A graphical guide for all new users with a Windows background using Ubuntu Revision 4
Having problems installing something on your new Ubuntu operating system? "Where's the EXE?", "Where do I need to extract this to?", "How do I run it?", "Where did it go?" - have you been thinking questions like these? Don't worry, installing software, themes and other things on Ubuntu is actually very easy! This guide will help you understand with screenshots, instructional videos and to-the-point language.
Note: The guide was written for Ubuntu 6.06 - The Dapper Drake using the tools of the Gnome desktop environment as its base. The program names and paths will undoubtedly vary if you're using Kubuntu or Xubuntu.
Linux applications are almost all open source [1] and they're, unlike typical Windows programs, highly dependant on external libraries to work. You don't have to understand what libraries are, but just that Windows programs typically include parts of libraries in their installers, taking up lots of space after they've been installed because the same libraries have duplicates many places on your harddisk; Linux programs usually don't do this.
Most Linux operating systems have evolved a system where you can download the program, along with any needed dependencies, without having duplicates scattered all over your harddisk saving you lots of space. At the same time, this system allows you to have a central location from which to install and update packages. This system is called the package manager and on Ubuntu you'll meet it in the form of apt-get, aptitude, Add/Remove..., Update Manager and Synaptic. All these programs are frontends to the same package manager[2] built right into Ubuntu.
Synaptic is a graphical program for installing packages and probably the one you'll feel the most comfortable with. You can launch it from System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager (paths will vary depending on your locale, the System menu is the third menu on the menubar at the very top of your screen); as a safety precaution it will ask you for your password before proceeding! It's not because it's dangerous, Ubuntu is just very strict with trying to keep you, and more importantly, non-administrator users, from messing up your system.
The Synaptic Package Manager
First
you search for the package you want to install. Note that there are
thousands of themes, applications, libaries and documentation available
right away in Synaptic. All of these packages are located on the Ubuntu
servers for you to download and update; the package manager essentially
works like a kind of improved Windows update that will not only keep
your operating system updated, but also all of the non-critical
programs you've installed through it. You can find packages by looking
for them inside the categories on the sidebar to the left or search for
them. Click the search icon in the toolbar to search.
The search popup that will pop up when you hit search
Selecting a package for installation in Synaptic
Once you have marked all the packages you want to install, you can click the apply icon. This will download, install and set up everything! It's that easy.
See a screencast of the 3-step install process
Trust me, it probably is. If it isn't, here are some of the reasons why it's not and how to fix it:
Usually your Applications menu is updated with a launcher to your new program, but sometimes this doesn't happen automatically. Here are some ways to find a link to your new program:
Install
the Debian menu. The Debian menu has a much more thorough list of your
installed applications, and it will be available as a category in your
existing Applications menu. You need to install the package called menu-xdg and possibly restart X (ctrl + alt + backspace) for it to show up.muine
ending with a press on the return/enter key. Muine fires up. Note that
the application will close when you close the terminal window! To avoid
this behavior, press Alt + F2 and the Run Application window will show up; Type in muine
to start it. Sometimes the command isn't called exactly the same as the
package; try typing the beginning letters and then press tab twice.
This will either give you the name of the command or a list of names to
choose from.
The installed files of the music player Muine
When you want to remove a program, you do exactly the same as when installing - just select Mark for Removal instead of Mark for Installation in step 2. If you want to remove configuration files as well (maybe you want some weird modifications undone) select Mark for Complete Removal. Remember to apply the changes!
Very often, you'll see other Ubuntu users saying "You can install program ABC with this code ..." and then they'll provide you with a command you can input in the terminal. This not unlike what Synaptic does. In fact, Synaptic uses these commands below the friendly user interface! You can find the terminal at Applications → Accessories → Terminal. The two commands that you can use are:
sudo apt-get install ABC and sudo aptitude install ABC
ABC is just a fictious package in this case, not a real one. The sudo
part of the command means you temporarily grant
super-user/administrator rights to the command, provided you supply a
correct user password. It's the same thing that happens when you open
up Synaptic, only in the terminal instead! If you run aptitude by
itself like this sudo aptitude, you get something that looks like a command-line version of Synaptic.
The Aptitude user interface
It's also possible to search from the command-line like it is in Synaptic. Try this:
apt-cache search ABC or aptitude search ABC
To uninstall a package:
sudo apt-get remove ABC and sudo aptitude remove ABC
Removing configuration files as well:
sudo apt-get remove --purge ABC and sudo aptitude purge ABC
Though the command-line can be scary for new users, as you can see it's fairly simple and straight-forward to use and has many of the same features as Synaptic when it comes to installing software. Some users prefer installing software through the terminal, others don't. You decide for yourself what you like best.
See a screencast of the terminal search & install process
Are you absolutely sure you can't find the package in Synaptic? Did you try enabling extra repositories? If you've tried all this with little or no success, here's how you do it the Windows-style way. Download a package (.deb, .rpm, .tar.gz, .package, klik:// → .cmg, .sh, .bin, .exe) and let's have a look.
The Debian Package installer (GDebI)
dpkg
which is what the package manager uses to manipulate Debian packages
(or short: debs). The syntax is as follows: if your package is located
on your desktop and your username is carl, then you install the package test.deb with dpkg -i /home/carl/Desktop/test.deb. You need to take care of dependencies yourself, so it's not the optimal way of installing software.
sudo alien -i /home/carl/Desktop/test.rpm.
Click Install to install the new desktop theme
Click Install to install the new login screen theme
See a screencast of package contents being extracted
./configure.
