I'm pretty new to Linux and have been using it for a while after getting tired of Windows. It all became interesting when I saw PewDiepie's video about it. I'm used to the Windows way of downloading a program directly from a website and installing it. However, I've noticed that in Linux, particularly with Mint, you can use the terminal to install software by just typing a few commands, which makes me wonder how that works. Where are these files coming from? I recently tried to install Google Chrome and found I couldn't get it from the Mint app store, so I downloaded it directly from the Chrome website. Is there a fundamental difference between installing software through the terminal versus downloading it directly?
1 Answer
The software you get from the terminal comes from your distro's repositories, which are centralized databases of packages vetted by the developers. Instead of randomly searching the web for programs, you can find trusted applications with a simple search in your package manager.
It's surprising Chrome isn't included in the Mint software center, right? It's a pretty popular app!