Install and configure computer

When I reinstall my computer, I usually do these following steps:

1. Copy all data to an external HDD
2. Save configuration:
   • Write down all WLAN configurations (eventually with screenshots; NOT ONLY PASSWORDS!)
   • .ssh and GPG keys
   • Filezilla configurations
3. Write down all programs that I use.
   1. Export configuration of those programs.
4. Wait a week or a month and see if someting is missing in the lists from above.
5. Drop the old system and install a new one

Operating System

I like to install the latest Ubuntu long term support version (LTS) with the MATE desktop environment: Download link

Ubuntu is the operating system which is one of many flavors of Linux. Those flavours are called distributions. It is one of the most popular distributions according to distrowatch.com, just behind MX Linux, Manjaro and Linux Mint.

Software I usually install

If possible, I will give the debian package names in the following list:

• sublime_text
• LaTeX and scientific writing
  • jabref: A reference manager
  • gnuplot
  • pdf2svg
  • aspell and aspell-de
• Google Chrome
• Multimedia
  • vlc: A very good DVD player
  • OnlineTvRecorder and especially OTR-Verwaltung
  • avidemux wine mplayer
  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:clipgrab-team && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install clipgrab
• Graphics
  • gimp
  • inkscape
  • imagemagick
  • pdf2svg librsvg2-bin
• Programming
  • zsh and Oh-my-zsh
  • General Tools: sudo apt-get install make curl wget tree htop vim direnv zsh sqlitebrowser meld diffpdf
  • Python: pyenv, pip install pip-tools black isort pre-commit
  • MySQL: sudo apt-get install mysql-server && sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
  • VS Code
  • C/C++: sudo apt-get install gcc g++ cmake build-essential gdb
  • ruby ruby-sqlite3 ruby-mysql
  • PHP: apache2 php5 php5-mysql
  • JavaScript: sudo apt-get install nodejs npm
• Themes
  • Balazan-Theme from bisigi-project (simply download it.)
• Work
  • Slack
  • Zoom
• Other
  • libreoffice
  • PDF: qpdf (1)
• DRM-caused (I want to watch DVDs!)
  • ubuntu-restricted-extras libdvd-pkg libdvdread4 libdvdnav4, then run sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
  • totem banshee mplayer rythmbox

Configure

Set standards

update-alternatives --config editor
update-alternatives --config x-www-browser

MATE

See issues/262:

mv ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks-backup
ln -s ~/.gtk-bookmarks ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks

GUI

I like the old menu bar quite a lot. It opens instantly and is customizable:

You can get it back in MATE by doing a right-click on the menu. Then click on "add to panel":

After that, the following dialog will pop up. Choose "Menu Bar"

DRM-Stuff

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
sudo regionset #use that with caution

dotfiles

See github.com/MartinThoma/dotfiles.

Data

Download / copy all data back from GitHub / external HDDs to my internal HDD.

Themes

Bigger sites:

• Mate-look.org

And some specific ones:

• Mac: McMojave
• Balanzan