How to install skype in an ALT Linux distro (Simply Linux 6)

Question

I've installed Simply Linux 6 (a distro by ALT Linux Team which based on the "p6" branch of their package repository; ftp, torrent).

Now I want to use Skype, but there is no skype package in the list in synaptic. How do I install Skype?

Answer 1

Skype is not in the repository because it's not free software, and its license might not allow repackaging it for a distro... (and even if it allowed, it wouldn't be nice to put it to the repository, because the goal of ALT's Sisyphus repository is to be reproducible, rebuildable from the sources, so that people are able to construct their own distros based on Sisyphus, and then are able to support them, correct errors in them; and non-free software cannot be fixed on your own).

However, there are 3rd-party skype packages prepared for ALT's distros; follow the instructions (sorry that the comments there are in Russian!) at http://www.altlinux.org/Skype#i586 -- as root user, i.e. the administrator (use su - command to switch to root's shell or just prepend all commands with sudo; commands are given in a shell inside a terminal):

apt-get update
apt-get install http://fly.osdn.org.ua/~drool/skype/skype-2.2.0.35-alt1.i586.rpm

(apt-get update downloads the list of packages available in the official ALT's repository; it is required in case the 2nd command apt-get will need to download and install some packages skype depends on; for apt-get update to make sense, the "p6" repository must be turned on in the configuration of the sources for APT. To learn more about APT, read man apt-get.)