Some must-installs for those who are new to Linux
Considering that my mom and sister were mainly Windows users and I’ve had a similar experience with my former co-workers, I’d share a list of some of essentials. These things might actually be installed already (depending on the distro you are using). You might look for them in the dvd installer or cd of the Linux distro you are using. If it’s not available there, there’s probably a package available online. A quick search would yield results. ;) Note that, these are some things you have to install immediately. Sometimes people put things on hold and these are some common things that must be there — especially for moms and
- unrar - When collaborating with others or downloading materials, some of them might be compressed in rar. The tar utility would let you uncompress tar.gz files (source files are usually in tar.gz), as well as .bz2 and .tar files but rar files are another matter. For zip files, there’s unzip anyway. :)
- gyachi - This is something I haven’t tried before but time and again, I encounter for people who want to use their webcam when they chat. It has support for voice chat as well.
- proper drivers for printers - For this, you’d have to search for the proper device driver for your printer. Really. If you know you print a lot of documents, etc, you must search for your printer’s driver. If not, it will just be a pain. If it’s not in the installer or the repository, try the distro’s hardware support page or wiki. Better that way.
- wine - Wine is Not an Emulator. Simply because you might need to run some Windows apps for some reason or another.
At least these are things that I encounter. How about you?
Edit: I wrote “Windows is not an emulator” instead of “Wine is not an emulator”! AIYA! My bad, my bad. Thanks to George Lunt for the heads up.
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3 opinions for Some must-installs for those who are new to Linux
timelady
Nov 15, 2007 at 3:50 pm
From my pov, personally, many of the ones for other people apply, but i MUST have yakuake. i also prefer abiword and gnumeric to open office.
medibuntu sources for libdvdcss2, as part of codecs, for dvd playback.
From the pov of someone who often ends up helping friends join the happiness of *ubuntu:
I would say openssh, if you will be remotely supporting anyone.
Codecs. Make sure you have codecs, if for the average user. Yes, there is the whole ethics issue with codecs, but the reality is people want to listen to mp3s and play dvds.
georgeblunt
Nov 16, 2007 at 12:44 am
It’s “wine is not an emulator”, not “windows…” ;)
Just saying. ^^
Clair
Nov 16, 2007 at 8:01 am
@timelady Oooh! Indeed. Codecs. MUST install those. Most people have music in mp3 format so that’s something I forgot on this list. As for Abiword and Gnumeric, I only used Abiword for a brief period of time. I actually use OpenOffice.org mainly because of the integration of the various apps into such a suite and I need to use Impress every so often. Makes me wish that s5 would be used here more often but we have to make presentations look uniform hence the use of Impress.
@georgeblunt Waaah! You are right. I typed in “Windows is not an emulator.” Will edit that now.
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