Installing applications in Ubuntu (GUI/CLI)

Though there are multiple approaches for installing applications or packages in Ubuntu, they essentially all take one of two forms:

• A graphical user interface (GUI), in which the user interacts with the package manager via familiar clickable buttons and menus
• A command line interface (CLI), in which the user issues commands via a text terminal

There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods but we are not here to debate these points. Rather, we are here to gain a basic understanding of how to use the tools available to accomplish what we want: installing and removing software packages from our Ubuntu system. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using the Frozen Bubble application. Though we are installing a specific piece of software, these instructions apply to the majority of packages available for your system.


Now that we have shown you the menu, it is time to choose:

• GUI: Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)
• CLI: Advanced Package Tool (APT)