Top things to do after installing Elementary OS | Luna
¿De qué está hablando? Versión en españolNot running Elementary OS? Check my previous post for Ubuntu 13.04
Planning to install Elementary OS? This post explains how to do it with partitions (it's more secure and very useful)
In this post I will show the top things that I recommend you to do in order to make your computer run like a champ.
I strongly recommend the use of the (a) Terminal except in a few cases, like when you first update, you should update with the "Update Manager" because you'll have to install new kernel revisions.
Updating packages and upgrading
The first thing that you absolutely want to do, just after installing Elementary OS is to update your packages. To do this, you will need to search for the "Update Manager" in the application list.
It will atomically check for updates, after all the packages are updated you can click in "Install Updates"
Or you could launch a Terminal and put the following command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
The first time you do this it could take a lot of time.
Installing proprietary drivers
If your computer has a graphic card like nVidia or AMD or a wireless connexion you may need to install some drivers to make it work properly. If your wireless doesn't work you might want to install the driver using a wired connexion.
After searching for "System Settings" go to the "Additional Driver"button and choose the driver that you want to activate.
You need to restart your computer afterwards.
Enabling proprietary packages and installing proprietary software
If you want to install some proprietary packages like libraries to play MP3, or to install software developed by Microsoft, like Skype, you have to active some repositories in the "Software Sources". You open the "Software Center"
and in the Menu "Edit" you open the "Software Sources" window
Then you click in tab "Other Software" and choose the option "Canonical Partners":
Privacy in Elementary OS
Don't forget about setting up your privacy. If you don't want to share information, go to "System Settings", then "Privacy" and turn off/on what you want.
I don't like the Desktop, show me something else
I don't recommend you to install another Desktop Environment because the meta packages are just too big and some unnecessary packages are installed.
Here is an example when I tried to install gnome-panel: (unity-lens???? mmm no thanks)
You can customize the desktop by going to "System Settings" > "Desktop". You can set different stuff like hot corners or the theme of the dock. Make sure you check that out before you try to change anything else.
Also the interest behind Elementary OS it's the modified Gnome desktop.
Internet
Google Chrome or Chromium: if you don't like Midori you can install Google Chrome by going to their download page.
After you installed the right package for your distribution you can use this command (adapt it with the name of your package:
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
or you could just open the folder where you save the file and double-click it. But the command line is more fun, let's admit it.
If you want to install Chromium instead:
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
Firefox and Thunderbird
sudo apt-get install firefox
Also if you want to change from Geary you can install Thunderbird with:
sudo apt-get install thunderbird
Transmission
If you want to download some files from the Internet using a Bit Torrent client there is one I really like: Transmission is a light-weight bit torrent client that will do just the job. You can set it up as you want but it doesn't have a lot of options.
sudo apt-get install transmission
There are many options for Linux, like KTorrent, Deluge...
Multimedia
There are some interesting programs to play multimedia, audio, video... But before doing some installation we want to make sure that we have the right codecs intalled.
sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs libxine1-ffmpeg gxine mencoder totem-mozilla icedax tagtool easytag id3tool lame nautilus-script-audio-convert libmad0
A frequent problem you find in different forums is how to play DVDs in Ubuntu/Linux. DVDs use a special encryption protocol, you have to install a library for decryption, run this command that will install this library and execute a configuration file:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 && sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/./install-css.sh
VLC
VLC is a great media player that can read EVERYTHING, and I really mean it.
sudo apt-get install vlc
Clementine
If you're looking for an alternative to Rhythmbox because you don't like or if you miss some functionalities like an equalizer or a little more personalization; Clementine is a great option.
Go to the Download Page of Clementine and choose the latest version for Ubuntu and the architecture that you use (in my case Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit). Then from a Terminal try to install it, you will run into some errors of dependencies, but just use the second command to solve this, and you are good to go.
sudo dpkg -i clementine_1.1.1~quantal_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
GIMP
If you like photography and you don't want to spend a lot of money in Photoshop you can try out GIMP. I use it every day and it comes with a lot of functionalities.
Just run the following command:
sudo apt-get install gimp
If you want to edit RAW files from your camera you will need this extra package:
sudo apt-get install gimp-ufraw
This will let GIMP edit the RAW file after it imports it.
Inkscape
If you want to do some vector drawing Inkscape is a great piece of software, very easy to use. Here is an example I made in a free sunday.
sudo apt-get install inkscape
OpenShot
If you want to do some video editing in Linux, I think the best option right now could be OpenShot.
sudo apt-get install openshot
Just heard Steam came for Linux?
That's right boy, Steam launched its client for Linux a few months ago and it looks pretty awesome.
If you want to install it the easiest way is from the Software Center:
It will give the option to "Buy..." it, but it is actually free to just follow the procedure and you will be able to play your favorite games.
This is how it looks, pretty sweet if you ask me:
Messenger
Pidgin
I have tried Empathy but I had some troubles with my MSN account. Pidgin is a great alternative and it supports many protocols, like MSN, Facebook, Google Talk...
sudo apt-get install pidgin
Skype
In order to install Skype in Elementary you have to install the independent packages as seen at the beginning of this blog.
sudo apt-get install skype
Cloud and backup
Dropbox
Most people have a cloud account with some server. You can share files, make a backups in the cloud, or just have your files available from anywhere you want. You have to go to the download page and again you can run this command (adapting it to your distribution):
sudo dpkg -i dropbox_1.6.0_amd64.deb
Deja-dup
Something that I love about Linux is that they have powerfull backup managers. You can setup your backups to put them in the Cloud or in a FTP server or simply put it in a hard drive.
In Luna you can install Deja-Dup (the default backup manager for Ubuntu). You can check other options like rsync, or Back In Time.
sudo apt-get install deja-dup
Some tools and indicators for your system
Archive Management Apps
If you frequently download files from the internet and you want to uncompress or compress here is a command that has everything you may want to install.
sudo apt-get install unace unrar zip unzip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils rar
Note: If you install the rar, unrar package you will be able to read comic books in .cbr format with Evince.
I still need some Windows programs
Wine
If you need to install some Windows software that isn't available for Linux you can use Wine emulator. It is not going to work for everything but you can do a lot of stuff like installing Microsoft Office.
sudo apt-get install wine
Virtual Box
If Wine doesn't work you may want to create a virtual machine and install some programs in it. The problem is that you must have a Windows ISO.
Download the package from Oracle's site and again from the terminal (adapting it to your own):
sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-4.2_4.2.10-84104~Ubuntu~precise_amd64.deb
Programming (a.k.a "Why don't you compile?")
For people who use their machine for writing code, here is a list that you use for installing some basic packages for programming:
Essentials
First of all you want to install some basic packages that allows you to compile, this packages include gcc for example
sudo apt-get install build-essential
¿gcc is too old school?
Clang is a great compiler for C and C++, it has the same syntax that gcc but it has a nice output:
sudo apt-get install clang
Geany
A simple IDE that recognizes some languages.
sudo apt-get install geany
Eclipse
For programming with Java the only thing that you need to do (because it will install Java at the same time) is install Eclipse.
sudo apt-get install eclipse
OpenGL
If you're planning to do some programming using OpenGL you must install the "freeglut" package:
sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev
Cleaning everything that you wont use anymore
After you're done installing everything that you always wanted run this commands to clean your packages and to uninstall everything that you don't need anymore:
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
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