The Perfect Desktop - OpenSUSE 12.3 (GNOME Desktop) ~ Tutorial Opensource and Linux

The Perfect Desktop – OpenSUSE 12.3 (GNOME Desktop)

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>, Christian

Schmalfeld <c [dot] schmalfeld [at] projektfarm [dot] de>
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Last edited 03/20/2013

This tutorial shows how you can set up an OpenSUSE 12.3

desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e.

that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on

their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure

system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and

the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

The software I propose as default is the one I found easiest to use

and best in their functionality – this won’t necessarily be true for

your needs, thus you are welcome to try out the applications listed as
alternatives.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

To fully replace a Windows desktop, I want the OpenSUSE 12.3 desktop

to have the following software installed:

Graphics:

Pinta - open source drawing application modeled after

Paint.NET

KolourPaint – paint application with

elemental functions

The GIMP - free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop

Shotwell Photo Manager - full-featured personal photo

management application for the GNOME desktop

Internet:

Firefox

Opera

Chromium – Google’s open-source browser

Thunderbird - email and news client

Evolution - combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and

task list management functions

Deluge - free cross-platform BitTorrent client

Transmission BitTorrent Client – Bittorrent client

qBittorrent – free alternative to µtorrent

Marble – desktop globe similar to google earth

GoogleEarth – Google’s desktop globe

Flash Player 11

FileZilla - multithreaded FTP client

Pidgin IM Client - multi-platform instant messaging client

Skype (only for 32 bit systems)

Dropbox Client - cloud storage

Gwibber Social Client – open-source microblogging client

(Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

Office:

Adobe Reader

Evince – document viewer

Okular – document viewer

LibreOffice Writer - replacement for Microsoft Word

LibreOffice Calc - replacement for Microsoft Excel

GnuCash - double-entry book-keeping personal finance

system,

similar to Quicken

Scribus - open source desktop publishing (DTP) application

Sound & Video:

Banshee - audio player, can encode/decode various formats

and synchronize music with Apple iPods

Amarok - audio player

MPlayer - media player (video/audio), supports WMA

Rhythmbox Music Player - audio player, similar to Apple’s

iTunes, with support for iPods

gtkPod - software similar to Apple’s iTunes, supports

iPod, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, and iPod mini

Sound Juicer CD Extractor - CD ripping tool, supports

various audio codecs

XMMS - audio player similar to Winamp

Clementine – Amarok 1.4 fork

VLC Media Player - media player, plays all kinds of videos

(video/audio)

Totem - media player (video/audio)

Xine - media player, supports various formats; can play

DVDs

Winff - free video converter

SoundConverter - free audio converter

Soundkonverter - free audio converter

K3B – CD/DVD burning program

Brasero - CD/DVD burning program

Audacity - free, open source, cross platform digital audio

editor

Kino - free digital video editor

dvd::rip - full featured DVD copy program

Multimedia Codecs

Programming:

Bluefish - text editor, suitable for many programming and

markup languages

Eclipse - Extensible Tool Platform and Java IDE

Other:

VirtualBox - lets you run your old Windows desktop

as a virtual machine under your Linux desktop, so you don’t have to

entirely abandon Windows

TrueType fonts

Java

gedit - simple text editor

The software provided in the above list covers most of the basic

tasks one might need to do on their desktop computers, sometimes there

are multiple choices for same functionality. If you know which one you

like best, you obviously don’t need to

install and test the other applications, however if you like choice,

then of

course you can install more than one.

I’m using the OpenSUSE 12.3 Live-DVD in this tutorial to set up

the system. You can download it from here: http://software.opensuse.org/123/en

I will use the username howtoforge in

this tutorial, and I will download all necessary files to howtoforge‘s desktop which is equivalent to the

directory /home/howtoforge/Desktop. If you

use another username, please replace howtoforge

with your own username. So when I use a command such as

cd /home/howtoforge/Desktop

you must replace howtoforge.

2 Installing The Base System

Download the OpenSUSE 12.3 Live-DVD iso image, burn it onto a DVD, and boot your computer from it. Select Installation.

The installer starts. Select your language and keyboard layout and

click on Next:

If you are installing OpenSUSE for the first time, choose New Installation on the next screen:

Select your time zone:

Select your desktop layout here – in the tutorial, I will use the

GNOME Desktop. However, if you know what you like better, you can also

pick KDE and install other desktops later as well.

If you would like to use the whole hard disk for OpenSUSE, then you

can leave the default partitioning as it is:

Next, you create the first system user. I recommend to uncheck

the Automatic Login flag for your own

safety:

Check the details and confirm that you want to begin the installation

- the hard drive

will be formatted:

After the installation, the installer will reboot the computer.

Remove the installation disk before the machine boots.

The Perfect Desktop – OpenSUSE 12.3 (GNOME Desktop) – Page 2