Ubuntu Desktop Computing Made Easy (Lucid Lynx v10.04)

[TrakerJon]

Could a moderator please make this a sticky. It is quite good and very well written. Good job. Placing it in the absolute beginners forum should do the trick.

Thank you for the good words, glad folks are checking it out.

Traker

[Paresh]

Good stuff here.

Gnome-Commander - Did you know that you can get a two pane view in nautilus by pressing F3.

Encryption - I like to use ecryptfs

sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils

. This gives you an encrypted private folder in your home directory and allows you to encrypt and mount removable media. It's integrated into the filesystem as well, so you just treat it as a normal folder.

I also like to use etckeeper to automatically backup changes to /etc when editing config files. It's usually the first thing I setup on a clean install.

Oh Yeah, +1 for the sticky

[TrakerJon]

Good stuff here.

Gnome-Commander - Did you know that you can get a two pane view in nautilus by pressing F3.

Encryption - I like to use ecryptfs

sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils

. This gives you an encrypted private folder in your home directory and allows you to encrypt and mount removable media. It's integrated into the filesystem as well, so you just treat it as a normal folder.

I also like to use etckeeper to automatically backup changes to /etc when editing config files. It's usually the first thing I setup on a clean install.

Thank you for the suggestions, I'll definitely check out ecryptfs, it seems like it might be very useful. I'm a little hesitant to include etckeeper though, it my cause more harm than good for new users...that would probably fall under a "tips and tricks" Ubuntu Forum post.

Cheers and thanks again!

[guisar]

Definitely should be a sticky- great writeup and giving back to the Community (he took an Intro to Linux course from me and seeing this makes me very happy).

[TrakerJon]

Definitely should be a sticky- great writeup and giving back to the Community (he took an Intro to Linux course from me and seeing this makes me very happy).

Thanks Professor! That means a lot coming from you.
Regards to all your new students!

Traker

[bill516]

This post by TrakerJon is enormously helpful, since it lists a number of things I have to do with each new Ubuntu release; e.g., install build-essentials and vim. They are easy to forget until I learn once again that they are not there.

In the past I have done install Ubuntu restricted extras, added install w64 codecs and libdvdcss2 and gone my merry way. Not with Lucid! Until I hit TrakerJon's post I was one frustrated fellow. My usual gambit just did not work. You tube and NYTimes video were MIA until I found this thread.

May I make a suggestion? Let's pull just that part of the post that specifies how to do the multi-media codec setup for Lucid and post it as a sticky such that people can find it easily. Anyone new to Linux or to Ubuntu will appreciate it as will forgetful veterans like myself!

Then let's get to the heart of this matter, which is a downright silly way of dealing with the entire multimedia codecs issue.

In much of the world distribution of these things is not bound up in copyrighted intellectual property issues. Sadly that is not true in the United States.

We cannot ask Canonical to violate American law. Fair enough.

So perhaps servers outside the United States carry an Ubuntu version with codecs that does not violate laws in that part of the world.

Meanwhile, American versions of Ubuntu -- as downloaded from U.S. based servers -- come with a "get your codecs here" button on the desktop. We click. Canonical says "pay ___ dollars for the codecs you need/want." So we pay or not as we choose and stop all this infernal nonsense.

My idea seems crude but the Software Center is a perfect vehicle for some solution such as this.

Might we at least think about it?

Meanwhile, let me thank TrakerJon for helping both my Lucid Lynx configuration and my blood pressure. Well done!

[TrakerJon]

This post by TrakerJon is enormously helpful, since it lists a number of things I have to do with each new Ubuntu release; e.g., install build-essentials and vim. They are easy to forget until I learn once again that they are not there.

In the past I have done install Ubuntu restricted extras, added install w64 codecs and libdvdcss2 and gone my merry way. Not with Lucid! Until I hit TrakerJon's post I was one frustrated fellow. My usual gambit just did not work. You tube and NYTimes video were MIA ...

I know where you've been my friend...more than once I've been in the "it should work this way" scenario. One day I just started testing out all popular applications, add-ons and plugins out for myself. This is what works for me and I hope many others looking for an alternative to Windows® operating systems and Microsoft® applications. I've tested everything listed in this post on both my MSI Netbook and Dell GX270 with great success. Lucid seems to be stable with no big surprises so far, hopefully Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and all the associated apps will work for more people than ever before.

Enjoy and share!

Traker

[scouser73]

Excellent posting, this should definitely be a sticky. I noticed that Songbird is in there, unfortunately the makers of Songbird aren't doing anymore builds for Linux so that could be removed; also I see you've included Bubble Shooter, this means I'm going to have to install it now lol. Nice work.

[TrakerJon]

Excellent posting, this should definitely be a sticky. I noticed that Songbird is in there, unfortunately the makers of Songbird aren't doing anymore builds for Linux so that could be removed; also I see you've included Bubble Shooter, this means I'm going to have to install it now lol. Nice work.

Glad you like the post. I haven't heard Songbird is being discontinued (they're still hiring C++ developers)? If nothing else it's been packaged for Lucid so we'll keep it for now. Yeah, Frozen Bubble is kind of hard to resist at times hahaha. Party on!

Traker

[FacsimileSmiles]

Hi, just wanted to say thank you. I'm a brand-spankin'-new ubuntu user, and just upgraded to 10.4 from Karmic. So far, every problem I've had has had a solution listed on this forum, and your post just opened up whole new vistas (*ahem!*) of what's available!

Anyway, sorry for getting all gushy, it's just awesome. Thank you.