Hi. I'll have used Linux on and off but I'm only recently new to installing/deinstalling software.
What is the most efficient way to install software?

For example I downloaded the X version of WinVice.

As user jsmith:
1) I extracted the gzipped tar to a /tmp dir in my home. eg /home/jsmith/vice1.11
2) Looked at the README then the INSTALL.
3) ./configure to compile the source.
4) make
5) As SU I "make install". I then do a "make clean"

Questions:
1) Like the FAQ so far. At this point is usually ok to rm the /home/jsmith/vice1.11 directory?
I ask this because many installs go to /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib and save space if the
directory is no longer needed/

2) If I want to remove the software later, would it be a case of make uninstall? (stated in README)
I ask this because I would still need the /home/jsmith/vice1.11 directory where I compiled vice?

3) A game I tried "xrick" simply extracted into a folder under my /home/.. and ran from there.
Would it be fair to summarize there are 2 types then?
i) "private" user based software?
ii) "local" users based software?

4) How does a seasoned user go about keeping track/managing of these files? For un-installs or re-installs
for instance.

Hope that didn't sound too convoluted there. I guess it's because there are more questions to ask that I
know at the moment.

Btw, Vice is fanastic under Linux!

Most "efficient" would probably be (for you) via rpm format. HOWEVER, since I personally don't like RPM's, I think in the long run, installing from source is the best way. It's all personal preference, especially since you have Synaptic (see www.freshmeat.net) available to manage dependencies for you better with RPM's.

Quote:

For example I downloaded the X version of WinVice. As user jsmith: 1) I extracted the gzipped tar to a /tmp dir in my home. eg /home/jsmith/vice1.11 2) Looked at the README then the INSTALL. 3) ./configure to compile the source. 4) make 5) As SU I "make install". I then do a "make clean" Questions: 1) Like the FAQ so far. At this point is usually ok to rm the /home/jsmith/vice1.11 directory? I ask this because many installs go to /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib and save space if the directory is no longer needed/

Once the application has been "make install"ed you can safely delete the source directory (the one created when you untarred the file). However, see next question...

Quote:

2) If I want to remove the software later, would it be a case of make uninstall? (stated in README) I ask this because I would still need the /home/jsmith/vice1.11 directory where I compiled vice?

If it's included in the makefile (and if it's in the README it probably is included in the Makefile) then yes, it's as easy as "make uninstall". However, not every application has that option. You can look into something like checkinstall to help you out (however it's really slack or Debian specific AFAIK) or something similar.

Quote:

3) A game I tried "xrick" simply extracted into a folder under my /home/.. and ran from there. Would it be fair to summarize there are 2 types then? i) "private" user based software? ii) "local" users based software?

You can simply untar and make an application. And then just run it from the directory you "make" it in. That's usually for users who don't have root priviledges, and cannot run "make install" to get it to a system wide PATH for easier execution. So if you untar files in your HOME directory, you definitely don't have to install it to run it, however you will have to run it with full path.

Quote:

4) How does a seasoned user go about keeping track/managing of these files? For un-installs or re-installs for instance.

With years of experience Nah, usually with either a package management system, or something similar to "make install".

Cool

I have a seperate partition, /usr. In /usr/src i keep all program sources, so i can later easily just make uninstall them, or recompile them if i update some big libraries. Then all the binaries go to /usr/local/bin which is in the system $PATH. You also have to keep the the source directory from which you issued 'make' because you have to issue 'make uninstall' from the same directiry. If you are not interested in uninstalling software with make uninstall afterwards, then you can safely remove the source trees, however i still suggest that you keep them safe somewhere in /usr/src.
This way when you install a different distro, or reinstall your distro, or whatever, you will have all your sources in /usr/src (remember it's a different partition!) and all the binaries in /usr/local/bin where you can use them right away without having to 'make' them all again.
HTH
-NSKL