<table cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0' border='0' background='none' style='font-family:arial;font-size:10pt;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);width:100%;'><tr><td valign='top' style='font: inherit;'>Thanks, Vincent for the suggestion to install - xubuntu-restricted-extras I have added this to my script. For a USB Bluetooth device, I have also added the installation of - gnome-bluetooth bluez-gnome We never got this working in Gutsy, but Hardy is nicely set up to recognise the hardware.  A 'Bluetooth File Sharing' option is added under the 'Accessories' part of the menu.  I created a Desktop icon that runs 'bluetooth-properties --singleton' to set transfer options. Currently, I need to start 'Bluetooth File Sharing' manually after inserting the USB device.  Is there a way to start this process automatically when the USB Bluetooth device is inserted ? (I can't see a way to do it in the Thunar Volume Management options.) --------------------------------------------------------------- <blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><pre> Hi, and thanks a lot for the valuable suggestions! I wanted to add that for whatever reason Brasero did not work on my install, so I removed it and am using k3b instead- I think it is a superior program anyway. Xubuntu users, I have been using Xubuntu in my home for a bit more than a year.&nbsp; I now have Xubuntu on all&nbsp; our PCs - my own and my 2 teenage daughter's PCs.&nbsp; I chose the XFCE interface over GNOME and KDE for the usual reasons - it is simple and fast and will run nicely on any old PC or mini-laptop (eg. the Eee PC) when I eventually get to buy one.&nbsp; My thinking is that if I get familar with Xubuntu, I can use it everywhere, and not have to bother with Kubuntu or Ubuntu. By design, though, the default Xubuntu install does not give you a fully-functioning desktop PC.&nbsp; You need to install a number of applications, browser plugins and codecs.&nbsp; We have tested lots of applications to see which is the most suitable paint program, word processor, iPod manager, etc. for us.&nbsp; I thought it might be useful to anyone new to Xubuntu to document the applications that we install.&nbsp; Note that I have scripted the install process as much as possible so that I don't have to re-do this manually on 3 PCs when I do a fresh install of the next version of Xubuntu. GStreamer packages (codecs for different format video files) .. gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad More things for Web-browsing .. REMOVE totem flashplugin-nonfree vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc Java run-time .. sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin Essential Simple GUI Program for looking at Hardware .. gnome-device-manager Xfce4 utilities (these might all be installed by default in hardy?) .. xfce4-mixer xfce4-mixer-alsa xfce4-taskmanager xfce4-cpugraph-plugin xfce4-datetime-plugin xfce4-netload-plugin xfce4-systemload-plugin xfce4-taskmanager You then need to add these to the top panel and configure.&nbsp; Once you have configured these manually, you can copy all the config files in ~/.config/xfce4/panel/ to other PCs. Ksnapshot - much more flexible than xfce4-screenshooter-plugin .. ksnapshot Add a launcher for this in the top panel, also. a2ps - needed for Mousepad to print .. a2ps Load apps faster (?) .. preload OpenOffice .. openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-common openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-hyphenation openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-style-human openoffice.org-thesaurus-en-au openoffice.org-writer myspell-en-au kolourpaint, gthumb and Gimp help files .. kolourpaint - VERY similar to MS Paint - basic and easy to use gthumb - Great little program for photos - brightening, cropping, removing red eye, etc. gimp-help-en - With GIMP you need all the help you can get! GIMP is a very scary program - but it is very good once you get used to it.&nbsp; The most important thing to understand is that it creates LAYERS.&nbsp; Make sure that you have the 'Layers Dialog' open so that you can see what layer is active - else you will get totally confused.&nbsp; I bought a book 'Beginning GIMP' by Akkana Peck - and this explained everything - heaps cheaper than buying a software license for PhotoShop. Add a File Search in Thunar (good if this was done in the Xubuntu install) .... gnome-utils Now in Thunar, click Edit/Configure Custom Actions and add an item with the command - gnome-search-tool --path=%f Under the 'Appearance Conditions' tab, type * for 'File Pattern' and tick 'Directories' Music Management .. CD Player (this simple program will copy the sound tracks off an audio CD into .ogg files.&nbsp; You can then use GTKPod to translate these to .MP3s and copy to an iPod.) ..&nbsp; goobox And GTKPod (with packages that probably should be in the dependency list?)&nbsp; .. gtkpod &nbsp; mp3gain &nbsp; lame &nbsp; flac &nbsp; vorbis-tools We were ONLY using Banshee for a while, but then it didn't work with an iPod shuffle that we bought.&nbsp; GTKPod is more basic but seems to work more reliably with the hardware.&nbsp; GTKPod has less dependent packages, so it might be best to try GTKPod, and then only use Banshee if you want something fancier. Banshee .. banshee-1 podsleuth - required for iPod For transferring photos from Cameras onto your PC .. gtkam Microsoft fonts ... msttcorefonts I use Samba for a shared folder area on our main PC, so we install the following on all PCs .. smbfs smbclient pyneighborhood Initially we installed VirtualBox for running a Windows XP session in.&nbsp; It runs very nicely and is very user-friendly. Although I still have it installed on a couple of PCs, we don't actually use it anymore - or very rarely. I hope this is useful to some of you. Regards, David Collins </pre></blockquote></td></tr></table> <hr size=1> Get the name you always wanted with the <a href="http://au.rd.yahoo.com/mail/taglines/au/y7mail/default/*http://au.mail.yahoo.com/?p1=ni&p2=general&p3=tagline&p4=other" target=_blank>new y7mail email address</a>.