The purpose of the configure script is usually to check for
dependencies and then create the makefile. If the script fails for some
reason and tells you to install certain packages, look up the names in
Synaptic (Important! If you find packages in Synaptic named almost the same but with a -dev
extension, remember to install those as well! They're development
packages and are needed for compiling). Don't worry if it complains
that there is no configure script - many packages don't come with one!
Then you compile it with make and after it's been compiled you can install it. There are two ways:
sudo make install. To remove the temporary files you run make clean. To uninstall the program you run sudo make uninstall. These two clean-up commands don't always work, though, the programmer needs to have enabled them.
sudo checkinstall.
This will take slightly longer than a normal install and quite possibly
you'll have to supply a description of the application yourself (and
edit the other information slightly). If the need arises, this will be
easy to take care of from inside the checkinstall program. 
See a screencast of a package being installed from source
/home/carl/Desktop/test.package. The installer will ask you some questions, likely what your password is.wget klik.atekon.de/client/install -O -|sh
which downloads and installs the Klik client. Klik completely bypasses
both your package manager and your file-system; everything you need to
run the program is included in a .cmg-file located on your desktop
after the installation is done. You simply double-click the file to
start your application. To remove it again, simply delete the .cmg-filesh. If the script is called test.sh and is on the desktop of user carl, you can install it with sh /home/carl/Desktop/test.sh. Keep in mind that the script might not have permission to execute in your file-system./home/carl/Desktop/test.bin. Keep in mind that the installer might not have permission to execute in your file-system.
wine PATH
in the terminal where PATH is the path to your EXE. If the user carl
has an EXE called test.exe inside his home folder, he'll run the
command wine /home/carl/test.exe to execute it. Be
adviced that running Windows programs in WINE is often very buggy and
probably won't work to your satisfaction; very often it doesn't work at
all! 
The Windows application Graph
The following isn't directly connected to installing software and themes.
On a standard Ubuntu installation, Ubuntu is configured to use the main repository. There are however, other official repositories (or sections on the Ubuntu server) that aren't available right away. There is one called Universe which is the largest one. It's a pool of community-maintained software, but it is not officially supported by Ubuntu. There is also a section called Multiverse which has software under questionable licences. The third section is called Restricted and is a very small pool of software with restricted copyright.
To enable the rest of the Ubuntu repositories you open Synaptic and select an option in its menubar: Settings → Repositories. Here is a list of the current repositories. To enable the missing section select each of the packages that are labeled binary, click on Edit and tick the boxes outside the sections of the Ubuntu repositories you want to enable.
Enabling the universe, restricted and multiverse repositories
See a screencast showing how to enable the extra repositories
When you're done, Synaptic will probably ask you to reload your list of packages; agree to do that. Now your list of available packages should have increased significantly.
The best way to install new software in Ubuntu is to be connected to the Internet, but sometimes this is not possible. When you install Ubuntu the first time, your install CD should have been added as a repository. If it isn't, you can add it from the same window you enable extra repositories from. There's a button labeled Add CDrom; press this, insert your install CD and it will be added to the repositories.
Adding a CD to the package manager
You can now install software through Synaptic without being connected to the Internet, provided the install CD is inserted. Note that the install CD has software solely from the main repository, not Universe, Multiverse or Restricted! You now can download the entire Universe and Multiverse repositories on a set of DVD's and CD's courtesy of a volunteer effort. There is an ongoing project to create an Addon CD or DVD with select packages from the other sections of the Ubuntu repositories. You can download a preliminary CD ISO file for Ubuntu 5.10 'Breezy Badger' and try it out if you want to, but this guide will not go further into the subject[6].
The standard terminal on Ubuntu is Gnome Terminal which can be found in Applications → Accessories → Terminal.
A terminal is in a way very similar to a file manager in that it's
always inside a specific folder and is able to navigate to other
folders and do regular file management. By default it will be inside
your home folder when you run it. To confirm that your terminal is indeed browsing your home folder, type pwd ending with a press on enter. The pwd command will output the path to the current folder.
To see a list of files and directories inside the current directory, run the command ls. If you want to navigate up the directory tree run cd ... If you want to navigate down the directory tree run cd NAME where NAME is the name of the folder you want to navigate to. Example: if Tom is inside his home folder and there's a directory called test inside it, he will run cd test to change directory. If he wants to go back he can run cd ... I he ever gets lost he can run cd by itself; this will take him back to his home folder.
These are well-known from Windows. Launchers are shortcuts to your application allowing you to easily run it. To add a launcher, right-click somewhere on your desktop and select Create Launcher.... This will open a dialog from which you can enter information about the launcher. Remember to enter a name as well as a path to the executable. This is what carl would enter if he wanted a launcher for the executable named test located in his home folder:
Creating a new launcher
See a screencast showing how to create a launcher
To change permissions so that the file is executable, you right-click on the file on the desktop and select Properties; a window will open. Click on the tab labeled Permissions inside the window. There will be some boxes you can tick which tell the system what you're allowed to do with the file. Tick the box that says Execute outside the label that says Owner.
Permissions are tied to every file in the file-system
You can also run the command chmod +x /home/carl/Desktop/test.bin to make the file executable.
The easiest way to help a new user install something is to provide a command that will accomplish it. That is not in my opinion the best way to make a new user understand how Ubuntu works. It's also sad how you can leave the impression that Ubuntu needs to be used through a command-line for the simplest of tasks, when capable graphical tools exist for the same purposes. I hope this guide will help new users understand everything a little bit better. As they say in China: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
Created by Simon Gray © 2006
See a screencast showing a file being made executable