Ubuntu 10.04 - Lucid Lynx (LTS) - Ultimate Setup

This guide will show you how to setup a base Ubuntu 10.04 - Lucid Lynx (LTS) and then customise to make a suitable replacement for a Windows Desktop.

It will show you how to install all the software you should need, but with the benefit of being DRM free, legal and the best bit FREE!

Here is an overview of what this guide will enable you to install, along with a brief description of the package and its Windows counterpart.

Graphics & Productivity:

* The GIMP - fully fledged free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop
* F-Spot - personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop
* Google Picasa - application for organizing and editing digital photos
* KompoZer - WYSIWYG HTML editor, similar to Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Publisher
* Bluefish - text editor, suitable for many programming and markup languages
* Quanta Plus - web development environment, including a WYSIWYG editor

Internet:

* Firefox
* Opera
* Flash Player 10
* 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
* Azureus/Vuze - Java Bittorrent client
* ktorrent - Bittorrent client with built in scheduling and encryption
* Pidgin - multi-platform instant messaging client
* Skype
* Google Earth
* Xchat IRC - IRC client

Office:

* OpenOffice Suite - replacement for Microsoft Office Suite, with Office 2007 compatibilty
* 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
* Avidemux - a multiformat video editing suite
* DeVeDe - full featured DVD creation suite
* Kino - free digital video editor
* Sound Juicer CD Extractor - CD ripping tool, supports various audio codecs
* VLC Media Player - media player (video/audio)
* Helix Player - media player, similar to the Real Player
* 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

Other:

* VirtualBox OSE - lets you run your old Windows desktop as a virtual machine under your Linux desktop, so you don't have to entirely abandon Windows
* TrueType fonts
* Java
* Read-/Write support for NTFS partitions

Lots of our desired applications are available in the Ubuntu repositories, and some of these applications have been contributed by the Ubuntu community.

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).