Scott James Remnant wrote on behalf of the Ubuntu Technical Board today defending Ubuntu's inclusion of Mono in it's default shipped package. The entire text can be read here: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-June/000584.html

I recognize that they are in full rights to include whatever software they choose to include (as long as any licensing requirements are fulfilled) and Mono is free software. We all, at some level of understanding, realize this. The problems that arise most frequently are the patents concerning the .Net technologies. Scott Remnant addresses these concerns in the position statement.

It is common practice in the software industry to register patents as
protection against litigation, rather than as an intent to litigate.
Thus mere existence of a patent, without a claim of infringement, is not
sufficient reason to warrant exclusion from the Ubuntu Project.

While this may be true on a grand scale, it is widely accepted that there have been problems and dire consequences with using patented technologies on open source platforms. If it were not for this precedence, Mono might be much more accepted.

My stance is that I feel that Mono should not be bundled with GNU/Linux distributions just as a precaution against litigation (again, Mono is free software but the technologies it supports is patented). I do think, however, in the pursuit of freedom, that developers must have the choice to develop software using Mono in order to bring .Net technologies to GNU/Linux. Choice is an essential freedom that mustn't be denied. This may sound contradictory to my statement that distributions should leave Mono and Mono-dependent software out of its default install. I state it this way because I feel its up to the individual to take the risk of using software based on patented technologies (that perhaps may lead to future litigation). It is much more preferable for the individual to choose to waive their rights than for a platform they depend on to choose to do so for their entire user base. This is especially important if the owner of the patented technology does choose to enforce their patent and litigate because many users will have grown accustomed to the patented technology and a void will be left, where, conversely, no void will be left if the technology wasn't initially present. My position is for protection of the users as a whole so that each user of a distribution isn't unknowingly reliant on software based on patented technologies because it came bundled with an operating system.

In short: don't bundle it, but make it available.

Because of all the great response from the simple shell script, I've created a GUI using Zenity and Bash so that people new to the CLI or those who wish to select and deselect what packages to install or uninstall may do so. You'll be able to play DVDs, listen to your MP3s, have 5.1 Surround Sound playback enabled and more. This isn't a 'how-to' but rather a 'just-do-it'. If you want to know the how-to, just view the source of the script. It's basically doing some simple apt-gets with a GUI front-end.

Below is a screenshot of the window. Just download the shell script here on my server, -- you'll need to extract it (tar xvf ubuntuTasks.sh.tar.gz) then make sure it's executable (chmod +x ubuntuTasks.sh) and execute it (./ubuntuTasks.sh). You'll be greeted with a user-friendly GUI where you can select and deselect items.

steven@steven-laptop:~/fun$ chmod +x ubuntuTasks.sh
steven@steven-laptop:~/fun$ ./ubuntuTasks.sh 

Once you hit OK, you'll have to input your sudo password when it returns to the CLI. It shouldn't prompt you for anything else. Please shoot me a message if you need any help or have any suggestions.

UPDATE: Please go here for the new GUI version of this script that also includes some extra items.
I was actually going to write an entry this morning about packages to purge or install upon a fresh Ubuntu build but Ubuntu Linux Help beat me to the punch. It's a great article and well worth the read. I've modified the list slightly and created a bash script to execute it. The file is here. Just extract it ( tar xvf ubuntuTaks.sh.tar.gz ) make sure it's executable ( chmod +x ubuntuTasks.sh ) and execute it using ./ubuntuTasks.sh
Below is the code inside in case you want to just copy and paste it into your own file:

#!/bin/bash

sudo apt-get remove --purge mono-common libmono0
sudo aptitude install sbackup
sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras && sudo aptitude install w32codecs
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts && sudo fc-cache -fv
sudo aptitude install vlc
sudo aptitude install k3b
sudo perl -pi -w -e 's/\; default-sample-channels \= 2/default-sample-channels \= 6/g;' /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

As always, this code comes with no warranties. I have run it on my system and all is well.

Mono is a tool that provides software to create and run client and server .NET applications of various platforms. One of the concerns many Free Software supporters have with Ubuntu is that it decides for us which proprietary software is good and which is bad. As one blog noted: "If Canonical is to be consistent, I should not have to a a hypocrite about some things and not others." -- specifically in regard to Ubuntu requiring you to install proprietary codecs manually (restricted-extras) but pre-loading software that is used to support a proprietary system.
Here's how to remove the offending program, courtesy of theopensourcerer:

sudo apt-get remove --purge mono-common libmono0

As theopensourcerer notes, you should check with your distribution and needs to see if removing Mono is the right decision for you. For most of us, it is.

Many people have the need to delete files older than a certain range. For instance, you may want to remove all podcasts that are older than a certain time period or delete other files that you receive regularly. Making use of the find command and mtime, you are able to delete them with ease.

find . -name *.ogg -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;

The above one-liner removes all my ogg-based media files in my current directory that are more than a week old. It is best to use absolute paths -- ESPECIALLY IF RUNNING BY CRON. So the cron-safe code looks like this:

find /home/steven/music/ -name *.ogg -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \;

You can also use this with other command such as moving the file, batch renaming them (if you want all older files to have a .bak extension or whatnot), as well as many other uses. To move the files, simply:

find /home/steven/feeds/ -name *.csv -mtime +30 -exec mv {} /home/steven/feeds/old \;

With enough MAN pages and will, you can do all kinds of cool stuff.