Once you install any operating system, you’ll want to adjust it to your liking. Here are a few of the things I changed first.
More software, of course
There are two ways to add software using a graphical interface, and the easier of the two may be found at Applications | Add/Remove. You will be prompted for the superuser password and the software will update its connection to software repositories hosted in different places around the world.
Using the “show” menu in the upper right hand corner, I select “all available applications” because — as I opined before — I don’t mind a bit of unfree software and welcome software from third-sources, even if there’s a risk of incompatibility. At least for the time being. You could look by subject or search by name or keyword, but with a fresh installation, I like to see what’s available and new.
This time I added to the default installation:
- Thunderbird, an email client related to the Firefox browser
- Liferea, a news feed reader
- Gmail Notify
- Banshee Music Player
- KTorrent, a Bittorrent client
- gFTP, an FTP (fire transfer) client
- VLC media player, a workhorse media player with a version for nearly every operating system out there
- Print jobs, a print monitor
- Hugin panorama creator, for merging phoros
- Celestia, a desktop planetarium
- Agave, a color schemer
- Sysinfo, displays detailed computer system information
- Planet Penguin Racer, a game
- Time Tracker, time management software
- Gfax Facsimile Program
- GnomeSword2 Bible Guide
- Seq 24, MIDI sequencer
- Jokosher, audio multi-tracke, perhaps for a future podcast?
- Open Clip Art
- Purrr, mass renamer
- Specimen Font Previewer
I installed buy deleted Free Guide (television listings; buggy) and will install more. Later.
Once inside
Four desktops on a cube
Because the software isn’t perfect, screen effects aren’t installed by default: some computers can’t handle it; mine can. The two effects are having your windows move like a wet piece of pasta (no thanks) and having four desktops (up from the default two) which rotate when you skip from one to the next. This I like, and installed it by going to System | Preferences | Desktop Effects and following the directions.
Here’s a YouTube video of the effects.
