Does not use rpms.
Normal sw management ap is Ubuntu Software Center.
Software Center is just an APT (Debian Advanced Packaging Tool) client.
dpkg is great for querying, but I don't think it knows about configured
 repositories or dependencies.  Therefore, always use "apt-get" for real
 installation work.

APT commands:
    apt-get install pkgname..
    apt-get remove pkgname...
    [Docs say can prefix pkgnames with + or - to change the default action,
     but that does not work].
    apt-get update      # Always run before "apt-get upgrade"
    apt-get upgrade
    apt-get dist-upgrade

dpkg -l
dpkg -L pkgname

Listing available packages:
    apt-cache pkgnames
    apt-cache search 'search expression'

Partial info gleaned while working on unrelated stuff about Debian and Ubuntu:
/etc/modules is a text list of kernel modules to auto-load.
"update-rc.d init_script_name defaults" is apparently like "insserv" or "chkconfig".