Things to install on Ubuntu 20.04

This article explores various software that you can install on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. There is a variety of things that can be installed on Ubuntu 20.04, hence we have divided all the software into two categories: Ubuntu user and DevOps.

We not only provide you with ideas of what can be installed but also link to tutorials that take you through the installation process.

In this guide you will discover:

  • What software you can install on Ubuntu 20.04 as an every day Ubuntu user
  • What software to install on Ubuntu 20.04 for DevOps

This article will be continuously updated with more things to install on Ubuntu 20.04 so keep checking for updates.

Things to install on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

Things to install on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

Things to install on Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

This section lists some selected software you can install on the Ubuntu 20.04 operating system as an every day user.

Desktop Environments

When you install Ubuntu 20.04 it will come with the default GNOME desktop. If you decide that you would like to stay with this default desktop environment you might be interested in installing GNOME shell extensions or GNOME tweak tool to customize Ubuntu’s looks and behavior. You may also be interested in Gnome minimal install.

If GNOME does not appeal to you, you can install a different desktop environment on your system with a single command. Hence, it is straightforward to experiment with different desktop environments to find the one that suits you most. For example, Budgie and Mate desktop environments are shown in the screenshots below.

Budgie desktop on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Budgie desktop on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux


MATE desktop on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

MATE desktop on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

We have provided you with instructions on how to install various desktop environments in a range of articles. We also included Ubuntu 20.04 desktop screenshots in each article, which may help you with your choice. You can also see our overview of Ubuntu desktop environments in the article: The 8 Best Ubuntu Desktop Environments (20.04 Focal Fossa Linux).

To follow our Ubuntu 20.04 desktop environment install guides click on:

     

     

Alternatively, you may decide to download Ubuntu 20.04 flavour which already has the desktop environment you like as default desktop. See also how to install Ubuntu 20.04 GUI with the tasksel command.

Internet Browsers and Websites

There is a range of web browsers you can install on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. You may already have a favorite browser or you may be still deciding which browser is right for you or you might be interested in anonymous Internet searching with Tor browser. Once you decide which browser you would like to use set it as your default browser on your Ubuntu 20.04 system.

Tor Browser on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Tor Browser on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

For the interested reader, we will also show in this section how to install WordPress on Ubuntu 20.04. WordPress is an extremely popular content management system (CMS) for websites. Its popularity and ubiquity really cannot be overstated, as it powers a staggering 35% of websites. It’s an easy way to get a website online, and it offers a lot in the way of customization.

Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa and Nginx are the perfect combination to run your WordPress site. Using these utilities will give you a very powerful, efficient, and stable website. Best of all, all this software is completely free and the setup isn’t very difficult. Follow along with our steps below to see how to get your WordPress site up and running on Ubuntu 20.04 with Nginx.

Our Web Browser install guides are available here:

      

Email Clients

Perhaps the most popular email client for Ubuntu 20.04 GNOME desktop is Mozilla Thunderbird. It is a free and open-source email client including news client, RSS and chat client.

Some alternatives to Thunderbird include Mailspring and Hiri. Mailspring offers such features as open tracking, link click tracking, contacts enrichment data and more. Hiri focuses on businesses and features sending and receiving e-mails as well as calendars, contacts, and tasks management.

hiri desktop e-mail client on Ubuntu 20.04

Hiri e-mail client on Ubuntu 20.04


To install an email client on Ubuntu 20.04 navigate to our instructions:

  

Communication and Collaboration

Some examples of popular communication apps include Viber, Telegram, Slack or Skype, Zoom and Jitsi. While Viber, Telegram and Slack are widely used for messaging, Skype, Zoom and Jitsi focus on video conferencing. Additionally, Discord is very popular amongst video gaming communities.

TeamViewer, on the other hand, is a collaboration platform used, in particular, for remote control, desktop sharing or online meetings. Moreover, Dropbox cloud storage can be also used for collaboration.

TeamViewer on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux Desktop

TeamViewer on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux Desktop
You can follow our communication and collaboration software install guides here:

      

  

Document Editors

This section will refer you to installation guides of various document editors. One of the main applications you might need to install on Ubuntu 20.04 is Libre Office, which is a whole office suite including, among others, spreadsheet, presentation and document writer.

