New Linux user here. Is this really how I'm supposed to install apps on Linux?

Critical_Insight@feddit.uk to Linux@lemmy.ml – 160 points –

https://mullvad.net/en/help/install-mullvad-app-linux

Trying to install VPN and these are the instructions Mullvad is giving me. This is ridiculous. There must be a more simple way. I know how to follow the instructions but I have no idea what I'm doing here. Can't I just download a file and install it? I'm on Ubuntu.

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Thanks for the explanation. However trying to run the first command gives me sudo: curl: command not found

So I'm stuck right there in the first step lol

I would have guessed that Ubuntu would install it by default since its a very common way to get stuff from the internet (when in the terminal), but apparently not (the other option is wget which is most likely installed, but that uses a different way to get the stuff).

You should be able to install curl with sudo apt install curl

My fresh Debian install didn't have that too and I thought it came with the installation

Debian doesn't even come with sudo, git or curl by default. It's kind of minimal on purpose.

I didn't know that any distribution comes with git preinstalled.

That should be easily solved with: sudo apt install curl

You have two options: install curl (check @TrickDacy@lemmy.world's comment) or do it manually. Installing curl is the easiest.

If you want to do it the hard way (without the terminal), here's how:

  1. Download the file https://repository.mullvad.net/deb/mullvad-keyring.asc from your web browser.
  2. Open your file browser as administrator. There's probably some link for that in the Menu.
  3. Move the file that you just downloaded to the directory /usr/share/keyrings/

Really appreciate your replies dude. So many are being a bit of an jerks here, but you (and few other) have been really helpful.

You're welcome.

I think that people being jerks take for granted how confusing this might be, if you're new; we (people in general) tend to take vocab that we already know for granted, as well as solutions for small problems. ...except that it doesn't work when you're starting out, and we all need to start out somewhere, right.

Yeah, once you work in Linux for so long seeing someone ask about curl missing is really easy to take for granted that we all started there, we’ve all been fresh on Linux. A lot of people take pride in their experience, but they shouldn’t lord it over those who are learning to advance themselves. It’s completely counter to why Linux even exists.

curl is a good tool to have in general, you can install it with sudo apt install curl

Wow, interesting. You may be able to install curl to fix that like this:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl

Can't hurt to try