Things To Do after installing Linux Mint 13 (Maya)

Linux Mint 13 (a.k.a Maya) is out and it’s rocking the GNU/Linux desktop world with a lot of innovative features and cool stuffs. If you haven’t tried it yet – then you must check it out. Anyway, this post is aimed to help beginners who have just installed a fresh copy of Linux Mint 13 – Cinnamon or Mate Edition (most of the things seems to be same but MATE edition is more stable and mature while Cinnamon is cool, new and exciting).

Since Linux Mint is one of the most beginner friendly GNU/Linux distribution so I assume that you don’t have any previous experience with any GNU/Linux distro, on the other hand if you’re familier with Ubuntu or Debian or other GNU/Linux distribution then most of the things would be straight-forward and easy in Linux Mint 13 so you wouldn’t even need this getting started tips (but it might be helpful in some case).

Anyway, if you’ve installed Linux Mint 13 successfully then it’s the time to start using it with its unlimited potential (and of course the fun).

6 things to do after installing Linux mint 13

#1. Update

To update your system, simply open update manager or just execute these two commands in a terminal (hit Ctrl+alt+t) –

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Sometimes, you may have to restart your computer to complete the update process.

#2. Install Some necessary programs

After a fresh installation, you may need to install some necessary audio/video codecs or libraries (some proprietary programs, if a good open source equivalent program is not available) or flash player or libraries for archiving or extracting various file types such as zip, rar, tar etc. To install most of those above utilities simply execute the command –

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Other programs, those are absolutely necessary, includes – drivers for

• graphics/video card
• printer/scanner
• sound card
• wireless card
• webcam etc.

Depending on the devices you use – install the appropriate driver/program. e.g for Webcam, install cheese –

sudo apt-get install cheese

#3. Install your favorite Applications/Softwares

Default applications in Linux Mint are good but it’s not necessary that it will include your most favorite apps. If that’s the case then Open Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager to search and install your favorite applications or you can install from terminal.

• Google Chrome – for web browsing
• Evolution – as a mail client
• AbiWord – for document processing
• Dropbox – for backup and … so on.

Download Google Chrome and install it using GDebi package installer.

To install Abi Word, execute –

sudo apt-get install abiword

#4. Try some new applications

Are you getting bored with the applications you’ve been using from years, want to try something new, Software Manager is full of great, new and exciting applications. Music players, utilities, programming tools, image editors, games and a lot of new apps are there. Give it a try – most of them are free and it won’t hurt much if it doesn’t work.

Checkout this old post – 10 Apps you must try on Ubuntu

#5. Explore new features and Customize it as you want!

Linux Mint is a free software, you are free to explore, learn, modify and share. The only limit is your imagination.

Try Cinnamon Settings

If you’re using the Cinnamon edition then use ‘Cinnamon Settings’ to customize the various settings such as Themes, Fonts, Icons, Applets, Effects, Panel, Desktop etc. It’s a simple utility, installed by default in Linux Mint 13 Maya (Cinnamon Edition). Although, it looks little similar to Gnome Tweak Tool but it’s much simple to use.

Changing/Installing Themes In Cinnamon Settings

Change Desktop Settings using Cinnamon Settings

If you love experiments then you would automatically lot a new stuffs everyday, additionally these posts might help a bit –

Getting Started Tips for Ubuntu (since, Mint 13 is based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS)

#6. RLE (Relax, Learn and Enjoy)

There are lot of features, lot of apps and a lot of things that you want to tweak but don’t get lost in them, after all, there is some reason, some purpose that brings you to the computer. Linux Mint or any GNU/Linux distribution requires little patience and time – to get things done as you want. So just Relax, Learn and Enjoy, with a lot of fun 🙂

Update 1 : Regarding Cinnamon Settings (check #5 point)