FOSSwire

If you're brand new to Ubuntu, or Linux, many concepts will be alien to you and whilst it is pretty simple to pick it up after a while, you may be left in the dark when things differ from how Windows works.

One of the key differences between the two is how you install software. With terms like package and repository flying around, it can be a challenge to know where to start to get some new software downloaded and installed.

For this reason, I've put together a two-sided printable guide which explains, in very simple and easy-to-understand terms, how to install most software in Ubuntu.

Click the image below to download it as a PDF file.

It is also available in two alternative formats:

• Source OpenDocument Text format
• HTML format (for online viewing)

In true open source and open content style, the printable guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence. This means you have the right to adapt and build upon it, provided that you credit FOSSwire (our logo and link should be fine!) and allow others to do the same to your versions too!

In fact, we'd love people to help us, particularly with translating this guide into other languages. It would be great if this information was available to every new Ubuntu user, regardless of where they are from and what language they speak!

If you want to do a translation, I suggest you download the OpenDocument Text version, do the business and then email it to me - peter at fosswire.com - and I will put it up here on FOSSwire.

Translations

• Spanish / Español
• Hungarian / magyar

Finally, it would be great if you spread the word about this new guide - feel free to download and share this among your Linux newbie friends, put it up on your website as well, or just link to us so that the word gets out that help is at hand.

Recent releases of Ubuntu have a feature where the installation CD can be used as a repository for installing software, just like any repository on the web.

The advantage of this, obviously, is it means that you can save bandwidth for some packages that haven't been updated since the release, or even sometimes be able to install new packages without an internet connection at all. The main disadvantage - the CD has to be in the drive.

And when you get asked for that CD when installing something, and you really don't feel like finding it on your messy desk, or wherever it's hiding, it can be frustrating.

Thankfully, it's pretty easy to switch off the support for installing from the CD. In Ubuntu (the normal Gnome version), go to System > Administration > Software Sources. On Kubuntu, head to the Adept Manager application, then go to Adept > Manage Repositories.

In both cases, you'll get a dialogue looking something like this. Go to the Third Party Software tab.

In there, simply untick the entry starting with cdrom: (the top one in my screenshot) and close. You might be asked to reload the software lists, so do so.

And that's it. The CD should be disabled, and you'll always go online to download new packages.