Packages - what's the best way?

[Rob Hurle <rob1940@gmail.com>]

  I'm quite new to debian and I'm getting my head around dpkg,
apt-get, aptitude and synaptic.  Does anyone have advice on the best
way to handle a .deb package?  Can I make up my own repository of .deb
packages and point apt-get at that to install packages?  I've
installed one or two small things (gcc and gnu make) using dpkg, but I
wondered if there was a better way to do this.  I've just downloaded
opera and it comes in a .deb package, so this is my next task.  apt or
dpkg - or even synaptic?

  Thanks for any help.

Rob Hurle

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Rob Hurle
ANU, College of Asia and the Pacific
School of Culture, History and Language
Histories of Asia and the Pacific
e-mail:              rob1940@gmail.com
Telephone (ANU): +61 2 6125 3169
Mobile (in VN):  +84 948 243 538
Mobile (in OZ):  +61 417 293 603
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