LibreOffice on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Desktop

LibreOffice on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Desktop

One of the PDF viewers that could be installed on Ubuntu 20.04 is Adobe Acrobat Reader. Note, however, that Adobe no longer supports Acrobat Reader for Linux, hence we recommend installing Adobe Acrobat Reader on Wine. Alternatively, you may like to consider installing the Okular PDF viewer or other one listed below.

If you would like to write mathematical equations we recommend Latex as your document writing application with a selected Latex editor. Below we show TeXstudio Latex editor and compiler.

TeXstudio Latex Editor and Compiler

TeXstudio Latex Editor and Compiler


Moreover, if you are interested to install alternative fonts on your system, you can also find links below to guides which describe this installation process.

To install document editors and fonts on Ubuntu 20.04 navigate to our instructions:

  

    

Entertainment

Media players that can be installed on Ubuntu 20.04 are, for example, Kodi and VLC. On the other hand, the video streaming services that you can use are Netflix and Popcorn Time. You might also be interested to install Spotify for music.

Watching Netflix on Ubuntu 20.04

Watching Netflix on Ubuntu 20.04

If you are a gamer you will be interested in installing Steam, PlayonLinux, Lutris or Wine.

Steam on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Steam on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Additionally, we provide you with instructions on how to install Minecraft Client and Server on Ubuntu 20.04 and use Wine to run the Battle.net app.

Minecraft on Ubuntu 20.04

Minecraft on Ubuntu 20.04
For entertainment applications on Ubuntu 20.04 see the following:

    

    

   



Graphic Cards

Some of the Graphics Drivers you may wish to install on Ubuntu 20.04 is NVIDIA and AMD Radeon. In the article How to install the NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux we discuss various ways of installing this graphic driver. These include an automatic install using standard Ubuntu repository, an automatic install using PPA repository to install NVIDIA Beta drivers and a manual Install using the official Nvidia.com driver.

AMD graphic cards are well supported on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. The default open source AMD Radeon Driver is installed and enabled. However, since the Ubuntu 20.04 is a long term support (LTS) release the AMD Radeon graphic card users have few AMD Radeon driver installation options to their disposal.

If you’re planning on using an AMD graphics card with Ubuntu 20.04, we provide you with the install instructions in the article: AMD Radeon Ubuntu 20.04 Driver Installation.

If you are not sure you can easily check what graphics driver your system is currently using and what graphics card model is part of your system’s hardware.

You may also be interested in CUDA, which is a parallel computing platform and application programming interface model created by Nvidia. It allows software developers and software engineers to use a CUDA-enabled graphics processing unit for general purpose processing.

Installed NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Installed NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux. After installation, optionally run Nvidia graphic card test by following our Benchmark Your Graphics Card On Linux guide.
Find out how to install the drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 the by clicking on:

  

Graphics and Sound

In this section we will show you how to install Blender on Ubuntu 20.04. Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline-modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. Advanced users employ Blender’s API for Python scripting to customize the application and write specialized tools.

Blender 3D creation suite on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

Blender 3D creation suite on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

FFmpeg is a library of tools used for processing video and audio files. You can do a lot of things with it, such as encode videos or transcode audio to different formats, to name a few. Below we’ll show you how to install FFmpeg on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa.

Find out how to install the graphics and sound software on Ubuntu 20.04 the by clicking on:

 

Scientific Software

If you are a scientist, you may be interested in installing some data science software such as R with RStudio or Matlab.

RStudio on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

RStudio on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux
To install scientific software on Ubuntu 20.04 navigate to our instructions:

  

Ubuntu Snap Store

The amount of software you can install on Ubuntu 20.04 is huge. You can install any software you like via the Ubuntu snap store.

For any new freshly downloaded Ubuntu 20.04 and installed systems the Ubuntu’s snap store should be part of the system by default. However, for any upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 system you might need to install the Snap Store manually.

