Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Easily Install Extra Applications In Fedora Using Autoplus Or Fedora Utils

Autoplus and Fedora Utils are two "post installation" scripts for Fedora which you can use to easily install applications that are not available in the main Fedora repositories, such as Adobe Flash, codecs, Google Earth, Skype, Sun Java and more.

Both scripts support Fedora 15 with GNOME 3 and come with a GUI (using Zenity).


Autoplus


Autoplus Fedora

Autoplus is more easier to setup (comes with a .rpm and once installed, you can run it from the menu) and use than Fedora Utils, but it comes with fewer options: you can only install / uninstall Adobe Flash, codecs, Google Earth, Skype, Sun Java, VirtualBox, WinFF, Imagination, Cinelerra, Hugin Panorama Creator, Lightscribe, Dropbox, extra backgrounds and sudo with or without password for current user. And of course, it also adds all the repositories required to install these applications.

Also, using Autoplus, you can't install multiple applications at once: once you select an option, you must wait for it to install and only then you can select to install another one.

But Autoplus is, like I've said, really easy to set up and use so I strongly recommend it to new Fedora users.


Download Autoplus



Fedora Utils


Fedora Utils

Fedora Utils is a more advanced script which can be used to install lots of applications as well as tweak various Fedora settings.

The script is a bit more difficult to run than Autoplus (well, not exactly "difficult", but you do need a terminal to run it). To use Fedora Utils, download the script, let's say in your home directory and then copy/paste the following commands in a terminal to run it:
chmod +x fedorautils-1.4.0
sudo ./fedorautils-1.4.0


Fedora Utils

Applications which you can install using Fedora Utils include: Adobe Flash, codecs, Sun Java, Adobe Air, Wine, Google Earth, GTalk plugin, MS Truetype Fonts and other "Essential Software". And as opposed to Autoplus, using Fedora Utils you can install multiple applications at once.


Another interesting feature in Fedora Utils is that it saves the downloaded applications in the "Fedora Utils" folder in your home directory which can be very useful if you have poor / limited Internet connectivity.


Fedora Utils

One Fedora Utils downside is that you don't know exactly what applications will be installed when selecting some of the categories available in the options, like "Essential Software", "Shell Extensions", "System Tools", "Graphics Applications" and so on. Even so, I am sure many will find this feature useful, as you can install a whole pack of applications in just one click.


Besides installing applications, Fedora Utils can also tweak various settings, like: set SELinux in permissive mode, enable autologin, add colors to terminal, add additional repositories, tweak bandwidth (but again, there's no description on what this does), some fixes or boot process optimizations.

If you want to revert any changes made by Fedora Utils, check out its "Revert changes" page.


Download Fedora Utils


Update: another similar project is EasyLife - besides installing extra applications, EasyLife can also install video drivers (ATI, Nvidia) and more -, so check out this one too (thanks to russell guzzo and Tate for the tip)!


Thanks to Satyajit for the Fedora Utils tip!

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