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Hello, and welcome to another of my Kubuntu 11.04 (codename: Natty Narwhal) tutorials.
In this tutorial, I'll be explaining how to install and remove programs in Kubuntu. This
is done from the Software Management tool, available as a part of the System Settings
or as its own application. You can get to the application from the Computer tab in the
K menu, or under the System category in the Applications tab.
From the Software Management tool, you can browse new applications, view the software
you have installed on your computer, perform system updates, and change settings regarding
your available software.
Let's install some extra functionality for the programs available in Kubuntu. The package
we're looking for is called "Kubuntu restricted extras". We can find it by searching for "extras"
in the search bar.
Here's the package. I can see information about it by clicking the package, and I can
set it to install by pressing the "Install" button.
While I'm here, I think I want to install the Chromium browser. I can do so easily by
choosing the Internet category, clicking Web Browsers, and choosing "Chromium Web Browser".
Even though I've chosen to install two programs, nothing will install until I press the "Apply"
button. But first, I'd like to look at what I've chosen. I can do so using the "Pending
Changes" button in the top-right corner. Now, to install the packages, I can press the "Apply"
button.
Now we can see the familiar download and install window. I'll fast-forward while my computer
downloads and installs the programs.
Now that the installation has finished, we can run Chromium. We can access them from
this window, or from the application launcher menu.
Chromium is the base of Google's Chrome web browser. In fact, Chrome has very few differences
from Chromium.
However, I'm going to show you how to install Chrome anyway, because some applications (including
all of Google's) will require you to download a Debian package to install them. To do this,
we can simply go to the Google Chrome web page, choose Download and select our package.
It is important to know here whether you're using a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Kubuntu.
However, Google's web page will detect it for you. The virtual machine I'm using is
a 32-bit version, so I will choose the first option.
As with all other software, it's important that you understand the license terms. Fortunately,
I've read them before so I can simply press "Accept and Install". This will download the
installer for Chrome, which I can then open to install. This package installer is what
you'll see every time you open a Debian Installer file. Clicking "Install Package" will ask
you for your password, and then it will automatically install Google Chrome.
Firefox is a bit of a special case. There's an easy Firefox installer built right into
the menus. Going to the "Internet" category, we can see an icon labeled "Mozilla Firefox
Browser Installer". Launching it, we're offered a one-click download and installation option
for Firefox.
When it finishes, we can go back to the application menu and launch Firefox. Voila! We now have
the latest version of Firefox installed.
But there are other ways to install software in Kubuntu, as well. For example, the Kubuntu
team offer unofficial updates for KDE. Using these updates, we can get the latest stable
version of KDE in Kubuntu. From the Kubuntu home page, we can see the news item announcing
the latest update to KDE. From the Settings tab in the Software Management tool, click
the "Edit Origins" button. In the "Other Software" tab, you can add these updates. This line:
"ppa:kubuntu-ppa" is the line you need to add. Press the "Add" button, and type or paste
that line into the text box presented. Press Okay, and close the dialogue box. Because
you've just added a new repository, the system will ask you to refresh your updates. Pressing
the refresh button and waiting for the refresh to take place, we can now go to the Updates
tab. From here, we have updates to all of KDE. I'll run those later. If I had added
that repository with the goal of installing a new application, I could simply go to the
"Get and Remove Software" tab to find it, like I would with software already in the
repositories.
There is one more common way to install programs in Kubuntu. Some people call it the traditional
way. It's the way you'd install a program in Windows - run an installer. For security
reasons, Kubuntu makes it a bit more difficult than Windows does. A file you download is
not executable by default.
Earlier, I downloaded the installer for Penumbra Overture, which I bought through the Humble
Indie bundle a while back. It's in my Downloads folder...
Right-clicking on the file and choosing Properties brings up the Properties dialogue. In the
Permissions tab, I can make the file executable by clicking this checkbox. After applying
these settings, I can run the file. Press F4 to bring up a terminal.
The installer will need to be run as the administrator. Type "kdesudo", a space, "./", and the name
of the installer. Once you've typed enough of the installer's name to be uniquely identifiable
out of the files in the current folder, you can press Tab and the terminal will fill in
the rest of the filename for you. After you press Enter, you'll be greeted by a password
prompt, as you'll be running this installer as the administrator.
After you follow the instructions presented by the installer, you should have the program
available in your application launcher menu. Here it is, exactly where I'd expect it - under
"Games".
I hope this tutorial has been useful in teaching you how to install applications in Kubuntu.
My next tutorial will start a series on how to use KDE.