Program instalation .exe files

[Marilen]

Hi, I'm new to Ubuntu (a week) I currently want to install programs into the computer for example: blackberry software, itunes, winrar, etc and for some reason when i try opening the executable files this shows up:

Archive: /home/marilen/Downloads/wrar390.exe
[/home/marilen/Downloads/wrar390.exe]
End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not
a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive. In the
latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
the last disk(s) of this archive.
zipinfo: cannot find zipfile directory in one of /home/marilen/Downloads/wrar390.exe or /home/marilen/Downloads/wrar390.exe.zip, and cannot find /home/marilen/Downloads/wrar390.exe.ZIP, period.

I would like to know if there is anything i can do, or what's going on...

Thank you so much

Marilen N. Costarelli

[macogw]

.exe are Windows programs. They're for Windows, not Linux. You can try installing them through WINE (which you'll need to install first from the Software Center or Applications -> Add/Remove depending on which version of Ubuntu you use), but I can tell you right now that the newest version of iTunes you'll have any luck with is 6. I think there's some Free Software capable of talking to Blackberries. And there is definitely an "unrar" program available in the repositories.

[llamabr]

You should visit, and ask questions like this, on the absolute beginner forum, not the installation forum. But look here:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installingsoftware

[matthewbpt]

The programs you are trying to install are Windows programs, not Linux programs. You can install wine, a windows compatibility layer for Linux, but I think you'll be much better off finding equivalent native linux programs, they are ussually better than their windows counterparts anyway. For itunes I recomend you try Rhythmbox, Banshee or Amarok. To use rar files you can install the unrar package. I don't know about the blackberry software though.

Remember windows executables (.exe) are not linux executables,

[Soul-Sing]

Try always first native linux progs, maybe this will be heplful: http://linuxappfinder.com/

[llamabr]

Wine is almost never the correct solution. Here's some blackberry apps:

brock@hops:~$ apt-cache search blackberry
barry-util - Command line utilities for working with the RIM BlackBerry Handheld
barry-util-dbg - Command line utilities for working with the RIM BlackBerry Handheld
barrybackup-gui - GTK+ based GUI for backing up the RIM BlackBerry Handheld
barrybackup-gui-dbg - GTK+ based GUI for backing up the RIM BlackBerry Handheld
libbarry-dev - Development files for libbarry
libbarry0 - Library for using the BlackBerry handheld on Linux
libbarry0-dbg - Library for using the BlackBerry handheld on Linux
opensync-plugin-barry - Opensync Blackberry plugin, based on the Barry project
opensync-plugin-barry-dbg - Opensync Blackberry plugin, based on the Barry project
brock@hops:~$