Trading Up To Linux – Part 6
By Alan German
We have seen that one of the good things about installing Linux is that the operating system comes bundled with a whole host of useful software, such as office applications, a web browser, an Email client, and media players for audio and video files. However, how do we install other applications to replace or supplement those that are provided by default? In Linux, this can be really easy since there are many curated applications available in web-based repositories and accessible directly though the Software Manager.
The Software Manager can be loaded from one of the icons (a circular green “waffle”) in the favourites section along the left side of the menu, or by navigating through the menu to Administration > Software Manager. The program’s main screen (Figure 1) provides a variety of ways to access individual applications.
The most obvious entry point is the colorful banner across the top of the window. This does allow access to the listed application but the banner changes through a series of five different applications, so this is more in the way of software promotion rather than a serious method of installation. A number of featured programs are displayed as individual tiles, such that double-clicking on any individual tile will load that program’s information. A series of software categories appears at the bottom of the window and can be used to access a further series of tiles for relevant packages. Finally, a search bar at the top of the window can be used to enter the name, or the partial name, of a specific application which then results in a series of tiles being displayed from which the desired software can be selected.
Figure 1. Software Manager’s Main Screen
When a specific program has been selected, a new window provides information about the software such as the version number, the size of the file to be downloaded, and a chart of user reviews using a 1-5 star rating system. An Install button in the top-right corner of the window is used to start the installation process. In some instances, a secondary, pop-up dialogue indicates additional packages that are required to fulfill any software dependencies for the chosen application. In this case, it is simply necessary to press the Continue button in the dialogue box to allow the installation to proceed.
A progress bar indicates the degree of completion for the installation and, once the process is finished, the progress bar is replaced by Launch and Remove control buttons. Typically, an installed program will be automatically added to the menu system. For example, installing the VLC media player results in this app being added to the Sound & Video category in the main menu. Should an application no longer be required, it can be easily uninstalled by launching Software Manager, selecting the application, and clicking on the Remove button.
When an application is not available in the software repositories and hence not listed by Software Manager, or the available version isn’t the latest release, the developer may have provided an installation package that can be utilized. In particular, Linux Mint is based on Debian and uses a special type of archive file (i.e. a .deb file) to distribute installation packages. These can be downloaded from the developer’s website.
For example, at the time of writing, the current Linux release of the Vivaldi web browser is available as the file vivaldi-stable_7.1.3570.47-1_amd64.deb. Linux Mint has a built-in installer, named Gdebi, that will unpack such deb files and initiate the installation process.
Figure 2. Installation of Vivaldi using a .deb Package
Double-clicking on the Vivaldi installation file loads Gdebi (Figure 2). Clicking on the Install Package button results in a request for root authorization. The installation of the software proceeds with a final pop-up message indicating that the installation was successful.
A third method for installing software uses Terminal commands. This is generally a last resort when no method using a GUI is available. A developer will provide the required commands which may include links to software files on the Internet or instructions to install a Personal Package Archive (PPA) which is a type of online repository. Since these third-party systems are not directly supported by the developers of specific Linux distros they should only be used when deemed to be safe.
An example of establishing a PPA and using a set of terminal commands to install a software package is Grub Customizer (https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer). This package and its associated PPA have been maintained by Daniel Richter for many years. As the name suggests, Grub Customizer, allows a user to modify the grub menu. The program features a GUI and provides the abilities to add, edit, or remove individual menu items. The instructions for use, including those for adding the PPA and installing Grub Customizer, are best obtained from a secondary source, e.g. https://go.lightnode.com/tech/install-grub-customizer
Further examples of the use of terminal commands and scripts will be provided in the next part of our series where we look at how to install and run Windows applications on our Linux system.