program installations

[derhoi]

i am very new to linux, and i am finding that somethings are taken for granted in all the instructions, leaving me not knowing what i'm doing!
for example, idon't have a clue how to install programs. i need to burn an .iso, so i searched for cd burning programs and downloaded some .deb files for some different apps. anyways i open up what i've downloaded and there are big lists of files that i don't know what to do with. and that's where i get stuck.
any help i can find installing anything takes for granted that i know things that i don't and basically i have no clue what to do at all.

i know this is really vague, and i'm not asking for any specific instructions on certain programs, but can you get programs that install themselves? and more importantly, does anyone know of a good tutorial site that can orientate me to how to do basic stuff in linux?

thanks a bunch
ben

ps i'm using debian right now, and the reason that i need to burn a cd is so i can install suse instead

[unchiujar]

I think in Debian you use apt-get.
Instructions on how to install programs in Debian http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/de...l/ch-dpkg.html

I would tell more specific things but I use Fedora 6 :P so I have as much clue as you do for Debian.

One of the programs for burning DVDs and CDs http://www.k3b.org/

[smolloy]

If you go to this link, you'll find the tutorial section of this website. The very top entry in this shows how to install software for lots of the main distributions of linux. It's a lot of reading, but you should at least read the section on installing software from source, and the section specific to your chosen distribution of linux.

The main thing to remember is that linux is not windows! It sounds fairly obvious, but a lot of people forget it. If you accept the fact that you'll be a beginner for a while, then you'll learn much faster.

Btw, installation of software is very different in linux. No more .exe files