To Do List After Installing Linux Mint 16 Os

TO DO LIST AFTER INSTALLING LINUX MINT
16 OS
NOVEMBER 30, 2013 ADMIN LEAVE A COMMENT
Supported until July 2014
Linux Mint is a Linux distribution for desktop computers, based on Ubuntu or Debian.
Linux Mint is aimed at being a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system
which is both powerful and easy to use. Mint provides full out-of-the-box multimedia
support by including some proprietary software such as Java and Adobe Flash. Mints
motto is from freedom came elegance.
Linux Mint 16Mate Desktop Environment

While at the core Linux Mint is mostly based on Ubuntu, the design of the desktop and
User interface are very different. These differences include a very unique desktop
theme, a custom Linux Mint menu and the MintTools, a collection of system tools
designed to make managing the computer easier for users. A new version of Linux Mint
is released every 6 months with new features and improvements. Each Linux Mint
release comes with bug fixes and new security updates for about 18 months. If these
bug fixes and security updates are crucial to you, then you should keep upgrading your
system to latest released.
Most differences are on the desktop. Ubuntu and Linux Mint both focus on usability, but
Linux Mint offers a different user experience, and it includes a number of applications
that are not available in Ubuntu (see aforementioned Mint Tools). Many popular
multimedia codecs are installed by default in Linux Mint. Ubuntu, and many other gratis
GNU/Linux distributions, do not distribute these codecs with the initial install media due
to patent issues. Ubuntu has a vastly larger support community than Linux Mint.
However, the majority of Ubuntu help and advice is also applicable to Linux Mint.
What are the differences between Linux Mint and Ubuntu OS?
www.howtogeek.com/115041/
For more specific information (recommended):
www.linuxmint.com
wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander
help.ubuntu.com/community
linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php
ubuntuguide.org
www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php
ow.ly/rymzE
System requirements: The system requirements vary among Linux Mint products. For
the main Linux Mint desktop product, the official Linux Mint Documentation
recommends a 1 GHz Pentium 4 with 1 gigabyte of RAM and 8 gigabytes of hard drive
space, or better.
Here is a really nice overview video for Mint 16 (use the little gear icon to change to HD
quality):
http://www.youtube.com/embed/oDhQItPFIgg?
version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transp
arent
Support: You can either select the latest version of Mint if you need the latest firmware
or driver support, or you can select the long term support version and that will keep you
from having to do-release-upgrade or reinstall the OS again until 2017. Aside from the
firmware and kernel support they are almost identical operating systems. This guide
works for both versions.
Download Mint OS 16 (Latest Version) based on Ubuntu 13.10 and supported
until July 2014.:
http://www.linuxmint.com/release.php?id=21
Download Mint OS 13 (LTS) based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and supported until
April 2017:
http://www.linuxmint.com/release.php?id=18
Linux Mint Free Technical Support Forums:
forums.linuxmint.com/
Existing Linux Mint and Ubuntu users can install Unetbootin (or use Startup Disc
Creator in Ubuntu or USB Stick Formatter/Image Writer in Mint), and use any of those
applications to migrate the above downloaded image to a USB Flash Drive or USB
Thumb Drive. Afterwards you can boot from your USB drive, or you can burn it to a disc
with Brasero, or K3b, and boot from your CD/DVD drive instead. USB is much faster than
CDs or DVDs when it comes to installation time, and less chance of data corruption.
Note: If you are using an older version of Linux Mint or Ubuntu you might need to
download and install Unetbootin from their website to support the latest ISO
downloaded image files.
www.ubuntu.com/download/help/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu
www.ubuntu.com/download/help/burn-a-dvd-on-ubuntu
Existing Windows users can use these instructions on how to install Linux Mint for the
first time if you are new to Linux Mint and Ubuntu. You can figure out if you are running
32-bit or 64-bit hardware too. I recommend using a USB Flash Thumb Drive to install
Linux Mint. (Recommended):
windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/32-bit-and-64-bit-windows#1TC=windows-7
www.ubuntu.com/download/help/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pThafQXJa0Y (VIDEO)
www.ubuntu.com/download/help/burn-a-dvd-on-windows
help.ubuntu.com/12.10/installation-guide/amd64/pre-install-bios-setup.html
If you are currently running Windows:
Format your USB flash drive thumb drive device using a FAT32 partition. Download
win32imagewriter from here. Extract the ZIP archive to the directory of your choice,
preferably the download directory the Linux Mint ISO is stored. Run the
Win32ImageWriter program, and click the folder icon in the Image File section. In the
window to Select a disk image, navigate to your download directory the ISO is in, and
type *.iso without the quotes. The image should appear. Click the Save button. Select
your USB device from the list under Device. Click the Write button to write the
image to the USB drive.
Tutorial on how-to disable Windows UEFI Secure Boot if you have a newer Windows PC:
help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
When you have Linux Mint downloaded, and installed onto a USB Flash Thumb Drive,
you will need to boot your computer from the USB Flash Drive. When you turn on your
computer there should be an option at the bottom of your screen to allow you to change
theboot order temporarily or you may need to select BIOS settings, and then reconfigure
your BIOS settings to boot from your USB port first, instead of your HDD. You can change
it back to the default when you are done installing Linux Mint. You will need to have your
newly created Linux Mint installation USB inserted in your USB port when the computer
is booting up. If this is your first time using Linux Mint on your computer, please make
sure that you thoroughly test everything with your Live Linux Mint USB drive to make
sure all of you hardware is supported on your computer before installing it to your hard
drive.
Special Note: If you have a hard drive that you need to have magnetically shredded
because you are giving your computer to someone else make sure to use Secure
Erase application within the Parted Magic boot disc. It will overwrite everything, even
sectors marked as bad. The Parted Magic live linux CD has a GUI interface to run Secure
Erase, and it makes shredding very simple for even new users to Linux OS. If you have
an SSD drive that you need to have shredded, make sure to use the disc that came from
the factory since SSD drives are usually encrypted. Here is where you can download
Parted Magic iso image to burn onto a blank cd-r/dvd-r disc:
partedmagic.com
Installation of Mint OS:
Special Notes: You definitely want to use a strong password and I prefer to select login
automatically to speed-up startup time. Dont encrypt your installation unless you really
need to do it because it will degrade your overall system performance speed. It might
be a good idea to hardwire your computer to your internet ethernet connection for
greater download speed. You can either select to repartition your entire hard drive for
Linux Mint, or if you want to keep your existing Windows OS installation, you can select
a side-by-side installation. A side-by-side will take considerably longer to install because
it has to change your hard drive to be a dual boot system, so try to be patient during
this process.
If this is your first time using Linux Mint on your computer here is a quick example of
how to use Terminal to install software using this to-do list guide (make sure to switch
the video to HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qMkBMFQ9vwI
Okay, if you rebooted your computer after installing and your computer fails to start
correctly you can try to fix grub bootloader with the following program called Boot-
Repair.
Boot-Repair is a simple tool to repair frequent boot issues you may encounter in Linux
Mint like when you cant boot Linux Mint after installing Windows or another Linux
distribution, or when GRUB is not displayed anymore, or when some upgrades breaks
GRUB, etc. Boot-Repair lets you fix these issues with a simple click, which (generally
reinstall GRUB and) restores access to the operating systems you had installed before
the issue. You need to boot from your live installation stick of Linux Mint again and then
run these commands in Terminal to repair grub:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

Grub Customizer is a GUI configuration tool to allow users to change the grub settings
without using the command line. Sometimes you want a different previously installed
operating system to boot instead of Linux Mint by default, and this utility can change
the configuration for you. This application allows the user to add, remove, freeze,
rename and reorder boot menu items. It will also allow changes to the grub
configuration settings such as background image and menu timeout.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer
But hopefully, if all went well, you should now be logged into your brand new Linux Mint
desktop at this point.
Completely Update your Linux Mint system (Required):
Open up your Update Manager and click Refresh and Install Updates. After it is done
downloading and installing all of your updates then you can reboot your system.
Please repeat this stepuntil no further updates are found do not proceed until you
are done completely updating your Linux Mint system and no more updates have been
found.
Hopefully your system is completely updated, and no more updates are found, and we
can now continue with the rest of this tutorial.
Special Note: Okay, in the rest of this guide we will be using Terminal to install software
and add additional software repositories.
Video Drivers and Proprietary Drivers Check (Required):
One of the common complaints about using Linux is video related issues, so that is why
this step is required.
Do a search for Driver Manager and click on it.
If you see any drivers listed that arent installed yet on your system, make sure to select
them and install each of them completely in the above window before proceeding. Make
sure to let them download and install completely before doing anything else, and make
sure to restart your computer after this is done. Please dont use your computer while
they are installing. Let them install completely first or you may have installation
problems during this step. Try to always use the most updated version of whatever
driver you want to install or the most recommended version.
If your video drivers didnt install correctly:

Restart your system, and check again. If they still dont show up go toLinux Mint
Forums, do a hardware specifications pastebin upload and then post a trouble-ticket
with them specifying what make and what model computer you are running and what
kind of graphics adapter you are trying to install drivers on Linux Mint. Be patient with
them since they are all volunteers. They should be able to sort out any video driver
problems you may be experiencing.
Here is how you can upload your hardware specifications to pastebin for sharing with
Linux Mint support:
sudo apt-get install pastebinit
dmesg | pastebinit
Here is how you can find out your currently installed video adapter hardware
specifications to also provide tech support:
lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga
Copy the link and video hardware specs these commands provide you with and post that
to Linux Mint Forums requesting technical support with your hardware configuration. Be
patient as wait time may be 24 to 48 hours for a forum reply. If they dont respond back
you can always try the Ubuntu Forums as an alternative for free technical support.
If you have used

