I noticed there is a squeak-vm in the repositories from Linux Mint 20.1 /Ubuntu 20.04, and so I tried to install it, to see how much of the knowledge I'm acquiring in a Pharo course is transferable to Squeak:
user@user-Standard:~$ apt-cache search squeak
squeak-plugins-scratch - Squeak plugins for the Scratch programming environment
squeak-plugins-scratch-dbg - Squeak plugins for the Scratch programming environment - debug
squeak-vm - virtual machine for Smalltalk
etoys - media-rich model, simulation construction kit and authoring tool
etoys-doc - documentation for Etoys
user@user-Standard:~$ sudo apt install squeak-vm
Lendo listas de pacotes... Pronto
Construindo árvore de dependências
Lendo informação de estado... Pronto
The following additional packages will be installed:
scratch
Os NOVOS pacotes a seguir serão instalados:
scratch squeak-vm
0 pacotes atualizados, 2 pacotes novos instalados, 0 a serem removidos e 8 não atualizados.
É preciso baixar 25,6 MB de arquivos.
Depois desta operação, 48,8 MB adicionais de espaço em disco serão usados.
Você quer continuar? [S/n] S
Obter:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 squeak-vm amd64 1:4.10.2.2614-8build1 [510 kB]
Obter:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 scratch all 1.4.0.6~dfsg1-6 [25,1 MB]
Baixados 25,6 MB em 15s (1.660 kB/s)
A seleccionar pacote anteriormente não seleccionado squeak-vm.
(Lendo banco de dados ... 316417 ficheiros e directórios actualmente instalados.
)
A preparar para desempacotar .../squeak-vm_1%3a4.10.2.2614-8build1_amd64.deb ...
A descompactar squeak-vm (1:4.10.2.2614-8build1) ...
A seleccionar pacote anteriormente não seleccionado scratch.
A preparar para desempacotar .../scratch_1.4.0.6~dfsg1-6_all.deb ...
A descompactar scratch (1.4.0.6~dfsg1-6) ...
Configurando squeak-vm (1:4.10.2.2614-8build1) ...
Configurando scratch (1.4.0.6~dfsg1-6) ...
A processar 'triggers' para gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ...
A processar 'triggers' para man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
A processar 'triggers' para gnome-icon-theme (3.12.0-3) ...
A processar 'triggers' para shared-mime-info (1.15-1) ...
A processar 'triggers' para desktop-file-utils (0.24+linuxmint1) ...
A processar 'triggers' para mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
A processar 'triggers' para hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Now the curious thing is that it installs Scratch as well, even if I just requested Squeak.
When I look into the menu, it shows both Squeak and Scratch:
When I choose Squeak, a empty image selection screen is shown:
If I click the empty selection, nothing happens. It appears the squeak-vm is only a dependency for Scratch, and it's not possible to install it from the repository as a independent environment anymore. Am I right, or did I just do something wrong in the install process?
Part of the problem here is that the debian package (and since Ubuntu is derived from Debian as best I recall, I infer the Ubuntu package has the same issues) was created a long time ago and ... pretty much abandoned. Right now I believe it installs a vm built from the old-style interpreter sources, not the modern dynamic translator system.
We (the Squeak community) are working on improving this.
In the meantime it is much better to download packages from www.squeak.org