Chapter 5: Accessing and Running Applications

Overview

In This Chapter

• Getting and installing software packages

• Getting Fedora and RHEL software updates

• Managing RPM packages

• Running desktop applications

• Using emulators to run applications from other operating systems

• Running DOS applications

• Running Windows applications with WINE

Fedora and RHEL come with hundreds of software applications, covering every major category of desktop, server, and programming software. By accessing Fedora Extras and some third-party software repositories on the Internet, you have access to thousands more software packages that have been packaged for a specific release of Fedora or RHEL. Often, getting a new software package downloaded and installed is as simple as running a single yum command.

Some of the same tools you use to get and install software packages in Fedora and RHEL (such as yum and rpm commands) can also be used to manage your installed software and get updates or security patches when they become available. Options in those tools let you query which packages you installed, as well as list and verify the contents of those packages. Likewise, tools such as Package Updater (PUP), yum, and up2date (RHEL only) can be used to automatically grab and install updates to packages as they become available.

Once an application is installed, launching it can be as easy as it is in any friendly desktop system: by clicking a few menus on the desktop. There are also some neat ways to launch applications from another computer so that you can work with them (securely) from your own desktop.

In those cases where you must have a specific application that isn't available for Linux (such as Microsoft Office or a particular media player), there are several emulators and compatibility software facilities to let you run software made for Windows, DOS, or other operating systems. You can also build and install your own software packages for Fedora or RHEL, starting with software available as source RPMs or as tarballs.

This chapter covers these tools and procedures for getting, installing, and managing software applications in Fedora and RHEL.