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25 Ubuntu tips for beginners

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zridling:
25 Ubuntu tips for beginners
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/25-ubuntu-tips-for-beginners-906002

For the beginners among us.

Renegade:
I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO wish that the Enlightenment interface was still around. It was in Mandrake Linux in 2002 or so. Man... That was THE coolest interface I've ever seen bar none. It blows everything else away.

Ah... After searching, it looks like it is still available:

http://www.enlightenment.org/

It was the absolute most beautiful interface I've ever used. Clean. Crisp. Simple. Elegant. I need to get that on my Ubuntu install now.

rgdot:
26. Congrats on not jumping to a Mac


 ;)

housetier:
And I am here for the more advanced stuff.

Deozaan:
This list sucks. This list doesn't read like a tip for beginners. It reads like "the first 25 things you should do when you install Ubuntu" and it's all wrong.

The first 4 "tips" are not good for beginners. Has this person even used Ubuntu in the last 2 years? Beginners shouldn't be using terminal. Instead, they should open the Update Manager, tell it to check for new updates, and click install (if there are any). That's 1-4 condensed and quite simple right there.

Tips 5 & 6 probably also shouldn't be used by beginners either. Why would a beginner want to add a custom repository?

Tip 7 is to instead use Synaptics packet manager to do 1-4, but as I said, the Update Manager is easier to use. Synaptics is very useful, but can be a bit confusing. It would probably be better for a noob to use the Ubuntu Software Center to find other software to install.

Tip 8 is the first one he gets right, IMO. Install restricted extras.

Tip 9: Get some games. This can be done using the Ubuntu Software Center in (my version of) tip 7.

Tip 10: Enabling tweaks. This sounds more to me like something for an intermediate Ubuntu user, not a beginner.

Tips 11-15: Do stuff with Gnome-Do. Huh? I've never used Gnome-Do before, and I consider myself a beginner to Ubuntu. Maybe it does awesome stuff, and is a great tip. But why take up 5 tips on the same subject (which he's done before in this list and will do again)? Gnome-Do should be a single tip. Say everything you want to say about it in one tip.

Tips 16 and 17: Change wallpaper & window styles. Sure. No argument here, I guess.

Tip 18: Install Hardware Drivers. In my opinion, this should be very near the top of the list. It's usually the first thing I do (to get my WiFi working), but it might be OK to wait until after you run the Update Manager before doing this.

Tip 19: Desktop Effects & Compiz. I've been trying Ubuntu out for the past couple years and just recently learned about Compiz. This is a good tip I wish I would have gotten earlier. :Thmbsup:

Tips 20-25 are OK. But not everybody wants a dock, or uses photoshop (GIMP), needs samba, or wants to mess with panels. But these tips are good enough since it's likely that anybody reading the guide will want to do at least one or two of the things presented in these final few tips.

But really, the whole list could be compressed into about 5 tips:

1. Use Update Manager to make sure your software and OS is up to date.
2. Install hardware drivers.
3. Use Ubuntu Software Center to install cool stuff like VLC, GIMP, games, and more.
4. Want to tweak your experience? Try Gnome-Do, Compiz, Docky, etc.
5. Miscellaneous Stuff: Samba, Restricted Extras, brief overview of Synaptics Package Manager including custom repositories, etc.

Of course, each tip would need to have more details than my quick summary, but in my opinion, the above 5 tips could easily cover everything the author of the article wrote about in 5 times as many tips. It's also more Ubuntu noob friendly, though steps 4 and 5 are for slightly more advanced users.

But that's just my opinion.

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