[Sussex] Re: Debian Sarge - still a bit of a mystery

[John D.]

OK, so thanks to Steve D's valiant efforts last Saturday,

I now have a working Debian Sarge distro as well as the "eckspee" and Mandrake 
9.1

So, the first mystery.

My prefered browser is OPERA, now as it is not a listed package, according to 
debian, I go off to http://www.opera.com and download the debian opera 
package (I tried both, the shared Qt and static versions).

Into my home directory and click on the icon - which normally (as in - under 
mandrake) the package manager opens and asks for the root password, and then 
will install it.

When in the debian install, I do the above, except when I have clicked on the 
icon, it produces what looks like a "small red box icon" similare to what I 
get with mandrake, that just says "package manager" with the egg timer 
rotating for a while, when it just stops.

So, does "apt" install in this way? If not, can I download it and leave it in 
my home directory, and do apt-get install opera i.e. will it find the package 
in my home directory or will it tell me to clear off as I haven't included 
opera in the apt-get sources list? - Would this apply to everything, as in, 
if I can locate a current version of KDE (3.1.3 is the newest - I think) will 
it "go in" or does it HAVE to be in the apt-get sources list?

regards

John D.