Ubuntu OS before then you already know that printer installation is supported
automatically. However, printer installation is done the old-fashioned manual way in
Linux Mint and there are a few tricky steps you need to take to activate your printer
driver.
Click: Menu >> Administration >> Printers

Now check to make sure your printer is on and connected to your computer.
Click forward and wait.
It should automatically detect your printer driver and you can print a test page. If the
driver for your printer that is automatically installed doesnt function correctly then you
will need to go into Printer Properties like this:
And change Make and Model printer driver by clicking Change.
Here is where you
find all the alternative printer drivers you can test. For example, my printer is a Brother
Laserjet printer and the printer driver that is installed by default is the
Foomatic/Postscript [en] printer driver. However, this printer driver just spits-out a
bunch of blank pages so I have to select the Foomatic/hl1240 instead. I wish Mint used
the same automatic printer support like Ubuntu OS, but at least I was finally able to get
it to work properly. Select an alternative driver and click Forward and then wait..
And with each driver

you test make sure to use the new PPD as is and do not try to copy the option settings
over the old PPD option. Now if for some reason you still cannot find the right driver for
your printer contact Mint support for more specific guidance. Tell them your make and
model printer to find out if they know of a better way. Linux Mint Free Technical Support
Forums for Printer Help:
forums.linuxmint.com/
Special Note: This is simply a process of trial-and-error to find the right printer driver
that works correctly, but at least Mint OS provides most of the different kinds of drivers
to choose from in a nice list. If you are in a big hurry I also suggest trying Ubuntu
instead to see if your printer driver is found using their OS. You can boot from a live USB
stick to see which system might be more functional by detecting all of your hardware
automatically for you and save you a big headache that way.
Improve battery life and reduce overheating (Recommended): Are you running a
latop and feeling the heat? Overheating and reduced battery life is common
phenomenon in Linux Mint. Jupiter was the best tool to reduce overheating in Linux
desktop but since its development has stopped, you can use TLP or CPUFREQ instead of
Jupiter. Install TLP using the following command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw
sudo tlp start
No configuration required for using TLP. Install it and forget about it.
Samba file sharing is no longer installed by default so if you need to share files over
your local network LAN you will need to install a few packages. Afterwards lookup
Personal File Sharing and it should be ready to configure and run. And dont forget to
leave the proper port open when you configure GUFW/UFW firewall settings. After you
install the packages listed here you will need to also power cycle/reboot your system.
sudo apt-get install samba system-config-samba cifs-utils winbind
Auto Mount Windows NTFS Partition(s):

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config
sudo mkdir -p /etc/hal/fdi/policy
Now, launch ntfs-config from Menu. Click Advanced Configuration and check the
partitions you want to auto-mount at start-up. This is useful if you have a second hard
drive installed and you want it to auto-mount each time you restart your system.
Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw) is a firewall that is designed to be easy to use. It uses a

command line interface consisting of a small number of simple commands, and uses
iptables for configuration. Gufw is intended to be an easy, intuitive, way to manage a
Linux Mint firewall. It supports common tasks such as allowing or blocking pre-
configured, common P2P, or individual ports. Gufw is powered by UFW, runs on debian,
and anywhere else Python, GTK, and UFW are available.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:
sudo apt-get install gufw
gufw
To check your current settings:

sudo ufw status verbose
To add basic firewall rules:

sudo ufw deny 5353/udp
sudo ufw deny 5900/tcp
sudo ufw deny 22
sudo ufw deny 135,139,445/tcp
sudo ufw deny 137,138/udp
sudo ufw deny 110
sudo ufw deny 2049
sudo ufw deny 143
sudo ufw deny ssh
To block Outgoing Ports Except Those Needed (This configuration will allow
the following outbound ports: 20-21, 53, 80, 123, 443 which is all that is
required for many users, unless you plan on running a server):
sudo ufw deny out 1:19/tcp
sudo ufw deny out 1:19/udp

Re-check your changes:

sudo ufw status verbose
Re-check enable (required):

sudo ufw enable
It will automatically load these settings from now on. If you need to access one of those
ports temporarily, then you can open up gufw GUI and disable your firewall
momentarily, or the individual ports and services. Just dont forget to re-enable when
you are done. Always power-cycle your firewall if you make changes.
If you want to tighten-up your security even further:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1893751
http://www.frozentux.net/documents/iptables-tutorial/
How to setup and install your VPN connection:
VPN as a client here
Setting up an OpenVPN server here
VPN setup in Mint General introduction here
How to set up an SSH VPN. here
How to set up a VPN server on Mint here
rkhunter (Rootkit Hunter) (Optional) is a Unix-based tool that scans for rootkits,
backdoors and possible local exploits. It does this by comparing SHA-1 hashes of
important files with known good ones in online database, searching for default
directories (of rootkits), wrong permissions, hidden files, suspicious strings in kernel
modules, and special tests for Linux and FreeBSD.
Open a Terminal and enter the following :
sudo apt-get install rkhunter chkrootkit
To run chkrootkit open a terminal window and enter :
sudo chkrootkit
To update and run RKHunter. Open a Terminal and enter the following :
sudo rkhunter --update
sudo rkhunter --propupd

sudo rkhunter --check
You may receive a couple of false positives when you first run rkhunter but that is
normal on a fresh installation.
And if you are interested in further hardening your Linux Mint security (optional):
http://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/how-secure-ubuntu-1204-lts-server-part-1-basics
Anti-Virus (Very Optional)
Windows equivalent : AVG AntiVirus, NAV, TrendMicro, F-Prot, Kaspersky,
Linux Mint equivalent : ClamAV, BitDefender
ClamAV is a free, cross-platform anti-virus software tool-kit able to detect many types of
malicious software, including viruses. One of its main uses is on mail servers as a server-
side email virus scanner. ClamAV is currently tested daily in comparative tests against
other antivirus products on Shadowserver. In 2011, Shadowserver tested over 25 million
samples against ClamAV and numerous other antivirus products. Out of the 25 million
samples tested, ClamAV scored 76.60% ranking 12 out of 19, a higher rating than some
much more established competitors.
sudo apt-get install clamav clamtk
BitDefender is an anti-virus software suite developed by Romania-based software

company Softwin. It was launched in November 2001, and is currently in its thirteenth
version. The 2011 version was launched in August 2010, and it includes several
protection and performance enhancements as Search Advisor and Performance
Optimizer. The thing I love about BitDefender is that it will run in the taskbar after start-
up and has a resident shield that is always monitoring your system for any potential
threats, not that viruses normally target Linux operating systems however.
First you need to get a free scanner key here via email. It should be good for one year.
Bookmark this page then copy and paste in Terminal one line at a time:
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.bitdefender.com/repos/deb/

bitdefender non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bitdefender.list'
wget http://download.bitdefender.com/repos/deb/bd.key.asc
sudo apt-key add bd.key.asc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bitdefender-scanner-gui
Once completely installed then you will need to reboot your system. And you will need
to enter in the free scanner key you received via email by running Bitdefender.
Dont forget to bookmark this page!
When you are ready to reboot just copy and paste:
sudo reboot
Before using the scanner its probably best to install the latest virus/malware signatures
by clicking on the Update button.
Special Note: Troubleshooting BitDefender Scanner Engine Crashing
Some users are reporting that BitDefender crashes right after the scanning engine is
initialized. In order to fix this error you will need to copy and paste this into terminal:
sudo touch /opt/BitDefender-scanner/var/lib/scan/bdcore.so.linux-

x86_64
sudo ln -fs /opt/BitDefender-scanner/var/lib/scan/bdcore.so.linux-

x86_64 /opt/BitDefender-scanner/var/lib/scan/bdcore.so
sudo bdscan --update
As of April 2012 they still do not have this fixed in BitDefender for Linux yet. Hopefully
someone will let them know by posting a message to their support forum? Thanks.
For further BitDefender support please visit:
http://forum.bitdefender.com
Essential tools for compiling from sources (Required)
There are times when you need to compile software from sources, maybe because you
need to compile the package with some specific option that is not enabled in the default
package, or maybe the software application you wish to install isnt available in any of
your repositories. When you begin the installation process you will come to a window
that will require you to accept the EULA to install, and you will need to click on your
<Tab> key to select <OK> and press enter. (Here is a guide on how to compile software
from source) and here are the required packages you need in order to compile sources
in Linux Mint:
sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall cdbs devscripts
dh-make fakeroot libxml-parser-perl check
Multimedia (Required)
Windows equivalent : windows media player, real player, vlc, mplayer, media codecs
Linux Mint equivalent : vlc, mplayer, fluendo media codecs
Unfortunately, many audio and video formats wont work out of the box with Linux
Mint, or most Linux distros.
MPlayer is a movie player that plays most MPEG, VOB, AVI, OGG/OGM, VIVO,
ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, FLI, RM, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM, RoQ, and PVA
files. You can also use it to watch VCDs, SVCDs, DVDs, 3ivx, RealMedia, and DivX
movies. It supports a wide range of output drivers including X11, XVideo, DGA, OpenGL,
SVGAlib, fbdev, AAlib, DirectFB etc. There are also nice antialiased shaded subtitles and
OSD.
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework
capable of reading most audio and video formats as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and
various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a media converter or a server to
stream in uni-cast or multi-cast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vlc mplayer
SMPlayer intends to be a complete front-end for MPlayer, from basic features like
playing videos, DVDs, and VCDs to more advanced features like support for MPlayer
filters and more. One of the most interesting features of SMPlayer: it remembers the
settings of all files you play. So you start to watch a movie but you have to leave. Dont
worry, when you open that movie again it will resume at the same point you left it, and
with the same settings: audio track, subtitles, and volume. This is really great for
watching DVD movies.
sudo apt-get install smplayer
FFMpeg is a complete and free Internet live audio and video broadcasting solution for
Linux/Unix. It also includes a digital VCR. It can encode in real time in many formats
including MPEG1 audio and video, MPEG4, h263, ac3, asf, avi, real, mjpeg, and flash.
sudo apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg gxine mencoder mpeg2dec vorbis-

