Quote Originally Posted by david90schr
But i doesnt know this: IF YOU INSTALL A PROGRAM UNDER LINUX/UNIX WHERE IS THE FOLDER WHERE YOU HAVE INSTALLED IT. AND HOW CAN YOU START THE PROGRAM IF YOU DOESNT KNOW WHERE THE BUTTON IS TO ACTIVATE THE PROGRAM. PLEASE TELL ME ITS A NOOB QUESTION BUT I NEED TO KNOW IT.
Just like Windows, a program can be installed anywhere... With Debian packages things are pretty organized though. To find out where a program lives, one option is to use 'locate'. It's pretty quick as it consults a database. To keep the database up to date, use 'locatedb' (as root).

If you've got two versions of a progaram, which version is going to run? If you don't explicitly say which version you want to run, Linux is going to run the first version that it finds, the first one in its path. A path is a list of directories to look in for an executable of the name you give. To find out what you path is, type 'export $PATH'. (I cannot remember off hand how to change you path).

How do you run a specific version of a program, or one that is not in your path? By saying exactly where the program is: e.g. to run special_program1 which is in /usr/bin, you'd type '/usr/bin/special_program1'. If 'special_program1' is in the current directory, you;'d type './special_program1'. (To find out your current directory, 'pwd'.).

Now to find out more, to understand better, to help you to 'do', I recommend the following two guides in addition to this forum and other resources (don't forget http://www.tldp.org/guides.html):

1. 'Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide' at http://tille.soti.org/training/tldp/

2. 'LINUX NEWBIE ADMINISTRATOR GUIDE' at http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/

HTH