The Synaptic Manager in Ubuntu makes it very easy to install all the required software and codecs. but it still misses out on various much needed software like the Adobe Acrobat reader, Skype, Real Player, Google Earth, Opera and many more. Many proprietary codecs are also not included. Although these can be installed by manually adding the Linux repositories of each of them but this only makes the task a bit hectic. So what is the work around? Simple. Add the Medibuntu repository.

Using the Medibuntu repository you can install many useful softwares from a single source some of which include Acrobat Reader, Google Earth, IBM Java Runtime Environment, SUN Java Runtime Environment, Opera, Real Player and Skype. Some of the proprietary codecs that can also be installed from this Medibuntu repository are bmp-wma, ffmpeg, libdvdcss2, w32codecs and more.

Here is how you can configure your Ubuntu system to install all the above mentioned softwares and codecs from the Medibuntu repository:

Step 1: Add the Medibuntu repository. Run the following command in a terminal (command line shell)

Step 2: Install the appropriate keys and update the software sources list. (Do not worry if this step fails)

Step 3: Search and install whatever you like. You can search for any software using the command aptitude search <software> and install it using aptitude install <software> command.

Thanks Andre