Internet Applications

This section provides information on using common Internet applications, such as web browsers and email clients.

Web Browsing with Firefox

The powerful and secure Mozilla® Firefox Web Browser is included in Xubuntu. Firefox features tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, built-in search, and live bookmarks. Also supported are popular plug-ins such as Java®, Flash, and RealPlayer.

Firefox can be launched by clicking ApplicationsNetworkFirefox Web Browser.

Get Addons for Your Firefox

Addons extend Firefox's capabilities, such as automatically removing adverts or altering the behaviour of menus.

To view a list of currently-installed plugins in the Firefox Web Browser, click ApplicationsNetworkFirefox Web Browser and click ToolsAdd-ons.

Quickly Install Common Plugins

It is possible to install a whole set of commonly-used restricted plugins at once, by installing the Xubuntu restricted extras package.

[Warning]

Restricted plugins are those that cannot be distributed with Xubuntu because of legal issues surrounding their use in some countries. Check that you are allowed to use this software before installing it. See the Ubuntu website for more information on restricted software.

  1. Open Ubuntu Software Center by clicking ApplicationsUbuntu Software Center.

  2. Type Xubuntu in the search field located in the upper right and select the search result for Xubuntu restricted extras.

    [Note]

    The Xubuntu restricted extras package is located in the Multiverse repository and access to it is not enabled by default. Click More Info next to the package you want to install, then click Use This Source to enable access to this repository so that you can continue with the installion process. If access to the repository has already enabled, the Install button will be present and you can proceed to the next step. For more information regarding repositories and adding them, see the Software Repositories section.

  3. Click Install.

  4. You will be prompted to enter your password, then the packages will be downloaded and installed.

The following is a sampling of the various plugins, multimedia codecs, a set of Windows fonts and other packages that will be installed by the Xubuntu restricted extras package:

  • gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

  • gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse

  • gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

  • gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

  • gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg

  • gstreamer0.10-pitfdll

  • libavcodec-extra-52

  • ttf-mscorefonts-installer

  • flashplugin-installer

  • unrar

  • libmp3lame0

  • libdvdread4

If you do not want to install all of the packages that come within the Xubuntu restricted extras package, but only want to install one or a few packages such as the Adobe Flash plugin, Sun Java 6.0 Plugin, or the GStreamer multimedia framework, you can search for and install the package using the Ubuntu Software Center.

Changing the Default Font Size

If you find that the size of text in Firefox is too small to read comfortably, you can increase the default font size.

  1. Press EditPreferences and select the Content tab

  2. Under Fonts & Colors, change the Size to a larger number (around 20 tends to be quite comfortable to read)

  3. Text on web pages should immediately look larger. Press Close

To temporarily increase the size of text on a web page, press ViewText SizeIncrease. Alternatively, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll down with your mouse's scroll wheel, or press Ctrl++.

To return the text to its normal size, press ViewText SizeNormal.

Send and Receive Emails

Email is one of the most popular ways to communicate over the Internet. Xubuntu includes all of the tools that you need to send, receive and organize email messages.

Mozilla Thunderbird Mail/News is the default email client in Xubuntu, and can handle all of your email, contact lists, task-tracking and calendar needs.

Thunderbird can be launched by pressing ApplicationsNetworkMozilla Thunderbird Mail/News.

Junk Mail Filtering

Thunderbird classifies mail as junk mail (also known as spam) by analysing the message statistically, and can learn from selections made by the user. The technique is known as Bayesian filtering; you can find more details on this here:

Thunderbird is automatically configured to use scan your email for junk mail. To view or change Thunderbird's junk mail settings, perform the following tasks:

  • Open ApplicationsNetworkMozilla Thunderbird Mail/News.

  • Select Edit+Preferences+Privacy+Junk.

Thunderbird will start to learn what is spam, based on the messages you mark. To mark a message as spam, select Message+Mark+As Junk.

Alternative Email Applications

You can also use Evolution for email. To install it, install the evolution package.

To start Evolution, choose ApplicationsNetworkEvolution Mail.

To change your preferred email client to Evolution:

  1. Choose ApplicationsSettingsXfce 4 Settings ManagerPreferred Applications

  2. Click on the Mail Reader drop down menu, and select the Other... option.

  3. In the Command text box, type

                      
                        evolution %s
                      
                    

    then close the dialog.

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging (IM) is a way of communicating with friends and family by sending messages to one another over the Internet. Instant messaging happens in real-time, and there is no delay between you typing a message and the other person receiving it.

