thinking about ubuntu but...

thinking about installing ubuntu but i had a pretty basi question. how do i know what software is compatable with this versus other versions of linux?

 

http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html

You will need to register to get access to all information, but registration is free.

 

Ridgerunner9 Most Linux software is compatible to a degree. There are over 20,000 packages available in the stable repositories. What specific software do you have questions about?

:major

 

You might want to read this chapter of Ubuntu's online documentation titled, Adding, Removing and Updating Applications. Ubuntu will install alot of software for you. You search repositories to find compatible applications. You'd typically start in repositories of software specifically for Ubuntu, and those will install without much difficulty. If you can't find a particular app there, you can find it in other, larger repositories and install those instead. They may be a bit more difficult, but most programs will come with specific installation procedures.

See this link for all of Ubuntu's online documentation.

 

i guess what i mean is if i see or find an application that does not come with thie distri how do i know it iss written for ubuntu? and if you know where to find them that would be cool. don't know what i am looking for but i am a proggie junkie i am always downloading and olaying with them. (then deleting but that is another story) sort of like the cool proggies found off the main page of major geeks.

 

Nothing is really "written" for a distro. More accurately, it would be written for a particular package manager.

In that case, you could install that package manager, or simply install from source.

 

do i have to worry about where the packet manager comes from or is linux just linux regaedless of the name? sorry stupid i know but want to do it right.

 

Like downloading shareware for windows, there is bound to be multiple places.

I've no doubt you can get other package managers through the installers included with ubuntu.

You may not even need to. I use pacman, which is a small package manager, and I rarely have to download the source and compile.

 

what package manager comes with ubuntu and can i download others?

 

I'm not an expert with ubuntu, but I am pretty sure it uses Apt-Get.

I already told you that other managers could be downloaded.

 

Apt-get is the Debian command line function.

I use Adept, but prefer Synaptic.
Kpackage will install the RPM files.

Sometimes though, old fashioned command line works faster than opening a gui and waiting for it to search.

 

Apt-get is the Debian command line function.

I use Adept, but prefer Synaptic.
Kpackage will install the RPM files.

Sometimes though, old fashioned command line works faster than opening a gui and waiting for it to search.

sudo apt-get moo

 

I prefer pacman.

 

My favorite is Synaptic, simply because I can never remember exact package names. So I type in the part I remember, and Synaptic searches, find the package, and then I can install it along with any dependencies I need.

If I had better memory for names I'd use aptitude instead, but my brain won't let me...

/Mimsy