Installing software
 

Hi y'all. I am new here. I'd like to learn how to install tarballs in ubuntu.

The preferred method to install software in Ubuntu is through its package management system. That said, sometimes you might have to install from source. What are you trying to install?

The first steps would be to extract the files and find the readme or directions inside. There are always text files in the archive and often the site where you found the software has instructions as well.

We can help more if we know what software source you have and where you got it.

Hi jkirchner, I am trying to install vlc from the source code. Perhaps you could walk me through the steps required.

It would be a lot easier getting it prebuilt, running this in the terminal:
But if you really want to build it from source, follow this:
https://wiki.videolan.org/UnixCompile/

Thanks for the information. It was really helpful.

Here's a good introduction to compiling software from sources in Linux.

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2012/06/...l-from-source/

As long as you make sure you have any dependences installed, it's not all that difficult. The beauty of package managers such as synaptic (what underlies the Ubuntu Software Center) and yum is that they resolve dependencies for you.