Flash or no Flash that is the question...

Last week was hell it was my submission and my hard disk crashed. It was totally my bad but still shit happens. Got my new hard disk, thanks Lenovo for a swift service and loved the experience. So after a full marks service by Lenovo I got the computer up and running, installed Fedora and tweaked it to my preference. I had thought of installing Arch but was in no mood to spend the days configuring to do a simple job and also was a little short of time for my submission.

So that bring us to our post, this not just any rambling. Flash has decided to drop support for linux for its next version. Version 12 will only be available for Mac and Windoze users. We have read all the blogs and news flashes (he he he) Flash for linux will stop at version 11 and will only be supported for next 5 years. We all know that by that time we will (hopefully) have HTML5 and will never require the abomination called Flash. But are we ready for Flash free surfing today.

I am not gonna install Flash for as long as possible. I will try to use alternatives if I require it too badly, but no Flash for me for the near future. Wish me luck guys...

Things to do after installing Fedora

Fedora is a great OS. Its Linux as it should be free and usable, at the cutting edge but completely stable. But it still lets a lot to be wanted such as the non free software, libraries which are essential in day to day life. Few nitty gritties installed and the make a wonderful environment to work and play.

1) Installing RPM Fusion, Livna Repos

Though most of the free softwares and codecs are quite capable of running the show, few restrictive and non free blobs such as mp3 support, VLC media player are the need of life. Most of these are not found on the official repos. These can be installed through the RPM Fusion repo. Livna repo is only needed for libdvdcss. Livna exist only for that package.

Adding or removing packages in Fedora is done through graphical frontend to yum, PackageKit. It is not possible to install yum repo through PackageKit. In order to install the RPM Fusion and Livna repo run in terminal;

yum --nogpgcheck install http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

2) MP3 support

Rhythmbox is the standard music player included in Fedora. Other players include Amarok, Audacious, etc.. The list goes on and on. In case of standard gnome install the default player is rhythmbox. For it to play mp3 gstreamer-plugin-ugly is needed.To install that,

yum install gstreamer-plugin-ugly

As pointed out by Kevin Kofler same command is also to be used in case of KDE and Amarok.

You can also install these plugins from the GUI by searching for them in the Add & Remove Software or PackageKit.

3) Install VLC

Totem is good but VLC is the best. Its open-source, light weight and so full of nifty features that you dont need anything else for all your media needs. It also supports many video codecs of the block.
yum install vlc

There are many features that can be done with VLC. You can read about it here.

 4) Install Flash player

Flash player was supposed to be dead but it isn't. It still drags on and you have to install it to use your favourite video site or online gaming site. Open source gnash is just not upto the mark to be used on an daily basis.


To install Adobe repo

yum --nogpgcheck install http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

In order to install Flash plugin

yum install flash-plugin

Thanks mr.Edrk for this heads up. 

You can also download Flash plugin RPM from its website here.


5) Configure backup


Fedora comes pre-installed with a great backup software Deja-Dup. Its easy to use and easier to configure. Configure a twice weekly backup to maintain sanity and do a regular backup in background and secure your files.


That rounds off the 5 things to do after installing Fedora. I enjoy using Fedora and these tips make my life easier. There are many tips and tricks and this unofficial faq is a great place to know about it. Please add your tips and tricks in the comments and I will be grateful and will add them here.

Updates:

I always wanted GUI for installation of softwares and codecs for Fedora. I didn't know they existed before seeing the comments. Thank you all for the update. All the codec installation can be done using GUI scripts such as autoplus, Fedora utils. Other great way to manage your GNOME desktop is by using gnome-tweak-tool. Great thing about File Roller the default archive manager is that it is extendable. Rar file support can be installed just by installing unrar 

yum install unrar