Another big problem !

[majidkamali1370]

I wanted to Install program on ubuntu and I know that i should be root to do that and I almost know it's (terminal's) syntax.
but there is another problem :(
my programs are in *.rpm , *.run and *.tar.gz formats.
when i use apt-get install ... to install them, it says that can't find filename.extension.
What should I do?
Thanks :)

[moorecm]

If you're not root, consider compiling and installing it in your home directory (or what ever directory you have access to). Untar the *.tar.gz and check out its INSTALL/README files.

[Duthomhas]

You don't need to be root on Ubuntu.

Use sudo apt-get install ....

Good luck!

[Bazzy]

To install a rpm, you can use 'alien' to convert it in a deb

[Albatross]

*.tar.gz is an archive. You should probably unarchive it, and see if there's a program named "configure" or "install" inside any of the folders.

-Albatross

[Duthomhas]

Yes, for .tar.gz files (or .tgz), use the tar command:

tar xzf myfoo.tar.gz

Hope this helps.

[S6k9GNh0]

su -c can be used similar to sudo if sudo is not available.
Most common and popular applications provide packages to there corresponding distribution package manager such as Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Gentoo, etc. If you don't have a package manager, they ALL provide an alternative be it either source or pre-built binaries. For Linux, its normally given source.

If you are running Ubuntu, you're probably running the well known garbage can of a package manager called Aptitude. You can take advantage of apt-get package manager helper. If your not sure how to use it extensively, use man apt-get.

NOTE: su will always require the root pass where as sudo has rules that it follows in order to allow root operations, even if the user doesn't have the root password.

[Albatross]

the well known garbage can of a package manager called Aptitude

WHAT?!?

Exactly how is it a garbage can of a package manager?

-Albatross

[S6k9GNh0]

It's console frontend is at best, the worst applications I've ever used. Its confusing and slow. It has 11 different programs that you must know or you can't exploit them correctly. Compared to other package managers, that alone is enough not to use it. I don't want there to be three commands (or argumentative features in some PMs case) since I want flexibility, but I don't want something so stretched out that its difficult to use.

I don't think aptitude was made to be console friendly. That's why I hate it.

[chrisname]

I strongly dislike ubuntu in general. Have you seen the new release? Awful. Absolutely pathetic. They've moved the buttons on the window around in a delightful immitation of Mac OSX and also managed to break compatibility with over 400 packages on my system... not to mention that I now have a GUI with the very modern resolution of 800x600 and I therefore can't click any items. What's that about fixing it from the command-line? Well, no, because thanks to retarded design I can't install nVidia's proprietary drivers (seeing as the provided ones are so bad) without having a functional GUI in the first place.

I'd also like to install Fedora but every time I try to boot a disk it crashes instead. At the moment, I have Arch Linux and Slackware installed but with no way to boot Slackware because ubuntu clobbered it's kernel and initrd. And I can't be asked to go through the installation again...

The worst thing about ubuntu is how everyone is all "OMFG UBUNTU SW33T".
Well, none of the features in ubuntu are exactly original. It seems like Red Hat and Debian run the show. canonical (that's right, my lack of respect for them is such that I don't even capitalize at the start of a sentence (!)) just add retarded art works and stupid jungle themed startup music -- we get it! You were born in South Africa! No-body gives a fuck! And all the slightly sexual-sounding African animal references (did somebody say "furry"?) are great too.

This kind of thing is irritating too: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/13/fedora_13_beta_review/

@OP,
A good distribution to try instead of ubuntu is called Linux Mint. It's pretty much exactly the same, but with some nicer artwork, a much more attractive theme and some very useful features. It also comes with more programs pre-installed; you can literally install it and start using it without having to install things. It is based on ubuntu, it is true, but lacks some of the idiotic features. It still uses apt-get though.

Personally I'm going to wait for Fedora 13's release and then install that.

Edit: another rant at ubuntu: with Arch Linux, after installing, I did this:

# pacman -Syyuu
# pacman -S hal fam xorg gnome gnome-extras nouveau nouveau-drm
[configured X to run GNOME automagically and to use the Nouveau driver]
# startx 

Oh wow! Fully function system with 3 commands!
I had to install a few things, namely gParted, Firefox, etc. but still. It took about 12 seconds (and didn't cost $400,000).

[Albatross]

Hmm... I never thought of apt-get as slow. yum is slow, but apt-get I thought was fairly fast. Actually, I rather liked apt-get.

I actually liked Ubuntu 10.04, at least I liked beta 1 after I got the damned thing to stop breaking the entire ext3 partition upon Sleep.

Ubuntu has loads of original features including... eh... um... unusable GUIs? ...okay, shutting up now.

I personally think LFS is the way to go, provided you know something about GNU/Linux in the first place. Anyone who disagrees with me will be fed to to a few birds I know from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" would be asked by me to say why they disagree. Hey, I like to have constructive and sound arguments.

-Albatross

[chrisname]

Compared to Arch's pacman it's a little slow. apt-get is just the tip of the ice berg, though; ubuntu as a system in general isn't exactly "optimized". And like I said, Red Hat and Debian pretty much run the show as far as features go.

Edit: also, LFS is good if you can do it and have a LOT of time. You could use Gentoo as well, it's basically the same as LFS except you don't have to find and download the packages yourself. That's about all that's done for you.