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icett
August 6th, 2008, 03:19 PM
Really I am very happy to see how desktop Linux is progressing these days by leaps and bounds. Seems it would become a major OS to be used by a lot of people on their desktops within a couple of years. I am just curious to know if it is technically possible to make software installation/application installation the way it is installed in Windows? That is not to say that it should be or make it like that or follow the windows way but just wish to know.:)

hessiess
August 6th, 2008, 03:36 PM
technically, yes. but why go backwards?

hyper_ch
August 6th, 2008, 03:37 PM
a .deb file is sort of like an .exe

billgoldberg
August 6th, 2008, 03:38 PM
Really I am very happy to see how desktop Linux is progressing these days by leaps and bounds. Seems it would become a major OS to be used by a lot of people on their desktops within a couple of years. I am just curious to know if it is technically possible to make software installation/application installation the way it is installed in Windows? That is not to say that it should be or make it like that or follow the windows way but just wish to know.:)

I much prefer the system most Linux distro's uses (repositories and package managers).

I guess you are asking if there is something similar like a .exe installer in Ubuntu.

Yes there is.

It's called a .deb file.

A good place to get them is on http://getdeb.com

Some other websites also offer .deb installation files for Ubuntu (frostwire.com; opera.com, ...)

munkyeetr
August 6th, 2008, 03:42 PM
Personally, I prefer having repositories, but is it possible? Yes. Look at .deb and .rpm packages. They install a program 'in much the same way' as a .exe installation file (at least to the eyes of the user, which is what I think you are asking).

The "problem" is that Windows is windows and it uses .exe, while Linux is Debian, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Slackware, etc, and they don't all use .deb or .rpm or either of those. So I don't think you will ever get universal (made for Linux) executables that are one-click installs.