Ubuntu is the most popoular GNU/Linux distrbution with millions of active users. Being popular also means that, there are a lot of newbie users as well. Here is a quick list of things a newbie Ubuntu user should knew. This is a small step towards creating a comprehensive Ubuntu Manual.
Apart from being the popular distro among new comers, ubuntu is slowly becoming the favourite among advanced users as well. Ubuntu recently opened up its bug tracking system called Launchpad, which is Canonical's first major contribution to the open source community. Now let's see what all a newbie should do to make the Ubuntu system work post installation.
Must do stuff
- Make sure that your Internet Connection is active. Now go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager and Click Reload.
- You need to install the following packages now. First, Goto System > Administration>Synaptic Package Manager. Search for the following packages.
ubuntu-restricted-extras
compizconfig-settings-manager- Mark these packages(right click > mark) and then Click Apply to begin installation.
- After installing restricted extras, you will be able to play music and videos and it also includes flash support for firefox.
- To access Compiz settings you just installed, goto System > Administration > CompizConfig Settings Manager. ( For starters, Compiz is the default Window Manager for Ubuntu )
Installing Drivers
- In most of the cases, all the Hardware is detected automatically upon installation, including graphics card and wireless. (Especially if its Intel)
- Now, if your hardware driver is not installed automatically, simply goto System > Administration > Hardware Drivers and simply activate the driver you need from the list.(Of Course you need an active Internet Connetion to do all these).
- There will be instances that disagrees with both of the above cases. Such instances will have to be met individually. Leave a comment if that is the case.
- That sums up the basic things you need to do after installing Ubuntu.
How to install software in Ubuntu
- Software installations is one of the easiest things to do in Ubuntu. Since almost all the free softwares are available in the official repository, it is pretty much easy and also a safe option.
- All you need to do is, simply goto System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. if you are opening Synaptic for the first time, you will have to click the Reload button on top.
- Now if you know the name of the package(software) you want, say VLC media player for example. simply type VLC on the search box above and click search.
- If you need to search a more generic topic, say Multimedia for example, just do the search as above and all the related multimedia applications will be listed.
- Once you have finished finding the software you need, right click on the name of the software and mark it. You can mark multiple softwares for installation. After marking the softwares you need, click on the Apply button above(near te Reload button) and its done.
PS: You can also install software using Applications > Add/Remove and also by downloading .deb packages. But i recommend using Synaptic instead.
Software you may want to install
- For installing ANYTHING in Ubuntu, Goto System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Mark the packages you like and install it , as simple as that. Here is a list a softwares you may want to install. Simply search for them in Synaptic.
Multimedia
- Smplayer - Ultimate movie player in Linux.
- VLC - Multimedia Player and Streamer.
- XBMC - Media Center, much acclaimed
- Boxee - Social Media Center
- Amarok - A must for media buffs.
Disc Burning Tool
- K3B - The best CD/DVD burning tool you could get.
Chat Client
- Skype - IM client.( Pidgin is installed by default, with lots of plugins and even Yahoo emoticons )
- Kopete - Instant messenger supporting a lot of protocols.
Programming
- Eclipse - Open Source IDE
- Blender - Open Source 3D content creation suite.
Miscellaneous
- Gparted - Partition Editor
Note: This is a bare bones guide solely meant to help newbie Ubuntu users. If you need any further assistance, please leave a comment.
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I've created a GUI that users can execute to select and install some of the most common initial items:
http://www.coderswasteland.com/node/21
Enjoy. Please suggest any other startup items you would like.
One in a million manuals designed to tell how a person does it. The first he does is to escape the confines of open source and then suggest some highly individual choices.
Thanks for the Manual. It is very short but at the same time everything is written clearly. Well, I've managed to find a full manual, but it turned out to be very large and more complicated. I've never used Ubuntu but I'm going to do it 'cause all my friends advise to do so. Hope there won't be any problems.
Go ahead friend. There is a pretty large ubuntu user community out there to help you. All the best and happy ubuntu-ing :-)
For a simple post which quickly added so much value
...and if you need a good offline dictionary with thesaurus, just like Wordweb in other OS, in which you press ctrl alt w for the highlighted word, use Artha...download the deb from artha.sourceforge.net
A few weeks ago I created a GUI script (using Zenity and BASH) that has some common items that people may wish to install or uninstall upon first boot.
http://coderswasteland.com/node/21
Among the items are restricted codecs and fonts. Each item is selectable so the user needn't install or uninstall everything in the list. I'm open to suggestions for other items to add.
Hey Steven Thats a great script you have. I've been using Ubuntu since 7.04, i don't know if Ubuntu 9.04 broke or fixed Samba, but it is a royal pain for a noob to fix. I still havent gotten it working right, i can't connect to my windows shares. Is there any chance you can add that to your quicky list. Also if you or anyone for that matter is interested, i create themes for HP Mini MIE. http://asparki.blogspot.com/
The first thing to do after an ubuntu installation for me is definitely to establishthe symbolic link /bin/sh to the *real* bash. Then I install Gawk and set that link also.
For some unexplicable reason, Ubuntu comes with alternatives for sh and awk, and they really mess up my existing awk and sh scripts...
I'm not qualified to speak on the bash vs dash question -- but I a asked why on another site http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2009-06-15-001-35-OS-SW
just a few days ago, and got these responses:
"As far as I know, dash was chosen as default sh as part of the effort to reduce boot time. If scripts conform to the standard (POSIX) sh syntax, both bash and dash will run them just fine. Problem is, many scripts use non-standard bash features and thus break when run by dash. Solution is to fix such broken scripts -- this will require time. "
"Some people seem to use non-POSIX bashisms in their scripts, then put #!/bin/sh at the top instead of #!/bin/bash.... (I presume the story is similar for non-POSIX gawkisms.)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DashAsBinSh
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dash/+bug/61463 "
In short, Ubuntu already has bash installed, but uses dash for sh scripts.
As for mawk, it appears to be the default in Debian, hence it's use in Ubuntu -- so I can only assume it is as standard as one could expect . I use simple awk one-liners on occassion, so I make no claim to expertise.
From the (m)awk man page:
DESCRIPTION
mawk is an interpreter for the AWK Programming Language. The AWK lan‐
guage is useful for manipulation of data files, text retrieval and pro‐
cessing, and for prototyping and experimenting with algorithms. mawk
is a new awk meaning it implements the AWK language as defined in Aho,
Kernighan and Weinberger, The AWK Programming Language, Addison-Wesley
Publishing, 1988. (Hereafter referred to as the AWK book.) mawk con‐
forms to the Posix 1003.2 (draft 11.3) definition of the AWK language
which contains a few features not described in the AWK book, and mawk
provides a small number of extensions..
You say "PS: You can also install software using Applications > Add/Remove and also by downloading .deb packages. But i recommend using Synaptic instead."
Why? Add/Remove is designed for installing applications. Synaptic is for sorting out packages and versions. It is a whole load more complication than any user needs when they just want to install a program.
Hi,
Thanks for your comment first of all. If all you want is installing or removing software, then as you said, it is much better to use add/remove tool instead of synaptic. But the functionality levels of synaptic package manager can never be met by add/remove application.
Just consider for example upgrading an installed software or adding a third-party repo. All this can be done using Synaptic. And it is not that difficult to learn all these after all. So i think its better if these newbie users started off with synaptic when you consider long term benefits.