Top 8 Essential Tweaks for New Installations of Ubuntu 12.04

Having just upgraded to 12.04 there are a bunch of things that I found I needed to do to get it working how I wanted to.

1) Install the Classic Application menu

It is beyond me why the hierarchical applications menu has been removed in this version of ubuntu. It also seems that the new left hand launcher only displays apps installed from the 'Ubuntu Software Centre.' Applications installed from Synaptic are lost and don't always seem to show up in the new Dash.

So to get the classic application menu: Open a terminal ( Ctrl – Alt – T ) and add the following PPA.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:diesch/testing

Then update and install the classic menu

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install classicmenu-indicator

2) Install the restricted extras

Allows you to listen to mp3s and watch loads of encrypted video formats.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

3)  Enable 'Show Remaining Space Left' Option in Nautilus File Browser

Again, why this is not on by default is beyond me. Extremely useful.

Open Nautilus. Go to View - Statusbar. Enable it, nuff said.

4) Calculator Lens/Scope for Ubuntu 12.04

One upside of the new Ubuntu Dash are a bunch of information rich widgets integrated into the OS. You can get info on weather, cities, films do calculations directly from the HUD.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-utilities unity-scope-calculator
sudo apt-get install unity-scope-rottentomatoes
sudo apt-get install unity-scope-cities

5) Open in Terminal Nautilus Extension

Allows you to open a terminal that is already inside the folder you are currently browsing with Nautilus. This saves me oodles of time.

sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

6) Install CPU/Memory Indicator Applet

Sweet little widget to view systems resource usage stats

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

7) Install Spotify

Music streaming service desktop client. This info comes directly from their laboratories:
https://www.spotify.com/au/download/previews/

Add the spotify repo by editing /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the line:
deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 94558F59

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install spotify-client

8) Install Synergy

Synergy is an application that lets you share you mouse and keyboard across computers. More than that it also shares your clipboard, you can copy text between machines. You can't copy files for the moment but maybe if <a href="http://synergy-foss.org/download/?donate">we all donate to the cause</a> we can request that feature.

You can download a Debian package here:

http://synergy-foss.org/download/

Then just install it with

sudo dpkg -i <synergy package name here>