There is an abundance of information on installing or downloading plugins and programs. However, I still search everywhere in vain for how to run the installed software, no matter what kind. This just doesn't make sense to me, gladly migrating from the dreadful Windows Vista OS. At least in Windows, it just takes a click or double-click on a shortcut icon to immediately get the program open - whether plugin or not. Linux must be able to run the software programs it "installs," IMHO. Am I wrong or nuts or something??
Where oh where is the answer to this most logical question? What is the sense of installing software you're not going to run or actually use? Oh, and that's just one other thing. Where does Linux normally install downloaded programs - especially video and audio codecs? Have no idea of what path to look at.

Am presently running Ubuntu 8.04.1 on an Acer Aspire desktop PC with 2GB of RAM, a single 160GB SATA hard drive, a 56K Modem, and a NVIDIA GeoForce 6100 Graphics card. Have never installed any Linux distro before as OS on any computer I've owned.

Hoping for an answer or maybe even more than one that seems to be impossible to find everywhere I've looked - forums, documentation, chat rooms, and Wiki.

Thanks again to all for all the help. Great forum to be a member of!

It should just add itself to the menu of whatever desktop environment you are using (in your case, GNOME, since you are on Ubuntu).

As for where everything is installed, it isn't something you need to really worry about. The package manager knows where to install everything based on the filesystem layout. It isn't like Windows where there is a "Program Files" directory that you need to keep track of.

If you want to see which Firefox plugins you've got eg codecs etc : http://www.tech-recipes.com/mozilla_..._tips1483.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FirefoxPlugins

Standalone progs will prob put something in your menu, although you may need to login/out to make it appear.

As said though, you don't genereally need to know where a plugin is on your disk. If its installed ok, it will get used. The pkg mgr is there to handle the small details for you.

You might also like to read this: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

HTH