Thanks to a tip from Bob,I discovered a series of columns by Matthew Newton at PCworld.com dealing with Linux. A few of these deal with Ubuntu in particular, including his column dated Jan 30th, 2006: "Ubuntu's Missing Batteries". Essentially, mostly due to licensing, a complete install of Unbuntu Linux 5.10 or 6.06 is still missing a lot of the goodies that Windows users tend to take for granted such as the ability to play an MP3 file or a DVD disk or burn a CD-R (i.e. the "missing batteries") His column (at http://www.pcworld.com/resource/columnist/0,colid,8,00.asp#) deals with setting up program called Automatix on an Ubuntu 5.10 computer, which is an graphical installation interface over a series of scripts that collects these "goodies" from their various locations all over the web and installs them for you without any further intervention on your part. As it runs, you will see a series of text-based scripts run in a terminal window (you might want to let it run overnight--depending on how many things you have selected to be installed it can go on for hours) until it completes and returns you to your Ubuntu desktop.

So far I've used Automatix to update my Firefox browser and Open Office applications to the latest versions, download & install an MP3 player (Rythmbox, which I've only been able to get to play one MP3 at a time), a sound file editor (Audacity), a DVD ripper, Gnomebaker CD-R burner, Totem movie player, VLC movie player, Realplayer10, and a host of other media applications.

If you care to try Automatix yourself, the installation location has changed from the one listed in the article--here is the latest version literally copied (& pasted) directly off the the Documentation Wiki:

With your favorite text editor (mine is gedit) make the following changes to /etc/apt/sources.list

Code:

Quote:

Now save and close the file and do the following from terminal to import and install the GPG keys and install automatix:

1) Key import:

Code:

2) Installation

Code:

Now you can remove and install Automatix from synaptic in Dapper and get automatic updates too. Enjoy :)

Run Automatix from Applications --> System Tools on Gnome

and Main Menu --> System on KDE and XFCE OR

run Automatix from terminal as follows:

Code:

With your favorite text editor (mine is gedit) make the following changes to /etc/apt/sources.list

Code:

and add the following line to the end of the file which opens up:

Quote:

Now save and close the file and do the following from terminal to import and install the GPG keys and install automatix:

1) Key Import

Code:

2) Installation

Code:

Now you can remove and install Automatix from synaptic in Breezy and get automatic updates too. Enjoy :)