tools id3v2 mpg321 mpg123 libflac++6 ffmpeg totem-mozilla icedax
tagtool easytag id3tool lame nautilus-script-audio-convert libmad0
libjpeg-progs flac faac faad sox ffmpeg2theora libmpeg2-4 uudeview
flac libmpeg3-1 mpeg3-utils mpegdemux liba52-0.7.4-dev libquicktime2
GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework written in the C programming

language with the type system based on GObject. GStreamer allows a programmer to
create a variety of media-handling components, including simple audio playback, audio
and video playback, recording, streaming and editing. The pipeline design serves as a
base to create many types of multimedia applications such as video editors, streaming
media broadcasters and media players.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste (when prompted use the Tab key, and also TAB over
to select YES when prompted):
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3

gstreamer0.10-gnonlin gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly totem-plugins-
extra gstreamer-dbus-media-service gstreamer-tools ubuntu-
restricted-extras ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Check and see if you can now view DVD movie discs on your computer. If not you may
need to set the region key and you are usually allowed to do this only 5 times (only use
if needed, and very optional):
sudo apt-get install regionset
sudo regionset
Get encrypted Blu-ray discs to work with VLC in Linux Mint:
http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/how-to-get-encrypted-blu-rays-working.html
Adding Medibuntu Package Repository (Discontinued) (Optional Alternative):
The only thing this does is provide you with DVD codecs to playback DVD movies. If you
dont have a DVD drive, or you dont watch DVD movies on your computer you can
ignore these packages.
Special Note: w32codecs and w64codecs are no longer available.

To disable the Medibuntu repository and/or enable the new libdvdcss repository, use
these commands:
sudo apt-get install curl
curl ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/debian/videolan-apt.asc | sudo apt-

key add -
echo "deb ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/debian/stable ./" | sudo tee

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/libdvdcss.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2
They are currently looking for new maintainer(s) for Medibuntu, if interested please visit:
https://launchpad.net/medibuntu/+announcement/11219
Here are some highly recommended and thoroughly tested add-ons for Firefox:
Adblock Plus (plugin) (Highly Recommended)
Adblock Plus (ABP) is a content-filtering extension for Mozilla Firefox (including Firefox for
mobile) and Google Chrome web browsers. ABP, a forked version of Adblock, allows
users to prevent page elements, such as advertisements, from being downloaded and
displayed. Very popular, and almost what I would consider to be a necessity, if you surf
the Internet on a daily basis. Works great with sites like youtube.com and other similar
web sites that bombard you with constant commercials. It will also allow you to import
preconfigured blocklists to stop tracker web sites from monitoring your browser
presence.
Password Exporter (plugin)
This extension allows you to export your saved passwords and disabled login hosts using
XML or CSV files that can be imported later. Very helpful when needing to re-install Linux
Mint onto a new system or migrating your data and personal information. This works on
any OS with Firefox browser and you can migrate passwords from other browsers with
Firefox preferences.
NetVideoHunter (plugin)
NetVideoHunter is a Firefox add-on (extension), and you can easily download videos and
audio from almost all audio and video streaming web pages with two clicks. Tested and
considered to be probably the best plugin out of all the other similar plugins available
for this kind of task.
HTTPS Everywhere (plugin) (Recommended)

HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox and Chrome extension that encrypts your
communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.
Tor Browser Bundle

The Tor software protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed
network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching
your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit
from learning your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked. The
simplified explanation is that you can think of Tor like using three VPNs in a row. The
goal is to hide your IP address, giving you complete anonymity online. Tor routes
Internet traffic through three relays: an entry node, a middle node, and an exit. Each
relay has its own layer of encryption and the exit node is the one that contacts the web
server, fetches the web page, and gives it back to you yet doesnt know your actual IP
address.
This page explains things pretty well:
https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en
Alternatively, you can use this PPA to install Tor Browser Bundle:
http://www.webupd8.org/2013/12/tor-browser-bundle-ubuntu-ppa.html
Remember Passwords (plugin)
Patches the original Login Manager to allow saving of passwords on forms which
otherwise suppress it. A really nice time-saver.
NoScript (plugin) (Recommended, but can be very intrusive at times)

NoScript (plugin) is a free and open-source extension for Mozilla Firefox, SeaMonkey, and
other Mozilla-based web browsers, created and actively maintained by Giorgio Maone,
an Italian software developer and member of the Mozilla Security Group. NoScript allows
executable web content such as JavaScript, Java, Flash, Silverlight, and other plugins
only if the site hosting it is considered trusted by its user and has been previously added
to a whitelist. NoScript also offers specific countermeasures against security
exploits. There have been reports of Java viruses/malware infecting Mac systems
(Unices-based systems), so NoScript will stop that kind of problembefore it becomes a
serious issue on your Linux Mint OS.
YesScript (plugin)
A very simple JavaScript blacklist. Lately, Ive noticed scripts not responsing on certain
web sites (like abs.twimg.com and others) when browsing on twitter. If you recieve an
error that says a script isnt responding (would you like to continue etc etc), causing
your browser to hang/crash your browser -and- you dont want to use the above
NoScript plugin because it can be too intrusive most of the time, simply cut and paste
the offending web site address into YesScript Firefox plug-in, and you can surf without
further problems of this kind.
Dictionaries & Language Packs (plugin) (Required)

Spell-checking plugin for Mozilla Firefox browser.
Default Google searchbox dropdown in Firefox (Recommended)

I kept catching myself typing a search in and wondering why it wasnt working right.
Just a few clicks and Firefox works correctly again. Linux Mint has branded the Firefox
Browser to help generate banner-ad revenue, and this adds Google searchbox in the
dropdown menu (upper-righthand corner) to Firefox, for those of you who prefer using
Google instead of the default yahoo search dropdown option. Currently, Linux Mint
Firefox branding only effects direct Yahoo searches, so as long as you are using
something other than Yahoo, your search results should look relatively the same as on
any other operating system using Firefox web browser.
Additional Miscellaneous Add-ons for Firefox:

BCExplorer for Firefox BrightCloud category and reputation info as you browse!
Beef Taco Sets permanent opt-out cookies to stop behavioral advertising by 102
different advertising networks
BetterPrivacy BetterPrivacy is a safeguard which protects from usually not deletable
LSOs on Google, YouTube, Ebay
BitDefender TrafficLight for Firefox Adds a strong and non-intrusive layer of security to
your browsing experience
BrowserProtect Protect your browser configuration against homepage and search
hijacks
CipherFox Displays the current SSL/TLS cipher and certificate chain in the status bar.
CS Lite This extension will allow you to easily control cookie permissions.
Ghostery Protect your privacy. See whos tracking your web browsing and block them
with Ghostery.
GoogleSharing GoogleSharing ultimately aims to provide a level of anonymity that will
prevent google from tracking your searches, movements, and what websites you visit.
HTTPS Finder HTTPS Finder automatically detects and alerts when SSL is available on a
web page. It also provides one-click rule creation for HTTPS Everywhere. Other features
include an ignore-domain list, and auto-forward to HTTPS.
Keylogger Beater Use it to keep your username or password from being stolen by a
keylogger.
LinkExtend Provides meta-site-ratings for computer safety, child safety, company
ethics, and popularity.
Master Password+ Various enhancements for master password
Netcraft Toolbar Blocks phishing sites, helping to protect users from online fraud
anonymoX Firefox add-on to achieve anonymity in surfing, using web-based proxy
PrivacySuite One place to protect your privacy when you go online.
RefControl Control what gets sent as the HTTP Referer on a per-site basis.
RequestPolicy Be in control of which cross-site requests are allowed.
ShowIP Show the IP address(es) of the current page in the status bar. It also allows
querying custom information services by IP (right click) and hostname (left click), like
whois, netcraft, etc. Additionally you can copy the IP address to the clipboard.
Certificate Patrol Verifies SSL certificates
TrackMeNot Protects users against search data profiling
Priv3 Practical Third-Party Privacy for the Social Web
WOT The WOT add-on is a safe surfing tool for your browser.
For Human Eyes Only converts messages into images
User Agent Switcher To switch the user agent of a browser and OS reporting
Change IP Address How to easily change your Internet IP address via creating new
router MAC address, quickly and reliably.
Your Linux Mint comes standard with the default Thunderbird email client pre-installed.
Here are some handy add-ons:
sudo apt-get install xul-ext-calendar-timezones xul-ext-lightning
To convert/import your MS Outlook PST files in Thunderbird:
sudo apt-get install readpst
readpst -r nameofyourPSTfilehere
Alternative Graphical Web Browsers

