Things to do after installing Ubuntu 11.04
I installed Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal today. Here are some of the things I did after installation.
1. Graphics Driver: Go to System > Administration > Additional Drivers. Here, install the Broadcom STA Wireless Driver. For my Dell XPS 1340, I have two graphics drivers. Since installing the recommended driver in Additional Drivers only recognizes one graphics driver, I use different steps to recognize both of the graphics drivers in my laptop. To see how to do this, follow the steps here.
2. Update Manager: Since the release of Ubuntu 11.04, there are a lot of updates that are made, so to retreive these updates, go to System > Administration > Update Manager. Click check button to retreive new updates. Now click on Install Updates.
3. Google Chrome: I prefer Google Chrome rather than Mozilla Firefox. To install it, go to Applications > Ubuntu Software Center. Type "Chromium Web Browser" in the search bar and press install.
4. Adobe Flash Plugin: Many of the sites you use probably use Flash to run, so install Adobe Flash Plugin by going to Applications > Ubuntu Software Center. Type "Adobe Flash Plugin" in the search bar and press install.
5. Skype: Go to Applications > Ubuntu Software Center. Type "Skype" in the search bar and press Use this Source, and then Install.
6. CompizConfig Settings Manager: This is for desktop effects such as the Desktop Cube. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Type "compizconfig-settings-manager" in the search bar. Mark it for installation and click apply on the top. A window should open and press apply again. Now type "compiz-plugins-extra" in the search bar. Mark it for installation and click apply on the top. A window should open and press apply again. Some of the settings I made are described here.
7. Nautilus Elementary: This is changes the default file browser. So when you open your folder, such as your Home Folder, it slightly changes the layout. The advantages are that you now have a zoom button in the bottom left corner, a nicer looking path bar on top and sidebar on the left, and finally a mini view widget in the top right corner. If you press F7, the top half of your file browser turns into the terminal. To get this feature, type the following commands in your terminal.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
nautilus -q
8. ClutterFlow: This gives a nicer presentation of the files in your folder. This should already be installed if you installed Nautilus Elementary, but for some people it does not. So to get this feature, type "echo "export CLUTTER_VBLANK=none" | sudo tee -a /etc/environment" in your terminal. Then log out and log back in. Now when you open your Home Folder or Pictures Folder and press F4, you should see a black screen for the top half section with pictures or folder names.
9. Gloobus Preview: This feature allows you to preview files, photos, videos, etc. To get this feature, type "sudo apt-get install gloobus-preview" in your terminal. To see the feature, open your Home Folder. Now click on a file and press space bar. This opens a box that shows the content of the file.
10. OpenShot Video Editor: This is considered to be the best video editor linux. To get it, go to Applications > Ubuntu Software Center and type in OpenShot Video Editor in the search bar.
11. Ubuntu Classic: Some people really hate using Unity and want to use classic Gnome 2. To use the old interface, log out. Then when you click your username and prompts you to type your password, at the bottom of the screen, it says Ubuntu, click on it and change it to Ubuntu Classic. Then type in your password and you should see the old Gnome interface. Ubuntu remembers this setting every time you log in.
Try out some of the things I mentioned and let me know what you think. If anything goes wrong or you wish you had a video to follow, suggest a video in my ask box here and I will create one.
