Why is the Manual installation so hard to accomplish and problematic ?!!!

[yma981]

I am new to Linux and a covert from Windows...

I tried many times to install programs downloaded manually .bin .sh .tar.gz .

As a feedback it is annoying and now I couldn't install thunderbird-2.0.0.21.tar.gz (no instructions, bin installer doesn't work etc... , I was forced to install it through apt-get)


I just want to ask:

1- Why is it necessary to use the apt-get install or Synnaptic or Add/remove to install/manage Soft on a system????? (I know easily updated, Dependencies etc...)

2- Using the above methods NEEDS INTERNET (Supposing you didn't download the DVD)

3- What if some1 doesn't have Internet ?? (Have Soft stored locally)

4- What if someone HAVE LIMITED BANDWIDTH (Like me)

5- What if I have MANY PCs ( Why do I have to download the same program MANY TIMES???)

6- Actually What If I don't care about the newest update

7- The Installation process isn't flexible at all

8- Trust me and the list goes On & On & On

Taking those complaints into consideration, may actually improve Linux on the Desktop,

I am actually very happy to use Linux, but MOST People that will face those problems (installation, pm-util,drivers "those are some of the problems i faced in 2 weeks" etc...) will run back to the coziness and dumbness of Windows.

[Chemical Imbalance]

Download the .deb packages.

Apt-get simply installs .deb packages from the web.

Here's a good site:

www.getdeb.net

There are also many more types of packages that have easy install like .bin and .sh.

Since Ubuntu uses Debian's upstream packages, it uses .deb by default (like .exe on Windows).

[Jimmynemo2]

Be careful how you proceed there- you are accusing something of being hard that one would only do because they are unaware of the proper way to do said goal. Thus the flaw isnt with linux and how linux does something, but how you are trying to go about doing it.

Like the second post said, .deb is the ubuntu equivelent of .exe in windows. So instead of downloading the tar files, download the installer .deb files, and that solves all your numbered complaints.

I'd also recomend a read of this page:

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

It helped me, it may help you as well.

[Sef]

Check out How To Install Anything In Ubuntu (http://amitech.50webs.com/installing/index.php.html).

[lisati]

Hang in there! Check out the suggested links. As has been suggested, ".deb" is a bit like the equivalent of using an ".EXE" or ".MSI" file to install something in Windows. And if you have an Ubuntu CD available, you can sometime use that at the source of the programs to install without having to download them.