Showing files in Linux

hm25819

Hi, new to Linux. In Linux, is there an equivalent to "My Computer" in Windows, where all of the directories and files would be displayed? I have not yet been able to figure out where this is.

Also, how do you install a program that is not in the Software center but is written for Linux? When downloaded, I receive an error message when I try to click on it. I also could not find the command line for the program. Help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Goineasy9

Well, on my desktop, I have "My Computer" and "Home" Icons. My computer will show your hard disks, flash drives, network connections. Home, will give you something closer to "My Computer" in Windows. BUT ... Linux has a much different directory structure than does Windows. You will however find "Documents", "Downloads, "Music", "Photos etc. in your home directory.

gomer

Which Linux distribution are you running? This will help us guide your through your first question.

As far as getting access to software outside of your distribution's package repositories, you can download software from anywhere. However, you will find that a lot of the software for Linux is OpenSource and will be distributed as source code. Or, if it is distributed as a package, it may not be for the distribution you run. If you use an RPM based distribution, you want binary packages that end in .rpm. If you run a Debian / APT based system, you want packages that end .deb. OR, you can download the source and try to compile it yourself. Often times, though, the distribution's package maintainers have taken special acre to ensure that all the software in the repository works well together and covers a broad range of user cases. I don't expect you will need stuff from outside those repositories, not at first.

What was the error message you recieved. It's not terribly helpfull to tell us you get an error message, and then not share what that message is.

What do you mean you couldn't find the command line for the program? Were unable to get to a command line prompt, or were having trouble looking for command line arguments for the application in question? What was the application?

saqman2060

It does depend on the distro verson you are using. Most linux distros have a "my computer" icon that shows the file system on your hard drive with all folders and system files. To just access your profile data, you just need to find a folder with your account name. Again, different distros will display this in different places.

As for program packages to download, depending on your distro, you either can download, .rpms, .tar.gz. deb etc, if you can't find the program of choice in the repositories. Yet as meantioned before, give us the exact distro you are using and the exact error messages you are getting. It best to write down exactly what you see on the screen.