Ubuntu Setup for Academic publication

It would appear the default Ubuntu installation has a number of annoyances (nothing major) that need to be overcome before one can start developing and viewing pdf documents with latex.

1. It turns out that Ubuntu's packages for "Canonical Partners" are no longer active by default. I remember the previous version having that available as a default. Instructions for including them (which includes support for Adobe's Acrobat Reader) can be found here:
   
   http://askubuntu.com/questions/89127/how-do-i-install-adobe-acrobat-reader
   
   In short, these three commands are necessary (if working purely from a terminal):
   
   sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ [distro] partner"
   Where [distro] is, for example, lucid, natty, oneiric, precise, quantal
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install acroread
   

2. It also turns out that "open" is not configured to work out-of-the-box in an initial Ubuntu setup.
   
   http://askubuntu.com/questions/43264/how-to-open-a-pdf-file-from-terminal
   
   has some information. Of the options, the one I chose (and worked well) was:
   
   Adding an "alias open='gnome-open'" to my .bashrc file.
3. Of course, there's the whole shebang of getting the tetex package, the instructions for which seems to change so frequently that it is really pointless writing it down here. I usually just google for "pdflatex ubuntu" and get it done quickly enough.