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If you use all three of the "official" debian repositories; stable, testing, unstable, you will find you have access to tons of apps. If you cannot find one search apt-get.org then add the repository to your sources.list.
You can also use "alien" to convert a rpm package to a .deb package. If all of the above fails compiling from source is not that difficult. See the tutorial here at LQ.org
Originally posted by OldBob All the "hot, new" distros seem to be Debian based [Knoppix, Ubuntu, Xandros, etc...] BUT, where are all the ".deb" packages, to be downloaded ???
I am anxious to try apt-get, but all the download sites I see only have ".tar" and ".tar.gz" packages.
obviously u do not know the concept of apt.
why bother seraching websites? its a waste of time.
just add the repositories into your /etc/apt/sources.list and you are ready to go.
It is easier to use synaptic to search yours packages or apt-cache. If you don't find it then you can look for a repository to add or install the downloaded deb.
For the past year I have been "struggling" with Red Hat/Mandrake. My .tar attempts usually "take-off like unguided missles" !! Where they end up I have no idea, but "nothing" gets installed.
I thought apt-get was a fresh approach. This is the first I heard of "repositories".
I have no idea what "...use apt on repositories for your distro..." really means !!
For example, where would I find repositories for Xandros ??
And "....just add repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list..." is way above my present Linux/Debian skill level.
The basic idea behind apt-get and software repositories is that YOU don't go out and get software, the COMPUTER goes out and gets software.
You can run synaptic if you want a GUI interface for getting software packages. Alternatively, you can learn how to type in:
apt-cache search blahblahblah
and
apt-get install blahblahblah
The former searches for packages by keyword. The latter installs a package. You need to use a root terminal or use the command "su" to temporarily log in as root to run apt-get install.
There are numerous places where you might find a .deb package to download (for instance, KDE-Look has a lot of them, and many games are in downloadable .deb packages). To install those, use the command:
dpkg -i filename.deb
As with "apt-get install", you need to run it as root.
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