Installing programms from the net ie. Google Earth
 

Hi All

I am new to Linux, after becoming disillusioned with Vista. I have installed Ubuntu 8.10 and want to download and install Google Earth. I found a Linux Google Earth download and have downloaded it but how do I install it. I have used synaptic package manager but cannot find Google Earth in it.

Please help a newbi

Thanks Paul

If you are downloading software from various sources and NOT from your distribution's repository, or something in your sources.list, the package manager doesn't know anything about it, so it can't help you.

You can try to locate a Ubuntu (or Debian) based repository that has the software you want, add this to your sources.list and then install it using synaptic, OR, refer to the installation instructions that came with the software you downloaded. The installation procedure will depend on how the software was distributed.

To the extent possible, I'd stick with downloading packages from Ubuntu repositories unless there is just no other option.

Thanks pentode.

Ok so the only programs I should use are thses on the repository, but it sounds as if I can look on other repositories. How do I find these and add them?

Paul

Perhaps this will help...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu

Im not much of an ubuntu person... Slackware is my OS of choice.

Here is a list of ubuntu mirrors:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archivemirrors

Note... if you choose one, say University of Oregon:
you will add:
deb http://mirror.uoregon.edu/ubuntu/archives/ intrepid main
deb-src http://mirror.uoregon.edu/ubuntu/archives/ intrepid main

to your sources.list

Please feel free to correct me if I am incorrect... this is just my speculation...

Your sources list is a text file located in /etc/apt/sources.list (at least on my Debian systems). You can edit with any text editor.

It's best to get new software from a repository in your sources list - that way the package manager software keeps track of the version, dependencies, configuration files, etc. It's one of the big advantages of a modern linux system.

But you can still get software from other sources if you can't find a repository for a .deb package. It's just that you run some risk of hosing things up at some point.

sudo apt-get install googleearth

InstallingSoftware - Community Ubuntu Documentation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware

Software Management - Community Ubuntu Documentation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoftwareManagement

GetDeb - Software for Ubuntu Linux
http://www.getdeb.net/