Getting started

Here I'm going to show you the necessary softwares you needed to go well with the Ubuntu, like multimedia players, instant messaging clients, web browsers etc.

1. VLC media player

The cross-platform open-source multimedia framework, player and server

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac ...) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. See the full features list.
It can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.

If you like VLC, please rate it on the Freshmeat and versiontracker entries!

Here I uses terminal (command prompt in windows) for installing new programs.
To open terminal go Applications > Accessories > Terminal

From the prompt run the following command.

$ sudo apt-get update ( sudo command is to get admin (root) privileges for the user)
$ sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd mozilla-plugin-vlc (it will ensure installing all necessary plugins to be installed with it)

2. Pidgin Internet messenger

Pidgin is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time.

Pidgin is compatible with the following chat networks out of the box: AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr. It can support many more with plugins.

Pidgin supports many features of these chat networks, such as file transfers, away messages, buddy icons, custom smilies, and typing notifications. Numerous plugins also extend Pidgin's functionality above and beyond the standard features.

to install pidgin type the following command on terminal

$ sudo apt-get install pidgin

To get latest version of pidgin

Ubuntu ships Pidgin but does not update it after a release (except for security issues and high-severity bugs). For those users who desire new releases of Pidgin, we have packaged Pidgin in a PPA. If you encounter problems with these packages, try building from source and report the bug.

To setup the PPA, copy-and-paste these commands into a terminal:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com \ 67265eb522bdd6b1c69e66ed7fb8bee0a1f196a8

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu \ `lsb_release --short --codename` main | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pidgin-ppa.list

After doing this, open Update Manager, check for updates, and then install the newly available Pidgin packages.

Future Pidgin updates will show up in Update Manager along with the usual Ubuntu updates. The PPA will need to be re-setup only after upgrading Ubuntu.

This PPA is maintained by one developer, so please be patient. It often lags behind the source releases a couple of days.

Voice and video support is only built on Jaunty (9.04) and up.

3. Opera

Download

Browse to the folder where you put the downloaded file, assumes it is at desktop

$ cd Desktop

Desktop:-$ sudo dpkg -i opera*.deb

The second method is to download Opera from the Ubuntu repositories. This is probably the more trusted method, but many users prefer first method due to the fact that it can often be more up to date. . To install Opera use the following:


$ sudo apt-get install opera