor a “stick with what you know” approach, where possible. In this case, I installed software using the first three techniques listed above.

1. Installing from Ubuntu Software
   I clicked on the orange Ubuntu Software button in the Launcher of Ubuntu, and selected VLC media player from the Editor’s Picks of apps. After authenticating with my password, the VLC software was installed on my computer, and available for launching from the Search icon in the Launch bar.
   
2. Installing from the Internet
   I used the Chrome web browser to go to dropbox.com to install Dropbox. The website auto-recognized that I was there from a Linux machine, and gave me the option of downloading an installer. Once downloaded, I went into the Downloads directory in my home folder and double-clicked on the installer there,

   dropbox_2015.10.28_amd64.deb

   .

   
   At this point, Dropbox is still not running. I had to search my applications for the Dropbox application, launch it, and click through a warning, download a daemon application, and authenticate before I could even sign in to my Dropbox account, but after that, I was all set.

   Note that Dropbox includes proprietary software that Linux purists object to. There are other ways to share/backup your files available to you.

3. Installing using

   apt

   Ubuntu/Debian’s

   apt

   package manager is used to manage software installation via the command line, and it’s quite easy to use. This utility is actually what the Ubuntu Software manager uses to download packages—the manager is a graphical front-end to this utility.

   To install software via

   apt

   , open up a Terminal and issue the following command:

   sudo apt install audacity

   The

   apt

   package manager will search online repositories for the package, and give you the option to install. Answer “y” and you’ll soon see the Terminal reporting on the installation process. One that process completes, the software will be installed.

4. Installing a program using

   make/install

   Some

   Some open source programs are distributed via the software management website github. The sound editing program Audacity, for example, is available there. To install software from GitHub:

   • Go to the page for the project, click on “Clone or download” and select “Download ZIP.” A zipped file containing that programs resources will be downloaded, probably into your Downloads folder.
   • On your laptop, navigate to the Downloads folder and double-click on the zip file you’ve just downloaded. The Archive Manager program should launch, allowing you to look into that zip file to see what files are there.
   • Click the “Extract” button in Archive Manager to unzip that file.
   • Type

     ./configure

     in the current directory to build a new Makefile that will be used to install the program.

   • Type

     make

     which makes an executable program based on the files there in the package

   • Finally, type

     sudo make install

     to find the target install that has been made and install the program

   • To run the program from this directory, type

     ./name_of_program