From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from smtp.corp.redhat.com (int-mx05.intmail.prod.int.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.11.15]) by lists01.pubmisc.prod.ext.phx2.redhat.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id wBFCPqSt017802 for ; Sat, 15 Dec 2018 07:25:52 -0500 Received: by smtp.corp.redhat.com (Postfix) id 291EB5D737; Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:25:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mx1.redhat.com (ext-mx08.extmail.prod.ext.phx2.redhat.com [10.5.110.32]) by smtp.corp.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 204F35D70A for ; Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:25:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-ot1-f51.google.com (mail-ot1-f51.google.com [209.85.210.51]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.redhat.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 90874C0BF2A2 for ; Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:25:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ot1-f51.google.com with SMTP id e12so8057461otl.5 for ; Sat, 15 Dec 2018 04:25:48 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to; bh=GGbkiq3MTc5qoMgD4BsIaqTGOlR2hqM7SLQPvjWTQms=; b=TK2Uu74d/Kaokr0P27eMIEWbCLs/32Jgp/qDhDQ6QBwwoRdG1qwTVXzftTZiC+8wlb wyMIeb/NZ0hEL2/jmnkfMv8x1y6po3sr2N64woTw0i0f2YPpGs016CTXwhATXCTauPDw JpjCTysgRANnM6k7wkxPQVNMcYrTOcDtaxBllQz9/CXT8UpTkoHeXfF/XqxuCRp9RVMt D3XENNW79dQPNj+ZhPfcHUEip4LaioLG7+PfIxOcGQlCNOFblLPZ9b9ZNUlYiRFOos32 RQgD+Yr09Nkr8kP6cYf7GFHl7/pxzGG93XBWPsFDBSMlss8DHBWS6JqJvfFjfqpf+CTW meRw== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date :message-id:subject:to; bh=GGbkiq3MTc5qoMgD4BsIaqTGOlR2hqM7SLQPvjWTQms=; b=aFzSv4mVu0TXnyhoSGDRniAc5BIBOUlTpAT5W5b9AyTh/8ips1dXwMmiyAcn+VGbba 3tJis4uZN2LlMCda0psosKDy8kV09j979eRPKo3H6ppIoHOTj/exWiHm8r+3QS1ihxX3 I0vhBwGjhCOtGfcaWnuZ0UhDI9lbzG9oiPBQclf9vn8SoeGsLm76mwBJ9ir7xPIBXeNj Q4T/kn2i5BAle1KuqJGGTkyC5M5QkTLB69hZAyBDEMR2uk1tazCzX1F8QTPFjW2WurPb MdJaWb2qvsPYgmIhn2J74cD8OdOU5N75GyBUFHuAw8zQfePGo9Qr2OjDSvUlhSvt4cdF 6Pqw== X-Gm-Message-State: AA+aEWY/8cPmHcWXo6IiV9vtZJ62di6IqGay9//DqnOPmTy3VwDHtkY2 Bh+qwi/PkcKHpsLTOaqgVJeHu0oX+DnHXfaymBjGIw== X-Google-Smtp-Source: AFSGD/Vi2acXpZFp4fmnzd9kKG279xj8VQ2K+/QnHc7VqpW654NUfoxOTZ0Y5s/jaBI62y1tj51i9U51BJ1Br4qrkm8= X-Received: by 2002:a9d:4546:: with SMTP id p6mr4681467oti.24.1544876747620; Sat, 15 Dec 2018 04:25:47 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 2002:a05:6830:2158:0:0:0:0 with HTTP; Sat, 15 Dec 2018 04:25:46 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <39dffb42-cecd-a57a-bda8-e385283ca1e5@gmail.com> References: <2282C41C-FEE4-4A7A-BFE3-7D97A53306F0@icloud.com> <20181215115220.620b6501@telaviv1.shlomifish.org> <39dffb42-cecd-a57a-bda8-e385283ca1e5@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:25:46 +0000 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Newbie to linux and a question To: blinux-list@redhat.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.5.16 (mx1.redhat.com [10.5.110.32]); Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:25:48 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: inspected by milter-greylist-4.5.16 (mx1.redhat.com [10.5.110.32]); Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:25:48 +0000 (UTC) for IP:'209.85.210.51' DOMAIN:'mail-ot1-f51.google.com' HELO:'mail-ot1-f51.google.com' FROM:'mewtamer@gmail.com' RCPT:'' X-RedHat-Spam-Score: -0.11 (DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU, FREEMAIL_FROM, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE, SPF_PASS) 209.85.210.51 mail-ot1-f51.google.com 209.85.210.51 mail-ot1-f51.google.com X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.78 on 10.5.110.32 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.79 on 10.5.11.15 X-loop: blinux-list@redhat.com From: Linux for blind general discussion X-BeenThere: blinux-list@redhat.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 Precedence: junk Reply-To: blinux-list@redhat.com List-Id: Linux for blind general discussion List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:25:52 -0000 Okay, I'm not sure how to help a newbie get started, but one thing I think worth mentioning given the most recent message: Manually downloading, compiling, and installing application software on a Linux machine is something even experienced users typically have little reason to do on a daily basis. This is because most modern distributions come with a built-in package manager that will, instructed to install a given piece of software, automate the process of downloading a precompiled for that distro package of the application, packages for all its dependencies, and installing those precompiled packages. Sadly, package management is one of those things that differs from distro-to-distro, though distros that are closely related often share the same package manager(e.g. Debian, Ubuntu, Knoppix, and most other distros derived from Debian or one of its derivatives all use apt as their package management system and offer a few standard frontends). Plus, many "newbie friendly" distros err on the side of including as many different packages in their default installation as can be compressed to fit on the install media. I'm really only familiar with debian derivatives and the apt package manager, but some of the most important commands are: sudo apt-get update To refresh the package lists. sudo apt-get upgrade To install all available upgrades for installed packages. and sudo apt-get install [packagename] To install the named package along with all its dependencies. Also, sudo aptitude will laucnh a console frontend for apt called aptitude which provides many useful features such as: A tiered list of all available packages divided first by install status(upgradeable, installed, not installed, obsolete or locally installed), section(Admin, editors, libs, net, utilities, among several dozen others), and license(differs on distro, but Debian itself uses main for free software, contrib for non-free software that meets some criteria I'm not entirely sure about, and non-free for all other non-free software), and then alphabetically by package name. pressing enter on a package name brings up lots of information on that package, such as description, maintainer, size, dependencies, and available versions. many keyboard shortcuts for quickly marking a highlighted package for upgrade/installation/removal/etc. Built-in serach(useful for finding a package when you don't know its exact name. Easy to read preview of pending actions prior to them being applied. powerful conflict resolution capabilities. And synaptic provides many of the same features in a gui application. Oh, and if you really need to download and install something manually because it isn't available through apt, Debian and its derivatives use .deb packages, which can be installed by running: sudo dpkg -i nameofpackage.deb And as Debian and its derivatives are among the most widely used distros, many devs will include .deb packages on their download pages. Note: you're also likely to see .rpm packages, which are packages for the Redhat Package Manager, used by Redhat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, and their derivatives, and .tar.gz or .tar.bz2, which are compressed tarballs, which usually contain a copy of a program's source code. .rpm packages can be installed on Debian-derived systems, but this requires the use of alien to handle the foreign package format and is generally not recommended, and compiling from source generally isn't needed unless you're part of active development. I hope you find this information useful. -- Sincerely, Jeffery Wright Bachelor of Computer Science President Emeritus, Nu Nu Chapter, Phi Theta Kappa.