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I am new to Ubuntu. I just installed it.

I want to download my xampp servers, Spotify or Adobe's Flash Player, but I get suggestions of *.zip, *.ga or something. Operating Systems "Lunix", "Yum" and stuff like that. I have no idea what this stuff is or what I should do.

I've switched over from Windows 7 on my ASUS PC.

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Let me preface this with saying that this answer will be messy, will cause information overflow and will make you beg for Windows back. You are very unexperienced, which is in general a really bad situation when starting out with Linux. While Ubuntu tries to make things as simple as possible, some things just need a bit of advanced knowledge.


Whenever you want to download and install something, first check your Software Center if that program is already available through the package manager.

If you don't find it there, download *.deb files. Ubuntu is a Debian derivative and as such uses Debian archives (*.deb) to manage applications. If these aren't available, but rather a *.tar.* file, you should be able to find precise instructions on site as to how they should be installed.

If you find *.zip archives, there will either be a binary file (an executable, usually no file extension but marked differently in nautilus, the default document explorer) or a shell script (*.sh) inside. These can be run via double clicking them in the GUI (nautilus) - perhaps you might need to check the "allow execution" box in the file properties. If you cannot find such a file, consult the README.


That said ...

As for lampp (which is the Linux version of xampp), follow precisely these instructions. Only then will it work (and, in fact, that might still need some tweaks due to the new security manifest).

For Spotify, you can follow these instructions.

And for the Flash Player you can use this guide.

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  • Okay, thank you so much for that. I'm still struggling to understand how. Like, for example. Spotify says I need to edit a file here on the OS. I went to do so it said I don't have permission to make modifications to the file. Jul 9, 2013 at 13:10
  • @EddieBrewer When that happens, you will need to execute the command as root (that is essentially the admin user). If you're in command-line, prepend sudo or (if installed) gksu to the command you're trying to execute. Then just enter your password when prompted.
    – user98085
    Jul 9, 2013 at 13:12
  • @EddieBrewer - So use sudo to elevate your privilages?
    – Ramhound
    Jul 9, 2013 at 13:12
  • And... May I ask, how do I do them? Jul 9, 2013 at 13:44
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Installing Spotify Preview

This is just try clear up a bit of confusion with the instructions Spotify gives.

Press CTRL+ALT+T to open terminal. Type

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

to open the file /etc/apt/sources.list in the text editor (type your password when prompted). Add the line

deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

to the bottom of the file, save and close the text editor. Now back in terminal, type the following lines individually:

    sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 94558F59
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install spotify-client

This should install Spotify.

As for everything else you wish to install, I would suggest you submit a question about each thing individually (if you cannot already find the answer) and it will be easier to provide answers. Each thing on it's own should be quite easy to install and you will learn from examples, but it's difficult to give a general guide (although @FEichinger 's guide in the other answer does a good job)

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