1. Configure Gnome Shell Interface
The default GUI for Fedora 21 Workstation is
Gnome Shell, which is very customizable in fact. Now in order to configure it, you’ll have to use the “
Gnome Tweak Tool” which is in the official repositories, to install it, run the following command.
$ sudo yum install gnome-tweak-tool
2. Install YUM Extender
YUM Extender or “
yumex” is a graphical package manager
for the YUM system, it’s very easy to use and it’s available to install
from the official repositories.
$ sudo yum install yumex
3. Enable RPM Fusion Repository
RPM Fusion is a famous repository for Fedora, it contains some
closed-source packages beside some programs that depends on non-free
packages. It contains some packages that Fedora doesn’t accept in its
official repositories (Like
VLC Player).
To enable RPM Fusion repository on Fedora 21, run the following command.
$ sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-21.noarch.rpm
$ sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-21.noarch.rpm
4. Install Yum Fastest Mirror Plugin
This plugin is very useful to people who have a slow Internet
connection, this plugin will automatically choose the nearest mirror
server available near you in order to speed up downloading packages
process, it’s a plugin for the YUM package manager.
In order to install it, run.
$ sudo yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror
5. Install Flash PLayer
Flash is important for you if you visit websites that uses
Flash technique or if you want to play videos faster on Youtube (Well,
there’s HTML5 support in Youtube but it’s not that good).
To install Flash Player (i.e. version 11.2) on Fedora 21 for 32-bit and 64-bit system.
On 32-Bit System
$ sudo rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
$ sudo yum install flash-plugin
On 642-Bit System
$ sudo rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
$ sudo yum install flash-plugin
6. Install Google Chrome
Chrome is a web browser powered by Google, it’s based on the “
Chromium”
browser which open-source. Today, Google Chrome is the most-used web
browser in the world, of course, Google Chrome isn’t open-source, but
it’s very fast in fact and it has the latest available version of Flash
plugin pre-installed on it.
Running the following commands in the terminal will give you the
latest available version of Google Chrome automatically (Current: 39).
On 32-Bit System
$ sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_i386.rpm
On 64-Bit System
$ sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
7. Install Other Desktop Environments
The default desktop interface for Fedora 21 Workstation is Gnome
Shell, if you don’t like Gnome, you may install any other interface you
want.
Fortunately, many famous desktop environments such as Mate, KDE,
XFCE, LXDE, etc.. are available for download from the official
repositories, to install any of these desktops just run the following
command.
Install Mate Desktop
$ sudo yum install @mate-desktop
Install KDE Desktop
$ sudo yum install @kde-desktop
Install XFCE Desktop
$ sudo yum install @xfce-desktop
Install LXDE Desktop
$ sudo yum install @lxde-desktop
Install Cinnamon Desktop
$ sudo yum install @cinnamon-desktop
8. Install Gnome Music Player
Gnome Music is a graphical application which enables you to
run and save music on your computer. It reads the music files from the
Music folder in your home directory.
In order to install it, run:
$ sudo yum install gnome-music
