Hands on: Making Ubuntu even easier

In this article, we expand on a previous article that examined the update of a fresh Ubuntu Dapper Drake installation to make it more desktop and multimedia-friendly, by looking at the automated options.

In addition, we take a closer look at Ubuntu’s KDE offspring, Kubuntu.

Adding extra packages yourself is good for getting your hands dirty and learning more about the operating system, but it’s not suitable or desirable for everyone.

Unfortunately, the standard installation, while entirely usable, does mean extra work for most of us, largely due to proprietary licences and US software patents.

System builders could do this work for you on a pre-installed system, but most people will be installing Ubuntu themselves from CD.

To help with this post-install configuration, two projects can automate the procedure.

It’s important to understand that neither of these is supported by Ubuntu, and they are provided entirely as third-party utilities.

Easy Ubuntu
Easy Ubuntu is the simplest of the two options. It provides a friendly tabbed GUI, where you can tick whatever you want and let the utility do the rest.

Easy Ubuntu will install the multimedia codecs (including those of Windows), add DVD playback support, install binary Nvidia or ATI graphics drivers and add Flash and Java plug-ins for Mozilla Firefox.

Click on the Easy Ubuntu link above for a full list of features. Download and install the software by following the instructions on the website.

Easy Ubuntu is a good way to set up some of the most commonly required add-ons without much impact to the overall operating system.

Its simple, user-friendly GUI makes it attractive to those who want to set up things quickly and not worry about the details.

Automatix
Automatix is a script-based utility that offers more options than Easy Ubuntu, but has a less friendly GUI front end.

Capabilities include those offered by Easy Ubuntu, as well as including many third-party applications, such as Acrobat Reader, Frostwire (a Limewire clone), Azureus Bittorrent client, Google Earth and VLC.

Automatix can be installed by adding a new repository, which will keep the script version up to date through the normal update procedure.

Click on the Automatix link above and read the website before installing, as details and features change almost daily.

With many more capabilities, the impact on the system is much greater, and for that reason might be suitable to more experienced Ubuntu users.

These two options are ideal for many, but may cause problems with later upgrades. It is possibly best to do the tasks manually.

Kubuntu
Ubuntu comes in another official version with KDE as the desktop instead of Gnome.

The packages are all from the same repositories: imagine a vast pool of software where one selection of packages creates Ubuntu and another Kubuntu.

Because of this, it is possible to install KDE onto Ubuntu without any difficulty.

In fact, it may be easier for beginners to install Ubuntu, and then install the KDE desktop afterwards.

A convenient meta-package is provided that will download and install all the applications found on a standard Kubuntu installation with one simple command.

To do this, open a terminal window and at the prompt run:
$ sudo apt-get installkubuntu-desktop

This command will produce a long list of packages and a request for confirmation.

The only non-automated part of the process is to decide whether to use the Gnome login manager (gdm) or KDE’s (kdm), where a request box appears asking you to choose.

The main advantages of installing KDE this way is that you benefit from the m ore polished and user-friendly applications found in Ubuntu.

It’s much easier, for example, to add the Universe and Multiverse repositories from Ubuntu than Kubuntu, and Synaptic (the Ubuntu software manager) is much friendlier than Kubuntu’s Adept.

The downside is that you will have two full desktops installed (which can be a good or bad thing, depending on your usage), and having more applications leads to cluttered menus.

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