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I am really new to elementary OS. It's actually been 2 days. I have been a Windows user for years. The app installation process in Linux is completely new to me. I was just wondering how do people know what to write in the terminal for any specific application, or whether they always google it like me.

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I am pretty sure, they use Google.

However, elementary OS introduced AppCenter, you can find it in your Applications menu. AppCenter is capable of automatic discovery of updates for your system and a powerful search feature for Applications you may need.

I.e. elementary does not come with preinstalled Office-like system, so you may want to try LibreOffice. Just open AppCenter,type LibreOffice in the search box and see what happens: AppCenter with search feature.

Next, select LibreOffice (it shall install package with all needed dependencies for ready-to-use business toolkit). As you may see you may select different parts.

Applications in elementary OS are collected using packages. These packages may have their own dependencies. For example, if there would be a package named "Minecraft", it would depend on "Java".

Thanks to AppCenter, and APT mechanism you need not to worry if your dependencies will be broken. APT takes care of dependencies automatically.

Google for Debian Manual, where it's perfectly described. elementary is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian.

Thanks, Michal @mjwhodur

You have also manpages, where you can learn about specific commands i.e.:

man apt

man apt-get

man bash
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  • Thanks a lot for your response !! So you mean that all the apps in the eOS repository are also available in the appcenter?
    – whereisrahat
    Apr 2, 2018 at 10:35
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    Yes, they are. Some of them are available in other repositories, not only in eOS repository. eOS consists of ubuntu xenial (currently) repository, so you can install most apps found in Ubuntu. Not all apps, however, may be listed there. Some of them may need to be installed manually using sudo apt-get install package-name. You may want to install Oracle Java which is not available due to licensing in Ubuntu repo. In my previous example, LibreOffice is downloaded from official Ubuntu Xenial repo. You may want to have support for other repos (i.e. PPA) so install software-properties-common .
    – Michał Węglowski-Hodur
    Apr 2, 2018 at 10:43
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You can also install .deb files. It is a lot like installing a .exe in Windows. You'll need an app from the AppCenter called Eddy in order to install these binaries, but for things like Wire Messenger and Chrome (if you like Chrome) you'll need to get the .deb file.

There are other ways too. For instance, I love Calibre (the ebook library management tool), but the only way to get the latest version in an Ubuntu derivative is to install from source on their website (https://calibre-ebook.com/download_linux) using a script.

Just search the web and you'll find all sorts of fun stuff for Linux/eOS. Welcome to the elementaryOS community!

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  • Thanks ! I have checked other .deb installers like ' Gdebi ' and ' Synaptic ' and they are quite good as well. elementary os is good. Though i'm thinking to switch to ubuntu with pantheon over it.
    – whereisrahat
    May 13, 2018 at 11:58

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