Linux

48338 readers

420 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

161

New Linux user here. Is this really how I'm supposed to install apps on Linux? (feddit.uk)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

260 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://mullvad.net/en/help/install-mullvad-app-linux

Trying to install VPN and these are the instructions Mullvad is giving me. This is ridiculous. There must be a more simple way. I know how to follow the instructions but I have no idea what I'm doing here. Can't I just download a file and install it? I'm on Ubuntu.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

Also, no, this is not an ideal way to do this. Ideally every package you want is in your distro's repos so you'd just need to do "apt install [package]".

The reason this one isn't is because mullvad wants to make sure you use their tested, secure, and updated version and they don't want to maintain that for every distro. So they have you configure your package manager to use their repos.

This is relatively uncommon to come across in Debian. You'll normally only find it in security applications or very niche ones. The Debian repos aren't the most comprehensive but they'll contain the vast majority of common softwares.