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Review of Automatix 6.2-1


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#1 Linoman

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Posted 25 June 2006 - 11:44 AM

With copyright patents all over the place. A lot of Linux distributions have been forced to exclude property codecs. The good thing is how ever, the user can download these codecs later. Ubuntu and its derivatives are plagued by this.

For a beginner this can be quite a daunting task. A few scripts have arrived on the scene to assist users installing property software/codecs.

One such script is Automatix. I first came across it last year, when I was using Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy. I was amazed at how much easier it made my life. Then I decided to start using the alphas of Dapper Drake. I was saddened that Automatix did not support it then. When Dapper Drake arrived on the scene I install Kubuntu 6.06 LTS and went hunting for Automatix.

I was pleased to see, Automatix now supported Dapper Drake. Automatix has come a long way. When I first used it last year. The script would crash with out warning. In this release I did not have these problems. Installing and keeping Automatix updated is a breeze. Automatix can now install and update by apt, just add the appropriate entry to your /etc/apt/sources.list.

For Ubuntu; Kubuntu; Xubuntu "Dapper Drake" Automatix installs the following: Please note that the Automatix developers either add or remove certain items with new releases)

Attached File  automatix.png   64.95K   143 downloads

* 01) Installs multimedia codecs
* 02) Installs all Firefox plugins (java, flash, etc) (except Adobe reader and mplayer)
* 03) Installs RAR, ACE and UNRAR archive support - BD
* 04) Installs skype
* 05) Installs Acrobat reader 7 and firefox plugin for the same.
* 06) Installs Gnomebaker (CD/DVD burning s/w for GNOME)
* 07) Installs gftp (FTP client for GNOME with ssh capability)
* 08) Installs Frostwire (GPL clone of Limewire)
* 09) Installs multimedia editors (Audacity (audio), Kino (video), EasyTag (ID3))
* 10) Installs DVD (dvdrip) ripper
* 11) Installs Mplayer and mplayerplug for Firefox
* 12) Installs totem-xine, Realplayer, VLC and Beep Media Player (with docklet)
* 13) Installs Opera Browser 9.0
* 14) Installs Debian Menu (shows all installed applications) (this kills and restarts your gnome-panel without warning u but its a completely harmless operation!)
* 15) Installs Bittornado and Azureus (Bittorrent clients)
* 16) Installs Avidemux (Video editing tool) (New version 2.1.0)
* 17) Enables Numlock on (turns numlock on Gnome startup)
* 18) Installs Programming Tools (Anjuta (C/C++ IDE), Bluefish (HTML editor), Screem (Web Development Env.) and NVU (HTML editor))
* 19) Install GnomePPP (Graphical Dial up connection tool)
* 20) Installs MS true type fonts
* 21) Configures ctrl-alt-del to start gnome-system-monitor (aka windows)
* 22) Installs Streamripper and Streamtuner
* 23) Installs NON-FREE audio and dvd codecs
* 24) Installs Laptop Wifi
* 25) Upgrades Gaim to Beta 2.0
* 26) Adds 3 nautilus scripts (open any file with gedit as root; open a nautilus window as root in any folder; open gnome search tool in any folder (Right click in a nautilus window and look under "scripts")
* 27) Installs SUN'S JAVA JRE version 1.5
* 28) Installs SUN'S JAVA JDK version 1.5
* 29) Installs wine (u need to run winecfg manually after installation)
* 30) Enables ejection of CD when CDROM drive button is pressed.
* 31) Installs AMSN 0.95 (MSN client with webcam support)
* 32) Installs BUM (Boot-up Manager)
* 33) Installs DCPP (Linux DC++ client)
* 34) Installs sbackup (Backup and restoration solution)
* 35) Installs the latest version of Rhythmbox
* 36) installs gdesklets (GNOME eyecandy) and adds gdesklets to GNOME startup
* 37) NVIDIA cards (Detects Nvidia cards and installs drivers) (Needs a restart)
* 38) Installs Firefox plugins
* 39) Installs Mozilla-Thunderbird 1.5 (US-only version) (no support for non-US-english language packs and enigmail)
* 40) Installs Swiftfox Browser and it's plugins


PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL (23) IF YOU ARE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. IT IS ILLEGAL TO DO SO

What annoys me about Automatix is the fact that certain pieces of software require one to retype the "sudo" password over and over again. This I feel is unreasonable and I hope that it will be a thing of the past with future releases. Automatix uses its own repositories and after the changes are complete it gives the user the option to either keep the new repositories or revert back to default.

In all Automatix is a great program but a word of warning in the wrong hands it can be destructive

#2 m.oreilly

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Posted 25 June 2006 - 06:20 PM

oh man, just what i need :) thanks for this, as i was enjoying exploring kubuntu, but was unsure of media codec/gpu driver support (divx, etc.)




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