Sunday 26 May 2019

Things to do after installing Elementary OS

Elementary OS is a Ubuntu-based distribution which is quite popular because of its simplicity and low system requirements. It's polished and provides a nice UI experience along with the power of Linux. 



In this article, we list out some of the things to do after installing Elementary OS

Update your system


No matter which operating system you install, the first thing will always be to update your system. There are various critical bug fixes and security updates released which are not in the ISO from which you installed and updating your system makes sure you are using the latest of Elementary OS without missing those fixes. 

To update your system, click on Application Bar and launch Software. Under the tab Updates, you will see if there is an update available for your OS and the applications which are installed. Click on Install to install these updates.



You can update your system the terminal way. Open a terminal and copy paste the below command :

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras


Ubuntu restricted extras contains some of the important third party softwares that are not shipped by default with the Elementary OS. Elementary OS is a Ubuntu-based distribution and though it comes with all the necessary packages, installing Ubuntu restricted extras make sure you do not have to install various third party packages one by one. 

To install Ubuntu restricted extras, open terminal and type the below command:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Add third party repository 


Elementary OS has its own AppStore which has a good software collection. However, sometimes you may need a software which is not available by default and you either need to install it from a PPA or some other repository. 

Elementary OS gives you an option to enable these third party repository in case you want to use them. It's not enabled by default though. 

To enable third party repository, open Software > Edit > Software Sources. Under the Other Software tab, you will find options to enable software installation packaged by Canonical for their partners and independent applications.

Install gdebi


gdebi is a great tool install .deb file. Most of the applications provide a .deb package which can be installed by the command line. gdebi provides an equivalent to dpkg with a UI and installing a debian package is as simple as launching it.

To install gdebi package, open terminal and copy paste below command:

sudo apt-get install gdebi

Install Power management software


TLP is an advances power management tool for Linux which comes with a default configuration optimized for a better battery life. TLP can reduce the power consumption and reduce overheating of your system while running Elementary OS. It is highly unlikely though that you will face a overheating problem, but you will always want your laptop to go for some more minutes without the need to recharge.

To install TLP, open terminal and type the below command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw

Once installed, just run the service and forget about it.

sudo tlp start

Install Elementary Tweaks (and enable a minimize button)


Elementary Tweak is an application that lets you edit your OS's appearance that are by default not accessible. Features like theme settings, font change, animations etc makes it a must-have software. 

Also, you might have noticed there is no minimize button in Elementary OS. You can use Elementary Tweak to enable minimize button in Elementary OS. 


Install some daily use application


If you are switching to Elementary OS for the first time, you may notice some of your daily use applications are not installed by default. You might want to get a web browser (default one sucks), a media player, an office suite at least. 

To install these open Terminal and type the below command:

sudo apt-get install vlc libreoffice skype 


Depending upon your preferences, you might want to install some more softwares. 

Final Words


It's always good to keep your system updated. The above article for things to do after installing Elementary OS is going to help someone who is new to eOS and / or shifting from MS Windows. Let us know in the comments if we missed something and I will add it to the above list. 

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