18-10-2019, 12:05 AM
Everything in Linux has about 5 ways to do it. Personal Choice.
1) Software Manager is a more "play store" like GUI needing less expertise. Best for novices unless the package is not listed. Simplest, safest and has most packages you'd want.
2) Synaptic is the "experts" package manager GUI. It may allow you do silly things. It will have extra packages. Some will not make sense for your desktop or system. However usually you can undo stupidity.
3) "sudo apt -get " is the low level console installer. Sudo means do this as Administrator (root in Unix / Linux / BSD / Mac parlance). It gets and installs via the internet. It only installs from sources (repositories) the OS knows. You can add repositories, but make sure they are trustworthy. You can add repositories via Synaptic, or via the Update Manager or via console command.
4) Downloading a .deb file is sort of the lowest level. You can install the package via console or the GUI. It allows installs the OS knows nothing about. I'd only often use it for a Brother printer driver from Brothers website. Dangerous for untrusted sites.
5) Sometimes there is source but no actual package. The PCW8512 /PCW9512 emulator is an example. First you use apt to install the dependances. Then you compile. You read error messages and figure what package to compile it you are missing and repeat. I've rarely ever done this (maybe five times in 20 years). Why? Well it may be produced by a niche expert and (s)he isn't going to package it, which is a separate expertise. Also Suse, Gentoo, BSD Free, Mac, Redhat/Barack/Fedora/etc, Arch, Debian/Ubuntu/Mint etc might all need different packages. The MIPS, Power PC, x86, x86-64, ARM-32 and ARM-64 all need different packages. A Package for 64 bit AMD/Intel linux won't install on a Raspberry Pi even if the same Distro of Linux.
Windows only runs on x86-32 or x86-64 (Itanium died in XP era for Windows) and very limited ARM versions even though NT used to support Alpha, Alpha64 (NT4.0), Power PC and MIPS too.
Linux runs on CPUs you never heard of. But not the same binary! Hence per CPU and per Distro packages and option 5 for niche programs. You don't need to know any programming for option 5, just follow instructions.
Maybe 99.999% of what people want is on option 1.
Also when you add via 1, 2 or 3 option usually the Update manager automatically then gets the updates. Some programs offer direct update via script you paste.
Unlike Windows the Update manager is fast and unlike Win10 or Win7 or XP I can't remember it EVER breaking anything and it only ever suggested I could reboot (any time) when actually upgrading entire version of OS in place. Reboot about 45s.
1) Software Manager is a more "play store" like GUI needing less expertise. Best for novices unless the package is not listed. Simplest, safest and has most packages you'd want.
2) Synaptic is the "experts" package manager GUI. It may allow you do silly things. It will have extra packages. Some will not make sense for your desktop or system. However usually you can undo stupidity.
3) "sudo apt -get " is the low level console installer. Sudo means do this as Administrator (root in Unix / Linux / BSD / Mac parlance). It gets and installs via the internet. It only installs from sources (repositories) the OS knows. You can add repositories, but make sure they are trustworthy. You can add repositories via Synaptic, or via the Update Manager or via console command.
4) Downloading a .deb file is sort of the lowest level. You can install the package via console or the GUI. It allows installs the OS knows nothing about. I'd only often use it for a Brother printer driver from Brothers website. Dangerous for untrusted sites.
5) Sometimes there is source but no actual package. The PCW8512 /PCW9512 emulator is an example. First you use apt to install the dependances. Then you compile. You read error messages and figure what package to compile it you are missing and repeat. I've rarely ever done this (maybe five times in 20 years). Why? Well it may be produced by a niche expert and (s)he isn't going to package it, which is a separate expertise. Also Suse, Gentoo, BSD Free, Mac, Redhat/Barack/Fedora/etc, Arch, Debian/Ubuntu/Mint etc might all need different packages. The MIPS, Power PC, x86, x86-64, ARM-32 and ARM-64 all need different packages. A Package for 64 bit AMD/Intel linux won't install on a Raspberry Pi even if the same Distro of Linux.
Windows only runs on x86-32 or x86-64 (Itanium died in XP era for Windows) and very limited ARM versions even though NT used to support Alpha, Alpha64 (NT4.0), Power PC and MIPS too.
Linux runs on CPUs you never heard of. But not the same binary! Hence per CPU and per Distro packages and option 5 for niche programs. You don't need to know any programming for option 5, just follow instructions.
Maybe 99.999% of what people want is on option 1.
Also when you add via 1, 2 or 3 option usually the Update manager automatically then gets the updates. Some programs offer direct update via script you paste.
Unlike Windows the Update manager is fast and unlike Win10 or Win7 or XP I can't remember it EVER breaking anything and it only ever suggested I could reboot (any time) when actually upgrading entire version of OS in place. Reboot about 45s.
