Chapter 8: Installing and Updating Software

Overview

As you would expect from a Linux distribution, Fedora 2 comes bundled with a vast array of software applications for your use. Major applications such as the OpenOffice productivity suite and Ximian Evolution e-mail client are installed as part of the installation, but a great number of other applications are not. This software may be stored on a CD, on the Internet, or anywhere else. This chapter looks at how you can get Fedora 2 applications and install them on your system.

The chapter discusses the following areas:

• The RPM and its advantages

• The RPM Package Management Tool

• RPM console commands

• RPM security features

• A few examples of RPM package installation

This chapter uses the terms RPM Package Management Tool, package management tool, Fedora package manager, and Add and Remove Software interchangeably to refer to the Package Management GUI provided by Fedora 2 (based on which variant scans best in natural language). The term rpm is used to refer to the RPM command line interface.