Windows equivalent : Internet explorer, opera, google chrome
Linux Mint equivalent : Opera, Chromium, Google Chrome, Google Chrome Beta
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software. The browser
handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and
receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via
BitTorrent, and reading web feeds.
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free"
>> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera.list'
sudo sh -c 'wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | apt-key add

-'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install opera
Google Chrome is a freeware web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit
layout engine. It was released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2,
2008, and as a stable public release on December 11, 2008. As of February 2013,
according to StatCounter, Google Chrome has a 37% worldwide usage share of web
browsers making it the most widely used web browser in the world. Net Applications,
however, indicates that Chrome is only third when it comes to the size of its user base,
behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. This comes with its own updated independent
adobe flash plugin, unlike all other browsers, so flash playback should be improved if
you are having issues with flash content in Firefox or Chromium.
To install Chrome browser repository:
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub |
sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable

main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable
or if you want the latest developmental version:
sudo apt-get install google-chrome-beta
Chrome Plugins:
Adblock Plus (plugin) (Recommended) Adblock Plus (ABP) is a content-filtering
extension for Google Chrome web browsers. ABP, a forked version of Adblock, allows
users to prevent page elements, such as advertisements, from being downloaded and
displayed. Very popular, and almost what I would consider to be a necessity, if you surf
the Internet on a daily basis. Works great with sites like youtube.com and other similar
web sites that bombard you with constant commercials. It will also allow you to import
preconfigured blocklists to stop tracker web sites from monitoring your browser
presence.
Remember Passwords (plugin)
Patches the original Login Manager to allow saving of passwords on forms which
otherwise suppress it. A really nice time-saver.
Remote Desktop (plugin) Access other computers or allow another user to access
your computer securely over the Internet.
HTTPS Everywhere (plugin) HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox and Chrome extension
that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing
more secure.
Reditr is to Reddit what Tweetdeck is to Twitter. And now you can experience it under
any GNU/Linux based system thanks to Google Chrome.
Additional Miscellaneous Add-ons for Chrome and Chromium:
A Little Privacy Prevents passing referrer to third parties, removes redirect trackers,
resolves short URLs, and more.
Abine TACO Opt-out of advertising networks
Block Mixed Content This extension blocks loading of insecure active content in secure
(HTTPS) pages.
Chrome BCExplorer BETA BrightCloud category and reputation info as you browse!
Chromeblock Stop secret tracking of your web browsing
Disconnect Stop major third parties and search engines from tracking the webpages
you go to and searches you do.
Ghostery Protect your privacy. See whos tracking your web browsing with Ghostery.
KB SSL Enforcer Automatic security, browse encrypted.
Keep My Opt-Outs Permanently opts your browser out of online ad personalization via
cookies.
NOREF Suppress Referrer (referer) for Hyperlinks
NotScripts A clever extension that provides a high degree of NoScript like control of
javascript, iframes, and plugins on Google Chrome.
SafeBrowser Sends the url of the currently selected tab to Google Safe Browsing to
retrieve some malware results of that domain
SaferChrome SaferChrome makes browsing safer by identifying and preventing
security and privacy breaches.
Signature Check Allows users to check a certificate thumbprint against the
SignatureCheck.org thumbprint to detect man-in-the-middle attacks that use valid
signing certificates.
SiteAdvisor for Chrome SiteAdvisor will give safety ratings for websites, this extension
will warn you before you open threat sites.
TrafficLight (BETA) Adds a strong and non-intrusive layer of security to your browsing
experience
Unencrypted Password Warning Helps to prevent you from sending unencrypted
passwords or credit card numbers.
Vanilla Cookie Manager A Cookie Whitelist Manager that helps protect your privacy.
Automatically removes unwanted cookies.
WOT The WOT add-on is a safe surfing tool for your browser.
Google Talk is a browser plugin that lets you voice and video chat with friends and
family from your browser. Install this plugin and logon to Gmail with your webcam and
microphone attached to your computer, then initiate a chat with a friend or family
member. It will try to connect to your webcam and enable video chat.
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub |
sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb/

stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install google-talkplugin

Trim Startup Application Manager settings on Linux Mint (Recommended)
There are many applications running in the background by default and it only makes
sense to disable the ones you dont really need to have running all the time. To make
the hidden applications visible in the manager, follow these steps:
Copy and paste the following command into Terminal:
sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g'

/etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop
Do a search for Startup Applications to add or remove/disable features at startup. There

are probably several apps that are running at startup that you can safely remove if you
know what you are doing, and will save you time during bootup.
Compiz eye-candy (optional) has been updated, introducing a handy plugin,
Workspace Naming, that, as its name clearly suggests, allows users to name workspaces
with desired names, names that feature a high usability potential and numerous
usecases, like for instance, naming a workspace text-only if in that workspace the user
deals only with text files, and/or coding-only specific to a coding-oriented desktop. Its
usage is as simple as navigating to CompizConfig Settings Manager>Window
Management>check Workspace Naming and tweaking the provided functionalities
(names, Display Time, Font Size, etc).
Copy and paste the following command into Terminal:
sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-

plugins
You can add it to your DNS entries in your hardware WiFi router configuration (you can
try calling the tech support company that made your router to help guide you through
the process for updating your routers LAN DNS settings. Just tell them you want to
add a public DNS 67.138.54.100 and 207.225.209.66 to be used by all the computers on
your network) or if you arent using a router on your individual Linux Mint system, you
can update your DNS like this:
sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf
Write down your existing ISP nameserver IP addresses in case you want to change it
back later on. And then modify those ISP nameserver entries as to the pubic DNS
ScrubIt entries:
nameserver 67.138.54.100
nameserver 207.225.209.66
Click on Save, and reboot your system.
The best way to update your DNS nameserver is to change your wifi router
configuration. Just call tech support for your make and model router (the manufacturers
tech support phone number) and ask them to walk you through the process to update
your DNS nameserver configuration for your router box. It should normally be free of
charge to call for support for your make and model router box. Make sure you put a
good password on your router box when you are done. And never let your kids
have administrative accounts on Linux Mint. Always create new users without superuser
rights too. Only you, the superuser should be able to change any of the system network
settings from within Linux Mint OS.
Here is an alternative to set up the same kind of parental blocking service but with
OpenDNS instead:
https://www.opendns.com/parental-controls
Archiver/ Packing software (Highly Recommended)
Windows equivalent : winrar, zip, 7zip
Linux Mint equivalent : tar, unrar, p7zip, arj, unace
An archive format is the file format of an archive file. The archive format is determined
by the file archiver. Some archive formats are well-defined by their authors and have
become conventions supported by multiple vendors and/or open-source communities.
File Archiving:
sudo apt-get install unace rar unrar p7zip-rar p7zip zip unzip
sharutils uudeview mpack arj cabextract file-roller
Bitcoin Wallet/Client (sign: BTC) is a decentralized digital currency based on an open-
source, peer-to-peer internet protocol. It was introduced by a pseudonymous developer
named Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Internationally, bitcoins can be exchanged by
personal computer directly through a wallet file or a website without an intermediate
financial institution. In trade, one bitcoin is subdivided into 100 million smaller units
called satoshis, defined by eight decimal places. Bitcoin does not operate like typical
currencies: it has no central bank and it solely relies on an internet-based peer-to-peer
network. The money supply is automated, limited, divided and scheduled, and given to
servers or bitcoin miners that verify bitcoin transactions and add them to a
decentralized and archived transaction log every 10 minutes. The log is authenticated
by hashed ECDSA digital signatures and verified by the intense process of bruteforcing
SHA256 hash functions of varying difficulty by competing bitcoin miners. Transaction
fees may apply to new transactions depending on the strain put on the networks
resources. Bitcoin is the most widely used alternative currency. As of March 2013, the
monetary base of bitcoin is valued at over $1 billion USD. The large fluctuation in the
dollar value of a bitcoin has evoked criticism of bitcoins economic suitability as a
currency.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bitcoin-qt
Special Note #1: Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on TCP port 8333. You will
need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your Bitcoin
client to connect to many nodes. Testnet uses TCP port 18333 instead of 8333.
sudo ufw allow 8333
sudo ufw disable
sudo ufw enable
Special Note #2: Bitcoin-qt is a full-node and needs a full-copy of the blockchain to run
and it can take days to update the blockchain. This inactivity will happen, and Ive no
idea why but it seems to get through it if left long enough eventually. A lightweight
client like Multibit java-based will be up-to-date in a few seconds so Multibit Bitcoin
Client may be a better option for some users if they are in a big hurry. And there
is Armoryyou can try as well. Bitcoin.org could make that a bit clearer in the software
description, the full client is way too heavy for ordinary infrequent use and bitcoin is
confusing enough as it is for newbies, and just having the default client taking several
days to update the blockchain is rather new user prohibitive. Here is the one I use:
Electrum (the blockchain is the cloud) is an easy to use Bitcoin client. It protects
you from losing coins in a backup mistake or computer failure, because your wallet can
be recovered from a secret phrase that you can write on paper or learn by heart. There
is no waiting time when you start the client, because it does not download the Bitcoin
blockchain. Instant on: Your client does not download the blockchain, it uses a remote
server. Forgiving: Your wallet can be recovered from a secret seed. Safe: Private keys are
never sent to the server. Information sent by the server is verified using SPV. No
downtimes: Several public servers are available, you can switch instantly. Ubiquitous:
You can use the same wallet on different computers, it will auto-synchronize. Open: You
can export your private keys into other Bitcoin clients. Tested and audited: Electrum is
open source and was first released in November 2011. No blockchain on your system
means you cant be perceived as an MSB
Download Electrum:
http://electrum.org/download.html
Make sure you open GUFW and reset your firewall settings before running Electrum.
When you first run Electrum you will be prompted with your seed information. Write the
seed words down by hand and put it somewhere safe in case data recovery becomes
necessary someday.
Would you like to mine for Bitcoins? Here are guides on how to install bgfminer or
cgminer:
https://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/bitcoin-mining-in-ubuntu-with-
bfgminer/
https://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/bitcoin-mining-with-ubuntu-12-04-lts-
and-cgminer/
Webcam and VOIP
Windows equivalent : Skype
Linux Mint equivalent : Skype, Jitsi, Brosix

