Linux Must-Have Linux Software

Well I thought as we have a thread like this for the mac, a Linux one would be useful, especially for Linux newbs like me!

Let's get the ball rolling:

Audacity - Sound Editor

OpenOffice - Comprehensive Office Suite

GAIM - Muti-Network Chat Client

The GIMP - Like Photoshop but not quite as good (understandable for free!)

Enigma - A funky little puzzle game

 

KTron (I Love that game!)

Firefox/Evolution - Web and Email

VLC Media Player

Wine (To run windows apps like AutoCad)

More to come as I think of them (and i think gimp kicks photoshops ass)

Edit: (Booted into linux to remeber all the programs)

XChat IRC- Self Explanitory

Gnome- Startmenu and soo much more

thats all for now, i just got sucked into a game of tron.

 

armagetron - Oh. My. God. It's like being in the film! And multiplayer mode? I could spend hours with this!
SuperTux - It's like SuperMario without the pizza!
k3b - excellent cd burner
pan - for all your newsreading habits
Firefox
Thunderbird + Enigmail
Gaim - Chat with everyone on pretty much any protocol
Kdirstat - Check where all that harddrive space went in a nice graphical fashion (rather than using df/du)

Then there are all the classics, without which we would be somewhat stranded:
vi
bash
gnu tools

 

XMMS - because everyone needs music.

Just about everything else listed is what I would choose...

 

GIMP
MPlayer
GKrellM
Kate (for when a cli text editor just won't do )

 

forget xchat, go for kvirc, a much nicer client (i use the minimalist interface, its like most linux apps, it appears so small and narrow.... until you use it and then it blows you away.)

on top of that... bash. i know, its in there by default, but by god, i write more shell scripts than anything, i never knew you could love a CLI so much until i realised i was using my keyboard more than my mouse.

amarok, just because i like its musicbrainz stuff, turn on its 'add suggestions to playlist' feature. its like a random, but no more "smack my bitch up -> the cheeky girls -> portishead pedastal" music car-crash from the auto, it 'intelligently' picks the next song... a dream come true. oh, and it can tag your mp3's for you (even if they are blank. it works on magic).

kate (kwrite using kate as its engine actually). for those times when you need a text editor that works and actually helps you to work, instead of annoying you (not mentioning any names, clippit).

klibido. if you use newsgroups, download binaries, then you should be using klibido. its the only newsreader i have ever found that can handle a group like a.b.dvd to my satisfaction (the group has around 8.5 million headers on my servers, most newsreaders just cant cope with that many headers).

aside from the usual suspects (firefox, OpenOffice, gaim, armegatron [which rocks, btw]). im windows free and i have never looked back.

<edit>
and top, because it lets me see whats sucking away at my runtime, and renice, kill, sort, and so much stuff its awesome. when i log on, its now a conditioned reaction to open a console and 'sudo top' and have it running at all times.
</edit>

 

damnit! i forgot! of course, the linux Folding@home client! (which runs so smoothly i forgot i have it running!). see my sig to get your own and fold for the bit-tech team!

 

For those not addicted to a mouse (aka, CLI):

• screen
• ssh
• irssi
• xargs
• vim/gvim

 

im going to stop posting in this thread now, i just sat and thought for a moment about the programs i actually use every day. all of the above came up (with the exception of irssi, which i only use when im away from home for a few days, sit it in screen and ssh in to it).

after thinking for a few minutes, im astounded by the simple fact that almost all of the software i use on a daily basis are such small 'building blocks' of larger CLI work. things like grep, awk, cut, tr, mail and so much more. i come to a simple conclusion, there isnt one particular peice of software i cannot live without, but there is the linux cli suite. things i now take for granted and im constantly shocked that is missing when i switch to windows (like 'tail -f /var/log/messages' for a continual scroll of system log messages.... how do people fix stuff without this?!).

the one thing i cant do without on linux: the cli.

</linux fanboyism>

(i'll stop posting now, i promise)

<edit>
just one more. Konsole. the king of xwindow consoles. multiple tabbed consoles are awesome, console bookmarks even more so
</edit>

 

I flame you for such an insulting comment.GIMP is miles better the photoflop.

Wine
Xine.
Xcircuit,
Kwrite,
Firefox,
LCDd,
Frozen Bubble,
Supertux.
Cant rember rest as im sat in front of my Xpee pc.

 

If you seriously think that then you REALLY don't use Photoshop to anywhere near it's full potential.

But GIMP is amazing for what you get and not only is it free, it's open-source!

 

Personally I prefer Opera to Firefox these days...

Other essential bits of kit:

ssh and scp ---easy login/file copying from remote systems
k3b---best cd burner for linux IMHO
gqview---for viewing lots of images quickly
Xmms---better than winamp if you ask me...
Xine---play movies and dvds
gAIM---IM client
evolution/thunderbird ---both awesome mail clients
devilspie---make sure programs open on the right workspace, great for keeping your windows uncluttered...
Rox---my personal favourite file manager, if you really can't be bothered with the CLI
Eterm---my favourite terminal
abcde---for all your music ripping needs

Cheers

Sam

 

Why pay 0ver £300 for bloatware

Easyly customisable and skinnable on Xpee

 

These threads are great. You discover new progs/tools that you never knew about and before long, can't do without. Programs such as... Supertux

 

Some of my favourites...

