Installing Software in Ubuntu with Eve Installer

If you use Ubuntu, or one of the many Linux distributions derived from Ubuntu, you’re probably familiar with at least a couple of ways to install software. You might use apt-get from the command line. Or, you might use Synaptic Package Manager. More and more people are using Ubuntu Software Center and some use a third-party tool called Ubuntu Tweak (which we looked at a while back).

 

Another entry in the installer sweepstakes is Eve Installer. Unlike other installers for Ubuntu, Eve Installer is fairly simple and fairly barebones. It’s billed as a download manager that lets you install the main programs needed for the proper functioning of our Linux system.

Eve Installer won’t appeal to many hardcore users, but anyone else should find it useful.

Let’s take a look at how to use Eve Installer.

 

Downloading and installing Eve Installer

Head over to the developer’s website. It’s actually more of a blog than a website, so you’ll need to search for Eve Installer. The latest version (as of this writing) is 0.9.3.51. You can download English and Spanish packages for 32-bit and 64-bit computers, and a 32-bit installer for Linux Mint.

After downloading the file, open Nautilus and find the file eve-installer-0.9.3.51-[architecture]–[language].deb, for example eve-installer-0.9.3.51-amd64-EN.deb. Double click on the file to launch the Ubuntu Software Center (or GDebi package installer). Then, click Install Package.

Once the software has been installed, you can launch it by selecting System > Administration > EveInstaller.

 

Installing Software

Using Eve Installer, you can add any of the following:

• Software repositories (for example, the repository for the Medibuntu distribution)
• Basic applications and essentials for your Ubunutu distribution (for example, Flash Player or Dropbox)
• System tools
• Graphics applications
• Office software
• Audio and video applications
• Internet tools (like Web browsers and chat clients)
• Themes
• Games

The software that’s available is limited, but chances are you can find something new, interesting, and useful.

So, how do you go about installing software using Eve Installer? Say that you want to install Minitube, a desktop client for viewing YouTube videos. In Eve Installer, go to Multimedia. Then click the checkbox beside the entry in the list for Minitube.

When you’re ready to go, click Apply. A terminal window opens, showing the the progress of the installation.

When the installation is complete, you’ll need to click OK on the message that appears. Note, though, that Eve Installer doesn’t always add a shortcut for the program to your Applications menu.

 

Removing Software

OK, let’s say that you installed an application but it’s not really what you’re looking for. How do you get rid of it? Just find the application in Eve Installer. Click the checkbox next to the name of the application to deselect it. Then, click Apply.

Sometimes, Eve Installer will display a message stating that it can’t find the package that you want to remove from your system. To get rid of it, you might have manually delete the files from your computer — I’ve found that using apt-get at the command line and running Synaptic Package Manager don’t always do the job.

 

Final Thoughts

Overall, Eve Installer is easy to use and can install quite a bit of useful and interesting software on your computer. The amount of software is limited, and probably won’t be enough to appeal to a long-time Ubuntu user. But if you’re new to Ubuntu and don’t want to wade through the choices in Synaptic Package Manager or Ubuntu Software Center, then you should give Eve Installer a try.