guvcview project aims at providing a simple GTK interface for capturing and viewing
video from devices supported by the linux UVC driver, although it should also work with
any v4l2 compatible device:
sudo apt-get install guvcview
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and
chats over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls
to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a
debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional
features which include instant messaging, file transfer, and video conferencing.
sudo apt-get install skype
Or if you want the very latest version use:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/linux/
Hardware acceleration and WebGL also feature in this release but are not turned on by
default. Head into opera:config to enable it.
Other new features include:
Webcam support
Support for the Do Not Track header
CSS3 Animations and Transitions
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (Cors) Support
Improved language support
If you experience any kind of technical problems using Skype on Linux Mint OS make
sure to check with the Skype forums over here:
http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/bd-p/Linux
Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and
communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games
and related media online, from small independent developers to larger software houses;
in October 2012, Valve expanded the service to include non-gaming software. Steam
provides the user with installation and automatic management of software across
multiple computers, community features such as friends lists and groups, cloud saving,
and in-game voice and chat functionality. The software provides a freely available
application programming interface, Steamworks, that developers can take advantage of
to integrate many of Steams functions within their software products, including copy
protection, networking and matchmaking, in-game achievements and micro-
transactions, and support for user-created content through Steam Workshop. Though
initially developed for use on Microsoft Windows, the client has expanded to include a
Mac OS X version and a pending port to Linux, and clients with limited functionality on
the PlayStation 3 console and for both iOS and Android mobile devices. And now we
dont have to listen to people say they cant play their favourite video games on linux
anymore either.
wget -c media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
For more information:
http://blog.coolaj86.com/articles/how-to-install-steam-on-ubuntu.html
Google Earth allows you to travel the world through a virtual globe and view satellite
imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, and much more. With Google Earths rich,
geographical content, you are able to experience a more realistic view of the world.
Starting with the version 4 beta Google Earth functions under Linux, as a native port
using the Qt toolkit. It is proprietary software specifically in order to impose Digital
Rights Management; the Free Software Foundation consider the development of a free
compatible client for Google Earth to be a High Priority Free Software Project.
Special Note: Download the Google Earth 32bit version and install using gdebi for
Linux Mint until Google decides to repackage Google Earth. Or just downgrade to a
previous version of Linux Mint OS for now. The real reason for this problem is the non-
existent meta package in Linux Mint called (ia32-lbs). Pure debian systems probably still
use it though.
Geany is a lightweight cross-platform GTK+ text editor based on Scintilla and including
basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE) features. Among the supported
programming languages are C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, LaTeX, CSS,
Python, Perl, Ruby, Pascal, Haskell, Erlang, Vala and many others.
It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies
from other packages. It supports many filetypes and has some nice features.
sudo apt-get install geany geany-plugins
LibreOffice (Recommended)
Windows equivalent : Microsoft Office Suite
Linux Mint equivalent : LibreOffice Suite
LibreOffice is a free software office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a

fork of OpenOffice.org. It is compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft
Office, and available on a variety of platforms. Its developers goal is to produce a
vendor-independent office suite with ODF support and without any copyright assignment
requirements. The name is a hybrid word with the first part Libre, which means free (as
in freedom) in French and Spanish, and the English word Office.
LibreOffice comes preinstalled by default in Linux Mint usually, but you still want to
double-check at this point that you have everything else installed that you probably will
need, and that you have the latest updated version from the developers.
To install LibreOffice (and check for extra features):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-4-1
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install libreoffice libreoffice-java-common

libreoffice-math libreoffice-gnome libreoffice-java-common
How to install Grammar checking Plug-in for LibreOffice Writer:

http://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/how-to-install-grammar-checker-in-
libreoffice-in-ubuntu/
http://extensions.libr
eoffice.org/extension-center
Special Note: If you would like the MS Windows OS or Apple Mac OSversion of
LibreOffice Suite for another computer you have at work or school here is where you
can find the link. And I definitely recommend using the torrent because the direct link
doesnt usually completely download for some unknown reason.
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/
Graphical FTP clients
Windows equivalent : CuteFTP, SmartFTP, CoreFTP
Linux Mint equivalent : FileZilla
FileZilla is free, open source, cross-platform FTP/SFTP software, consisting of FileZilla

Client and FileZilla Server. Binaries are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It
supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS). As of 18 April 2011, FileZilla Client was
the 7th most popular download of all time from SourceForge.net.
sudo apt-get install filezilla filezilla-common
Access it through Applications Internet FileZilla FTP Client.
Development IDE
Linux Mint equivalent : Kompozer, Bluefish, Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit is a free text editor for dynamic programming languages. It was
introduced in January 2007 to complement Active States commercial Komodo IDE
product. With the release of version 4.3, Komodo Edit is built on top of the Open Komodo
project. Many of Komodos features are derived from an embedded Python interpreter.
Open Komodo uses the Mozilla code base, along with Scintilla, and the two products
share many features and support the same languages (including Python, Perl, PHP,
Ruby, Tcl, SQL, Smarty, CSS, HTML and XML) and computer platforms (Linux, Mac OS X,
and Windows). The editor component is implemented using the NPAPI, with the Scintilla
view embedded in the XUL interface in the same manner as a web browser plugin. Both
Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE support user customization through plugins and macros.
Komodo plug-ins are based on Mozilla Add-ons and extensions can be searched for,
downloaded, configured, installed and updated from within the application. Available
extensions include a functions list, pipe features, additional language support and user
interface enhancements.
Windows: Notepad++
In 32-bit Linux Mint:
wget http://downloads.activestate.com/Komodo/releases/8.5.1/Komodo-
Edit-8.5.1-13781-linux-x86.tar.gz
tar xzvf Komodo-Edit-8.5.1-13781-linux-x86.tar.gz
cd Komodo-Edit-8.5.1-13781-linux-x86/
sudo ./install.sh
in 64-bit Linux Mint:

wget http://downloads.activestate.com/Komodo/releases/8.5.1/Komodo-
Edit-8.5.1-13781-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzvf Komodo-Edit-8.5.1-13781-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd Komodo-Edit-8.5.1-13781-linux-x86_64/
sudo ./install.sh
When prompted to specify the directory or folder to install into, type this command:
/opt/Komodo-Edit-8/
After installing, run this command in your terminal to complete the process.
export PATH="/opt/Komodo-Edit-8/bin:$PATH"
KompoZer is an open source WYSIWYG HTML editor based on a rewritten version of the
now-discontinued Nvu editor. KompoZer is maintained as a community-driven fork and is
a project on Sourceforge.
KompoZers WYSIWYG editing capabilities are one of the main attractions of the
software. In addition, KompoZer allows direct code editing as well as a split code-graphic
view (you have to install it twice to download all the dependences):
http://ubuntuguide.net/install-kompozer-in-ubuntu-13-04-12-10
Bluefish is a free and open source advanced text editor with a variety of tools for
programming in general and the development of dynamic websites. Bluefish supports
development in (among others) HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, C, C++, JavaScript, Java,
Google Go, Vala, Ada, D, SQL, Perl, ColdFusion, JSP, Python, Ruby and shell. Bluefish is
available for many platforms, including Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X, and Windows.
Bluefish is developed in C/GTK+ and can be used integrated in GNOME or run
independently. Bluefish fills the niche market between the plain text editors and the full
swing IDE: Bluefish is relatively lightweight and easy to learn, while still providing many
features of an integrated development environment to support both programming and
the development of websites.
sudo apt-get install bluefish
Image Editors
Windows equivalent : Adobe Photoshop
Linux Mint equivalent : GIMP
GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free software raster graphics editor. It is
primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in
versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple
Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux. It has layering abilities like Photoshop.
In addition to detailed image retouching and free-form drawing, GIMP can accomplish
essential image editing tasks such as resizing, editing, and cropping photos,
photomontages combining multiple images, and converting between different image
formats. GIMP can also be used to create basic animated images in the GIF format.
New additions in Gimp 2.8 are single window mode, on-canvas text editing, layers
group, and to apply all changes to a layer grouping.
GIMPs product vision is that GIMP is, or will become, a free software high-end graphics
application for the editing and creation of original images, icons, graphical elements of
web pages and art for user interface elements.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp gimp-data gimp-data-extras
Access it through Applications Graphics GIMP Image Editor.
Download additional Script-Fu filters and tweaks:

Instructions on how to install Scripts that work in Gimp 2.8:
http://www.gimphelp.org/script28.shtml
To install additional helpful plugins for Gimp try:
http://registry.gimp.org/popular
GMIC is an open and full-featured framework for image processing, providing several
different user interfaces to convert/manipulate/filter/visualize generic image datasets,
from 1d scalar signals to 3d+t sequences of multi-spectral volumetric images. GMIC
provides a serious tool for image processing along with flexibility for creative
applications. It has a very lightweight core that is mature code and comes with a
complete set of manipulation and filter commands which operate on a stack of images.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gmic gimp-gmic
Photo Management
Windows equivalent: Aftershot Pro, Lightroom, Bridge, Photoshop Organizer
RAW file viewers/editors/plugins for SLR Digital Photography

