From LQWiki

While a simple piece of software may consist of only a single executable file, most of the software applications available and running on your system are more complex. A typical application or utility will consist of several executable files, configuration files, documentation notes and guides and possibly even libraries too. All these files and information about where to place them in the filesystem are put together in what is referred to as a package. So when we talk about the installation or upgrading of applications, we are referring to the installation and maintenance of these packages.

Contents 1 Installing new packages 2 Keeping up-to-date 3 Table of Contents of the End Users Guide 4 See also

Installing new packages

See installing Software.

Keeping up-to-date

On a Debian GNU/Linux system, the tool apt-get is available for the command line. On a default install, that is all that is provided, however, a good GUI front-end to it is Synaptic, which can be downloaded from the Internet via,

# apt-get install synaptic

Fedora comes with another updating tool known as yum, and this can be invoked via the command line such as,

# yum update

To upgrade your current system,

# yum upgrade

can be invoked.

Suse Linux installations can be updated by calling the yast online updater YOU:

# you

Keep in mind that keeping an updated system is very important, as when security holes or bugs are found in software and get fixed, you will always be kept abreast of such developments. A non-updated system can be an insecure system, and that is not good practice.

All tools listed above have more options. To learn more, you are free to read their man pages, but note that most man pages do not have the goal to introduce you. We hope you will like it better to read the respective articles in this wiki: yum, apt-get, you and yast2.

Table of Contents of the End Users Guide

• Preface
• Getting Started
• Using the Desktop
• Files and Folders
• Using Common Mass Storage Peripherals
• Using the Printer and Scanner
• Multimedia and Graphics Access
• Accessing the Internet
• The World Wide Web (WWW)
• Internet Email
• Using the OpenOffice.org Suite
• The Shell
• Package Maintenance and Update
• Getting More Info (and Help!)
• KDE (The K Desktop Environment)

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This article is part of the End User Manual, which is based, in whole or in part, on "User Guide to Using the Linux Desktop", by Nah Soo Hoe and Colin Charles. It was released by the copyright holders, the United Nations Development Programme’s Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDP-APDIP), under the terms of the Creative Commons (attribution variant) license. The original can be found here: http://www.iosn.net/training/end-user-manual/ .

The End User Manual is intended for the use of users without prior Linux or PC experience who wish to learn how to use linux. The original authors intended for the User Guide to be as generic as possible, but in some cases, this was not possible. In these cases, Fedora was used as a baseline. All desktop directions use refer to the Gnome desktop. These choices are not intended as an endorsement of these programs.

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See also

• installing software: The same topic easy to understand