HOWTO: Install ePSXe (a freeware Sony Playstation Emulator) with a simple installer!

[Simeo]

When the day comes when you don't need guides to do something simple like download and click on a Linux program to install/run it, Linux may actually start really taking off for normal PC users.

It's true. I SO want to turn my friends on to Ubuntu...but because they aren't as tech savvy as me it's hard for them. We need the double click...

[Yfrwlf]

It's true. I SO want to turn my friends on to Ubuntu...but because they aren't as tech savvy as me it's hard for them. We need the double click...

At least there's Zero Install for cross-distro packages. It's the closest thing I've been able to find to a solution. Supposedly you can quickly and easily resolve all dependency issues with it and it will automatically download and install them all in a decentralised way. (I say "supposedly" only because I want to be sure that this works in every situation, but no doubt things like programs wanting to install hardware drivers will throw major issues, even though that should be uncommon. ZI definitely works though for most things!)

I think the biggest problem holding it back my simply be adoption, and better integration with the existing what I call proprietary package managers. If Ubuntu started shipping with a package manager which included support for ZI packages, that would really help it take off, but either it is severely lacking in some area (which I'm not sure where or how it's lacking) or distros are simply failing to acknowledge one of the biggest problems still facing Linux adoption today, since decentralised software distribution/sharing is one of the biggest enablers of adoption.

This thread is proof of that, proof that there is a demand for that feature, and proof that it's a headache for Linux users. Linux needs to be the opposite of a headache.

The other possibility is they don't want to make software sharing easy because they are more interested in having all users have to come directly to them as the sole source for software. If that is true, it is partially greed then that is stopping true Linux software freedom which certainly would be a real shame and definitely goes against the principals of the ubuntu philosophy. Linux has such a small share of users already that infighting is the worst thing it can do to itself. It takes standards to create true freedom, and not end up destroyed due to a rehashing of the Unix Wars. Sure, open source can't be completely destroyed ever, but it can be code rotted and fall severely behind due to adoption problems caused by a lack of incredibly useful features like installation standards.

[djaqed]

So I ran the installer and when I attempted to run the program I was confronted with the following:

/home/skewter/epsxe/epsxe: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

what do I do?

[Yfrwlf]

So I ran the installer and when I attempted to run the program I was confronted with the following:

/home/skewter/epsxe/epsxe: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

what do I do?

You need to get that library somehow and put it where it's searching for it. It's the result of the lack of a proper package management system utilizing cross-distro standards.

Find out what libgtk version you have, find where the lib is, and find the version it wants and put it next to the one you have already.

[MestreLion]

It's true. I SO want to turn my friends on to Ubuntu...but because they aren't as tech savvy as me it's hard for them. We need the double click...

For me a .DEB file is a double-click, painless, trouble-free, install. And it has dependecy checking and auto-update (if using repositories)

ePSXe is a 2003 software. Ubuntu didnt even existed back then, but ive found at least one PSX emulator that works out-of-the-box in Maverick: PCSX-Reloaded (based on PCSX-DF)

http://pcsxr.codeplex.com/releases/view/50048

Installation cant be easier: download, double-click, go to menu, play. Nice, simple GUI. Cant tell about performance or settings or plugins (just tested FF7), but it looks promising, and its a nice one to suggest to people that coming from windows and new to ubuntu/linux

[Yfrwlf]

For me a .DEB file is a double-click, painless, trouble-free, install. And it has dependecy checking and auto-update (if using repositories)

ePSXe is a 2003 software. Ubuntu didnt even existed back then, but ive found at least one PSX emulator that works out-of-the-box in Maverick: PCSX-Reloaded (based on PCSX-DF)

http://pcsxr.codeplex.com/releases/view/50048

Installation cant be easier: download, double-click, go to menu, play. Nice, simple GUI. Cant tell about performance or settings or plugins (just tested FF7), but it looks promising, and its a nice one to suggest to people that coming from windows and new to ubuntu/linux

Once again, there are lots of Linux distros out there, so developers providing a package for each of them is not an option. I also do NOT want to have copies of all those different packages if they do make lots just in case I switch distros, and I don't want a different version of the package for every version of the distro for when I upgrade distro versions. I want a program package that will basically be capable of surviving forever, with maybe a few tweaks in the future if it becomes really old, but preferably the system will always be able to cope, I'll always have access or be able to store all needed dependencies easily, etc.

There has to be a universal package format, end of story. Everyone should use Zero Install until all the major package managers a) make DEB, RPM, or any of the others compatible with the major managers, or b) adopt a new format if needed and make all managers compatible with it. Whatever it takes to install the stupid correct versions of the stupid libraries on my stupid system to run the stupid software! lol End users don't care about the details, they just want their god damn software to be easily installable and to work, and until that can happen in a standardized cross-distro decentralized way so that developers can actually easily package for Linux, and so that users can easily click on a single Linux package and get the software downloaded and installed from any source, Linux = fail.

There is also this AppStream thing happening which supposedly is meant to do just that, if I understand it correctly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHeP2ZBwS_U