Newbie to linux and a question

[Linux for blind general discussion]

I also wouldn't recommend a source distribution to a newbie. Hell,
I've been a full-time Linux user for over a decade, source most of my
system from Debian Unstable along with most of the available upgrades
from experimental, have done some rather hackerish things to my own
system, and Gentoo is ground I wouldn't dare to tread even if my
vision was miraculously restored.

Yes, compiling from source is much easier now than it was back when I
first tried Linux in the days when Fedora was new and Ubuntu didn't
exist yet, back in the days when compiling from source was the main
way of adding additional software beyond what was bundled on the
install CD, but I'd argue it should be the option of last resort for
most users these days.

Oh, and something I forgot to mention, if you use dpkg to manually
install a .deb, it will let you know if you are missing dependencies.
Sadly, I know of no means to have apt automatically download and
install the dependencies needed for a .deb you want to install
manually, but you can use the list dpkg prints to the screen as a
basis for what to tell apt to install.

-- 
Sincerely,

Jeffery Wright
Bachelor of Computer Science
President Emeritus, Nu Nu Chapter, Phi Theta Kappa.