the edge of logic and intuition

Having installed Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 I was now ready to begin working with the OS and although it comes with some useful applications installed by default there’s quite a few things I normally add and change as part of the setup.

The roundup below shows working with the Software Center, Package Manager (Synaptic) and Update Manager and differences from 9.10.

Note with the below that although many of the screenshots are ‘widescreen’ resolution, this is just because I was using a widescreen display (actually a Sony 32″ LCD TV!) – Ubuntu will detect any normal screen correctly and give you the correct resolution e.g. 1024 x 768.

Ubuntu Software Center

There’s a new interface for Ubuntu Software Center which appears in the Applications menu. (It’s spelled as software ‘centre’ here as I selected British English during the installation process and things like this are part of the localisation.)

The interface is arranged by category, such as ‘Graphics’, ‘Internet’ and ‘Sound & Video’ which correspond to the categories you get in the Applications menu. On the left panel you can see that this consists of ‘Get Software’ (which is selected by default) and ‘Installed Software’. So in the ‘Get Software’ it will show the available packages, not just those I already have.

One of the changes from Ubuntu 9.10 ‘Karmic Koala’ is that the GIMP graphics editor is no longer included by default. It’s available in the repositories and is very useful to have for any photo editing or graphics work you may wish to do. I can understand the logic as there’s only a fixed amount that will fit onto a CD image (700 MB) and decisions have to be made but if people don’t know about the repositories immediately I think this may put off some new people if they think that “Linux doesn’t have much useful software” or whatever. Anyway no need to worry as it can be installed from the Software Center (or Synaptic Package Manager) in any case.

Selecting the ‘Installed Software’ on the left panel shows (as you would expect) programs that are currently installed. Each entry allows ‘More Info’ or ‘Remove’ to be selected.

I selected Graphics and then the sub-menu for Painting & Editing from the ‘Get Software’, this is where programs such as GIMP will be found. The navigation at the top (Get Software > Graphics > Painting & Editing in this case) gives a logical view of where you are in the hierarchy.

Selecting ‘More Info’ for GIMP I see a screen similar to the below. For software you already know you want to install it perhaps isn’t that useful but I think the new layout for Software Centre gives more exposure to programs that were previously less well known, which is probably a good thing.

From there I can then choose to install GIMP or obviously the same process for any other program I am interested in.

Synaptic Package Manager and Update Manager

The other GUI based way of managing the installed software is through Synaptic Package Manager which personally I find easier to work with because I generally already know what I am looking for. It’s also used for downloading packages that aren’t “applications” as such, like libraries and other ’system’ type software.

Although Lucid has only been out for a couple of days I still ran ‘Update Manager’ first in order to check for available updates. There’s already a couple of packages that have been updated (although there’s only a release every 6 months, there’s a continuous development and improvement process).

Firstly ‘check’ for updates using the Check button, then install any available security updates. When you check for updates it will go through the available repositories and update the list. Where it is downloading package information below, this is “meta” information from the repositories detailing what software they have available and its version number etc, it isn’t actually downloading the replacement packages as such.

In this case Update Manager has 2 available updates so I choose ‘Install Updates’.

Once the updates have been installed there will be a confirmation similar to the below. How long it takes to update will depend on the amount to be downloaded, how fast your connection is and what is actually involved in updating that particular package.

For installation of new software and checking what is installed etc as mentioned above I generally use Synaptic in preference to the software centre but this is down to the individual.

One thing to be aware of with Synaptic is that the repositories need to be up to date (i.e. system needs to have checked their info for available software etc) to get the most up to date picture of what is going on. Also ensure that the search index has been set up (it will do this automatically and give you a message that it’s doing it) before trying to do a search, as shown when I search for Mozilla Thunderbird below.

Thunderbird – not found in list as it is still indexing

Now Thunderbird is found and I can choose to ‘Mark for Installation’.

It’s the same process for any package you wish to install or remove either through synaptic or software center.

Third-party partner software

Websites such as YouTube need Flash in order to play videos and a Flash player is not included by default. Depending on your ideology as to totally ‘Free’ software, free alternatives are available or Adobe also have a suitable version which can be installed easily.

Before installing a Flash player, any sites like last.fm or YouTube won’t play things correctly, I get a message similar to the below.

The text within the black ‘video’ window gives the option to “Download it from Adobe”. Clicking the link will go to an Adobe web page where the player can be downloaded (you can also go to the page directly, it doesn’t have to be through a ‘failed’ YouTube video etc).

The drop down list on the page gives various download options including .tar.gz (a ‘zipped’ file that you need to unzip and install yourself), .rpm and YUM which relate to Fedora/Red Hat based versions of Linux, and a .deb or APT for Ubuntu and Debian based distribution. .deb is a package file (similar to those that are downloaded as part of package manager etc) and APT is a package management ‘wrapper’ for the .deb files.

I selected APT which then gives the option to ‘Download and install now’ if you agree to the terms and conditions etc. (For avoidance of doubt – from a legal point of view ensure you do read and agree to the license agreement before downloading…)

When you ‘agree and install now’ the APT option will open a link that is effectively a package manager command (i.e. the ‘URL’ you download is a command to launch package management and download it) as below.

I am then asked if I want to enable an additional software channel for 3rd party applications. This is where Flash will come from so ‘yes’.

Once confirmed it will then ask if we want to install the software (adobe-flashplugin in this case). I select ‘Install’.

Once it has installed it will then give a confirmation box, the same as the one for package updates above.

No need to restart or anything (this isn’t Windows!) – when I go back to the YouTube video or any other Flash based site it will now display correctly. Note: in the screenshot below I have blanked out the advert that appears in the top right. When I actually loaded the page this was a Flash based ad.

As well as basic functionality such as Flash there’s a number of other programs I use regularly which aren’t installed by default and a future post will list out some of these.

Next Ubuntu related post: social broadcast and music management.