Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

[flarson]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

That is done in a terminal. You can open Konsole by K-> Applications->System-> Terminal or
ALT-F2 and type konsole-press enter.

[flarson]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

I should maybe explain a little more about sudo. In linux there is a root user who has power to do anything, and so is know as the Super User. sudo allows you to do things as su. Only root can install packages so you use sudo to run the aptitude program with the command install and the name of the package you want to install.

[jess1313]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

ok so what do i type into Konsole?

[flarson]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

sudo aptitude install firefox

but reply 13 has other information youwill want to look at also.

[jess1313]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Thanks for the help everyone this post is being made from my laptop running kubuntu, i used the software management program to install firefox, however im still trying to get the flash going, but one step at a time.

[flarson]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Glad you are making progress. This link should help with flash.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683

[nick123456789]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

sudo aptitude install firefox

but reply 13 has other information youwill want to look at also.

Is there a GUI for installing firefox instead of using "sudo aptitude install firefox"?

Thanks,

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Absolutely -

Kmenu>Applications>System>Software Management (KpackageKit)

Type what you need in the search field.

The problem is that this application is not without bugs, so it may crash or make other problems. And when you do a search, it is a bit like Google - it comes up with a lot and leaves to you what to look for. It would have been a lot better if they had sorted the results a bit. Major packages first, maybe and then all translations, libraries etc further down the list...

[KeithZG]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Absolutely -

Kmenu>Applications>System>Software Management (KpackageKit)

Type what you need in the search field.

The problem is that this application is not without bugs, so it may crash or make other problems. And when you do a search, it is a bit like Google - it comes up with a lot and leaves to you what to look for. It would have been a lot better if they had sorted the results a bit. Major packages first, maybe and then all translations, libraries etc further down the list...

Yeah unfortunately KPackageKit is still pretty new, since Adept has been discontinued for its sake (the KDE3 -> KDE4 transition still hasn't entirely settled down).

But, nick123456789, if you want to try out different GUIs for the package management system, the default GNOME/Ubuntu one is Synaptic; you can install it with "sudo aptitude install synaptic" and although I'm a KDE fanboy myself lately I've been using it since it's been around for ages so it's quite stable and feature complete (and although things might look a bit ugly sometimes, the cool thing is that KDE and GNOME tend to run eachother's applications without really any fuss).


Oh, and back to something mentioned earlier in this thread, if you're looking for a lightweight environment but one that's friendly to those new to Linux/*buntu, LXDE is pretty great that way. I actually run it a lot on my underpowered laptop when I'm having to grope as much speed and battery life as I can from it; you can run KDE apps from it just fine, too, and it's worth checking out if you're looking for something as lightweight as possible but you aren't experienced with Linux (although I'd say definitely to get used to KDE first, but it's something to keep in mind in the future or for really old computers).

[pseudyo]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

There is always Xubuntu (xfce) - I run kubuntu on my desktop & notebook. I love KDE for it's sophisticated design and underlying junk *graphic designer's attitude.

However, I've installed Xubuntu on an older laptop, my family uses it. I made it look (gui) like windows xp, and nobody seems to care/notice the difference.

If your media station is an older box, there are slimmer alternatives to the aforementioned (fluxbox, puppy linux, etoile, idk, there are even more..) Good luck, have fun, & welcome.

[nick123456789]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Is there a way I can get a list of the programs that can be installed using "sudo aptitude install ____"

or at least the most used/popular programs.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

Eh... That list would be extremely long.... I have no idea of how many tens of thousands of programs that are available, but there are many...

Here is what I suggest:

Start with Kubuntu. Get it installed. Then add programs one by one. If there are any programs you are used to on another platform, ask and we will try to give you alternatives. Or maybe they are already there :-)

Two programs you might use already, Firefox and Thunderbird, are already available on Linux. But if you are really going to stay on Linux, you might want to take a look at Kmail, the mail client in KDE. It is good, and the addressbook for KDE is among the best I have ever seen on any platform!

I have several programs installed that might interest you, but it all depends on what you like to do. If you have a hobby, there is probably some programs already that you can use for it. There are a lot of choices. The only area that might be a little thin is business. I have been struggling to find something as simple as an invoice (not accounting) system. But I am sure I will find it some day.

Like I said, let me know more about what you like to do and we will try to help you.

[flarson]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

There are many, over 15,000 for sure. You can do things like
aptitude search something
and find packages that mention that. Or
apt-cache search net
or
apt-cache search -n net
for a name only search.

You can also look at things like
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/ and http://packages.medibuntu.org/

[KeithZG]

Re: Ubuntu or Kubuntu?

If you install either Adept or Synaptic, with either of those you can easily browse through the different types of software available in the repositories, and from them you can install them too, so I'd strongly recommend installing and using one of the two.

As mentioned above, Adept is more native to KDE/Kubuntu but isn't being worked on anymore, while Synaptic is a more mature and still-being-maintained program, for a newcomer like you I'd probably recommend Synaptic, especially since it has the ability to show you programs in different categories so you can just get a list of, say "Games and Amusement" or "Multimedia" or whatever, which sounds like it would be quite useful for you.

Edit:

There are many, over 15,000 for sure. You can do things like
aptitude search something
and find packages that mention that. Or
apt-cache search net
or
apt-cache search -n net
for a name only search.

You can also look at things like
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/ and http://packages.medibuntu.org/

Don't forget the main one for our distro in question!
http://packages.ubuntu.com/

I'd also add that if you're searching the commandline way with apt-cache, the "grep" command is incredibly useful. I'll give an example by way of explanation. Say I'm searching for bittorrent-related programs and I want it to be a KDE application. I'd go

apt-cache search torrent | grep KDE

and then it searches for any programs with "torrent" in their name or description, then only shows the ones with "KDE" in there as well. So for example on my Kubuntu Hardy install it looks like this:

keithzg@foundation:~$ apt-cache search torrent | grep KDE
kdenetwork-kfile-plugins - torrent metainfo plugin for KDE
ktorrent - BitTorrent client for KDE
kget-kde4 - download manager for KDE 4
ktorrent-kde4 - BitTorrent client for KDE 4