The Perfect Desktop - Linux Mint 17.1 (Rebecca)

This tutorial shows how you can set up a Linux Mint 17.1 (Rebecca) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e.that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a securesystem without DRM restrictions that work even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge. Linux Mint 17.1 is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that has lots of packages in its repositories (like multimedia codecs, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Skype,Google Earth, etc.) that are relatively hard to install on other distributions; it therefore, provides a user-friendly desktop experience even for Linux newbies.

I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal, but this is the way I take.

1 Preliminary Note

To fully replace a Windows desktop, I want the Linux Mint 17.1 desktop to have the following software installed:

Graphics:

The GIMP - free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop

Shotwell Photo Manager - full-featured personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop

Google Picasa - application for organizing and editing digital photos

Internet:

Firefox

Opera

Chromium - Google's open-source browser

Flash Player

FileZilla - multithreaded FTP client

Thunderbird - email and news client

Evolution - combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions

aMule - P2P file sharing application

Transmission BitTorrent Client - Bittorrent client

Vuze - Java Bittorrent client

Pidgin - multi-platform instant messaging client

Skype

Google Earth

Xchat IRC - IRC client

Gwibber Social Client - open-source microblogging client (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

Office:

LibreOffice Writer - replacement for Microsoft Word

LibreOffice Calc - replacement for Microsoft Excel

Adobe Reader

GnuCash - double-entry book-keeping personal finance system, similar to Quicken

Scribus - open source desktop publishing (DTP) application

Sound & Video:

Amarok - audio player

Audacity - free, open source, cross platform digital audio editor

Banshee - audio player, can encode/decode various formats and synchronize music with Apple iPods

MPlayer - media player (video/audio), supports WMA

Rhythmbox Music Player - audio player, similar to Apple's iTunes, with support for iPods

gtkPod - software similar to Apple's iTunes, supports iPod, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, and iPod mini

XMMS - audio player similar to Winamp

dvd::rip - full featured DVD copy program

- full featured DVD copy program Kino - free digital video editor

Sound Juicer CD Extractor - CD ripping tool, supports various audio codecs

VLC Media Player - media player (video/audio)

Totem - media player (video/audio)

Xine - media player, supports various formats; can play DVDs

Brasero - CD/DVD burning program

K3B - CD/DVD burning program

Multimedia Codecs

Programming:

Bluefish - text editor, suitable for many programming and markup languages

Eclipse - Extensible Tool Platform and Java IDE

Other:

VirtualBox - lets you run your old Windows desktop as a virtual machine under your Linux desktop, so you don't have to entirelyabandon Windows

TrueType fonts

Java

Read-/Write support for NTFS partitions

All desired applications are available in the Linux Mint repositories.

As you might have noticed, a few applications are redundant, for example there are two CD/DVD burning applications in my list (Brasero, K3B). If you know which one you like best, you obviously don't need to install the other applications, however if you like choice, then of course you can install both. The same goes for music players like Amarok, Banshee, Rhythmbox, XMMS or browsers (Firefox, Opera, Chromium).

I will use the username howtoforge in this tutorial. Please replace it with your own username.

2 Installing The Base System

The installation of the base system is easy as 1-2-3 because theLinux Mint installer doesn't offer a lot of options to choose from, so you cannot go wrong.

Download the Linux Mint 17.1 DVD iso image from http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php, burn it onto a DVD, and boot your computer from it (please note that Iused the DVD iso image instead of the CD iso image; the DVD comes with some additional software such as Java or VLC that get installed by default, whereas they are missing if you install from the CD; if you use the CD, you must install these applications from the Synaptic Package Manager):

The system boots and starts a desktop that is run entirely in the RAM of your system (the Linux Mint installation DVD is also a Live-DVD) without changing anything on your hard disk. This has the advantage that you can test how Linux Mint works on your hardware before you finally install it.

This is how the Linux Mint desktop looks. Double-click the Install Linux Mint icon on the desktop to start the installation to the hard drive:

The installer starts. First, select your language:

On the next screen you see a few requirements for the Linux Mint 17.1 installation (the system should have at least 9.2 GB available drive space and should be connected to the Internet). Click on Continue:


Now we come to the partitioning of our hard disk. Usually Erase disk and install Linux Mint is a good choice unless you need custom partitions and know what you're doing. Erase disk and install Linux Mint will create one big / partition for us. If you already had another operating system installed on your hard drive, the option Replace ... with Linux Mint, which does the same as above:





Press Continue:



Then choose your time zone:


Change the keyboard layout, if necessary:

Type in your real name, your desired username along with a password, and click on Continue:

Afterwards, Linux Mint is being installed. This can take a few minutes, so be patient:

After the installation, you will be asked to reboot the system. Click on Restart Now:

At the end of the shutdown process, you are asked to remove the Linux Mint installation DVD from the DVD drive. Please do this now and press ENTER: Your new Linux Mint system starts. Log in to the desktop with the username and password you provided during installation:AdvertisementAdvertisement

When you log in for the first time, you will see the following help window. Click on Close:

Now the base system is ready to be used.