Not the most intuitive program to use at first, Raw Therapee is a fairly feature rich and
comprehensive RAW editor thats compatible with Linux. At the time of writing, the team
are working on a stable release of version 3.0, which is a major release for the project.
Unidentified Flying RAW (or UFRaw for short) is a dedicated RAW image editor based on
GTK+. It can be used as an application on its own or as a plugin for GIMP (simply open a
RAW image in GIMP to be presented with the UFRaw editor window).
sudo apt-get install libraw-bin ufraw ufraw-batch and gimp-ufraw
rawtherapee
For more raw file utilities visit: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-tools-editing-raw-

photos-linux/
Darktable is an
open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable
and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets
you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images
and enhance them. It focuses on the workflow to make it easier for the photographer to
quickly handle the thousands of images a day of shooting can produce. Its also one of
the very few FOSS projects able to do tethered shooting.
sudo apt-get install darktable
Shotwell can import photos and videos from a digital camera directly. Shotwell
automatically groups photos and videos by date, and supports tagging. Its image editing
features allow users to rotate, crop, eliminate red eye, and adjust levels and color
balance. It also features an auto enhance option that will attempt to guess
appropriate levels for the image. Shotwell allows users to publish their images and
videos to Facebook, Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Piwigo, and YouTube.
sudo apt-get install shotwell
PhotoFilmStrip creates movies out of your pictures in just 3 steps. Great if you need to
create video presentations. First select your photos, customize the motion path and
render the video. There are several output possibilities for VCD, SVCD, DVD up to FULL-
HD. Creates animated slideshows. You can add audio with Avidemux when you are done
creating your slideshow with PhotoFilmStrip.
sudo apt-get install photofilmstrip
Picasa is free photo editing software from Google. For a free program, it allows you to
do some great photo manipulation. Addtionally, Picasa links you directly to free online
photo storage known as Picasa Web Albums to upload your digital pictures. It is no
longer officially supported for Linux Mint by Google, but here are the last updated *.deb
installation packages if you want to install Picasa on your Linux Mint operating system.
For 32-bit Linux Mint copy and paste into Terminal:
sudo apt-get install lib32asound2
wget
http://packages.linuxmint.com//pool/import/p/picasa/picasa_3.0.5744-
02_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i picasa_3.0.5744-02_i386.deb
For 64-bit Linux Mint copy and paste into Terminal:

sudo apt-get install lib32asound2
wget
http://packages.linuxmint.com//pool/import/p/picasa/picasa_3.0.5744-
02_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i picasa_3.0.5744-02_amd64.deb
3D Graphics Applications
Windows equivalent : 3D Studio MAX, Google Sketch
Linux Mint equivalent : Blender

Blender
Blenders features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, water and
smoke simulations, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and other simulations, video
editing software, compositing, and the ability to create interactive 3D applications, video
games, animated film, or visual effects.
More advanced tools include rigid, realistic body, fluid, cloth and softbody dynamics
simulation, modifier-based modeling, character animation, a node-based material and
compositing system, and embedded scripting in Python.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:irie/blender
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install blender
Access it through Applications Graphics Blender (windowed).
Calibre is a free and open source e-book computer software that organizes, saves and
manages e-books, supporting a variety of formats. It also supports e-book syncing with
a variety of popular e-book readers. calibre is cross-platform (programmed in Python
and C) and is intended for the three main operating systems, Linux, Mac OS X and
Windows.
Windows: Kindle for PC software
Calibre was originally called libprs500, but was renamed calibre (lower case C) in mid-
2008. calibre is primarily an e-book cataloging program. It is designed around the
concept of the logical book, where a single database entry corresponds with the same
book in a variety of formats. calibre supports the following formats for cataloging: AZW,
AZW1, CBR, CBZ, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, IMP, LIT, LRF, LRX, MOBI, ODT, OEBZIP, OPF,
PDB, PDF, PML, PMLZ, PRC, RAR, RB, RTF, SNB, TPZ, TXT and ZIP.
sudo apt-get install calibre
Also make sure to install better smaller fonts:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/957788-installing-calibri-font/
P2P Clients & Servers, File Sharing
Windows equivalent : Limewire, utorrent, Azureus, Emule, PeerGuardian
Linux Mint equivalent : Frostwire, Deluge, Azureus, Amule, Moblock/Mobloquer
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of
data over the Internet. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring
large files, and it has been estimated that it accounted for roughly 43% to 70% of all
Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009.
Frostwire
Windows equivalent: Limewire
FrostWire is a free, open source BitTorrent client, first released in September, 2004, as a
fork of LimeWire. It was initially very similar to LimeWire in appearance and
functionality, but developers added more features, such as BitTorrent support. In version
Five, Gnutella support was dropped entirely, and now FrostWire only uses the BitTorrent
network. Development of the program has been active since the program was first
released in September 2004.
Download Frostwire:
http://www.frostwire.com/download/?os=ubuntu&
Bittorrent Add-ons for Linux Mint:
Windows Equivalent: PeerGuardian (highly recommended for Bittorent users)
Linux Mint equivalent : PGL and PGLGUI
PeerGuardian Linux (pgl) is a privacy oriented firewall application. It blocks

connections to and from hosts specified in huge blocklists (thousands or millions of IP
ranges). Its origins lie in targeting aggressive IPs while you use P2P.
While you are installing PGL just accept the default settings for now. You can change
them with PGLGUI after you are done installing everything.
To install PGL and PGLGUI in terminal (select the default settings by using the TAB key
and pressing enter there will be several prompts just accept default settings and
afterwards you can configure the blocklists):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jre-phoenix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pgld pglcmd pglgui
Make sure to enable your blocklists you want and update PGLGUI after you get it
completely installed:
The first thing most users will notice after installing PGL and have it running is that their
Pidgin/Empathy/IMclientOfChoice/WebBrowser stops working. PGLGUI log will list the IPs
and info about the IPs, so just whitelist them if need be with one mouse click.
It is a really strong utility and will block pretty much everything until you tell it to do
otherwise. But you only need to run this when you are seeding or downloading torrent
files.
Deluge Client is a full-featured BitTorrent client for Linux, OS X, Unix and Windows. It
uses libtorrent in its backend and features multiple user-interfaces including: GTK+,
web and console. It has been designed using the client server model with a daemon
process that handles all the bittorrent activity.
The Deluge daemon is able to run on headless machines with the user-interfaces being
able to connect remotely from any platform.
sudo apt-get install deluge-torrent
Access it through Applications Internet Deluge Torrent.
Azureus Client: Uses Java to run, very complete but a bit heavy. And has a wide variety
of add-ons to choose from too.
Vuze (formerly Azureus) is a P2P file sharing client using the bittorrent protocol. Search
and download torrent files. Play, convert and transcode videos and music for playing on
many devices such as PSP, TiVo, XBox, PS3, iTunes (iPhone, iPod, Apple TV).
sudo apt-get install azureus
Access it through Applications Internet Azureus.

Torrent Server is a very tiny BitTorrent server, super fast and ultra light. Torrents
built for speed. That means ultra-efficient downloads of mega-sized files.
Go to Torrent official site and download the Linux Mint installation package and use the
following instructions to install Torrent at:
http://ubuntuguide.net/install-lightweight-fast-%C2%B5torrent-on-ubuntu-12-04-lts/
Music / MP3 / OGG Players
Windows equivalent : iTunes, Winamp
Linux Mint equivalent : Amarok, Nuvola Player, Spotify
Amarok 2.5 Earth Moving was released on December 2011.

New features:
GPodder.net podcast synchronization.

Re-written USB Mass Storage support.
The Windows version of Amarok is now officially declared stable.
Many bugfixes to the iPod plugin, thanks to Matj Laitl.
An integrated Amazon MP3 store. This major feature is the work of our web-
entrepreneurs Sven and Justus.
sudo apt-get install amarok
Nuvola Player is an application that integrates cloud music services like Google Music,
Grooveshark, Hype Machine, 8tracks, Pandora, Rdio and Amazon Cloud Player with your
desktop. Using it, youll get desktop notifications, multimedia keys support, Mpris v2
(integration with Linux Mint Sound Menu or GNOME Shell Media Player extension)
integration, Unity quicklists and more.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nuvola-player-builders/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nuvolaplayer
Great Little Radio Player is a robust internet radio station streamer for various Linux
distributions. It connects to web sites offering radio streaming and lets you play radio
stations directly from that locations. With Great Little Radio Player, you will have
collection of more then 500 radio stations worldwide. Best part, its free of charge.
You can download it here:
sites.google.com/site/glrpgreatlittleradioplayer/
Spotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service
offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record
labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal.
Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had approximately
ten million users as of 15 September 2010; about 2.5 million of whom were paying
members.The service is, as of November 2011, available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark,
Faroe Islands, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the
United Kingdom and the United States.
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys

94558F59
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free"

>> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install spotify-client-qt

TV-MAXE is an application which provides the ability to watch TV stations and listen
radio via different streams, like SopCast. Currently it has a large number of channels. I
tested this in 13.10 and it is working great with about 50-70 percent of the channels
functional, but that also depends on where you live. Similar to iPlayer:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:venerix/pkg
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tv-maxe
Channel lists: https://code.google.com/p/tv-maxe/wiki/ChannelLists

