Using The Old .deb Installer (gdebi) Instead of Software Centre in Ubuntu
The new Ubuntu Software Centre is really great, and I often explore it to find the awesome packages that are available to install. One thing that bugs the hell out of me, however, is that in recent versions of Ubuntu .deb files (ie when you download a deb package and manually install it) open in the Ubuntu Software Centre and the process is incredibly SLOW.
I have dealt with this and just accepted it, instead using the command line (dpkg) instead to avoid using the Ubuntu Software Centre, but I occasionaly forget and just double click the deb file to launch it. Today I decided to solve this problem for myself, so here is how I did it.
Tip: How to give the old deb installer it's place back in newer versions of Ubuntu (instructions are assuming use of pcmanfm, if you are using nautilus, you should start using pcmanfm, it's better - otherwise the process is much the same in nautilus)
First
sudo apt-get install gedbi
This will get gdebi installed. Next find a .deb file you wish to install with your file manager, right click it then select "Open with..."
In the "Custom Command Line" tab enter the following
gdebi-gtk %f
Click the checkbox next to "Set selected application as default...blah" and finally click "Ok".
The deb should load up with gdebi and double-clicking .deb files in the future should fire up gdebi instead of Ubuntu Software Centre.
Again, Ubuntu Software Centre is great for discovering and installing software that is available in the Ubuntu repos but I just think it should be keep out of the loop if I found the software else where.
