SimplyMepis, Ubuntu and Skolelinux are Debian based. That means they use a system called apt-get to install new programs. It took me forever to figure out the first time, but I'll give you a crash course, and with this, it's easy, as long as you are willing to use command-line for this purpose. New users will NOT need to do this, since all of these have the necessary programs already installed. They come with Open Office, which produce Microsoft Office compatible documents (there are some differences in layout when it comes to advanced Word documents, but the changes are for the most part small). There are games, and more than one internet browser. You've got IRC, FTP, e-mail, bittorrent and much more.
Logged in as root, open a console window.
Type in:
cd /etc/apt
Eh, I generally use vi, a command line file editor. I'm sure opening the file explorer (Konqueror) and editing the file in a simple text editor is more user friendly...
Anyway, edit this file:
sources.list
Add this line:
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
Type in:
apt-get update
And then to install a program, for instance Ethereal (packet monitor I use a
lot):
apt-get install ethereal
Linux has been a mess when it comes to installing new programs. The keyword has been missing dependencies. This system is actually pretty good compared to how it once was. I'm sure they'll put a nice gui on it soon. Maybe there is one, and I just haven't found it?
This page was created by Ann Elisabeth Nordbo
and has its home at http://www.annelisabeth.com/
Updated 11.02.2005
Premiere issue October 2005