Since your phone call this morning I figure that you are some what in the same boat as I am so here is something that I've learned in Ubuntu, while going thru
www.ubuntuguide.org and it might help you:
This is to automate all your installations saving you entering many commands, it's a program called Automatix2
Here are the instructions:
To install Automatix2 on Ubuntu, bring up the "Terminal" (go to Applications>Accessories>Terminal and type the following and enter
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
You will get a source list here add the following 2 lines at the end of file
## Automatix repo
deb
http://www.getautomatix.com/apt edgy main
Now save and close /etc/apt/sources.list and run the following commands from terminal (one by one, hitting enter after each step)
wget
http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/key.gpg.asc
gpg --import key.gpg.asc
gpg --export --armor 521A9C7C | sudo apt-key add -
To Update APT type the following line in Terminal
sudo aptitude update
Now type un the following commands and enter to install Automatix2
sudo aptitude install automatix2
Now you can start Automatix2 Menu i.e. "Applications-> System Tools-> Automatix
Alternatively you can also run from terminal by typing the folowing
automatix2...whatever suits your fancy.
So the next time you need any updates just start Automatix from Applications and the program will get all the available updates you require and you can select the ones you want to upgrade/update/install.
The experts in Linux on this forum may have better suggestions than this that might be more helpful but as a newbie I found Automatix2 made my life easier without having to worry about messing up commands I enter.