Snap Store on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux Desktop

Snap Store on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux Desktop
To install Ubuntu Snap Store navigate to our guide:

Things to install on Ubuntu 20.04 for DevOps

This section lists some selected software you can install on the Ubuntu 20.04 operating system as a DevOps.

Programming Languages and Libraries

If you are a DevOps or a Software Developer you may like to start with installing programming languages and necessary libraries.

Java is one of the most popular programming languages. We show you first how to install OpenJDK Java on Ubuntu 20.04 and then how to install the Oracle Java SE Development Kit.



Oracle Java SE Development Kit on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Desktop/Server

Oracle Java SE Development Kit on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Desktop/Server

If you are a JavaScript enthusiast you may be interested in installing Node.js, which is a JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a web browser. Additionally, you may be interested in installing the Yarn package manager.

Yarn on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Yarn on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

With a release of Ubuntu 20.04 Python 2 has been completely dropped on a default system installation, hence you might encounter the following error when executing the python command:

Command 'python' not found

No despair, Python 2 is not installed by default but it is still available for installation. Note also that you may easily switch between Python versions on Ubuntu 20.04.

Install Python 2 on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Install Python 2 on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

PIP is a package management system used for installing and managing software packages that were developed with Python.

PIP and PiP3 on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

PIP and PiP3 on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

On the other hand, NumPy is a library for the Python programming language, adding support for large, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices, along with a large collection of high-level mathematical functions to operate on these arrays.

Numpy on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Numpy on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Other things you might be interested in installing are GCC, G++, Go/Golang, Powershell or Kotlin. Kotlin, for example, is a cross-platform, statically typed, general-purpose programming language which is designed to inter-operate fully with Java.

Install programming languages and libraries by following our tutorials:

   

  

    

Text Editors and IDEs

This section focuses on code-centric text editors and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) most suitable for you and your programming language.

The editors offer syntax highlighting, have flexible interfaces and provide you with powerful search and navigation tools wile the IDEs provide you with comprehensive facilities for software development such as a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger.



Whether your language preference is Java, Python or other, you can select a text editor or IDE from our list and install it with help of our install guides. Some text editors/IDEs may work better with some specific programming languages so feel free to experiment with various text editors if you do not know yet which one is the most suitable for your needs.

One of the most popular text editors is Sublime Text visible in the screenshot below.

Sublime Text Editor on Ubuntu 20.04

Sublime Text Editor on Ubuntu 20.04

Below we also show the Visual Studio Code.

Visual Studio Code on Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

Visual Studio Code on Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

PyCharm is an integrated development environment (IDE) used in computer programming, specifically for the Python language. It provides code analysis, a graphical debugger, an integrated unit tester, integration with version control systems (VCSes), and supports web development with Django as well as Data Science with Anaconda.

You can find our instructions on how to install various text editors and IDEs on Ubuntu 20.04 here:

   

   

File and Package Management

As a System Administrator you may find useful to list the installed packages or list running services on Ubuntu 20.04. You will be also faced with various errors such as unable to locate package error on Ubuntu 20.04.

In terms of installation of packages, we recommend installing DEB file on Ubuntu 20.04. A file that has the .DEB file extension is a Debian software package file. They contain software to be installed on Debian or a Debian-based operating system. Ubuntu falls into that category, being based on Debian and capable of executing .DEB files.

In this section, we’ll go over the steps to install a DEB file on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa and talk about some best practices along the way.

Install DEB file on Ubuntu 20.04

Install DEB file on Ubuntu 20.04
How to install DEB file on Ubuntu 20.04 instructions can be found by navigating to:



System Administration

Stacer is an open source tool to monitor the performance of your Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop hence very important for system administrators. It offers a user-friendly dashboard that can be used to monitor CPU, Memory & Disk Usage, and System Cleaner to clean system caches.

Stacer system monitoring tool on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Desktop

Stacer system monitoring tool on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Desktop
How to install Stacer on Ubuntu 20.04 instructions can be found by navigating to:

Version Control

Git is a distributed version-control system for tracking changes in source code during software development that might be very useful in your work.

