I have installed Ubuntu officially for the first time.
Any suggestions for must have programs/hacks/scripts for linux?
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Depends on what you're trying to do with it.
Some people leave Ubuntu pretty much alone; after all, it's got a lot of apps, and is good for most people. For everyone else, it's like Windows: customize it to match your tastes. For example, I installed REALbasic on my Ubuntu VM; others might install more games or perhaps some other programming languages.
All the "must have" things, IMHO, come pre-installed on Ubuntu.
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
K3b - Burning software
VLC
h@xxored Xine
SNES9X
WINE
Keytouch2 if you want to map your keyboard or 29 button mouse
Audacious Audacious-Plugins windows then you will want it.
AppArmor
COMPIZ!!!
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompositeManager/CompizFusion
That's just eye candy; IMHO, Ubuntu's default theming is good enough. Then again, it depends on your taste. I prefer to have a lean, mean computer without the trimmings (read: fat); some people prefer the eye candy.
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
i agree. also i found Compiz invades the settings of the windows manager that i am using making it near impossible to figure out how to change the way things look, act and feel. Glory be to teh Kwin! Down with teh Eyecandy!
Compiz isn't a theme. It's an animation pack.
Ever wanted the desktop cube?
Kwin can do that, so can KDE. is not an animation pack, it is now used for assistive technology and other such things.
its nothing more than eye candy that serves no constructive function when one is not "playing around".
What the heck is that?
Never heard of it, although I'm going to guess it's some 3D stuff with multiple desktops, probably makes the desktops look like a cube that gets rotated when switching desktops.
My reaction: MORE useless eye candy!!
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
cube, globe, multiple desktops, cloise a window and the window burns in flames, click the desktop and get a nice water effect, widgets!!!!! and more.
You reaction is correct. USELESS EYE CANDY!
Yeah, but it's still a ubuntu must have
it is unneeded eyecandy. not needed.
as i say this i have to admit defeat. why? Ubuntu COMES WITH COMPIZ. so why is it a must have when it's STANDARD!!!!!
same with Knoppix. Compiz is STANDARD!!!! and Suse now too. T____T. i cannot get rid of this eyesore known as compiz.
i now blame you gluxon.
You know, I've changed my viewpoint. Things like Compiz are necessary on all systems; after all, we've got to slow the system down and hog RAM as much as possible. That way, the PC user will go out and buy more RAM, more this, more that, and finally spend the $5000 or more on a brand-new, state-of-the-art system, which software makers can then slow down, so the user can go out and...
Oh yes, this is absolutely necessary!
</sarcasm>
Standard or not standard, I don't care. If I have a computer, regardless of the OS, that computer will run as fast as possible. I don't need any pretty SFX, and I don't want them (and their RAM consumption) either.
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
That's what I said until I got hooked on the Magic Lamp effect
I like wobbly windows
"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."
lol
So you DID get it.
Ubuntu came with it
I tried to get the 3d cube but could not get it to work 
"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."
as i said it comes standard in the new Ubuntu =_=. one of the reasons i HATE ubuntu
What's what, another RAM-guzzling special effect?
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
or your laptop can get really pissed when you try to use it. Has to do with using a Radeon card.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Don't forget buying special video cards. I don't run compiz because the laptop doesn't like it. I spent a morning basically trying to undo what I did (deleted xorg.conf. I SWEAR I WAS TRYING TO BACK IT UP.)
After that, I found out the laptop didn't like it. I personally don't care for the eye candy found in Win7.
I like systems that run snappy :). With lots of multi tasking still going on.
I would like to try compiz, but it will never replace KDE standard.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Oh yeah, that's my favorite kind of system too!
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
The thing with Aero in Win7 is that it's not all eye candy. If I run on a Win7 system without Aero, I notice right away, unlike with Vista where I didn't care. Aero Peek was a very good use of the DWM IMO: Hover on a window thumbnail, it shows the window full-size and hides the rest, move the cursor away and it returns to normal. Great for checking the status of ongoing operations without having to switch to a different app and mess up the Z-order.
Also the "taskbar progress bar" feature of Win7: Looks like eye candy at first, but is actually very useful.
I like the larger preview windows with alt+tab. I don't usually use the mouse. Alt+Tab is quicker, and doesn't require me moving my fingers of of the key board. Or moving the mouse all the way to the bottom of the screen to move it. I can trigger alt+tab one handed.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Remember that those Alt+Tab previews require Aero as well, so that just reaffirms my point that Aero isn't all useless eye candy. Also, if you like large previews, why not use Win+Tab (Flip3D)?
Also Alt+Tab activates Aero Peek as well if you hold a second or so on a window.
I've seen screenshots of it in action, and I have to admit I like it. Not just eye candy, you're right. (And I completely love the "don't have to mess up the Z-order" thing - it drives me crazy when I can't check a window's status because I've got my windows ordered just so)
"Taskbar progress bar" - I've barely seen it (a couple of Toucan screenshots showed it), but it looks pretty useful. Nice for, say, checking build progress or file uploads while I write a paper.
Yeah, Vista and Seven isn't just eye candy, but a lot of it is.
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
Yes compiz is unnecessary eye candy but if you can run it, it makes every thing look cooler
"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."
Try Linux Mint and you might never recommend Ubuntu again :P.
http://linuxmint.com/
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
I have tried a bunch of linux distros. But I went with ubuntu because a bunch of places sayed it was the easier to use/learn. But i do like the start menu in Mint and open suse. Does Mint have somthing like apt or yum?
"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."
SUSE has Zypper and YUM and Synaptics if needed.
here are some basic zypper commands
zypper ref (refreshes your repos: do this before installing and updating, makes things faster)
zypper in (installs programs that are in your repos)
zypper up (updates a specific program. iirc if you leave the program blak it upgrades everything)
rpm -q checks program version
rpm -i installs a rpm useful when installing non suse RPM's like Redhat or Adobe stuff.
Mint is merely Ubuntu with restricted codecs enabled, an optional different menu, different themes. The rules that apply to Ubuntu apply to Mint.
Hey! Where'd it go?
It also has some bugfixes compared to the Ubuntu it's based on. I wasn't able to try Ubuntu 9.10 on my netbook because it couldn't see the hard drive, but Mint 8 worked very well.
I like to use Nano for some text-editing stuff, Rhythmbox for music playback (it's the best I've used), and, while I have yet to set it up, Conky. Conky takes some time to learn for newbies, I myself spent five hours configuring it just last week, but it's totally worth it when you put the time in.
Hey! Where'd it go?
everything thatu need is pre installed however you should look at:
gstreamer
banshee
vlc
opera
geany
enesene
wine
xine
thoggen dvd ripper
compiz
playonlinux
installed linux mint today
"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."
Is Linux Mint a Ubuntu must have?
I'm playing with TinyCore at the moment. It's almost like a browsing kiosk because Firefox is about all I have installed on it.
Yes it is
If you have Ubuntu you must have Linux mint 
Also if you have,linux mint you really have Ubuntu.
Do you have it on a usb or cd?
"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."
CD, but I "installed" it to a spare computer I had lying around, just for kicks.
for a friend and i found that these are needed
Adobe's FLASH
Sun JAVA 6
Ubuntu Non free Codecs