deb
/dkpg
packages require root to be installed. This is as much to protect the machine and its other users from harm as it is to protect the software from the users. (that made sense in my head!) This is technically the case becuase the whole apt/dpkg database is owned by root.
Sidebar: These days you can install and update things without root because of a permissions framework called PolicyKit that is similar to sudo/sudoers for graphical interfaces.
But there's no reason you can't have a local repository in another format. Desura (a Steam-a-like) manages your game installations. Eclipse can manage its own plugins and update them. Firefox for plugins. They're all repositories in their own way.
You don't have to install most software. If you can download it, most can be extracted, compiled (if it needs it) and run. You don't have to jump through the packaging steps.
Plenty of games come in .run
installers. If you run these as root, it'll install the game into /opt/
or /usr/local/games/
, etc but otherwise it'll install into your home directory.
As for your third question, no. It can only modify what the user can modify. And the same goes for a root-installed Java (or other) application. Unless it runs through a crazy setuid process, it can only access what the user can access. Just because the executable may is owned by root, doesn't mean it runs as root.
dpkg, through apt or aptitude keeps a database of the installed software in /var/lib/dpkg/status
.
You can learn more about this here.
My response is based on a response given in this forum discussion.
As @psusi pointed out, because apt and aptitude are merely front-ends to dpkg, it is actually dpkg that keeps track of packaging.
Best Answer
The executables are located in the
/usr/bin
folder. I guess pressing Alt+F2 and typingwill do. It might also fall under the Applications menu > Internet.
To uninstall already installed software, you can:
Open a terminal, and type
If you do not know the complete name, just type a few characters of the application, and press tab twice. That will auto complete, or show a list of matching applications.