How to install a software

I have been talking about alternatives of windows software for linux and other softwares, but the very question that how to install it , remains unanswered , so I am here to answer that.
First of all you should know the concept of repositories because in linux softwares are not installed by downloading a single .exe file.
In linux a repository is a server where all the softwares are present pertaining to a particular distro lets say for ubuntu 9.10.
To install a software you need to install it through synaptic package manager shown in image

Open that and you will see a list of softwares that are installed onto your machine but can also show softwares that are not installed (only if you have added repositories)

If havent added any repository here is a procedure to add one:

-Open a terminal (command line mode)

-Type in sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

• Add the following lines to it :- ( only for IIT Delhi as it has its own local repository but for others a simple google search for Ubuntu 9.10 repositories will yield you a list like this for you)

deb http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic main restricted universe multiverse
 
deb http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
 
deb http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
 
deb http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted universe multiverse
 
deb http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://poorvi.cse.iitd.ernet.in:80/ubuntu karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

After adding the repositories click the reload button as shown in synaptic manager so that the list of softwares in the repo (short form of repository) can be listed in your package manager

After this you will get a list( I havent added any repo so you can see all softwares icons are green means they are the ones already installed on my pc) and just right click on the software you want to install,then "mark for installation" and then click apply in the toolbar in package manager 

You are done your software will be downloaded and installed by its own.

Chrome for Linux

No one expected that google would release chrome for Linux when it is busy building Chrome OS. Well I guess you are right in thinking that google did not build chrome for Linux some exciting Linux developers did.
If you want to install it you can download from
As of now only available for .deb based Distros (Ubuntu, Debian)

http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

Playing windows games on Linux!!!

Yes you read it correctly, no need to blink your eye again to read it. Even I didn't believe, it was possible until I played games like DoTA and all time hit Age Of Empires my self on Linux.
OK fine let me tell you how does this works, there is a software called Wine( Windows Emulator) and with that you can try most of the windows software work and of course many games as well.
Now all the Linux users can answers those people who say Linux is geeky and not good because you cant play games on that. :)

Software solutions

After the installation of Ubuntu, one must be wondering to find a gtalk, microsoft office and other such softwares. Unfortunately or fortunately these .exe files do not run on linux. Now you may be wondering what to do when they dont work. Once again I come to rescue and I'll be listing here few of the commonly used alternatives of windows software for linux.The best part being most of them come installed with every copy of Ubuntu

Windows Software ----> Linux Alternative

- IM messengers(Gtalk,Yahoo,Msn etc) ----> Pidgin (all-in-one)
- Microsoft Office (word, excel) ----> Open Office
- Acrobat reader ----> Evince pdf reader
- VLC ----> VLC
- Browser(for internet) ----> Firefox, Opera
- Photoshop ----> Gimp
-Odc or DC++ ---> Dc++ or Valknut

Intall Ubuntu

I have been seeing people wanting to switch to Linux but because they don't know how to install it at the first point renders them helpless.So I come to the rescue, here I have shown step by step procedure of installing Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala ,a 7 step process.

Install ubuntu

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Step-0
When you boot up from CD or pendrive or any other media you get a screen asking for the language choose according to your preference. I would be using English here for the process

Choose the option "Install Ubuntu"

Step-1 "Welcome"
Again choose your language and click forward

Step-2 "Where are you?"
Choose your country and your time zone will be seclected automatically.Click forward.

Step-3 "Keyboard Layout"
By default the layout is USA but you can choose your own from the list and click forward

Step-4 "Prepare disk space"
-If you have windows installed and you dont want to create a new partition for ubuntu, you can even install it inside windows like a program which can be uninstalled from Add remove programs inside windows like any other software. For this choose the first option of installing them side by side
-If you have a fresh hard disk and have no data on it then you can choose the second option of using the entire disk
-If you want to do partitioning manually choose the last option

Step-5 "Prepare partitions"
In the picture you can see I have an ext3 and a swap partition showing that I already have ubuntu installed.But you will get something else with you windows installed and partition type NTFS/Fat32 but you should have a partition to install ubuntu with all the data on that partition backed up because it will be no longer available as it will be formatted

-First you click on the partition you want to install ubuntu in to and click Change
Leave the partition size unchanged
Use as "Ext4 journaling file system"
Format the partition (tick mark)
Mount point as "/" (without the quotes ofcourse :))

-If you have empty partition then click on Add rather than change and give the size(in MB) of the partition and rest options as above

If you can spare 2-8 GB(recommended 2*size of ram) of space then you can create a swap partition,which acts as a software Ram when you use Ubuntu
To create a swap partition use free space and click on Add
-Partition size (2*size of ram)
-Use as swap area and then click Ok

Click forward and if you have not created a swap partition you will get a warning, you can ignore it and click on continue


Step-6 "Who are you?"
I think this process is simple all you need to do is fill in your name, username and password and then click forward

Step-7 "Ready to install"
Click install will install ubuntu

Enjoy OpenSource and GNU

Keep checking, next will be how to install softwares in ubuntu and the alternatives of commonly used windows software in linux