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The Easy Way to Install Programs in Ubuntu Linux
Jan. 11, 2008

Blog: Well, you could do it the manly way and type in the source-code listings with vi-EMACS--we spit upon EMACS!--and then hand-compile the program yourself with gcc. Or you could use apt-get, not really a man's man way of doing it, but OK. Then, there's the girly-man way: Synaptic, which many Ubuntu or Debian users use.

But, then there's the little-bitty baby way of doing it practiced now by my buddy Jason Brooks. He uses--I don't know if I can bear to say this--Ubuntu's simple Add/Remove Applications tool. Why? Just because he thinks it's the easiest and best way to install programs in Ubuntu.

The shame of it all! This is Linux! This is supposed to be so hard to use that mere mortals cower in fear at the very thought of using it. Don't believe me? Just ask Microsoft, they'll tell you! But if people like Jason insist on explaining how easy it is to install programs in Linux, where will our rep for being the hardest of the bad go to? To OpenBSD, that's where!

So, you really shouldn't read Brooks' short piece on installing Linux applications. If word gets out that installing programs in Linux is really mindlessly simple, Linux might even get popular or something. We can't have that, now can we?


Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols



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