Unable to install certain file systems

abhijeet1301 · October 1, 2015, 10:03am

Hello All,

I am a newbie to LINUX. I understand that this indeed is a dumb question but I really need help with this. I understand that there are multiple softwares available in market with different file systems as well as for different OS. For e.g. TV is available for Debian, Suse, Ubuntu and so on… each of them has a different file extensions. After 2-3 hours I was able to understand zypper command for SUSE and I must say that is very helpful.
I need to know if I can install the following packages as well and if yes (any one of them) the procedure will be highly appreciable:
.tar.gz
.tar
.deb

And some more I am unable to come up.

Thanks in advance,
Abhijeet Bhardwaz

knurpht · October 1, 2015, 10:27am

Hi, welcome to the openSUSE forums

First: dumb questions don’t exist. Take your time, get used to the difference ( linux is not Windows ), and ask what you don’t know. Searchengines are your friends as well.
Then; filesystems are not the issue, the thing you’re referring to are file types ( tar, tar.gz ) and package types ( deb, rpm ).

openSUSE is a so called “rpm-based” linux distro, which means that software is distributed in rpm packages. These are installed through the Softwaremanager, where the available software is in repositories ( out on the internet, see http://download.opensuse.org/repositories if you want to have a look, don’t install from there ). Another option you have with openSUSE is http://software.opensuse.org where you can search for packages and install them for your openSUSE version through one-click installers.

tar and tar.gz are compressed archives, like .zip
deb is the extension for debian packages, you cannot use these on openSUSE, but the software in many of the deb packages is also available in an rpm version.

arvidjaar · October 1, 2015, 11:02am

It may be possible to convert deb to rpm using alien, although of course using native package is always better. See e.g. How to Convert DEB Files to RPM - Make Tech Easier for a walk through.

knurpht · October 1, 2015, 11:06am

I know, left it out on purpose. The OP is new to linux, conversion of packages is not the best place to start IMHO

abhijeet1301 · October 1, 2015, 7:33pm

Knurpht:

Hi, welcome to the openSUSE forums

First: dumb questions don’t exist. Take your time, get used to the difference ( linux is not Windows ), and ask what you don’t know. Searchengines are your friends as well.
Then; filesystems are not the issue, the thing you’re referring to are file types ( tar, tar.gz ) and package types ( deb, rpm ).

openSUSE is a so called “rpm-based” linux distro, which means that software is distributed in rpm packages. These are installed through the Softwaremanager, where the available software is in repositories ( out on the internet, see http://download.opensuse.org/repositories if you want to have a look, don’t install from there ). Another option you have with openSUSE is http://software.opensuse.org where you can search for packages and install them for your openSUSE version through one-click installers.

tar and tar.gz are compressed archives, like .zip
deb is the extension for debian packages, you cannot use these on openSUSE, but the software in many of the deb packages is also available in an rpm version.

Thank you so much for the clarification, and yes it’s the truth that I have been to Windows and MAC for a very long time. I was actually referred to openSUSE by one of my friends in office. I must say that this is the most stable KDE I have ever seen till now.