Installing programs
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There are a lot of different ways to install software on Freespire.
Via CNR
This is the easiest and suggested method (especially for newbies.) This is actually the power of the OS.
Apt-Get
The POWER of Debian (and what CNR is based on).Apt-get works from the command line and is a tool that downloads the program that you want, sorts out the dependencies and configures the program after downloading.
There are programs which are a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for apt-get so you can use them for a more friendly environment.
Debian .DEB Packages
Since Freespire is based on Debian GNU/Linux you can also install packages made for Debian.You can do this by opening a console.A Console is a special type of window, where you can enter text commands to the operating system to perform tasks, such as moving files, change file access permissions, etc.The Console is intended for advanced users, but beginners can do simple tasks but just be careful.For the old windows users, console is where you get a command prompt, like the old DOS Prompt.
To Open a Console Window:
Launch Menu -> Run Programs -> Utilities -> Terminal Program (Konsole)
To install a deb file type:
sudo dpkg -i nameoffile.deb
Dpkg is a tool to install, build, remove and manage packages in Debian. It is called by apt-get to actually install the packages after apt-get has resolved dependencies and downloaded packages.
Using Klik
Klik strives to be the easiest way to download and run software, without installation. It creates self-contained "application images" which can run from anywhere (even from an USB thumbdrive or CD-RW), or be copied to a different Linux computer and used there.
Autopackage
Autopackage makes software installation on Linux easy. Software distributed using Autopackage can be installed on multiple Linux distributions and integrate well into the desktop environment.
The Zero Install system
The Zero Install system aims to provide a better way of installing software than traditional systems (tarballs, apt-get, bundles, setup.exe, etc).
RPM Packages
Freespire is based on Debian linux and as such uses the .deb packaging format. Many other linux distributions use the rpm (redhat package) format, the differences between the packaging formats are small, but the contents are usually compiled for another distribution like Redhat, or SuSE, or Mandrake so there is no guarantee that it will work, even after following these instructions. If you attempt to do a straight install of an RPM, it'll complain about dependancies because you don't have your programs installed via rpm (like redhat/mandrake/etc do), and it doesn't know what to do about that, so you could either force it to install as an rpm, or you could convert it to a .deb (debian) package. To do that, you must use a tool called == alien == which is available in CNR. Once you install alien, open a console and type
sudo alien rpmname.rpm
This will convert the rpm to a debian package called something like
oldrpmname.deb
To install your new debian package, just type
dpkg -i oldrpmname.deb
LOKI Installer and Scripts
Commercial software like Games or programs like Star Office, Crossover Office, etc. use a installer script to install (.sh) most of these are based on the LOKI installer made by LOKI Games (Unfortunately Loki Games bankrupted) to install games that were ported from Windows to Linux.
- How to install a ".sh.bin" file?
Right click on the file and go to properties.Click on permissions and check the execute box.Then all you have to do is click on the file.
- How to install a ".run" file?
Right click on the file and go to properties.Click on permissions and check the execute box.Then all you have to do is click on the file.
Compile from a source tarball
This is the part where you need the ./configure , make and make install. This is the old way of installing software, most software these days comes as pre-packaged RPM (RedHat and RedHat bases), TGZ (Slackware) or sometimes DEB (Debian and Debian based). the good thing about these sources is that you configure the program to your system so it should run better then any of the other methods (although software in CNR is also tweaked to work very well on Freespire). and you can compile sources on ALL Linux distributions.
Note the explanation is the following : Windows software (.exe) comes pre-compiled but Linux software is only compiled for about 80% the other 20% is done on your system, by running the ./configure script and then actually MAKE (compile) the program with the make command.This is the hardest way to install software on Linux since you also need to solve your own dependency problems (as I said apt-get and CNR do this for you).To compile sources on Freespire you'll need the Linspire Development Edition (only available to Insiders) or get the Linspire Developer tools from CNR, you need to get the entire aisle which has around 500MB of extra stuff like compilers (gcc, make) and libraries.
Most sources come in so called "tarballs" (these are the linux equivilent to Windows "ZIP" archives.), the most used are :
tar.gz
tar.bz
tar.bz2 (better compression so a bit smaller but takes longer to extract)
Also when you want to compile a program from sources be sure to read the README and/or INSTALL files since they mostly offer valuable information on HOW to compile the software. Most of the times you'll just need to use ./configure && make && make install but sometimes a different approach is needed. Also for some programs it's good to add an option to ./configure (like ./configure --prefix=/usr this will install the program in the /usr/bin and /usr directory so you can start it by just typing it's name and all users on the system will be able to use it).
Linux software sites
http://www.linuxappfinder.com/
http://www.icewalkers.com/Linux/Software/
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/
http://sourceforge.net/index.php
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