15 Things to Do After Installing Ubuntu 15.04 Desktop

This tutorial is intended for beginners and covers some basic steps on what to do after you have installed Ubuntu 15.04Vivid Vervet” Desktop version on your computer in order to customize the system and install basic programs for daily usage.

Update: Ubuntu 15.10 Released – 27 Things to Do After Ubuntu 15.10 Installation

Things to Do After Installing Ubuntu 15.04
15 Things to Do After Installing Ubuntu 15.04

Requirements

  1. Ubuntu 15.04 Desktop Installation Guide

1. Enable Ubuntu Extra Repositories and Update the System

The first thing you should take care of after a fresh installation of Ubuntu is to enable Ubuntu Extra Repositories provided by official Canonical Partners and keep an up-to-date system with the last security patches and software updates.

In order to accomplish this step, open from the left Launcher System Settings -> Software and Updates utility and check all Ubuntu Software and Other Software (Canonical Partners) repositories. After you finish hit the Close button and wait for the utility to Reload the cache sources tree.

Software Updates
Software Updates
Other Software (Canonical Partners)
Other Software (Canonical Partners)

For a fast and smooth update process, open a Terminal and issue the following command in order to update the system using the new software repositories:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Ubuntu Upgrade
Ubuntu Upgrade

2. Install Additional Drivers

In order for the system to scan and install additional hardware proprietary drivers, open Software and Updates utility from System Settings, go to Additional Drivers tab and wait for the utility to scan for drivers.

If some drivers matching your hardware are found, check the drivers you want to install and hit the Apply Changes button to install it. In case the proprietary drivers are not working as expected, uninstall them using the Revert button or check Do not use the device and Apply Changes.

Install Drivers in Ubuntu
Install Drivers

3. Install Synaptic and Gdebi Package Tools

Besides Ubuntu Software Center, Synaptic is a Graphical utility for apt command line through which you can manage repositories or install, remove, search, upgrade and configure software packages. Similar way, Gdebi has the same functionality for local .deb packages. To install this two package managers on your system issue the following command on Terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install synaptic gdebi
Install Synaptic and Gdebi
Install Synaptic and Gdebi
Synaptic Package Manager
Synaptic Package Manager

4. Change System Appearance and Behavior

If you want to change Desktop Background or Launcher Icon Size, open System Settings –> Appearance –> Look and personalize the desktop. To move the menu to window title bar, enable workspaces and desktop icons or auto-hide the Launcher visit Behavior tab.

System Appearances
System Appearances

5. Improve System Security and Privacy

System Security Enhancement
System Security Enhancement
System Security Options
System Security Options

5. Disable Unneeded Startup Applications

To improve system login speed, reveal hidden Startup Applications by issuing the below command on Terminal, open Startup Applications utility by searching it in Dash and uncheck the unneeded applications during login process.

$ sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop
Disable Unwanted Applications
Disable Unwanted Applications

6. Add Extended Multimedia Support

By default, Ubuntu comes with a minimal support for media files. In order to play various media formats or manipulate video files, install the following multimedia applications:

  1. VLC
  2. Smplayer
  3. Audacious
  4. QMMP
  5. Mixxx
  6. XBMC
  7. Handbrake
  8. Openshot

Use the following command line to install all with one shot:

$ sudo apt-get install vlc smplayer audacious qmmp mixxx xbmc handbrake openshot
Install Media Players
Install Media Players
Media Player Playlist
Media Player Playlist

Besides this multimedia players also install ubuntu-restricted-extras and Java support packages in order to decode and support other restricted media formats.

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras openjdk-8-jdk
Install Ubuntu Extras
Install Ubuntu Extras

To enable DVD Playback and other multimedia codecs issue the following command on Terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad lame libavcodec-extra
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
Enable Video Codes
Enable Video Codes

7. Install Image Applications

If you are a photography enthusiast and you want to handle and manipulate images on Ubuntu, probably you want to install the following imaging programs:

  1. GIMP (alternative for Adobe Photoshop)
  2. Darktable
  3. Rawtherapee
  4. Pinta
  5. Shotwell
  6. Inkscape (alternative for Adobe Illustrator)
  7. Digikam
  8. Cheese

This applications can be installed from Ubuntu Software Center or all at once by using the following command line on Terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install gimp gimp-plugin-registry gimp-data-extras darktable rawtherapee pinta shotwell inkscape
Install Image Applications
Install Image Applications
Rawtherapee Tool
Rawtherapee Tool

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Matei Cezar
I'am a computer addicted guy, a fan of open source and linux based system software, have about 4 years experience with Linux distributions desktop, servers and bash scripting.

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