Git on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa Linux

Git on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa Linux
How to install git on Ubuntu 20.04 instructions can be found by navigating to:

Servers and Services

Our first tutorial in this section will cover how to install LAMP and Nginx web servers on Ubuntu 20.04.

LAMP server setup on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

LAMP server setup on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa

Then, we move to the VNC server installation. VNC is a system that allows you to remotely control another computer. After following our guide, you’ll be able to access your system remotely from anywhere, provided that your client system and the VNC server have an internet connection.

Connecting to a VNC server

Connecting to a VNC server

Additionally, we outline how to install Samba server on Ubuntu 20.04 to, for example, share user home directories as well as provide read-write anonymous access to selected directories.

Moreover, we will describe the FTP server/client installation and SFTP server installation. Then, we will describe the NTP server installation, which is used for clock synchronization across multiple computers. An NTP server is responsible for keeping a set of computers in sync with each other. On a local network, the server should be able to keep all client systems to within a single millisecond of each other.



How to setup SFTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

How to setup SFTP server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

After that we will show you how to deploy an SSH server. OpenSSH is the premier connectivity tool for remote login with the SSH protocol. It encrypts all traffic to eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other attacks. In addition, OpenSSH provides a large suite of secure tunneling capabilities, several authentication methods, and sophisticated configuration options. Next, we will see how to use Ubuntu 20.04 to create an OpenVPN server and how to create an .ovpn file we will use to connect to it from our client machine.

And finally, we will provide you with instructions on how to install the Tor client on Ubuntu 20.04. We’ll show you how to set it up, which includes browser configuration and enabling all of your shell commands to run through Tor’s network.

Automation and Data Management

One of the most useful automation and management tools is the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) which is a unified tool to manage your AWS services. With this tool you can control multiple AWS services from the command line and automate them through scripts.

Jenkins, on the other hand, is an automation server that is used to automate software development including: building, testing, and deploying as well as facilitating continuous integration and continuous delivery.

Jenkins on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Jenkins on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

ELK is the answer to managing large amounts of log data on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa. The ELK stack combines Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana, which are open source tools that work in tandem to provide you with the ability to manage log data from a convenient graphical web interface. Apache Hadoop, on the other hand, is comprised of multiple open source software packages that work together for distributed storage and distributed processing of big data.

Additionally, PostgreSQL is a database management system, similar to MySQL in many respects but with some key differences. Like MySQL, it’s commonly hosted on Linux. We’ll show how to run a PostgreSQL server on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa, as well as installing the client version in case you just need to connect to an external PostgreSQL database.

Fully operational Kibana dashboard on Ubuntu 20.04

Fully operational Kibana dashboard on Ubuntu 20.04
You can find our instructions on how to install automation and management software on Ubuntu 20.04 here:

    


Virtualization

You can set up virtual machines with VMware Workstation Pro on a single physical machine and use them simultaneously with the actual machine.

VMware Workstation PRO on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

VMware Workstation PRO on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

Alternatively, you can install VirtualBox on you Ubuntu 20.04 system. To extend the functionality of VirtualBox, the VirtualBox Extension Pack is also recommended.

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a virtualization module in the Linux kernel that allows the kernel to function as a hypervisor. We also provide instructions below on how to install KVM.

To install a hypervisor on Ubuntu 20.04 follow the below tutorials:

 

  

Containerization

In this section, we will take you through installation of Docker and docker-compose.

Docker is a combination of platform as a service products that use virtualization to provide software in packages called containers which can communicate with each other through well-defined channels.

Compose is a feature of Docker for setting up and running multi-container Docker applications. With a single command, you can create and start all the services from your configuration. To learn more about Compose see How To Launch Containers With Docker Compose.

docker-compose on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

docker-compose on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux

We also include Kubernetes in this section as it is a leading software in container orchestration. Kubernetes works by managing clusters, which is simply a set of hosts meant for running containerized applications.

To install conteinerization software on Ubuntu 20.04 follow the below tutorials:

  

These are all our recommendations. If you think this article is missing an important thing to install on Ubuntu 20.04 or you find an error please send your feedback to our forum using the comments and discussion section on the bottom of this page.