When you log in for the first time, you will most likely see a notification icon in the upper right corner which means that updates for the installed software are available:





Type in your password:

















They are now being downloaded and installed:

When the update is complete, the Update Manager window will close. The icon in the upper right corner should now look like this which indicates that the system is up-to-date:

4 Flash Player And Java

Linux Mint 17.1 installs the Macromedia Flash Player by default. To see if the Flash plugin is working, start Firefox (Applications > Internet > Firefox Web Browser). Then type about:plugins in the address bar. Firefox will then list all installed plugins, and it should list the Flash Player (version 11.2 r202) among them:

5 Inventory Of What We Have So Far

Now let's browse all menus to see which of our needed applications are already installed:

You should find the following situation ([x] marks an application that is already installed, where [ ] is an application that is missing):AdvertisementAdvertisement

Graphics:

[x] The GIMP

[ ] Shotwell Photo Manager

[ ] Picasa

Internet:

[x] Firefox

[ ] Opera

[ ] Chromium

[x] Flash Player

[ ] FileZilla

[x] Thunderbird

[ ] Evolution

[ ] aMule

[x] Transmission BitTorrent Client

[ ] Vuze

[x] Pidgin

[ ] Skype

[ ] Google Earth

[x] Xchat IRC

[ ] Gwibber Social Client

Office:

[x] LibreOffice Writer

[x] LibreOffice Calc

[ ] Adobe Reader

[ ] GnuCash

[ ] Scribus

Sound & Video:

[ ] Amarok

[ ] Audacity

[x] Banshee

[ ] MPlayer

[ ] Rhythmbox Music Player

[ ] gtkPod

[ ] XMMS

[ ] dvd::rip

[ ] Kino

[ ] Sound Juicer CD Extractor

[x] VLC Media Player

[x] Totem

[ ] Xine

[x] Brasero

[ ] K3B

[ ] Multimedia-Codecs

Programming:



[ ] Bluefish

[ ] Eclipse

Other:

[ ] VirtualBox

[ ] TrueType fonts

[x] Java

[x] Read/Write support for NTFS partitions

So some applications are already on the system. NTFS read-/write support is enabled by default on Linux Mint 17.1.

6 Install Additional Software

To install additional applications, open the Synaptic Package Manager (Other > Synaptic Package Manager):

Type in your password:

In the Synaptic Package Manager, we can install additional software. You can use the Quick filter field to find packages:







Select the following packages for installation :

filezilla

shotwell

chromium-browser

picasa

opera

evolution

amule

vuze

skype

google-earth-stable

acroread

gnucash

scribus

amarok

audacity

rhythmbox

sound-juicer

gtkpod

xmms2*

dvdrip

kino

vlc*

xine-ui

xine-plugin

k3b

normalize-audio

sox

vcdimager

bluefish

eclipse

ttf-mscorefonts-installer

gwibber

virtualbox

There are also lots of other applications available that you can install as well if you like.

To select a package for installation, click on the checkbox in front of it and select Mark for Installation from the menu that comes up:

After you've selected the desired packages, click on the Apply button:

The packages are now being downloaded from the repositories and installed. This can take a few minutes, so please be patient:

You might have to accept some licenses. Click on Forward to continue the installation:

After all packages have been installed, click on Close:

You can leave the Synaptic Package Manager afterwards.

7 Acrobat reader

As Adobe have stopped supporting Linux platform, so I will be installing it in a tricky way.

Run the Commands as follows in terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner"

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install acroread

Select Yes and we are done with the installation.

9 Google Earth

Open a terminal and become root:

sudo su

Now you can build the Google Earth .deb package as follows:

make-googleearth-package --force

If you don't see any errors, then you should find the Google Earth .deb package in the current directory:

ls -l

howtoforge-VirtualBox howtoforge # ls -l

total 56652

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Desktop

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Documents

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Downloads

-rw-r--r-- 1 howtoforge howtoforge 24288724 Nov 28 13:54 googleearth_6.0.3.2197+1.1.0-1_amd64.deb

-rw-rw-r-- 1 howtoforge howtoforge 33688483 May 19 2011 GoogleEarthLinux.bin

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Music

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Pictures

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Public

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Templates

drwxr-xr-x 2 howtoforge howtoforge 4096 Nov 27 15:10 Videos

howtoforge-VirtualBox howtoforge #

I want to install the .deb package using gdebi which takes care of all dependencies.

gdebi googleearth_6.0.3.2197+0.7.0-1_amd64.deb

It will install the Google-earth package.

9 Inventory (II)

Now let's check again what we have so far by browsing the menus again:

We have now all wanted applications installed:

Graphics:

[x] The GIMP

[x] Shotwell Photo Manager

[x] Picasa

Internet:

[x] Firefox

[x] Opera

[x] Chromium

[x] Flash Player

[x] FileZilla

[x] Thunderbird

[x] Evolution

[x] aMule

[x] Transmission BitTorrent Client

[x] Vuze

[x] Pidgin

[x] Skype

[x] Google Earth

[x] Xchat IRC

[x] Gwibber Social Client

Office:

[x] LibreOffice Writer

[x] LibreOffice Calc

[x] Adobe Reader

[x] GnuCash

[x] Scribus

Sound & Video:

[x] Amarok

[x] Audacity

[x] Banshee

[x] MPlayer

[x] Rhythmbox Music Player

[x] gtkPod

[x] XMMS

[x] dvd::rip

[x] Kino

[x] Sound Juicer CD Extractor

[x] VLC Media Player

[x] Totem

[x] Xine

[x] Brasero

[x] K3B

[x] Multimedia-Codecs

Programming:

[x] Bluefish

[x] Eclipse

Other:

[x] VirtualBox

[x] TrueType fonts

[x] Java

[x] Read/Write support for NTFS partitions

Microsoft's TrueType fonts are now installed, you can check that e.g. by opening LibreOffice Writer. Take a look at the available fonts, and you should find fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman,Verdana, etc.: