Things I did after Installing my Ubuntu 12.04

             Although Ubuntu comes loaded with lots of applications but its default looks and applications may not suit everyone. Same was mine case. When I installed it , it simply refused to play any mp3 songs or any video. Reason of this is that Ubuntu policy is to provide free and open-source softwares. It can't provide many of popular softwares owing to this reason. An another reason can be argued that Ubuntu has to keep its size limited to 700 MB to facilitate CD burning. Many will disagree with this point as now-a-days disc drives are becoming increasingly low in use as you can see with tablets or netbooks or smartbooks ( e.g. Macbook Air ). Even Ubuntu comes with option of creating a bootable USB since Ubuntu 8.04 ( I think...) .

        Coming back to things to do after installing Ubuntu.....the very first thing everyone should do is to update your system . Ahh.... you will say I just installed my new Ubuntu and now I have to again update it. But yes , its important as it delivers the latest packages to your system which may contain latest bug-fixes and even new features which could not be accommodated in the CD you used to install your Ubuntu. If you used net-install or upgraded your Ubuntu , then you may not need updating again. Just open a terminal ( keyboard short-cut : Ctrl + Alt + t ) and type in following command :

          Command :

                            sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade;

            Now as your packages are up-to-date you can add more applications to your Ubuntu installation to suit your need. But before that first explore what Ubuntu comes pre-loaded with. A few applications that comes with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS ( Precise Pangolin ) are as follows :

1. Mozilla Firefox : One of the very best web browser.
2. Empathy : A chat client for use with Gmail , Yahoo , Facebook accounts.
3. Gwibber : A Broadcast client to use for posting and viewing latest updates/posts on facebook and twitter.
4. Mozilla Thunderbird : A mail client equivalent to Outlook Express of M$ Windows Xp.
5. Libre-office : A full-featured office package containing Libreoffice Writer ( equivalent to M$ word ) , Libreoffice Calc ( equivalent to M$ excel ) , Libreoffice Impress ( equivalent to M$ power-point ) .
6. Brasero : A Disc burning client to let you burn your audio/video/data CD or DVD.
7. Deja-dup : A back-up and restore tool.
8. Ubuntu One : A tool and service to backup your data online ( cloud ) . It provides you with 5 GB of free space. You can increase the space if need more at a nominal charge.
9. Evince : A document viewer for your text and pdf files
10. Rhythmbox : A music player-cum-organizer .
11. Shotwell : A tool to view and edit pictures . You import and create libraries of you photos and even share them online.
12. Totem : A gstreamer-based movie/video player.
13. Games : Sudoku , Solitaire, gbrainy , Mines , Mahjongg
14. Transmission : A bit-torrent client .
15. Ubuntu Software Center : A Central point to download new software for Ubuntu ( both paid and free )
16. Simple Scan : A utility to use with your scanner.
    
    

    

                Although , Ubuntu comes pre-loaded with lots of applications for your ease , many times its not sufficient. So, go and install few more to add to this brigade :

1) VLC : The most popular video/audio player that plays almost any format out of box. It is the VideoLAN project's media player. It plays MPEG, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MOV, WMV, QuickTime, WebM, FLAC, MP3, Ogg/Vorbis files, DVDs, VCDs, podcasts, and multimedia streams from various network sources.

               VLC can also be used as a streaming server that duplicates the stream it reads and multicasts them through the network to other clients, or serves them through HTTP.

                VLC has support for on-the-fly transcoding of audio and video formats, either for broadcasting purposes or for movie format transformations. Support for most output methods is provided by this package, but features can be added by installing additional audio plugins (vlc-plugin-pulse, vlc-plugin-sdl) or video plugins (vlc-plugin-sdl).

               Command :

                              sudo apt-get install vlc

Screen-shot :

2) Gstreamer Multimedia codecs : For playing any video / audio file the default multimedia players of Ubuntu ( i.e. RhythmBox and totem ) requires a set of codecs / plugins and the same is provided by the Gstreamer multimedia codecs. 

              Ubuntu has got a very unique and extremely user-friendly way to install these codecs. You have to just open the Multimedia file in totem player and if it is not able to play the file, it will ask whether you want to search for a suitable codec/plugin . Just proceed with the instructions in subsequent steps and it will download all the necessary packages for you and you are ready to enjoy your movie/song.

3) Chromium : If you are not satisfied by performance of Firefox , go and get chromium from google . It is the Linux version of Google Chrome. Chromium serves as a base for Google Chrome, which is Chromium re-branded (name and logo) with very few additions such as usage tracking and an auto-updater system.

               Command :

                            sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Screen-shot :

4) MyUnity : This program allows one to configure and tune Unity with a pleasant and comfortable graphical interface. Please note that MyUnity is a third-party application, not official part of the Unity project.

             Command :

                            sudo apt-get install myunity

Screen-shot :

5) Synaptic Package Manager : This was the main package managing tool for Ubuntu before they decided to create Ubuntu Software Center. It enables you to install, upgrade and remove software packages in a user friendly way. A very useful tool and low on resource consumption.

            Command :

                             sudo apt-get install synaptic

Screen-shot :

6) Avidemux : It is a better equivalent to M$ Windows Movie Maker. It is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.

           Command :

                           sudo apt-get install avidemux-qt

Screen-shot :

7) Skype : Skype is a little piece of software that lets you make free calls to anyone else on Skype, anywhere in the world. And even though the calls are free, they are really excellent quality. Main Advantages of skype are :

* Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to anyone else, anywhere in the world.

* Call phones and mobiles at pretty cheap rates per minute.

* Group chat with up to 100 people or conference call with up to nine others.

* Free to download.

         Command :

                         sudo apt-get install skype

Screen-shot :

8) Gparted : It is a advanced partition editor that allows you to create and manage your hard-disk partitions. This tool is included on Ubuntu Live Disc but doesn't feature in default Ubuntu Installation. It is an equivalent to M$ Windows disk management tool.

          Command :

                        sudo apt-get install gparted

Screen-shot :

9) GIMP : GIMP ( GNU Image Manipulation Program ) is an advanced picture editor and is Linux equivalent of Adobe Photoshop. You can use it to edit, enhance, and retouch photos and scans, create drawings, and make your own images. Lots of tools are available; you can sharpen and resize photos, and remove dust and red-eyes, for example.

              It has a large collection of professional-level editing tools and filters, similar to the ones you might find in PhotoShop. Numerous fine-control settings and features like layers, paths, masks, and scripting give you total control over your images.

              Many image file formats are supported, including JPEG, PhotoShop (.psd), and Paint Shop Pro (.psp) files. It can also be used to scan and print photos.

          Command :

                      sudo apt-get install gimp

Screen-shot :

            The list I wrote above is just a glimpse of Softwares and Applications that are available to install in Ubuntu. With so much of advanced and feature-rich but still free applications available, I think one should think twice before spending thousands of bucks on M$ (my-crow-soft ) products. Don't use them just because they got better looks if you can have much better performance from a total free solution.

Any one interested in learning basic linux/terminal  commands can access the following sister-site link :
http://tipsandinfoit.blogspot.com/2012/05/basic-unix-commands.html 

Have a nice Ubuntu Experience ….