Opera, of course. One day FF might equal it!

*nix native stuff:

- Muine, for music. Slicker than Rythymbox and the rest, IMO.
- Tomboy Notes - a very neat little stickynotes/mini-wiki app.
- Scribus - free DTP coolness
- Wanda the Fish, because it's strange

 

What WMS anre you guys using? (stuck with KDE on mandriva)cant get others to install.

 

I use fluxbox. Actually, the best way to show you guys which programs i like is to post the fluxbox menu I wrote:

Code:

[begin] (Automan)
      [exec] (xterm) {xterm}
      [exec] (konqueror) {konqueror}
      [exec] () {} 
[submenu] (Internet)
      [exec] (firefox) {firefox}
      [exec] (gaim) {gaim}
      [exec] (xchat) {xchat-2}
[end]
[submenu] (Office)
[submenu] (OpenOffice)
      [exec] (oocalc) {oocalc}
      [exec] (oodraw) {oodraw}
      [exec] (ooimpress) {ooimpress}
      [exec] (oomath) {oomath}
      [exec] (ooweb) {ooweb}
      [exec] (oowriter) {oowriter}
[end]
[submenu] (Editors)
      [exec] (kwrite) {kwrite}
      [exec] (xedit) {xedit} 
      [exec] (nano) {xterm -e nano} 
      [exec] (The Gimp) {gimp-2.2}
[end]
[end]
[submenu] (Multimedia)
      [exec] (k3b) {k3b}
      [exec] (xmms) {xmms} </usr/share/pixmaps/xmms.xpm>
[end]
[submenu] (System)
[submenu] (Terminals)
      [exec] (xterm) {xterm}
      [exec] (aterm) {aterm} 
[end]
[submenu] (Monitors)
      [exec] (torsmo) {torsmo}
      [exec] (gkrellm2) {gkrellm2}
[end]
[submenu] (X-utils)
      [exec] (xfontsel) {xfontsel} 
      [exec] (xman) {xman}
      [exec] (xeyes) {xeyes} 
      [exec] (xload) {xload} 
      [exec] (editres) {editres} 
      [exec] (viewres) {viewres} 
      [exec] (xclock) {xclock} 
      [exec] (xmag) {xmag} 
      [exec] (xcalc) {xcalc} 
      [exec] (xpdf) {xpdf} 
      [exec] (Reload .Xdefaults) {xrdb -load /var/tmp/portage/fluxbox-0.9.13-r1/temp/home/.Xdefaults} 
[end]
[end]
[submenu] (Interests)
      [exec] (Speaker Design) {gspeakers}
[submenu] (Games) 
      [exec] (kbounce) {kbounce}
[end]
[end]
[submenu] (Networking)
      [exec] (samba gui) {smb4k}
[end]
[submenu] (fluxbox menu)
      [config] (Configure) 
[submenu] (Styles)
      [include] (/usr/share/fluxbox/menu.d/styles/) 
[end]
      [workspaces] (Workspace List) 
[submenu] (Tools)
      [exec] (Window name) {xprop WM_CLASS|cut -d \" -f 2|xmessage -file - -center} 
[end]
      [commanddialog] (Fluxbox Command) 
      [reconfig] (Reload config) 
      [restart] (Restart) 
      [separator] 
      [exit] (Exit) 
[end]
[end]

And the "hotkeys" I use are:

Code:

Mod1 Tab :NextWindow
Mod1 Shift Tab :PrevWindow
Mod1 F1 :Workspace 1
Mod1 F2 :Workspace 2
Mod1 F3 :Workspace 3
Mod1 F4 :Workspace 4
Mod1 F5 :Workspace 5
Mod1 F6 :Workspace 6
Mod1 F7 :Workspace 7
Mod1 F8 :Workspace 8
Mod1 F9 :Workspace 9
Mod1 F10 :Workspace 10
Mod1 F11 :Workspace 11
Mod1 F12 :Workspace 12
Mod1 f :ExecCommand firefox
Mod1 o :ExecCommand oowriter
Mod1 v :ExecCommand Eterm -name alsa -e alsamixer
Mod1 r :ExecCommand fbrun
Mod4 m :Minimize
mod4 c :Close
Mod1 a :ExecCommand aterm -name aterm -sl 3000 -tr +sb -sr -sk -bg black -fg white -fade 90 -bl -tn xterm -fn -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15 -g 116x57
Mod1 s :ExecCommand aterm -name aterm -sl 3000 -tr +sb -sr -sk -bg black -fg white -fade 90 -bl -tn xterm -fn -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-120-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15 -g 116x57 -e -su -

I have my aterm to run to look like an active desktop so I can keep an eye on things. Here is a pic of everything in action. I sized it down for those people still on 56k.



OK, this is my first post on this site. I hope to make many more.

 

Personally I use Xfce4. It's like gnome, but with no bloat.

Sam

 

you guys forgot one thing "the ace of penguins" solitare that is awesome

 

Mplayer
irssi
nano
a c/c++ compiler is kinda usefull
gaim
fluxbox!!!