Install Programs on Linux | Linux Basics

In this video, we go over the basics of installing any program in Linux. I go over the methods: package managers, downloaded packages, and building from source.

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[splitjonas]

Very informational video Chris!
Just a small correction concerning what you said about that you only need to reboot after updating the kernel...
This not entirely true, when it comes to the latest linux OSes, most of them should get a reboot after an update of the following packages:
kernel
glibc[^2]
linux-firmware
systemd
dbus
On rpm systems this can be checked by running "needs-restarting -r" which will tell you if a reboot is needed or not.(this comes from the yum-utils package)
On deb systems, check if the following file exists: /var/run/reboot-required 

Cheers, keep up the good work!

[peter_parkour]

I'm giving up and going back to Windows. Tried it for a week, but I don't think Linux is right for me. After watching this video, I now realize I don't have the time to learn all these things. It really is a steep learning curve. It took me days just to find and install a working driver for a drawing tablet. Something that would take 5 minutes on Windows. I work in healthcare so I have to squeeze my already short free time to make the most out of this. A lot of programs still need Wine and that too took more than an hour to figure out. I like the idea of an open system but it shouldn't come at the expense of convenience. It's nice to be able to tweak everything in my system but it's much nicer to have things that just work when I need them to. Maybe someone could build a distro that's more user friendly. Until then, I'll be gaming on a PC.

[nico]

You can just set aliases if you're used to apt for example:
"apt install"="pacman -S"
"apt upgrade"="pacman -Syu"
"apt purge"="pacman -Rns"

[debeeriz]

when i first came on linux, mint a lot of programs were not on the software center, so i had to download from the net, installing from a ppa and a deb file were a peace of cake, but installing from a tar file was hit and miss

[mf]

Seeing you use Vivaldi, makes me smile (in a positive way) besides that good overview, thanks

[adilsonsf]

I learning Linux and English as well because you pronunciation is perfect. Thank you so much for your videos. Very informative and well done. 🙂👍

[poljubcki]

It has been yeas that I was looking for an clear and straight forward expectations on how to install software on GNU/Linux. 😊

[redhorse]

Always gaining knowledge at Chris Titus YouTube channel. One of my favorite and go to when I want to know more about computer, especially Linux side of it. Thanks and god bless you 😀

[eViLaRRi]

This video made me recall a guy I saw in reddit saying he was dropping Linux because it was impossible to install any .exes on his computer, lmao.

[hobbyelectronics]

I've used PIA for about 10 years and it is good to hear that there is some proof that they actually do keep their word.

[kevinklement]

Vivaldi with Bing as default search engine? Chris is still mid-transition to Linux I guess.

[salmaster]

1 million flavors of linux = 1 million ways of doing things. This turns people off linux.

[adjusted-bunny]

The scanner of my printer never worked with the "Linux standard install". Then I downloaded the drivers from the manufacturer's webpage (there is a linux version!) and voilà - everything works

[roundoneusa]

Thanks! This video was really nice to install stuff on my Chromebook without having to dig in my laptop.

[gwgux]

I remember when building from source was either the secondary method or in some cases, the primary method of installing software. Times have certainly changed.

[frankov_]

Thank you for your work Chris. I've been playing around with Linux for years but I decided to go full linux this year (loving Pop! OS 19.10) and your videos are extremely helpful. 👍🏻

[mitchelvalentino]

So you’re a Linux noob and can’t figure out how to actually run the program? You double-click the program’s icon and it doesn’t run? You type the name of the program in the terminal and it still doesn’t run? No problem!

Here’s what you do: in the terminal, navigate to the folder containing the program, either by navigating there from within the terminal, or from the desktop by right-clicking the open folder and selecting _open in terminal_ option from the menu.

Then double check you’re in the correct folder by typing the ls command. Do you see the program, the one that won’t run? If so, type ./the-name-of-the-program and it should run.

[JacobP]

19:30 I built from source before on Linux. One program I downloaded I had to do that. It wasn't hard, I just basically copied a set of commands into the terminal and it downloaded and built it. I had instructions on exactly how to do it for the program. It worked like a charm wasn't very hard. The program was mkp224o for anyone wondering.

[noahriding]

Hey Chris

I was hoping to pick your mind a bit on something. Right now I'm excited about Linux. I've seen for years the problems with Windows. But until this year I didn't feel confident enough in my skills to convert to Linux. I have done so now and so I'm in that new toy phase. Its very interesting to feel this. And it comes especially from being aware of how bad previous OS problems were.

Here's the thing I was hoping to pick your mind on;

When you have a tablet or a phone and put apps on it, you DON"T ACTUALLY have the app. You actually have a phone sub-app that's like a door that lets you use some kind of server version. Like a translation program is a good example. When you run that translation program or a mapping app on your phone, if the network is down, or if you don't have internet, you CANNOT USE the app anymore. Probably MOST phone apps won't work if you can't connect to the network. That's worrisome.

This is very interesting to think about because especially now people are starting to see the country and utilities and other services aren't infallible. Sometimes places have problems with water or power from storms and such. People are being more aware of problems in NY and other places like ongoing events affecting their ability to get services...

And this raises the question, if you are downloading and putting programs on Linux, how do you make sure you are getting a full version program that will function if the grid is down? Or if you don't have internet? (Someone will probably say something about if power is out your computer is out but people do have solar panels and backups. And phones have good batteries now.) It would be very interesting to hear peoples input on how to make sure you can find programs that can function stand alone if they aren't able to connect to network, internet, servers, etc.

Thank you for any input on this, or for anyone else that comments or replies to this.

And I hope that the Linux versions are full and complete, and not half programs... because that's renting. When you rent you don't own it. You can be kicked off at any time. People want to be able to really have something that will last.

[PenguinRevolution]

I saw this video yesterday, I forgot to comment. Great video Chris!