Pidgin Internet Messenger

Pidgin Internet Messenger is the default instant messenger client in Xubuntu, and was formerly known as Gaim. With Pidgin Internet Messenger you can talk to people who use AIM/ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, GroupWise, IRC, Jabber, MSN, Napster, Bonjour and Yahoo, and list all your buddies in a single window.

To start Pidgin Internet Messenger, click ApplicationsNetworkPidgin Internet Messenger.

There are several extra packages available for Pidgin Internet Messenger that add extra features and allow you to change the way Pidgin Internet Messenger looks. You can find these in the Synaptic Package Manager.

Ekiga Softphone

Ekiga is an Internet telephony (VoIP) application, and can be installed in Xubuntu. It lets you make audio and video calls over the Internet to people who have hardware or software that follows the SIP or H.323 standards, and also features basic instant messaging. It is compatible with Windows Messenger and most VoIP applications. However, Ekiga can not communicate with Skype because the latter uses proprietary technology. If you have the right SIP provider, you can also use Ekiga to place calls to any normal phone line.

To install it, install the Ekiga package.

To start Ekiga, click ApplicationsNetworkEkiga Softphone.

See the Ekiga Manual for help on using Ekiga.

IRC Instant Messaging

For users of IRC instant messaging services, an alternative to Pidgin Internet Messenger is XChat. Its features include advanced scripting support (Perl and Python) and a clean, easy to use interface.

  • To start XChat-IRC, choose ApplicationsNetworkXChat IRC.

Getting Help Using IRC Instant Messaging

One excellent way to get help with Xubuntu or to introduce yourself to IRC is to join Xubuntu's official support channel on Freenode.

  1. Start XChat-IRC as above.

  2. When you start XChat-IRC for the first time, it will ask you for an IRC Nickname & your real name. Pick anything you want for your nick (first initial & your last name is good, or be more creative), put your real name or part of it, and press OK.

  3. In the Networks List window that opens next, select Ubuntu Servers from the list of servers toward the bottom of the window, and press Connect.

  4. A window will pop up stating that the connection to Ubuntu Server was completed, select the Join this channel option and type xubuntu after the # (pound sign).

  5. Press OK.

Other Internet applications

The Internet has much more to offer besides web browsing, email and instant messaging. Xubuntu provides a selection of other applications to help you get the most out of the Internet.

Peer-to-Peer Networks

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are a way of sharing files, music and videos between people from all around the world.

A popular P2P service is BitTorrent, and BitTorrent capability is included in Xubuntu by default.

To use BitTorrent:

  1. Locate a .torrent file online using Firefox Web Browser, for example natty-alternate-i386.iso.torrent.

  2. Click on the link for the torrent file and a window will pop up asking you what do you want Firefox to do with the .torrent file.

  3. Choose Open with Transmission (default) and click OK.

  4. Transmission should start automatically and will begin to download the file.

To restart a download from a .torrent file that is already on your computer, double-click on it.

An alternative P2P application is the aMule File Sharing Client.

  1. Install the aMule package.

  2. To open aMule, click ApplicationsNetworkaMule.

News Readers

You can automatically receive news updates from the Internet. There are several different types of news service to choose from:

  • Usenet is one of the oldest and allows you to discuss news and other topics with people from all around the world. Pan Newsreader is a news reader that works with Usenet.

    Install the pan package and then click ApplicationsNetworkPan Newsreader to start using Pan.

  • RSS feeds are a popular way of automatically receiving regular news updates and articles. Liferea Feed Reader is an RSS feed reader with many useful features.

    Install the liferea package and then choose ApplicationsNetworkLiferea Feed Reader to start using Liferea.

Create News Feeds with Liferea

This section will cover a basic procedure to add news feeds to Liferea. Start Liferea by selecting ApplicationsNetworkLiferea Feed Reader

  1. If you're behind a proxy, select ToolsPreferencesProxy and fill in your proxy details and click on the Close button,

  2. Press New Subscription on the Liferea toolbar,

  3. Press the Advanced button,

  4. Enter the address of the RSS feed in the Source box,

  5. Select the OK button to complete the procedure.

  6. Once you have create the news feed, click on the Update All toolbar button to update all your news feeds.

Design Web Pages

Xubuntu includes a wide selection of tools to help you design and develop web pages.

  • Bluefish is a powerful editor for web designers and programmers.

    Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages, and includes many utilities for designers and programmers.