i have swapped from windows to linux mint and got aircrack and a few other programes alredy downloaded but not got a clue how to install them would greatly appreciate some help here thanks

don't download anything (well, tbh you might need to download aircrack due to it being a bit "dubious"... not sure) just run "apt-get install whatevertheprogramis" and it'll sort out the rest, e.g. "apt-get install firefox". I assume mint also contains aptitude (instead of apt-get) and gui tools like synaptics are also there for you.

There's also LinuxMint's GUI application mintInstall. You could check to see if the program is located there, and if so, it will handle downloading and installing the program for you. If it isn't, (and the above 'sudo apt-get install [program]' suggestion above doesn't work, you might try the commands

./configure
make
make install

to compile from source, (directions here: http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/softinstall.html) but then it won't be managed by your package manager.

You may have saved 'em to a file. The choice, if it is from the net, occurs when you download it- Linux is not the same as ... When you get used to it you may well prefer it, Linux.

Fred.

First, always try the package manager before downloading anything. Just about everything you need will be in the repositories set up by the distro maintainer.

Second, there is no one way to install downloaded SW---you simply have to follow the instructions they provide. A typical download will often be a compressed archive (filename ending in tar.gz or something similar) In these cases, you need to extract the archive and then you will likely find instructions inside.

Example: Suppose your download is program.tar.gz ..In a terminal, cd to the directory containing the file and do "tar -xzvf program.tar.gz". This will create a new directory---probably named "program". cd into this and see what you find.