Netflix is an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media in the United
States, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden,
Denmark, Norway, Finland and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company
was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. It started its
subscription-based digital distribution service in 1999 and by 2009 it was offering a
collection of 100,000 titles on DVD and had surpassed 10 million subscribers. On
February 25, 2007, Netflix announced the billionth DVD delivery. In April 2011, Netflix
announced 23.6 million subscribers in the United States and over 26 million worldwide.
By 2011, the total digital revenue for Netflix reached $1.5 billion. The new Netflix
streaming media player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into
Silverlight codec, for the playback of protected content. According to Netflix, this had
not been possible with previous technologies. The company also said that it has
expanded the number of movies and television programs available through the Watch
Instantly service. The paid service is roughly around $7.99 per month. Currently, you
are allowed a 30-day trial to test the services.
If you have questions or need support please visit:
https://launchpad.net/netflix-desktop
Download and install Netflix:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop redbox-desktop lovefilm-desktop
Hulu Desktop is a lean-back viewing experience for your personal computer. It features
a sleek new look thats optimized for use with standard Windows Media Center remote
controls or Apple remote controls, allowing you to navigate Hulus entire library with just
six buttons. For users without remotes, the application is keyboard and mouse-enabled.
Hulu Desktop is a downloadable application and will work on PCs and Macs. It will
initially launch as a beta product during which we plan to gather and incorporate user
feedback to improve the service. The new version includes both bug fixes and also
support for the new Hulu Plus subscription service.
You can download the deb installation package for your 32-bit or 64-bit version of Linux
Mint here:
https://github.com/alghanmi/ubuntu-desktop_setup/wiki/Hulu-Desktop-Install-Guide
After you have download it, you can double-click on the *.deb file and it should
automatically install itself with your Linux Mint Software Center.
Special Note: There is a problem when you run the default HuluDesktop configuration
in FullScreen mode on Linux. To fix this you must manually edit your .huluconfig file to
match your current monitor display resolution.
Copy and paste in Terminal:
gedit .huludesktop
And change this:
[display]
fullscreen = FALSE
width = 1024
height = 576
pos_x = 164
pos v = 95
and change FALSE to TRUE for fullscreen and update width and height to your actual
display resolution sizes. You can find your current monitor display resolution sizes in
your System Settings under Hardware.
[display]
fullscreen = TRUE
width = 1280
height = 720
pos_x = 164
pos v = 95
And if someone would be nice enough to drop a message to the HuluDesktop support
people to let them know they need to find a solution to this issue eventually, and you
can post that over this way. Maybe a nice GUI monitor resolution configuration option
within Huludesktop itself or even an auto detect function?:
http://www.hulu.com/discussions
Audacity is a cross-platform multitrack audio editor. It allows you to record sounds
directly or to import files in various formats and convert audio files into many different
audio file formats too. It features a few simple effects, all of the editing features you
should need, and unlimited undo. This is the first and last GUI audio editor you will ever
need on Linux Mint.
The GUI was built with wxWidgets and the audio I/O supports PulseAudio, OSS and ALSA
under Linux.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:audacity-team/daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install audacity lame libmp3lame0
Jack Audio Connection Kit (Recommended if you do audio editing)

For more specific information:https://help.ubuntu.com/community/What%20is%20JACK
sudo apt-get install jack jackd jackeq
Mixxx is a DJ tool that allows for the playback and mixing of digital music (MP3, Ogg
Vorbis, FLAC and Wave). Mixxx will run on the Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating
systems.
Mixxx has the ability to provide comprehensive support for any MIDI controller due to its
scripting engine, and it ships with mappings for a number of popular controllers, a
complete list of which can be found on the Hardware Compatibility page.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mixxx/mixxx
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mixxx libportaudio2

Airtime an award-winning open source radio management software, has reached
version 2.1, getting real-time show editing and live stream rebroadcasting.
Airtime 2.1 allows connecting remotely via tools such as Mixxx or Virtual DJ and the
application will rebroadcast the stream either at a time you set or in the middle of the
broadcast, using a nice transition.
Download Airtime (officially supports Linux Mint and Debian, but works on other Linux
distributions too)
Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application. It runs on
Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD. Its primary author is Paul Davis, who is also responsible
for the JACK Audio Connection Kit. Ardours intention is to provide digital audio
workstation software suitable for professional use.
sudo apt-get install ardour
Traverso DAW (digital audio workstation) is an easy to use, open source multitrack
audio recording and editing suite with a great user interface. Youll find yourself doing
more work in half the time thanks to the unique interface geared toward both the home
user and profession musician; instead of endless menus and submenus, Traverso uses
both the mouse and the keyboard together for precision and speed.
sudo apt-get install traverso
Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) is a free DAW (digital audio workstation) created
for Linux & Windows. Although it has a rather steep learning curve, there are many
tutorials and it includes several sample songs that you can learn from. Users learn the
functions pretty quickly once they go through a few of the examples. LMMS come
equipped with four different synthesizers. There is one that allows manipulation of
samples by adding filters and a BitInvader plugin that is a wavetable synthesizer,
allowing you to create a waveform for your sound. There is a guitar synthesizer and one
with three oscillators.
sudo apt-get install lmms
Jokosher is a multi-track music editor. The interface uses familiar concepts to musicians
rather than relying on their knowledge of multi-track recorders. Guitarists and other
players who dont want to spend the funds or the time to learn the ins and outs of multi-
tracking will appreciate this software. The idea of Jokosher is to be able to ignore the
software and be able to concentrate on your music.
sudo apt-get install jokosher
bristol is a vintage synthesiser software emulator suite. The application consists of an
engine itself called bristol and a graphical user interface called brighton. The graphical
interface is a bitmap manipulation library to present the diverse synth devices such as
potentiometers, buttons, sliders, patch cables and which generates the messages to
configure the synth emulator.
The engine is an infrastructure that hosts the emulator code that couples together the
different audio operators required to generate the audio. The engine and GUI are started
together with the start Bristol script which sets up the required environment for the two
to connect together. It is not generally envisaged that bristol and brighton be started
outside of the script however there are options to the script to only start one or the
other. Bristol also has a command line interface that can be used rather than the GUI.
Audio drivers are PCM/PCM plug or Jack. Midi drivers are either OSS/ALSA rawmidi
interface, or ALSA SEQ. Multple GUIs can connect to the single audio engine, which then
operates multitimbrally.
Currently the following synthesizers are emulated:
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/bristol.1.html
In Terminal copy and paste to install the GUI:
sudo apt-get install bristol monobristol
Special Note: You may need to type monobristol in terminal to start the GUI or you
may need to create a launcher for it manually. Sometimes it is better to run it entirely
from the command line too.
Amarok
Amaroks tagline is Rediscover Your Music, and its development is based around this
ideology. Amaroks core features such as the unique context browser, integrated
Wikipedia lookup and lyrics download help users to find new music, and to learn more
about the music they have.
Windows equivalent : iTunes

Amarok also features integration with last.fm, giving users suggestions about what to
listen to next and which artists may fit their mood, as well as with Magnatune
integration, allowing no-cost full listening of all the music in their catalog, and DRM-free
purchasing.
sudo apt-get install amarok amarok-common
Access it through Applications Sound & Video Amarok.
gtkpod
gtkpod is a graphical user interface for the Apple iPod for Unix-like systems, written
using the GTK+ toolkit.
Windows equivalent : iTunes

This application allow you to connect to your ipod, shuffle, idohickeythingamabob so you
can access your music, mp4s, and tranfer them, copy them, rename them, with Linux
Mint or Debian systems. Its all kinds of good stuff for apple media users.
sudo apt-get install gtkpod
OpenShot Video Editor is a free, open-source video editor for Linux licensed under the
GPL version 3.0.OpenShot can take your videos, photos, and music files and help you
create the film you have always dreamed of. Easily add sub-titles, transitions, and
effects, and then export your film to DVD, YouTube, Vimeo, Xbox 360, and many other
common formats.
OpenShot provides extensive editing and compositing features, and has been designed
as a practical tool for working with high-definition video including HDV and AVCHD.
Copy and paste in Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openshot frei0r-plugins

Kazam is a simple screen recording program that will capture the content of your
screen and record a video file that can be played by any video player that supports
VP8/WebM video format. You are able to have a mic enabled and background soundtrack
too.
Optionally you can record sound from any sound input device that is supported and
visible by PulseAudio.
sudo apt-get install kazam
recordMyDesktop is a free and open source desktop screencasting software

application written for GNU/Linux. The program is separated into two parts; a command
line tool that performs the tasks of capturing and encoding, and an interface that
exposes the program functionality graphically. There are two front-ends written in
python with pyGtk (gtk-recordMyDesktop) and pyQt4 (qt-recordMyDesktop).
RecordMyDesktop also offers the ability to record audio through ALSA, OSS or the JACK
audio server. RecordMyDesktop only outputs to Ogg using Theora for video and Vorbis
for audio. It has plenty of options when it comes to video quallity, brightness, and
gamma correction.
sudo apt-get install gtk-recordmydesktop
PlayOnLinux is Linux software which allows you to easily install and use numerous
games and applications designed to run with Microsoft Windows OS. PlayOnLinux brings
a cost-free, accessible and efficient solution to running Windows software in Linux Mint.
It is recommend that new users check with the Wine App Database first to see if
whatever Windows application or Windows program has been tested to work and
perform well with Wine on Linux before attempting to use Wine to run whatever
Windows software you are interested in running.
And be aware that the installation of PlayOnLinux can take some time because there is a
problem with the font installation and eventually it will kickout a font error and then you
can start using PlayOnLinux at that point. It is always recommended that you try to
locate a native Linux application in the Ubuntu Software Center that is the equivalent to
whatever Windows App or Windows program you need to run. And only use PlayOnLinux
if no Linux equivalent exists already in the Linux Mint software repositories for free.
To install Wine in Linux Mint copy and paste into Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine1.5
To install PlayOnLinux in Linux Mint copy and paste into Terminal:
sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_precise.list -O

