All programs in a Linux distribution like Ubuntu are installed from special deb packages. This is the extension that is commonly used. They may differ in different operating systems, for example, in Windows, which we are all familiar with, special.exe files are used. As a rule, in the Ubuntu system, to build the program from the repository, it is automatically downloaded and the installation of deb packages begins. But sometimes you have to install the program manually, for example, if there is no Internet, or the installers are very large (in particular games).
Windows users must have gotten used to the latter method. Those. just download the file with the desired extension, double-click and follow the instructions by clicking the "Next" button. The Linux system has its own differences for this method.
General recommendations
For the correct search and installation of programs, the following sequence of actions is recommended:
1) Go to the Application Center and try to find the required program there.
2) If you could not find it in the standard source, then you can go to the official website of the developers and see their repository for installation or a link to the PPA.
3) Bin the case when the site only offers to install a deb-package, then you need to download it and work with it further.
4) It happens that you can only find the source codes, in which case you will have to build the program yourself.
The best solution is to install deb-packages from the repository only for the reason that it will be much easier to update the program in the future. The update service on your system will automatically find the latest versions.
It is also worth noting that the official repositories of the program are more reliable than developer sources, since the latter contains newer versions, although not as stable.
Installation of deb-files is divided into 2 ways: in graphical mode and in the terminal.
Install in graphical mode
First you need to find the required package in the file manager, and then double-click on it. Next, the graphical shell of the program will appear on the screen, and if an older program is present in official sources, the user will be informed about this. This pop-up window can be closed. After that, you must click "Install package", after which you will be prompted to enter the administrator password, because. any such action must be carried out only with his permission. Then the installation process will begin. When this is done, you can close all windows and go to the program itself from the Ubuntu menu.
Install from terminal
To install the deb packagewas correct, you need to go to the appropriate folder containing the desired file in the terminal and type the command: "sudo dpkg -i package_name.deb".
Next you need to follow all the instructions on the screen. If everything went well, a message about the successful installation of the program will appear. In Ubuntu, deb packages may not contain the necessary dependencies for this program, all the required names of additional packages will be indicated, they must be installed in the same terminal.
Conclusions
Only the most necessary and brief description of the installation was provided. There are a lot of special cases, each of which has a lot of its own subtleties.
