Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.

Friday, April 22, 2016 at 02:30

What To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

We provide some tips about what to do after installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. There are about 7 things for casual users and 3 more for advanced users. We hope this will help new users and make everyone enjoys Ubuntu.

1. Enable Repositories

Open Ubuntu menu and search for Software & Updates program. In the Ubuntu Software, enable all options. You may exclude Source code option if you are not a GNU/Linux developer. You may exclude restricted and multiverse options if you want to respect your computing freedom.

2. Reload

Skip this step if you have done 'Reloading' automatically from previous step Enable Repositories.

To be able to install software from the official Ubuntu repository, you must do a Reload. It is just a standard package management command line. Open your Terminal and type a command line below.

sudo apt-get update

This will download about 22 MB of data in Ubuntu 16.04. This command does not install nor upgrade any package.

3. Install The Removed Built-in Software

As we mentioned before in the previous post, Ubuntu 16.04 removed some top-level software. If you want to get them back, install them by typing a command below:

sudo apt-get install brasero empathy software-center

This command will install Brasero, Empathy, and Ubuntu Software Center from the official repository.

4. Install Multimedia Codecs

To install all in one media codecs in 16.04, perform this command

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This command will install gstreamer libraries (created by Fluendo, big thanks for them) and some others. See the packages list here http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/ubuntu-restricted-addons and here http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/ubuntu-restricted-extras. For free software enthusiast: this will also install some proprietary software such as Adobe Flash Player so (at your option) you would like to install them one by one instead.

5. Install Desktop Enhancements

Unity desktop environment (the default GUI of Ubuntu) can be tweaked easily with Unity Tweak Tool. It is a free software (GNU GPL 3+). Install it by a command line:

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

Some interesting enhancements you may do with Unity Tweak Tool are:

Change Launcher transparency level.
Change Launcher one-click minimize behavior.
Change the desktop theme.
Change the scrolling behavior.
Change the application window behavior.

6. See New Applications in GNOME Software

GNOME Software is a new replacement for Ubuntu Software Center. Now, you may use GNOME Software to search for applications, install them, or remove them. To use GNOME Software properly, or to see the complete application list, you must do the Reload step mentioned above at least once.

These are some interesting free software for new Ubuntu users available via GNOME Software:

GIMP: bitmap image editor, alternative to proprietary software Adobe Photoshop.
Inkscape: vector image editor, alternative to CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator.
Scribus: desktop publishing program, alternative to Adobe InDesign.
Shutter: screenshot capturing program, alternative to SnagIt.

7. See Ubuntu System Settings

System Settings (command line unity-control-center) is a graphical control panel in Ubuntu. There are many aspects to tweak by using this program. For example, you may need to do these settings:

Change the menu bar behavior in every window of program: Appearance > Behavior > check In windows title bar.
Set auto-hide the Launcher: Appearance > Behavior > slide on the Auto-hide option.
Change the wallpaper: Appearance > Look > select one or add one.
Change the lock screen behavior: see the disabling suspend & lock.
Create new user account: User Accounts > Unlock > type the root password > add new user account.

For Advanced Users

Here are some tips for more advanced users.

1. Install LXD

sudo apt-get install lxd

LXD the new container hypervisor from Canonical based on LXC. In Ubuntu 16.04 desktop edition, it is not built-in installed but is available in the repository.

2. Install Docker

sudo apt-get install docker.io

Docker is a Linux kernel's container runtime. Docker is simply a platform to build, distribute, and run

3. Upgrading The Whole System Packages

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

These three commands are a series to upgrade every package in the system to the newest available in the official repository. The last command is an intelligent cleaner to fix package conflicts and solve them. Please use these apt upgrade commands wisely e.g. when you have enough and stable internet bandwidth or when you are ready to handle any error that may occur.

Miscellanneous

Now apt-get command can be written shortly as apt instead. So for example, formerly sudo apt-get install can be written shortly sudo apt install.
Now apt-get install has a progress bar while performing package installation.

References