Software installation for Gnubies
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Hi,
I was about to post this in this thread:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/helping-new-users-choose-application-software
But, as I don't have an opinion, but a basic help request, I opened a new topic.
The thing is that I still don't know how the software installation works. I normally install apps through Add/Remove Applications. When I cannot find a program there, I try to find out if that application is really free software, and then I sometimes find that I can magically install it with the apt-get command. Some minutes ago I have just discovered that there is this Synaptic Package Manager. Sometimes I have also installed software from a website because I have considered it free software but could not get it with the apt-get commands.
My concern is, are the apps that I get with the apt-get command stored in the same Trisquel-verified repository as the ones I get using the Add/Remove Applications? Is it just one repository?
If so, why some apps are here and others there? Is it because only those apps appearing in Add/Remove Applications are being monitored for updates? And why only some? Is it just because of a lack of resources to monitor the whole repository?
And, is this Synaptic Package Manager just a GUI for the apt-get commands? Is it the same thing?
And, I don't really know how a repository works... I think Trisquel only has one. Who in the community manages? Am I trusting anonymous people?
Who should I ask if I have a proposal to include an app in the repo?
Thank you for your patience with gnubies!
There is one single Trisquel repository (well, one per version, divided in sections, and mirrored on other servers). It is managed by Trisquel developers led by quidam (Rúben Rodriguez).
"Add/Remove applications" does not show all applications. Only graphical applications that a non-technical end user would want to install. What is pretty subjective. I do not know who decides to show/hide an application in "Add/Remove applications".
In contrast, all packages in Trisquel's repository can be installed through the other interfaces: the "Synaptic package manager", 'apt-get', 'aptitude', etc. All those packages should be free software. If not, Trisquel considers the problem a critical issue.
If you install packages that are outside Trisquel's repository (in a PPA for instance), then you are on your own: you need to check whether the provided packages are free software. Notice that a PPA that only ships free software today, may make you install proprietary software tomorrow. Along an apparently insignificant update. They can even make you install malware! So, yes, you need to trust whoever distributes the software.
To have a package enter Trisquel's repository, the best is to make it enter Debian's. Ubuntu will then include it as well. And finally Trisquel.
I am a translator!
sudo apt-get install appname
https://flossmanuals.net/command-line/_booki/command-line/command-line.pdf
welcome to the community!
Thank you for the explanations and for the link. Much clearer now.
I have just found this other topic very useful too:
I have a basic question in this matter, too: Why does it sometimes take sooo long to update software packages in the repo?
My example is the email client Claws. In the repo there is still version 3.9.3, and it even has ubuntu in its name, which apparently means it is a package taken from Ubuntu. But already one year ago Claws 3.11 was made ready for Ubuntu - at least in this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~claws-mail/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
And a few days ago Claws 3.13 was released.
Why are we still limited to such an old version?
Trisquel 7 is based on Ubunty 14.04 Trusty Tahr LTS. This means that although
there may be incremental version number increases and security patches, there
won't really be any major new versions until Trisquel 8, which will be based on
Ubuntu 16. I think.
16.04. Ubuntu's version numbers are based on the dates they're released on, so dropping the second half makes the indication ambiguous (16.04 and 16.10 will be completely different releases, one of them an LTS release and one of them an STS release).
I am a translator!
Triskello 7 is based on the LTS Ubununtu, hence the only upgrades you get is the security upgrades, kernel point upgrades, the browser and maybe few other things I ignore.
cheers
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