Further info

[oliver27]

Okay, thanks for that!

Could someone possibly list the steps one takes to install packages, i.e. where to locate them, then how one goes about install them! I clearly can't find any beginner info on what to do with RPM and/or TAR files?????

Thanks

[Grifter]

rpm files are for distributions based on the rpm package system, like redhat, suse, mandrake and such

tar.gz or tar.bz2 files are just collections of files, usually a source for a program that you have to compile yourself

debian uses deb files, and uses apt in order to solve dependencies, to search for a file you apt-cache search string, and then when you found one, apt-get install it

it can also be good to utilize google to find programs for linux, and when you found one you'd like, search for it with apt-cache search, if it's in the repository you can install it

debian has 3 inline dists, stable codename sarge, testing codename etch, and unstable codename sid

stable is old and tested packages, etch is what you want if you want newer versions and/or more software to choose from, try not to mix packages between sarge and etch too much, you'll run into problems eventually with dependencies (a new etch program depends on some 'basic' libraries of newer versions than those in sarge, but if it doesn't complain about dependencies you are safe)

if you download a source package, and want to compile it yourself (maybe because the package doesn't exist in any debian repository) you will need header files to compile the program against, these packages are called -dev after the regular name (like libc6-dev)