I am not able to install anything in Ubuntu

I had just got a laptop from my company which has Linux on it. I would like to know how to install a software from it. I understand nothing out here. I tried to search lots of option but nothing found in the menu. I am quiet familiar with the setup of Windows which is simply the next next thing, but there is a lot difference on the open source system. I tried to read some guides which states some command line procedure which goes above my head. Is it possible to run Windows based application on the same if yes then how to do that. I found some tools like Wine which lets to run the same, if yes then how. That can make my work my easier. I heard that you might need to update those packages to get better installation support.

You do not need to worry about the same. There are several ways to get an application running on Linux. Some of examples here I found are, RPM package . This is a file with the extension. Rpm for an automatic installation for Linux distributions such as RedHat or Mandrake. In the same way you can also run DEB package. This is a file with a. Deb for an automatic installation for Debian Linux distributions. And the last way you can use an archive. These files are compressed with the. Tar.gz,. Gz or. Tar.bz2 In the second case it is usually a source of the software. So you need to compile the program on your machine to make it run.

Ubuntu is Debian based system. It is entirely free and noncommercial, is known for its great power system package, allowing easy upgrades and periodicals directly on the Internet. Ubuntu is Debian based and therefore uses this format. A graphical tool allows easy management of all software installed and their installation itself and is accessed from the desktop user with administrative rights by System / Administration / Synaptic Package Manager and then enter his password. This is the authentication of your software so that application would not run in your system without your permission.

You can begin by configuring the software which is available. For that you have go in Configuration > repositories. When you enter the same it opens a window for selecting sources of additional software, particularly Universe and Multiverse, sets unofficially maintained by Canonical. One can also manually add deposits, in the tab third party software. After that you can Edit or update the package list as per you need. It is recommended to update the database packages without making changes to the system. It is essential to make this update before installation so that it does not get an error message concerning a packet unavailable. This is the most easy way to install applications on the Linux based system.

With Linux you can install your applications in different ways. This may depend on several things. The first is your distribution. If you're running Debian or Slackware, you can install your applications, respectively, with Utility called as apt-get or simply unzip program files which can read the format tgz. You can also install rpm packages with the utility called alien. If you choose a distribution Mandriva, Redhat or Fedora you can install your applications package using rpm or better using urpmi, which is the equivalent of apt-get and finally, from the sources in the compilation. If you want to run Windows application on Linux then you can use Wine. Wine is not an emulator, but it is a platform which assist you to run Windows application on the Linux. The goal of Wine and allow to run Windows applications on Linux. By installing Wine you can simply run the .exe file on deb based system.

RPM are called as Red Hat Package Manager. The RPM technology makes it possible to install software, uninstall, update, or verify an installation. If RPM packages are precompiled packages. This means that they must be translated not only from the actual source code into executable files. This is something someone else does it for you. Also include these packages as configuration files that are installed directly to the right place of your system. If necessary, also be changed such as configuration files. The information for each installed package will be stored in a database. To run the setup of rpm package the command is - rpm-i programmname.rpm. In the same way the command for removal is - rpm-e programmname.rpm. And - rpm-U programmname.rpm for updating those packages.