Installing Programs
 

How in thw WORLD do i install ANYTHING!!! also, i heard there is a program that lets me use microsoft programs on linux, sooo..... if anybody knowws where to get that could you let me know? thanx for all suggestions, links, or any help

Hello there!

Welcome to LQ.org. The first thing you may wish to do is to always give details about what distribution you are using. That is important because every distro might offer different tools to assist you installing applications. You may want to take a few seconds and fill in your profile as well, so you don't have to tell us which distribution you are using on every thread.

Here is a link explaining how to install programs in Linux:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ad.php?t=45094

it will cover both from source (compiling programs) and packages. However, you are still better off using the tools your distribution provides you.

About your second question: " i heard there is a program that lets me use microsoft programs on linux"

There are many. Probably the most used (and freely available) is wine:

http://www.winehq.com/

However, I would recommend you to avoid it for now. One mistake many news users make is to try to use most Windows applications under Linux right away. Doing that will make you often frustrated (because not every application will work. And almost no application will work 100% under wine or other similar programs). Besides, you will not learn Linux and you will be missing a LOT of great applications for Linux which more often than not, blow Windows applications away.

Start with this link. This link is a table displaying Windows programs and their equivalents in Linux:

http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html

It is far from complete, but it is the best one I came across. That should cover the basics.

Remember: Google first or search the forums. Usually "googling" for "how to install programs in <your distribution>" will make wonders.

And remember to always give as much detail as you can when asking questions: A simple error message (copy and paste the message. Don't just say "and it gave me an error", because that won't help"), describe what you are trying to do and what distribution you are using (besides the relevant hardware you have) will take you far in the Linux community, you'll get replies faster and will not get frustrated as many do on their first week ^_^;;

Regards!

if it is a .rpm file you can use:
rpm -Uvh filename.rpm
---------------------------------
if you downloaded an archive you have to extract
it then install it for example....

if it's a tar.gz file:
tar zxvf filename.tar.gz

if it's a tar file:
tar xvf filename.tar

if it's .bz2 file:
bzip2 -d filename.bz2

then for all of the above except the rpm use
"./configure"
then type "make"
then type "make install"
(without the "")

you can use wine to run windows programs:
http://www.winehq.com/
or VirtualBox or Vmware or Qemu