Now that you have your system installed, I will go through how you improve it so that it does amazing things.
Since I use Mint Linux (which is Ubuntu) all of these tutorials will be geared towards any Ubuntu version that is based on 7.04 Feisty.

Graphics
This one of the first things you will want to customize. In most cases your system will be using a generic video driver. This great for getting started but you will want to install restricted drivers for your video card, so that you get the full performace. Talking with people who own ATI cards this works but doesn’t work as well as the restricted drivers that come with the system. There are three easy ways to install better drivers:

1. Restricted Drivers
2. Automatix
3. Envy

To activate restricted drivers just go into the Control Center and go to Restricted Drivers. For Automatix, just go to their website and install Automatix and then you can install the drivers. For Envy, just go into the Control Center and run Envy.

My system won’t start and I am stuck at a text prompt!!!

If this happens just follow these instructions:

1. at the prompt type: sudo envy -t and use this to remove the current drivers. Also have it clean the system of drivers.
2. For NVIDA type: sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx. Do not allow it configure your xorg.conf and it should boot back to your desktop. If this doesn’t work then try having it configure your xorg.conf file.
3. For ATI type: sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx.
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r) #Okay if it is already installed
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg #Select the fglrx driver

Screen Resolution
It is most likely that your system is not running at the resolution that you like and this will cause the screen to look fuzzy or blurry on LCD monitors. You can adjust the screen resolution higher by going into the Control Center and then choosing Screen Resolution. If the resolution isn’t listed then we have to edit your xorg.conf. To do this open up a terminal window. Then type: sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Once the the editor pops up, scroll down until you see “1024×768″ “800×600″ “640×480″
Now you can just add in the resolution in front of those like this: “1280×1024″ “1024×768″ “800×600″ “640×480″
There are six of them, so do that for all six and then save the file. You will now need to restart the desktop by either rebooting or doing CTRL-ALT BACKSPACE.

Key Bindings
Once you get settled into your system, you will want to alter your key bindings. In gnome they are a real pain in the ass to configure beyond the default set they have for you. I suggest getting Automatix as it can setup CTRL-ALT-DELETE to open your system monitor to kill of programs that have locked up. I will talk more about Automatix more, but for now

Now you will need to install Xbindkeys. This will give you the ability create any custom keyset. For example I like to use a different file manager than the one that comes with gnome. So with Xbindkeys I was able to set my WIN-E to open up Thunar.

Once you have install Xbindkeys you will have to run it from a command prompt by typing xbindkeys-config. You can add an icon to your taskbar or to the menu manually if you are afraid that you will forget. Once you do that you still need to set it for starting when you log into your desktop. So start the Sessions manager. In Mint it is found under Preferences or in the Control Center.

PDFs
I found that using Adobe’s PDF reader was way better than any of the other PDF readers. The standard PDF reader that comes with Mint Linux is the Gnome (the name of your desktop) version called Evince which is great for opening Adobe Illustrator files.