a MUST HAVE terminal program (I preferred it to the one that comes by default

[B]xfce terminal emulator[/B]

You can also install it from the package manager in Ubuntu.

System >> Administration >> Synaptic Package Manager and then run a search for

[B]xfce4-terminal[/B]

Then double click and hit apply (select all dependencies) and once it installs, it will appear under

Applications >> Accessories >> Terminal (the new one).

If you want to install VLC media player, run the following in the terminal

[CODE]sudo apt-get install vlc[/CODE]

For Thunderbird, head over here

[url]http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/[/url]

Download the package, extract and then double click "Thunderbird". And you're set.

Feel free to add more if you guys know. 8)

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

aterm, vlc, mplayer, wajig, vim, cplay, lame, mpg123, abcde

are things i seem to always reinstall quick on a new box im using.

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

wowza, just discovered media center for Ubuntu.

Open "Terminal" and run the following

[B][QUOTE]sudo apt-get install elisa[/QUOTE][/B]

Once installed, head over to Applications >> Sound & Video >> Elisa Media Center

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

another must have.... SAMBA .... great "how to" for installing it

[url]http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202605[/url]

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

^^good call.

Also one of the most handy programs ever: rsync

[URL]http://rsync.samba.org/[/URL] [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync[/URL]

I use this probably monthly at work. When you have to migrate peoples data that somtimes is 400GB consisting of 2.5 million files this program is the shit. It only transfers what doesnt exist on the remote side, and also even if say 2MB of a 700MB the file changes, it only sends those 2MB over the wire.

Super handy, you will never use mv or tar, etc, again for large data xfers once you find out all this program can do.

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

is there a hand program (other than samba) to connect to Microsoft machines ? I want to download files from my ubuntu laptop and have the option of saving them directly to my media server but shit I cant see the machines (at least until samba comes online or I install the virtualization software, install XP and then download files from there)

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

check out the packages smbfs and smbclient, this might do what you want. you can remote mount the filesystems on your linux box with these.

smbfs:

Description: mount and umount commands for the smbfs (for kernels >= than 2.2.x) Smbfs is a filesystem which understands the SMB/CIFS protocol. This is the protocol Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT or LAN Manager use to talk to each other. It was inspired by samba, the program by Andrew Tridgell that turns any unix site into a file server for DOS or Windows clients. . If you want to use command-line utilities like smbclient, smbtar and/or smbspool you just need to install the smbclient package. Bugs: mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

thanks, will give it a go.....can I install this through synaptic ?

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

yeah i just searched for it via commandline, but it is in the collection so you should be able to use that to install it.

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

I installed it, how do I detect the windows network? do I mount it?

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

hummm...i dont remember you might have to check the manpage. there is probably a command to show the shares off the server so you will have the run the prog w/ some flag to show you the exports.

then do something like

mount -t smbfs windows.host.ip.address:/export/sharename /media/windows

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

oddly, I see samba installed and when I view the network, I also see all the windows machines now, but double clicking them doesnt load the drives or the contents.

On the flipside, luckily the windows XP install on virtual box is allowing me to map my shared drives so I can actually download stuff through ubuntu/xp and dump it across the network onto my server. haven't tried it yet but since I can see everything on the server on ubuntu (albeit via the XP), no reason to beleive it wont work the other way.

Oddly though, the one thing I do notice when running XP is that my CPU load is maxed out at all times.

Re: Ubuntu must haves......

the other thing I was impressed with is the torrent client that comes installed with Ubuntu by default. fantastic imo, they couldn't have made it easier to use.