What to do after installing Linux Mint 14 Nadia

Every time are traditional that users of this distribution you knew break off de Ubuntu and take a slightly different path. The last version It comes with some new features and in two versions: Cinnamon and MATE.

Some considerations to take into account before starting the guide are the following:

• Unlike Ubuntu, Mint comes by default with most of the multimedia audio and video codecs, so updating them is not a priority.
• Another important component that is installed by default is Synaptic, the well-known package manager.
• If you have the Ubuntu-based version, many programs and packages are highly compatible between both distributions.

Having clarified these points, we continue to list some things that can make life easier after installing the new version Nadia.

1. Run the Update Manager

It is possible that new updates have come out since you downloaded the image, so you can check if there are updates available from the update manager (Menu> Administration> Update Manager) or with the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

2. Install the graphics card drivers

In Menu Preferences> Additional Drivers we can update and change (if we wish) the driver of the graphics card that we have.

3. Install the language pack

Although by default Linux Mint installs the Spanish language pack (or any other that we have indicated during the installation) it does not do so completely. To reverse this situation we can go to Menu> Preferences> Language support or also by typing the following command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install language-pack-gnome-en language-pack-en language-pack-kde-en libreoffice-l10n-en thunderbird-locale-en thunderbird-locale-en-en thunderbird-locale-en-ar

4. Customize the appearance

There are many ways to do it, and they are all free! In http://gnome-look.org/ we have a large database of wallpapers, themes, tools and other elements that will help us to "looke" our desktop. We can also make use of 3 well-known tools:

1. docky, a shortcut bar and applications for our desktop. Official website: http://wiki.go-docky.com/index.php?title=Welcome_to_the_Docky_wiki. Installation: in a terminal we write: sudo apt-get install docky

2. AWN, another navigation bar, almost a competitor to docky! Official website: https://launchpad.net/awn Installation: from the Program manager.

3. Conky, a system monitor that displays information on various components, such as RAM, CPU usage, system time, etc. The great advantage is that there are many "skins" of this application. Official website: http://conky.sourceforge.net/ Installation: sudo apt-get install conky

5. Install restrictive fonts

If it is necessary to install them, we must write the following commands in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

We accept the license terms by managing with TAB and ENTER.

6. Install programs to play

In addition to the large library of games that the repositories have, we also have http://www.playdeb.net/welcome/, another page that specializes in collecting games for Linux systems in .deb packages. If we also want to enjoy our Windows games, not to despair, since we have some alternatives:

1. Wine (http://www.winehq.org/) provides us with the compatibility layer to run not only games, but also all kinds of compiled software for Windows systems

2. PlayOnLinux (http://www.playonlinux.com/en/) another resource that provides us with a library capable of installing and using software designed for Windows

3. lutris (http://lutris.net/) a gaming platform developed for GNU / Linux, a great resource despite being in development stages.

4. wine tricks (http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks) works as a script that helps to download libraries needed to run games on Linux, such as .NET Frameworks, DirectX, etc.

For all these programs, we can consult their respective official pages, either in the Linux Mint Programs manager or the terminal. Likewise, we especially recommend reading this mini-tutor which explains how to install and configure each of them.

7. Install audio plugins

Some of them, like Gstreamer or Timidity, will help us expand our catalog of supported formats; both can be found in the Programs manager or can be installed using the command sudo apt-get install. We also mention the pulseaudio-equalizer software, capable of giving us a Pulse Audio configuration and improving the sound quality; to install it we will use 3 commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: nilarimogard / webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer

8. Install Gparted

It is possible that in some installations this component is missing as useful as it is when managing the partitions of our disks. Having it in our distribution is as easy as typing sudo apt-get install gparted or from the Program manager.

9. Install other programs

The rest is to get the software you want for each need. There are many ways to do it:

1. At Program Manager, which we enter from Menu> Administration, we have a very generous number of programs for any function that occurs to us. The manager is arranged by categories, which facilitates the search for what we want. Once the program we need is located, it is only a matter of pressing the install button and typing the Administrator password; We can even create an installation queue that the same manager will execute sequentially.

2. With the Package manager if we know exactly what packages we want to install. Not recommended to install programs from scratch if we do not know all the packages we will need.

3. Through a terminal (Menu> Accessories) and typing usually sudo apt-get install + program name. Sometimes we will have to previously add the repository with the commands sudo apt-get ppa: + repository name; to search for a program with the console we can type apt search.

4. In the page http://www.getdeb.net/welcome/ (Playdeb's sister) we also have a good catalog of software compiled in .deb packages

5. The official project page if you have any other installation steps.

Some software recommendations:

• Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera: Internet browsers
• Mozilla Thunderbird: email and calendar manager
• Libre Office, Open Office, K-Office: office suites
• Comix: comics reader
• Okular: multiple file reader (including pdf)
• Inkscape: vector graphics editor
• Blender: 3D Modeler
• Gimp: creating and editing images
• VLC, Mplayer: sound and video players
• Rythmbox, Audacious, Songbird, Amarok - Audio Players
• Boxee: multimedia center
• Caliber: e-book management
• Picasa - Image Management
• Audacity, LMMS: audio editing platforms
• Pidgin, Emesené, Empathy: multiprotocol chat clients
• Google Earth: Google's well-known virtual globe
• Transmission, Vuze: P2P clients
• Bluefish: HTML editor
• Geany, Eclipse, Emacs, Gambas: development environments for different languages
• Gwibber, Tweetdeck: clients for social networks
• K3B, Brasero: disc recorders
• Furious ISO Mount: to mount ISO images on our system
• Unetbootin: allows you to “mount” operating systems on a pendrive
• ManDVD, Devede: DVD Authoring and Creation
• Bleachbit: remove unnecessary files from the system
• VirtualBox, Wine, Dosemu, Vmware, Bochs, PearPC, ARPS, Win4Linux: emulation of operating systems and software
• Games there are thousands and for all tastes !!

To see a more extensive list, you can visit the Programs section of this blog.

Clear cache

It is not necessary, but if at some point we want to clean the memory of the processes we open a terminal and write the following: su - (to be root) and then echo 3> / proc / sys / vm / drop_caches. This process is not destructive, but it is still recommended to read other references on the internet, for example: http://linux-mm.org/Drop_Caches

Explore our new system

We already have a complete operating system ready for our daily use. As always, it is recommended to explore the managers, options, configurations and other tools of the system to familiarize ourselves with all the virtues of our system.

In short, relax and enjoy the benefits of free software. Learn at once what it feels like to be free of viruses, blue screens and restrictions of all kinds.