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys

E0F72778C4676186
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install playonlinux
TeamViewer is a free for non-commercial use, software application for remote control,
desktop sharing, and file transfer between computers, great for meetings,
presentations, tech support and more. It runs on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux (even though
it comes in a .deb or .rpm, it uses Wine which comes bundled with it) as well as Android
or iPhone. You will need to modify GUFW firewall settings in order to connect if you have
it enabled.
Windows: LogMeIn, GoToMeeting, MS RDC
http://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/linux.aspx
Updated: October 20th 2013 (includes patch for 64-bit Linux Mint systems)
Citrix Systems Reciever ICAClient (w/Firefox Plug-in):
Citrix Receiver is a lightweight software client that allows access to virtual desktops and
apps including Windows, Web or SaaS apps on any PC, Mac, netbook, tablet or
smartphone. Works for both 32-bit and 64-bit version of Linux Mint. You need to
download two deb packages to have it working correctly. You need the installation
package for either 32-bit or 64-bit, and the supporting usb deb package, and then you
will need to also install the USB support deb package as well.
Linux Citrix user Advisory: The Citrix installation deb isnt as current or maintained
as it should be and you might want to post a message to their forums to let them know
about it so they can update their software installation package for Linux Mint and I am
having a hard time keeping up with the problems each Linux Mint release in order for it
to be included on this list. If they wont maintain their software to stay current with
Linux Mint releases then I cant continue to recommend their product for new users, and
so if you need this software on your own production systems, please do take the time to
inform them and let them know how you feel. The Citrix deb installation packages have
minor bugs, but they have been on-going for a couple of years now, and the work-
arounds are getting much more complicated over time to keep it functional for Linux
Mint debian systems. If they dont update their product by the next LTS release then I
will just delete this product from my do-to list instead and Citrix users will have to
continue using 12.04 indefinitely if they require Citrix on debian systems. Just a heads
up there! Thanks.
Special Note (Important for saucy users) Here is another Citrix patch and work-around
since certain dependencies were removed in 13.10 and will not install properly:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2166020&page=3
You will find both on the Linux download page on the following link:
http://www.citrix.com/downloads/citrix-receiver/receivers-by-platform/receiver-for-linux-
121.html
And then copy the certificates to the proper directory:
sudo cp /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/*
/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts
Tutorial on how to install Citrix Receiver in Linux Mint:
Special Note: There is a error in the deb installation package that you download from
Citrix. If you are running 64-bit Linux Mint and trying to install Citrix the installation will
FAIL. Here is how to resolve this problem with the installation package for 64-bit Linux
Mint:
1. Install the .deb and let it fail using gdebi package installer. Instructions for how to
install gdebi are back the beginning of this To Do List guide at the top. Dont use the
Linux Mint Software Center because it crashes it.
2. Edit /var/lib/dpkg/info/icaclient.postinst
sudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/info/icaclient.postinst
3. Replace the line that says
echo $Arch|grep "i[0-9]86" >/dev/null
with
echo $Arch|grep -E "i[0-9]86|x86_64" >/dev/null
4. Run dpkg configure icaclient
sudo dpkg --configure icaclient
Restart Firefox so the plugin is installed correctly.
I really hope Citrix fixes this problem with their 64-bit installation deb package for 64-bit
Linux Mint soon. And the other thing that is missing from the installation package is the
certificates.
Make sure to always copy the certificates to the proper directory so Citrix can connect
properly with your Citrix host:
sudo cp /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/*
/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts
Hard Disk Partition Manager

Windows equivalent : Norton Partition Magic
Linux Mint equivalent : GParted
GParted is a GTK+ front-end to GNU Parted and the official GNOME Partition Editor
application.
It is used for creating, deleting, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and
the file systems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems
(works with Vista / Windows 7 System & Data partitions), reorganizing disk usage,
copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk
imaging). It is useful for tasks such as: creating space for new operating systems,
restructuring disk space to separate user and operating system data, and copying
partitions to enable upgrading to a larger hard disk drive. Your hard disk drive or USB
flash drive can be subdivided into one or more partitions. GParted enables you to
reorganize your disk partitions while preserving the contents of these partitions.
sudo apt-get install gparted
Oracle VM VirtualBox (formerly Sun VirtualBox, Sun xVM VirtualBox and innotek
VirtualBox) is an x86 virtualization software package, created by software company
Innotek GmbH, purchased in 2008 by Sun Microsystems, and now developed by Oracle
Corporation as part of its family of virtualization products. Oracle VM VirtualBox is
installed on Linux Mint as an application; this host application allows additional guest
operating systems, each known as a Guest OS, to be loaded and run, each with its own
virtual environment. For example, here we have installed Andriod 4.0 Ice Cream
Sandwich OS virtually inside of Virtualbox for App development purposes.
To install Oracle VM VirtualBox copy and paste into Terminal:
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc)
contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc)
contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
wget -q
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O-
| sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3

Redo Backup and Recovery is so simple that anyone can use it. It is the easiest, most
complete disaster recovery solution available. It allows bare-metal restore. Bare metal
restore is not only the best solution for hardware failure, it is also the ultimate antivirus:
Even if your hard drive melts or gets completely erased by a virus, you can have a
completely-functional system back up and running in as little as 10 minutes.
http://redobackup.org/
Clonezilla is a free disaster recovery, disk cloning, disk imaging and deployment
solution. Clonezilla is designed by Steven Shiau and developed by the NCHC Free
Software Labs in Taiwan. Clonezilla SE provides multicast support similar to Norton
Ghost Corporate Edition.
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
MultiSystem is for creating a multiboot live USB flash drives or thumb-drives. Instead
of carrying around a bunch of different flash drives for all of your different live operating
systems, and restoration images, now can move them all onto one large USB flash drive.
Simply drag and drop your .iso files. It is very similar to Xboot in WinOS.
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot
all main'
wget -q http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot/multisystem.asc -O- |

sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install multisystem
BleachBit (recommended) quickly frees disk space and tirelessly guards your privacy.
Free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and
discard junk you didnt know was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it
wipes clean 90 applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google
Chrome, Opera, Safari, and more. I highly recommend installing this on your system at
some point, and making sure to have it automatically run at system login as a reminder.
Even though Linux Mint doesnt have issues with Viruses and Spyware, however your
system can become slowly bogged down with tmp cache files in Mozilla Firefox and
Chrome with heavy use, so it makes sense to run bleachbit periodically to speed up your
system.
Windows equivalent : CCleaner
Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding
files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other
applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster. Better than free, BleachBit is open
source. If you have a system that seems to be running slower than normal, its always a
good idea to try running Bleachbit to see if it may resolve your performance issues that
you may be experiencing. I personally recommend that heavy internet users run this at
least once or twice a month.
sudo apt-get install bleachbit
sudo bleachbit
Bleachbit Tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PCxw0y4omac

To Do List After Installing Linux Mint 16 Os

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Supported until July 2014

Linux Mint 16Mate Desktop Environment

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Do a search for Driver Manager and click on it.

If your video drivers didnt install correctly:

sudo apt-get install pastebinit

lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 vga

If you have used

Click: Menu >> Administration >> Printers

And with each driver

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw

sudo tlp start

Auto Mount Windows NTFS Partition(s):

sudo mkdir -p /etc/hal/fdi/policy

Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw) is a firewall that is designed to be easy to use. It uses a

To check your current settings:

To add basic firewall rules:

sudo ufw deny 22

sudo ufw deny 25/tcp

sudo ufw deny 135,139,445/tcp

sudo ufw deny 137,138/udp

sudo ufw deny 110

sudo ufw deny 2049

sudo ufw deny 143

sudo ufw deny 21/tcp

sudo ufw deny ssh

sudo ufw deny out 1:19/udp

sudo ufw deny out 22:52/tcp

sudo ufw deny out 22:52/udp

sudo ufw deny out 54:79/tcp

sudo ufw deny out 54:79/udp

sudo ufw deny out 81:122/tcp

sudo ufw deny out 81:122/udp

sudo ufw deny out 124:442/tcp

sudo ufw deny out 124:442/udp

sudo ufw deny out 444:65535/tcp

Re-check your changes:

Re-check enable (required):

If you want to tighten-up your security even further:

sudo apt-get install rkhunter chkrootkit

To run chkrootkit open a terminal window and enter :

sudo rkhunter --update

sudo rkhunter --propupd

Linux Mint equivalent : ClamAV, BitDefender

sudo apt-get install clamav clamtk

BitDefender is an anti-virus software suite developed by Romania-based software

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.bitdefender.com/repos/deb/

sudo apt-key add bd.key.asc

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install bitdefender-scanner-gui

When you are ready to reboot just copy and paste:

sudo touch /opt/BitDefender-scanner/var/lib/scan/bdcore.so.linux-

sudo ln -fs /opt/BitDefender-scanner/var/lib/scan/bdcore.so.linux-

sudo bdscan --update

For further BitDefender support please visit:

Linux Mint equivalent : vlc, mplayer, fluendo media codecs

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc mplayer