At some point in time somebody convinced you to give Ubuntu a spin and now you are thinking "What now?"
This list provides 30 things to do after installing Ubuntu.
Take it one step at a time, bookmark the page and keep coming back.
1. The Ubuntu Launcher
The Ubuntu Launcher provides a series of icons down the left side of the Unity desktop.
2. The Ubuntu Dash
The Ubuntu Dash is the way to find applications, music, videos and do most things within Ubuntu.
It is therefore a good idea to get to know the Ubuntu Dash as much as possible.
3. Connect To The Internet
Connecting to the internet is essential for installing necessary tools, downloading extra software and reading other articles at about.com.
Here is a guide showing how to connect to the internet from the Linux command line as well as the graphical tools provided with Ubuntu.
This guide has an overview of Ubuntu and shows how to connect wirelessly to the internet.
What happens if the wireless networks don't appear? This video shows how to set up broadcom drivers.
This document shows how to troubleshoot general WIFI issues.
4. Update Ubuntu
Keeping Ubuntu up to date is important for security reasons and to make sure you get bug fixes to applications installed on your system.
All you need to do is run the Software Updater package from the Ubuntu Dash.
Here is a link to the Wiki page for Software Updater
5. Enable Extra Repositories
The repositories set up when you first install Ubuntu are limited. In order to get access to all the good stuff you will need to enable the Canonical Partners repositories.
This guide shows how to add the Canonical partner repositories via the command line.
The AskUbuntu website also shows you how to do this graphically.
6. Learn How To Use The Software Centre
This is the tool that you will need to use when you want to install other software within Ubuntu.
This video provides a good overall guide for using the Software Centre including how to install free software, how to install proprietary software and how to install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras Package.
7. Learn How To Open A Terminal Window
"Hey I didn't sign up to this" I hear some of you say. "I was told that the use of the terminal was minimal".
You can do most things in Ubuntu without using the terminal but you will find that some guides showing how to perform certain tasks focus on terminal commands rather than the graphical user interface because the terminal is universal across many Linux distributions.
This guide shows how to open a terminal and gives a list of basic commands.
8. Learn How To Use apt-get
apt-get is a command line tool used by Debian based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu to install software.
apt-get is one of the most useful command line tools that you can learn. If you learn one Linux command today it is this one.
Click here for a quick guide showing how to use apt-get.
This guide is more in depth and gives 25 useful ways to use apt-get.
If you prefer to learn by video click here.
9. Learn How To Use sudo
Within the terminal one of the commands that you will use quite often is sudo.
sudo makes it possible for you to run commands as a super user (root) or as another user.
The most important bit of advice that I can give you is to make sure that you understand the whole command before using sudo with any other statement.
This link gives a brief overview of sudo and this video shows an example of how to use sudo.
10. Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras
Now that you know how to open a terminal you will be able to install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package without using the Software Centre.
After you have installed Ubuntu you might decide that you want to write a letter, listen to music or play a Flash based game.
When you write the letter you will notice that none of the Windows based fonts that you are used to are available, when you try to listen to music in Rhythmbox you won't be able to play the MP3 files and when you try to play a Flash game it just won't work.
To install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package open up a terminal window and type the following:
This guide shows how to install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package which will enable you to do all these things and more.
