I'm using xubuntu (Crouton version)

I was trying to find Steam in Software Center - could not find it. I installed Synaptic and tried to search for it there - couldn't find it there either.

So on the off chance that steam was called "steam", I typed ...
sudo apt-get install steam

... and it started downloading straight away/

Why was I unable to find it from within these two core utilities?
( Surely it's nothing to do with my Crouton version? )

Thank you.

That is a very good question, baggister.

I never use Synaptic but on firing it up and reloading the package information, I see that Steam is not listed in my version of Synaptic (0.83 on Linux Mint 18.2, so it's not just your Crouton set up that's experiencing this issue) despite apt-cache show steam showing that it is available in the Ubuntu 16.04 repos.

It looks as if Synaptic is carrying out its own filtering somehow, perhaps based on the origin or architecture of the package (it's a 32-bit package).

Anyway, as far as Steam is concerned, the latest version in the Ubuntu 16.04 repos is currently 1.0.0.52 which came out in early 2016. The latest version is 1.0.0.54 so you might consider downloading it directly from their website (http://store.steampowered.com/about/).

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Ok, thanks. I meant to say that I did "update" (which updates the list I believe?) and "upgrade" (which I gather deploys the lastest versions set out in the list)

Re downloading - in Linux, I've only ever installed stuff from Official repos: I wouldn't know how to download and deploy any other way (though I'm sure googling will give me the answer to that). Besides, I assume if it's in the repo's, it's been tested as ok and working. The other thing about using Software Center and Synaptic is that it downloads all dependencies too , which I suspect "apt-get install" will not.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

Ok, fair enough.

For info, apt-get install does automatically install dependencies.

I too tend to stick to the repos, unless I'm keen to get my hands on a more up-to-date version or the software isn't available in the repos. As long as you use good judgement, you'll be fine adding PPAs or otherwise installing non-repo packages.

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ok mate, thanks very much!