[TriLUG] Automatix, Ubuntu, & Linux in General

[Scott Chilcote]

Jason Evans wrote:
> What would be a good alternative to Automatix?  I can see the potential issues of using software that doesn't handle apt correctly and can damage a system, but I also wouldn't have heard of certain apps like VirtualBox if I didn't use it.  
> 
> Jason

Hi Jason,

I haven't seen it suggested yet, but one possibility would be to just 
use Automatix to explore the programs and other stuff people have been 
asking about.  But use it only to identify what you want, not install.

Then you can open the Synaptic package manager and do a search on all 
repositories to see if those items are available somewhere.  If they 
are, install away.

If they aren't, then it's time to search for the programs' home pages 
and see if there's a debian package to install from.  The alternative is 
to let Automatix do the install and hope for the best...  But it may 
make it difficult to perform an upgrade the next time a new version of 
Ubuntu is released.

Perhaps all of the attention it's getting will lead to a cleaned up 
version of Automatix, or equivalent.

--
Scott C.