Partially. Many/most installs are easier using Synaptic, but there
are certain things best done at the command line.

Using the example in my prior reply regarding installing the sound
files, Synaptic wanted to install some 25+ packages and really left
me no options due to alleged dependencies. Using apt-get I was able
to install exactly, and only, what was needed and required -- seven
packages.

Please note I was building the game from its source code since there
were no Ubuntu packages available for penguin-command.

The vast majority of anything you might want to install will have
already been built by the Ubuntu teams and available for a (simple)
install using Synaptic (or apt-get or "Add/Remove..."),

> [...]
> BTW, I got Evolution set up to get all Ubuntulinux email. I was
> getting it through Apple Mail on my macbook but I couldn't copy and
> paste from one machine to another. Question: why is it that
> Evolution puts a red line under everything I type in the message
> body of my messages?

Every word is misspelled?

[ ducking and running ]

I hope you have a sense of humor. :-)

Thunderbird underlines in red the words it believes are incorrect. I
haven't used Evolution (or any of the eleventy-seven bazillion other
email clients available for Linux), so I really don't know. Maybe
someone who uses Evolution can chime in with an answer.

Prior to Thunderbird, I was using either/both mm or Emacs as an email
client depending on the system. Both go back to the 1970s when open
source began.

Someday I'll be able to figure out just what I need to install to run a
program. Right now I'm letting Ubuntu tell me what I need to install.

"puts a red line under everything I type in the message body of my
messages?"

Spell check.

I had that problem with my laptop. I found out that the only dictionaries
that I had installed were Italian and Turkish. Once I installed an English
dictionary, the problem went away.

After looking through add/remove, I didn't find what looked like an
English dictionary. Synaptic didn't help either since I didn't know
what I was looking at when names were brought up. I don't even know
where to look to see what dictionaries I've got installed. I've just
been a Mac user too long I guess.

Check out

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=340739

Evolution uses Aspell dictionaries. I can't remember how I added them.

Here is some info.

linuxbasement.com/.../irssi-aspell-deian-gentoo-ubuntu-oh-boy

I reinstalled aspell-en and gnome spell through synaptic. I'm still
getting red lines under everything I type in Evolution. Is there
something I'm missing?

You need to go into the preferences and choose to use the English
dictionary. I'm at my windows computer right now so I can't give you step by
step, but if you click around in spell check, you'll find it.

I've gone through the system/preferences and I'm either missing
something or it's just not there but haven't found a place where I can
see what dictionaries are loaded.

My first thought was to disable the spell checker in Evolution.

A Google search using "ubuntu evolution dictionary" has a LOT of hits.
You might want to look at some of them.

It seems, though, Evolution "should" be using the standard system
dictionaries. It's possible some of them aren't installed on your
system.

I just brought up Synaptic on my 8.04 system, clicked the "Search"
item, and entered "dictionary" as the search term. There are 13
selected and installed on my system.

What you should do is start Synaptic and do the same "dictionary"
search and examine the list of candidates for installation. Anything
ending with "-en" or "-eng" should be selected along with any other
dictionaries that might seem useful (e.g., computer acronyms, etc.).

The packages installed on my 8.04 system appearing in the search are:

aspell-en
dictionaries-common
gnome-utils
iamerican
ibritish
ispell
kbabel
libgdbm3
myspell-en-gb
myspell-en-us
myspell-en-za
wamerican
wbritish

These could also be installed per (for example):

sudo apt-get aspell-en
etc.

The only package I didn't have from the list you sent was kbabel. I've
installed everything else. I'm still getting the red line under
everything I type in Evolution.

a quick Google search suggests that you have to enable the
dictionary(ies) before Evolution will use any. See, for example:

<http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=52342>

There "should" be something in the pull-downs and/or menus in
Evolution to do that. I'm not familiar with the Evolution email
client.

There should also be "Help" within Evolution.

Got it all straightened out. Found that English (United
States) was thinking all was misspelled. I unchecked that and checked
English, the first language on the list. All works fine now.

Try going opening Evolution, edit preferences, composer preferecnes,
spell check - UNcheck check spelling while I type. That should do it.

I got it fixed! Thanks . Instead of unchecking "check spelling
while I type" I unchecked English (United States) and checked English,
the first language in the list. No red lines now.