Proprietary Drivers
 

With a lot of multi-media content coming from the web I'm finding that the need for proprietary drivers (Flash, acrobat etc) if unfortunately increasing. I've heard that a few packages and repositories advertise that they have assembled most of them in a neat package. I am planning on upgrading soon to Ubuntu 10.04 and plan to keep it as an LTS, so I'd like to both get the drivers and not mess up my system.

So my question. Are there any distros. packages or repositories that won't mess up my system that fellow Ubuntu'ers could recommend as safe and effective. Thanks a lot.
:study:

Install: ubuntu-restricted-extras

This ^ preceded by:

- First backing up your Home folder to another hard drive, then...

- Doing a clean install of Ubuntu 10.04 (or any OS) instead of an 'upgrade'.

Hi, adobe Flash and acrobat are proprietary, but not drivers, they are just applications. If its just adobe you're concerned about, then don't worry, adobe provides .deb packages for ubuntu. With ubuntu you should never have to worry about drivers per say, as they've got pretty good at hardware/driver detecion.

As for your question, try starting here.

and just FYI : adober reader isn't 100% needed as both Gnome and KDE desktops provide PDF (and more) readers.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the quick response. I'm planning a clean install and hope to get the add-on package soon thereafter since my limited experience over the past couple of years seems to indicate that upgrading with a lot of older stuff still around on the computer leads to problems.

Are the restricted extras a separate repository? Is it free or have some, hopefully low, cost. Where can I find this repository.
I'll restrict myself to three questions from the Genie. Thanks for the help.

Ijust read your message Serafean. That clarification plus the reference page to the Lucid wiki are really great. The Wiki is a gold mine and a great idea.

all the best.
jojo

ubuntu-restricted-extras can be found in Synaptic Package Manager and in Ubuntu Software Center.