Once you have decided to migrate to open source software, you will need to do some basic installing. This page offers some elementary and generic information on installing. For more detail, search for the particular program you are interested in.
Installing open source software depends on your operating system. This is a how-to compilation for multiple operating systems; read the appropriate section for your OS.
Steps
-
For most such systems, you can probably use the OSs package manager to install a pre-built binary package. This is always the recommended method.
-
Alternatively, you could follow these steps:
- Download and uncompress the source code.
- In the terminal, move into the extracted directory.
- Run "
./configure
" to configure the software. - Run "
make
" to compile the software. - Run "
make install
" to install the software.
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Tips
- It is possible to use the make build system on Windows, but it is beyond the scope of this page.Thanks
- Open Source Software is usually in the form of source code, but you may be able to find binaries for your operating system if the build fails.Thanks
- If all else fails, read the
README
orINSTALL
files for instructions.Thanks
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Warnings
- Installing or replacing critical system components can be dangerous. Make sure you know what you are doing.Thanks
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