Just wondering...

[Giant Speck]

I only use Synaptic when I'm searching for a particular package. As nice as the Software Center is, I still think Synaptic does a better job of displaying what the Software Center calls "technical packages".

[forrestcupp]

Does apt keep track of your downloads like synaptic?

Synaptic is just a GUI frontend to apt. So whatever Synaptic does, apt does.

[dniMretsaM]

I just use the apt from the CLI. I can do everything that I can through Synaptic or USC or Muon or whatever. I almost always have a terminal or Emacs shell buffer open anyway, so everything is just easier that way.

[stalkingwolf]

i use apt and synaptic both. I like synaptic when looking for something specific or showing someone what is available. For instance I am setting up a laptop for My SiLs boyfriend. He teaches and tutors math. I opened synaptic for him and showed him what is available under mathematics. It was greek to me but He understood what they did.

[Jay Car]

Synaptic and Aptitude are the first things I grab from the software center after any fresh install. It really doesn't matter to me if Synaptic's not installed by default.

Since using 12.04, I've learned to use Aptitude for handling safe upgrades. But synaptic - even though, as forrestcupp says, it's just a GUI frontend to apt - is so easy to use for multiple installs and removals.

The software center is nice, but only for installing one thing at a time. There's a list of things I always uninstall, and programs I need to install on a fresh system. In Synaptic I can do all of that at once.

Synaptic also helps me to see what's broken (if anything), and I can find the software sources list there...sometimes I forget that I've added a ppa (or two or three), and it's easy to find and delete them when needed.

Am I doin' it wrong?

[Erik1984]

If you miss more applicationd it might pay off to put a big "sudo apt-get install package1 package2 ... packageN" line in a file and execute that right after a fresh installation.

[ikt]

I only use Synaptic when I'm searching for a particular package. As nice as the Software Center is, I still think Synaptic does a better job of displaying what the Software Center calls "technical packages".

Yup exactly, but I don't really mind that synaptic is not installed by default since I can install it so quickly.

[forrestcupp]

Synaptic also helps me to see what's broken (if anything), and I can find the software sources list there...sometimes I forget that I've added a ppa (or two or three), and it's easy to find and delete them when needed.

That's what's so great about Synaptic. You can do things that are more complicated than just install basic apps. USC dumbs everything down and is only useful for installing the basic apps when you don't care about dependencies or anything else. Most of the time, the Software Center is all people need, but there are times when it is nice to have more control.

[graabein]

First of all, good thread title...

OT I use apt-get and synaptic.

Currently I'm upgrading from 10.10 and downloading packages takes forever. Just wondering... is the upgrade manager smart enough to download from a server near you/me? I want to get this done before evening.

I just created a boot image with unetbootin and that download went fast/normal so this is really strange.

Is it possible to download the ISO for 11.04 and upgrade from current 10.10 using that ISO?

[forrestcupp]

Just wondering... is the upgrade manager smart enough to download from a server near you/me? I want to get this done before evening.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that when you set your location during Ubuntu's installation, it automatically sets your default repo server to be the one closest to you.