The following are my notes on how I like to set up my Linux systems, specifically my primary laptop (Dell XPS 13). These are notes more for myself, for future reference. But others may find it useful for their systems as well. Part 1 covers the software I like to install for various purposes. Part 2 will cover configuration file changes, including for power and performance.

This is currently based on running KDE Neon. Other distros will be slightly different based on pre-installed packages and installation methods available.

Software Changes

Prerequisites

Add Flathub as a remote repository for Flatpak: flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Install Git to allow for software retrieval from GitHub and others: sudo apt install git



Desktop

Install Latte Dock for a beautiful top bar: sudo apt install latte-dock

Install Yakuake to provide a quick access drop-down terminal: sudo apt install yakuake Note: Add an entry in Auto Start to have it load on login.

Install additional wallpapers: sudo apt install plasma5-workspace-wallpapers

Install Redshift to reduce eye strain: sudo apt install redshift Note: Additionally, install the Redshift Control Plasma widget from the KDE Store.

Install libinput-gestures and required packages to allow for touchpad gestures: sudo apt install xdotool wmctrl libinput-tools sudo gpasswd -a $USER input mkdir ~/.bin cd ~/.bin git clone https://github.com/bulletmark/libinput-gestures cd libinput-gestures sudo ./libinput-gestures-setup install libinput-gestures-setup autostart



Peripherals

Install HP Linux Imaging and Printing with the full GUI package to provide networked printing and scanning capabilities for my printer: sudo apt install hplip-gui

Install Skanlite to provide a scanning application: sudo apt install skanlite



Multimedia

Install simplescreenrecorder to easily produce screencasts: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder sudo apt update sudo apt install simplescreenrecorder

Install Peek to easily create screencast GIFs, useful for bug reporting and blog posts: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peek-developers/stable sudo apt update sudo apt install peek

Install screenkey and required packages to provide an on-screen display to keyboard input for screencasts: sudo apt install slop python-gtk cairo fontawesome-fonts python2 python-gtk2 python-setuptools python-distutils-extra cd ~/.bin git clone https://github.com/wavexx/screenkey cd screenkey sudo ./setup.py install

Install Kdenlive for video editing: sudo apt install kdenlive

Install Audacity for audio editing: sudo apt install audacity



System Maintenance

Install htop to improve process management: sudo apt install htop

Install neofetch for screenshot information display: sudo apt install neofetch

Install PowerTOP to provide power usage insight: sudo apt install powertop

Install TLP to provide laptop power management services: sudo apt install tlp

Install KBackup to provide a backup GUI: sudo apt install kbackup

Install Filelight to provide graphical insight into disk usage: sudo apt install filelight

Install KDE Partition Manager to easily adjust device partitions: sudo apt install partitionmanager



Productivity

Install the Fresh version of LibreOffice and the Breeze style for it: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa sudo apt update sudo apt install libreoffice libreoffice-style-breeze

Install Virtual Machine Manager to run VMs with QEMU/KVM: sudo apt install virt-manager sudo apt install virt-viewer Note: virt-viewer is the recommended client by the virt-manager team, especially for SPICE connections (which I use).

Install Syncthing synchronization client: curl -s https://syncthing.net/release-key.txt | sudo apt-key add - echo "deb https://apt.syncthing.net/ syncthing stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syncthing.list sudo apt update sudo apt install syncthing

Install Kate to provide additional text editing features over the included KWrite: sudo apt install kate

Install Atom for editing AsciiDoc (Asciidoctor) files: wget -qO - https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/gpgkey | sudo apt-key add - sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/any/ any main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/atom.list' sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install atom

Install KRDC for Remote Desktop usage: sudo apt install krdc

Install Krita for basic image manipulation: sudo apt install krita

Install Kolourpaint for quick image annotation: sudo apt install kolourpaint



Gaming