Brief: This article shows you a few things to do after installing Fedora 24 Workstation edition to get a better experience out of Fedora after a fresh installation.
I am more of a Ubuntu user and I have written articles like things to do after installing Ubuntu 16.04 to smoothen the beginning experience with Ubuntu. Since I am trying out the new Fedora 24 release these days, I thought why not write an article of must to do things after installing Fedora 24?
Most of the basic steps remain the same in Fedora as well. You’ll have to do an upgrade, enable ‘special repository’ to get more applications, installing codecs, programs, utilities etc. The method is a little different in Fedora than Ubuntu. Switching from Ubuntu to Fedora is an experience in itself but we’ll see about that in details in another article. For now, let’s just see what are the things to do after installing Fedora 24.
Things to do after installing Fedora 24
Honestly, this list could be different for different people. It really depends on what do you use your Fedora system for. As a regular desktop user, there are a few things (almost) everyone needs. This list tries to cover those basic necessities.
Just for the information, you’ll require a working internet connection to follow these instructions.
Upgrade your system
Even if it’s a fresh install, upgrade your system before you do anything else. It is a must. Open a terminal and use the following command to upgrade your Fedora system.
It will take some time to upgrade your system, depending upon your internet speed.
Enable RPM Fusion repositories
Once you have upgraded your system, you would want to install software in it. Default repository of Fedora has plenty of software available for installation but there are many more software that are not included in it.
These software are provided in separate RPM Fusion repositories. There are two RMP Fusion repositories, free for open source projects and nonfree for proprietary software. For an overall experience, I advise you to add both RPM Fusion repositories.
Try these commands in the terminal to enable RPM Fusion repositories:
Install essential programs in single click with Fedy
Fedy is a graphical tool that lets you install various programs that are not provided by Fedora in a single click. This is similar to Ubuntu After Install tool. Here, you have a list of programs that are available in Fedy and you can choose the ones you want to install. Just click on Install button to install it.
Fedy also informs about the license of the software. So, you can see if its GPL, MIT or proprietary and make a decision about installing the software (if you care deeply about running only open source programs).
Fedy also provides a few themes and tweaks. We’ll see about themes later in this article. For the moment, let me suggests the essential applications that you should install with Fedy:
Google Chrome
Multimedia Codecs
Oracle JRE
Skype
Spotify
Adobe Flash
Dropbox
You can check more options available of course. To install Fedy, use the command below:
Improve battery life and reduce overheating
I have written in detail about the best practices to reduce overheating in Linux laptops. TLP is my favorite tool in recent times. You install it once and you will see its impact almost immediately. Install it and forget it, no need to bother with configuration, not because you cannot do it, more because you don’t need it. I believe that it should be installed by default in all Linux distributions.
To install TLP in Fedora 24, use the following command:
Save your eyes at night with Redshift
A lot has been discussed about the impact ‘blue light’ makes on our sleeping habit lately. It’s not a secret that computer screens are not the best friend of our eyes, especially at nights in non-natural lights.
For this reason, there are applications that reduce the blue light and provide a more eyes-friendly orange or red screen. Redshift is one such application that you must install if you use your computer at night. Use the command below to install Redshift
There is no configuration needed. It determines your location and automatically turns your screen red-ish after sunset. If you need more features and configuration, try f.lux. Read this article about using f.lux to get night shift feature in Linux.
Install an office suite
Surprisingly, Fedora doesn’t come with an office suite installed by default. No wonder other Linux distributions based on Fedora are getting popular these days as they provide a better experience out of the box.
For an office suite, I recommend LibreOffice. To install LibreOffice in Fedora, use the command below:
Enable tap to click and disable screen lock
I don’t know why tap to click is disabled by default in Fedora. It’s not very friendly to actually use the left click on the touchpad. A tap should do the work.
Go to Settings->Mouse & Touchpad and enable tap to click option here:
For disabling or changing screen-lock, go to Settings->Privacy and change the settings here:
Install Gnome Tweak Tool to tweak your system (for Fedora GNOME)
You’ll be tweaking your system’s looks and appearance, won’t you? The best tool for this purpose is Gnome Tweak Tool. It lets you change a number of settings in GNOME. Of course, this is valid for the default Fedora GNOME systems.
To install Gnome Tweak Tool, use the command below:
Change themes and icons
Honestly, no matter how good a default system looks, you can always make it look better. With Gnome Tweak Tool installed, you can change the icons and themes easily.
Read this post to find out how to change themes in GNOME and check this post to see the best GNOME themes (post is for Ubuntu but you can use it for Fedora as well).
Install some more applications
As a regular desktop user, I need a few more applications to work in my day-to-day life. I cannot live without my favorite VLC media player. Then there is GIMP, Shutter, Inkscape, Transmission torrent client and many more such applications. You can install them using the command below:
You can find more useful applications in the GNOME Software application.
What did you do after installing Fedora 24?
This was my recommendation of things to do after installing Fedora 24. What are you going to do or already did after installing Fedora 24? Do share it with us.