So, you've finally installed Ubuntu. If you haven't, I'm now ordering you to read the below post and then go here and download it. Today's post is about programs for Ubuntu. Just like with Windows, there's a huge amount available, each with their own different goals and features.
The very first thing you should do is download and install Automatix. Run it (Applications > System Tools > Automatix) and select what you want to install. I'd recommend installing at least the following:
- AUD-DVD codecs.
- Firefox 1.5.3 plugins
- Gdesklets
- MS TTF fonts.
- Multimedia codecs.
- Sun Java 1.5 JRE
This fixes a lot of annoying problems, including the audio/video formats that don't play and dodgy java/pdf/audio/video support through Firefox.
Anyway, on to useful programs. First of all, let's look at web browsers. The obvious choice is to use Firefox. However, there are a few other possibilities. First up is Epiphany, which is a very simplified browsing experience. This can be found in Synaptic by searching for Epiphany. Another possibility is Opera, which may be installed through Synaptic. Unfortunately, the menu bar looks a bit out of place, so try the guide here to fix it. This will help for a lot of other applications that use Qt, so it might be handy to do regardless.
Email clients now. I've never been a fan of Evolution, but there are two other pretty decent programs available: Thunderbird and Sylpheed. Both are good clients, with Sylpheed trying to be as lightweight as possible (as well as candidate for strangest application name). Both should be found in Synaptic.
Next up is music players. Now, there's two basic styles of interface here, the iTunes-type interface and the WinAmp-like one. For the former, Rhythmbox should do you fine. As well, there's another nice program called Banshee, although it's still under development and a fair bit from completion, although that doesn't mean you shouldn't use it! For the WinAmp style, you'll want Beep Media Player. It even supports WinAmp themes (or so it says, I can't say I've ever tried)!
I could probably go on like this for several days, so I'll just list a couple of other useful programs that you may or may not be interested in before departing:
- F-spot, an image manager similar to Picasa.
- Gdesklets, a desklet manager program a bit like Konfabulator/Yahoo Widgets, a bit less glitzy, though.
- Democracy Player, a nice browser to play online music. Not in Synaptic, go here and download the Ubuntu package.
Well, that's it for now. I've done it a lot already, but I'm again going to recommend strongly using Ubuntu. With the unfortunate exclusion of most games, it's a worthy and (in many cases) superior competitor to 95/98/2000/ME/XP/Vista or OSX.
I’m happy all the way over here where all my photo software works perfectly, Windows Media Player is what I use to satisfy my ears, MSN Messenger is what I use to have a natter, and my system is 100% stable (even though you’re constantly telling me it’s not, when it is).
I’m sure your mobile phone and car are both fine as they are, but you’ll change eventually, won’t you?
And another analogy: if you had to buy a bucket, would you buy a brand new one, or would you get one full of holes and fix it? Surely it’s better to start with an inherently more secure operating system before doing everything you want?
I’ll change car because I’ll get bored of it. I’ll change phone because I want new features.
But it doesn’t mean I won’t go out and buy another Corsa, or another Ericsson.
I do see your point, I am sick of MS constantly releasing new security updates – it feels like they released the OS while parts were still in beta, much like what people think happens with Canon DSLRs, they release dozens of firmwares for the cameras over it’s life-time to fix problems. The number released for my D7D? Two, and that includes v1.
The problem with changing to a new OS is that quite frankly most users can’t be bothered learning a new OS that is seen as far more complex – I know it’s not (apart from ATi driver support!
). Guess it’s a case of “Better the Devil you know”.
Actually, Dapper is really beginning to take off, enough for other large companies to recognise it. Google use a modified form of it for their workstations, Sun were in talks with Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu), and was a big reason for it being open-sourced and made freely distributable with all Linux distros. Macromedia will be releasing the latest version of Flash Player (after much complaining) and then there was Picasa released for Linux too.
People now see Linux as a viable platform and, thanks to Windows Vista, people are taking it seriously and giving it a go. It’s probably an exaggeration, but at the beginning of the year it was estimated that there were six million Ubuntu users out there. At the most, I’d say it’s about 1.5 million, but that’s still a hell of a lot for a distro that was first released at the end of 2004. There’s really so much support coming to the Linux desktop now that it’s beginning to pick up momentum.
Oh, and ATI’s driver support is actually getting better (!), much better than it was a year ago. They’re still a bit slow, but they’re beginning to support their newer cards and all the various new technologies being released on Linux.
I can’t really see Macromedia releasing anything… ever.