Xubuntu Installation and Configuration Guide With Applications

You can find Ubuntu Linux in a lot more places than you think. Sleeping inside displays at your local McDonalds, running your banks critical infrastructure, and even within the latest Tesla vehicle's autonomous hardware. The one place you typically never find Ubuntu today is inside a PC Gamer's brand new laptop or desktop.

Linux although incredibly powerful software, requires a bit more technical skill to operate. This usually means the average/novice user stays far away from the operating system. Although it has gained points with some substantial improvements of user experience in the past 5 years, some things still need to be improved.

Reliability and Choice

The main reason I chose Xubuntu as my desktop operating system is for it's proven reliability. I know the upstream will not poison my machine with bulky updates or even malicious code like Microsoft . Within the Linux ecosystem exists many distributions. Some even say this is not positive for the ecosystem and spread talent out too much. I believe having more options is better for us in the long run. Similar to having 31 flavors at the ice cream shop. You are not going to like all 31 most likely, but so many exist eventually you find what suits you the best.

Installing Xubuntu

To start off I would begin familiarize yourself with how to install linux on to a USB flash drive. Once you have done this, you can boot up the distribution you chose. For example I use Xubuntu. Some helpful tools to install ubuntu to a flashdrive inside windows are rufus and UNetbootin. Once you have the operating system installed to your hard drive. You may want to configure it like windows with the task bar at the bottom.

You can do so by right clicking the task bar, and going to panel, then panel preferences. Deselect the lock panel option and drag the task bar where you would like. If you happen to end up with the dreaded screen tearing issue, you can fix this inside Xubuntu 18.04 by following this guide.

Installing Applications

Now that you have your fresh Xubuntu or ubuntu operatin system installed you probably want some appliations to use. I use a mix, some free, some proprietary. I'll go over a few of my favorite ones and how to install them.

Vessel, Steem Blockchain Wallet with Voting/Delegation

wget https://github.com/aaroncox/vessel/releases/download/v0.2.7/vessel_0.2.7_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i vessel_0.2.7_amd64.deb

sudo apt-get install -f

Google Chrome, Web Browser

This one is fairly easy, You simply load up google's website . Then download the .deb file, open it and click install. With most programs , I still use the terminal to install them.

Discord, Voice and Video Application

sudo snap install discord --classic

Valve Steam, Video Game Software

sudo add-apt-repository multiverse

sudo apt install steam

Typora, Markdown Editor

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys BA300B7755AFCFAE

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://typora.io/linux ./'

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install typora

Markdown Writer, Another Markdown Editor

sudo snap install atom --classic

apm install markdown-writer

Filezilla, FTP/SFTP client

sudo apt install filezilla

Android Studio, Android Development

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre openjdk-8-jdk

sudo snap install android-studio

KODI, Media Center Formally Known as XBMC

sudo apt install kodi

OBS, Broadcasting Software

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install obs-studio

GIMP, Open Source Photo Editor

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

Systemback, Backup and Restore Tool

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nemh/systemback

sudo apt update

sudo apt install systemback

Now that so many quality applications exist for GNU/Linux, I rarely find a reason to boot up Mac OSX/Windows on my machines. To me it seems the last holdouts to the platform will likely be gamers, as well as the creators who use apple/adobe products in their niche. Although, I do also see a surge in activity surrounding open source application development, but it has not translated largely into those sectors, as of yet.

Open source contribution and collaboration are still a big part of why linux/gnu does so well. It will just take a bit more time for closed source companies and programmers to understand why free software and open source are a better solution.