Im totally new to Linux in general so if this isnt what you mean, Im
sorry.

If you know the name of what you are wanting, like SciTE, then by typing
sudo (superuser do) apt-get install scite that would install scite.
That is all you have to do really. Its pretty cool -esp coming from
windows. The service finds the software, installs it, places a icon in
the applications menu and thats it.

As for deb, to do .deb files read this on the Unofficial Ubunto 5.04
Guide: www.ubuntuguide.org/#installuninstalldebfiles

try this "dpkg -i packagename"

or to get all the infor for dpkg, enter "man dpkg"

Thanks everyone for the help with .deb packages. It
makes sense now. Now I've got to sort out a missing
library file or some such thing. Anyway tuxcards is
complaining about something. I'm not near that
workstation for the moment so I can't tell you which
lib it's hollering about.

I've tried using Treepad for Linux(www.treepad.com),
but Treeepad complains about running when I did a
local install, as myself. When I'm root, treepad runs
fine. So I'm trying to workout permissons on that
issue. I'm also messing with Jreeepad, a Java clone
of Treepad, and that works ok.

What all this boils down to is that I want to carry
around notes, etc on a usb key drive from windoze to
linux to FreeBSD, and the Treepad format is simple and
compact for this kind of work.

If I get this all sorted out, I'll let you all know
what ends up working.