Ubuntu Software Center Overview

The Ubuntu Software Center is all the way on the bottom of the “Applicatons” tab. Click on it, and you’ll get to the following screen:

There are thirteen categories where you can find most of the synaptic packages and software available to Ubuntu. If you click on “Get Software” on the left you will be provided with several other categories. “Provided by Ubuntu” which hosts most of the application and then “Canonical Partners” where I found only two applications and that is Adobe Flash and Adober Reader. Both available for immediate download and install, I remember I used to have to navigate to the Flash download page and download it manually. The categories are:

• Accessories
• Education
• Fonts
• Games with subcategories: Arcade, Board Games, Card Games, Puzzles, Role Playing, Simulation, and Sports
• Graphics with subcategories: 3D, Drawing, Painting & Editing, Photography, Publishing, Scanning & OCR, Viewers
• Internet with subcategories: Chat, File Sharing, Mail, and Web Browsers.
• Office
• Science & Engineering with subcategories: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science & Robotics, Electronics, Engineering, Geography, Geology, Mathematics, and Physics
• Sound & Video
• Themes & Tweaks
• Universal Access
• Developer Tools with subcategories: Debugging, Graphic Interface Design, Haskell, IDEs, Java, Libraries, Lisp, Localization, Mono/CLI, OCaml, Perl, Profiling, Python, Ruby, Version Control, and Web Development
• System

How to install applications:

Click on one of the categories, I will go over MANY of the applications available here, with screenshots and everything. It seems like a good way to get to know open source software/linux-ware.

I clicked on accessories and this is what you should get:

You can go ahead and install the application if you want by clicking install. Otherwise, select which application you want and click on more info. The applications with little checkmarks next to them (such as the Archive Manager) mean that they are already installed. If you click on them, the “install” button previously there will be replaced by “remove”. Here is what happens when you click on “more info”:

Again, you have another install button, also a notification that it is, indeed, a free application. You get a small description. Many of the applications also have screenshots but they may take a few seconds to load (not everyone hosts on bandwidth behemoth servers) so wait it out. You’ll also get a website link so you can check out the official site (for news, forums, tips, and other information). Canonical will also inform you, at the end that the application MAY NOT be updated through Canonical, but it maybe updated through the Ubuntu community. Watch out for this, but it’s pretty standard information. On the bottom left, you’ll see what license the software is under. It may say “Open Source”, “Unknown”. The bottom right will inform you of the version, this one seems to indicate that it was made for Ubuntu 9.04, but I may be wrong. Most applications have independent numbering but some may refer to Ubuntu distros. There is nothing to worry about with that, all of the applications are compatible with Ubuntu 10.04 (otherwise they would not be listed, I imagine). Here is an example of a description with a screenshot:

If you decide to install the app, just click install. The software center creates a queue of applications to be installed so you don’t have to worry about waiting until the application is downloaded and installed. Just keep on browsing. The center will, however, ask you for root permission (your password) in segments, sometimes after every application, sometimes after a few. I’m not sure how this works but it’s much more comfortable than the previous system.

Okay, so click on install, you will have to authenticate, and next you’ll see a little progress status thing in the sidebar:

If you are still in the “more info” section of the application, you’ll get a status bar:

That’s about it, after it’s installed, the “Install” button will change to “Remove” as previously stated.

One more thing to note about installing applications is the last category in the sidebar that let’s you view Installed Applications. When you click on that option, this is what you will get:

Basically, you get no categories, and no distinctions. All you get is the application list, and the total number of applications installed on the bottom. It’s alphabetically sorted, and it should be easy enough to browse through, but again, not categories, and not even the option to get a different view.

I will be covering some of the individual applications later on in different articles but do have fun and try them out regardless. I think Canonical did a really good job with informing you, the user, with what each application does and links for more information. I truly appreciate that because it saves a lot of time googling.