See this? Easy software install under Linux

Note: This was written especially for those of you who are still on Windows, have considered Linux, but are worried about complexities, command lines and other things you'd rather not have to deal with. There is good news for you: It's neither complex, nor do you need the command line. The example we use here is the installation of new software, always something that can go wrong easily and is complex and cumbersome, right? Well, read on and hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised...

Even in this day and age you can sometimes still hear the echo of the old FUD: Installing software under Linux is difficult! Really? Maybe that was the case in the past, but it certainly doesn't hold for modern Linux distributions anymore. In fact, I would content that for most people, installing software under Linux is now easier than under Windows. The installation requires a few less mouse clicks under Linux, but that is not even all that relevant.


Repositories

More important than just the click-count is how modern Linux distributions allow everyone to choose from a huge number of available packages and applications, easily browsed, sorted in categories, small descriptions with each of them. You don't need to hunt for them on the Internet, or come across them by accident. You also don't have to download them from more-or-less trustworthy web-sites. Instead, a huge selection of very good applications is available in centrally managed repositories, just there for you to peruse and select from. And once you have selected the ones you want, it just takes one or two clicks for all of them to be installed. Once installed, they are all automatically updated whenever any new updates for them are available.

What can you find in those repositories? Quality open source software, ranging from small utilities and desktop eye candy, all the way to complete and powerful office productivity suites, CAD or DTP programs, software development tools, graphics and multi-media software, games, educational software and more. There is even some closed-source software from various vendors available now as well.

For those of you who have used a modern desktop-oriented Linux before - such as Ubuntu - this is all going to be an old hat. But I think you will agree: Once you have done software installation and management in this style for a while, you really don't ever want to go back to any other way. However, for those of you who are still on Windows, are toying with the thought of Linux, but are weary of the 'complexity' of it all... well, this is for you.


A walk through

Note: You can click on any of the following images to see a larger version of the picture, which will open in a separate browser window.

I use Ubuntu, so what you see in the example below is their way of doing things. Since it's currently the most popular desktop Linux distribution, this is probably not a bad example, though. But other Linux distros offer similar methods for software maintenance as well.

So, let's start with a typical Ubuntu desktop. In the upper left corner, you normally see a simple pull-down menu. Here you can see the categories of the various applications that are already installed on my laptop. At the bottom of the pull-down menu, you see an 'Add/Remove' option. Let's select that and see what we get.

The 'Add/Remove' application opens. It briefly checks which applications are present on the system. It can then display all the available apps and indicates with a small tick-mark which of those you have already installed. You can see that this is all organised into individual categories. But you can also display 'all' in a large, flat list if you want to.

In the upper right corner we can now select the types of applications that are offered to us: Either all available ones, only open source ones, or ones provided by third parties. A further selection, which is interesting for corporate users is the 'Supported Ubuntu Applications'. These are the ones for which you can get technical support and maintenance contracts with Canonical, the company behind the commercial Ubuntu offerings. In a previous discussion on this forum here, we were wondering for which applications one can get this kind of support. The answer was right in front of me, all the while. Duh!

Having made my selection for the category, I can now browse all the available applications. Clicking on any one of them brings up a small description and links to the project's home page. Here I have selected fractal imaging application. I simply check the tick-box. This process can be repeated with multiple applications.

Time to install! I click on the 'Apply' button and get one more dialog in which I can review my 'shopping cart' of selected applications. You can see that I have three apps marked for installation. If I would have also selected some to be uninstalled, they would appear in this list as well.

The download and installation begins. I can see a progress bar for each individual package download. Very important: If there are any prerequisites, such as libraries or other packages which are not present on my system yet, they will automatically and without any further prompting be installed as well. Also, for the vast majority of all applications that can be installed this way, I do not have to agree to any special licenses. Therefore, once I have clicked 'apply', the install will complete without any intervention on my part.

Once the install is completed, I am seeing a friendly reminder about the categories that the applications were installed in, so that I can easily find them in my application pull down menu later on. And as you can see from the very last screenshot, they are all there, at the advertised place.

So, as you can see this was not at all complicated. Installing additional desktop applications truly is a snap.


How about the command line?

Linux being Linux, there is of course also a way to do all of this from the command line as well. The command line gives you even greater control, and also access to non-desktop oriented packages, such as servers, compilers, libraries and such. For convenience, there is also a graphical tool wrapped around the command line functionality. But if you are looking for desktop applications and want it to just work then sticking to the 'Add/Remove' functionality we have just seen in action will be a safe bet for you.


Conclusion

Hopefully, this little run through has shown you that software installation under modern Linux distros can be easy and efficient. If you were nervous about complexities and command-line-phobia has held you away from Linux so far, you can confidently go ahead and try it now. Nothing complicated about it, at all.

Other related posts:
Smooth sailing with the Karmic Koala
A Linux distro for Cuba
Follow up: How to write a Linux virus