The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) - Page 4

5 Installed Software

5.1 Multimedia

Rhythmbox (audio player)
Totem (video player)

5.2 Graphics

Gimp (edit images/photos)
F-Spot (photo manager)

5.3 Office

OpenOffice (office suite)

5.4 Internet

Firefox (web browser)
Evolution (email client)
Pidgin (instant messenger)
Ekiga (internet telephony)
Transmission (bittorrent client)

5.5 System

Compiz-Fusion (desktop effects)
Ntfs-3g (NTFS read/write support)

6 Additional Software

I present you a little assortment of additional software to make the agony of choice easier for you. I don't recommend to install all this software - there is no point in installing three audio-players etc... Don't forget to deinstall an already installed software if you are going to install a replacement.

How to install or deinstall software is explained in step 4.

6.1 Medibuntu

Homepage: http://www.medibuntu.org/

Some packages like the Adobe Reader are not available in the standard-repositories. The easiest way to make such packages available to your system is to add the medibuntu repository. If you want to add this repository open a terminal ...

... import the repository ...

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

... import the gpg-key and update your package-list.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

6.2 Recommended

6.2.1 Microsoft's TrueType Core Fonts

Some fonts, including Arial, Times New Roman and Verdana for example.

If you want to use these fonts, install the following package:

msttcorefonts

You will see this window during the setup. Simply click on "Forward".

6.2.2 W32codecs & Others

Codecs needed to play MS stuff and some other video formats.

If you want to use these codecs, install the following packages:

w32codecs
libdvdcss2

6.2.3 Adobe Reader

Homepage: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/

With the Adobe Reader you can open PDF-documents.

If you want to use the Adobe Reader, install the following packages:

acroread
acroread-plugins
mozilla-acroread

Note: The medibuntu repository is required for these packages.

After the installation is finished the Adobe Reader is available in the GNOME applications menu.

Click on "Edit" in the top menu and select "Preferences".

Choose 96dpi as resolution and save the settings.

6.2.4 Adobe Flash Player

Homepage: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

The Adobe Flash Player enables your browser to play embedded Flash content.

If you want to use the Adobe Flash Player, install the following package:

flashplugin-nonfree

6.2.5 Sun's JAVA JRE

Sun's JAVA package adds full Java support to your system.

If you want to use Java applications or run java applets within Firefox, install the following packages:

Recommended:

icedtea-java7-jre
icedtea-java7-plugin

Alternatively (if you encounter problems with the java packages above):

sun-java6-jre
sun-java6-plugin

6.2.6 NTFS Configuration Tool

Homepage: http://flomertens.free.fr/ntfs-config/

With nfts-config you can enable or disable write capability for all your internal and/or external NTFS devices.

If you want to use ntfs-config, install the following package:

ntfs-config

6.3 Replacements

6.3.1 Audacious (possible replacement for Rhythmbox)

Homepage: http://audacious-media-player.org/

Audacious is a lean audio-player.

If you want to use Audacious, deinstall Rhythmbox and afterwards install the following packages:

audacious
audacious-plugins-extra
audacious-crossfade

6.3.2 MPlayer (Possible replacement for Totem)

Homepage: http://www.mplayerhq.hu

MPlayer is a video player with many features - supporting nearly every known video format, e.g. MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ and PVA (the w32codecs from step 5.1.2 are needed to support some of the listed formats).