What are your 'must have applications/software'?

[ColtonCameron]

I searched this sub and I saw a post that was about a year and figured maybe it is appropriate to get a more current consensus on the topic.

Used Linux way back when. Was my main OS for a period of time. Then I switched back to Windows. However, I've recently began using Linux again as my daily driver OS.

What do you consider must have applications? Aside from the apps that come w/ the distro I use, I've installed Anacona, VS Code, Atom, and Sublime on my box software.

What software do you download/install immediately after setting up your workstation?

[Schultz]

Pale Moon -- Basilisk -- AisleRiot Solitaire -- Alarm Clock -- Audacity -- Handbrake -- Media Info -- Mines -- SMPlayer -- Softperfect Wifi Guard (proprietary) -- Suduko -- WinFF

[erginemr]

Welcome to the forum!

Since everyone has different needs and tastes, and since there are a gazillion apps in repos, it is very hard to pinpoint a concise list.

Nonetheless, there is a good site that fits the bill, by categorically listing and reviewing trendy Linux desktop apps. I'd suggest you to take a look at their Top X lists in a variety of categories:
https://itsfoss.com/category/list/

The list spans 17 pages, so quite a read, but it is worth.

[Schultz]

Welcome to the forum!

Since everyone has different needs and tastes, and since there are a gazillion apps in repos, it is very hard to pinpoint a concise list.

He's asking for what apps *you* personally install after putting on the OS.

ColtonCameron wrote:
What software do you download/install immediately after setting up your workstation?

[erginemr]

Welcome to the forum!

Since everyone has different needs and tastes, and since there are a gazillion apps in repos, it is very hard to pinpoint a concise list.

He's asking for what apps *you* personally install after putting on the OS.

ColtonCameron wrote:
What software do you download/install immediately after setting up your workstation?

Yes, I get it. But the OP's objective is to learn currently favored apps, so I suggested a site whence he can benefit.

It seems the OP is into programming, by looking at the apps he installed. Say, I am into music and listed ardour, mixxx or rosegarden here. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

[Schultz]

Yes, I get it. But the OP's objective is to learn currently favored apps, so I suggested a site whence he can benefit.

It seems the OP is into programming, by looking at the apps he installed. Say, I am into music and listed ardour, mixxx or rosegarden here. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

Yes, I suppose so. I guess it's up to the OP to let us know if he wants a generic/general answer like mine, or something specific for power users (which I am not).

[Moonstone Man]

What software do you download/install immediately after setting up your workstation?

OBS studio, nfs, veracrypt, kmahjongg, kpat, kate, xdman, aptik, Qt compiled from source, catfish, smplayer, mplayer, ffmpeg, gimp, bleachbit, network-manager-openvpn, haveged, pavucontrol, libastyle3, uncrustify, clang-format, xvkbd, xbindkeys, plank.

[erginemr]

Yes, I suppose so. I guess it's up to the OP to let us know if he wants a generic/general answer like mine, or something specific for power users (which I am not).

Well, I don't want to give a wrong impression as if your answer is not valuable. Quite the contrary. More or less, I have same software as yours.

I'll check my PC when I get back home and prepare a list.

[erginemr]

Well, here is my list of apps:

• Accessories: catfish (file search tool), clamtk (antivirus), gnome-weather & gnome-contacts (self explanatory), gedit (in lieu of the default text editor, as I've had problems with xed in some text files), vim-gtk3 (gvim, gui for vim advanced text editor), gnome-characters (a tool to use smileys in text), brasero (cd/dvd burner, for those having dvd-rw drive)
• Education: gcompris (educational software for kids), klavaro (10-fingers typing tutor)
• Games: gnome-games (games package including aisleroot, chess, mines, nibbles, sudoku, et al.), pysolfc (solitaire type card & mahjong games), lutris (gaming platform to install free linux games), steam (for commercial games), gnubg (backgammon for those interested)
• Graphics: GIMP (advanced photo editor, photoshop alternative), darktable (develop raw photos, lightroom alternative), mcomix (view comic books in cbr/cbz), blender (3d model and animation designer), inkscape (vector graphics designer)
• Internet: google chrome (in lieu of firefox, supports my chromecast device and webapps / pwa's), evolution (mail application, in lieu of thunderbird, better integrated to the desktop), qbittorrent (in lieu of transmission, personal preference), youtube-dlg (youtube downloader), epiphany-browser (aka gnome-web, default gnome web browser, supports pwa's), liferea / feedreader (rss news feed reader), putty (ssh frontend to connect to remote servers)
• Office: foliate (sleek epub reader), evince (in lieu of the default xreader, faster on heavy PDF's), scribus (magazine editor, similar to ms publisher), goldendict / gnome-dictionary (dictionary app), marktext (markdown editor), cherrytree (note-taking tool, similar to onenote)
• Programming: bluefish (html editor), geany (general code editor / ide, similar to sublimetext), ghex (hex editor), gitg (to view & handle local git repos), glade (gtk+ designer for python), idle3 (python3 gui & ide), sqlite browser (to handle sqlite databases), wxformbuilder (wxpython designer), emacs (advanced text editor and ide platform)
• Sound & Video: audacity (multitrack audio editor), cpod / gnome-podcasts (podcast app), vokoscreen-ng (screencast recorder), avidemux / handbrake (fast video converter), pitivi / shotcut (multitrack video editor), vlc (audio-video player), soundconverter (for audio conversion), gaupol (video subtitle editor), gnome-radio / radiotray (online radio player), lmms (advanced daw - sound editor), cheese (web-cam monitor)
• Administration: grub-customizer (to adjust grub boot items & screen resolution), appimage-launcher (to manage appimage files), bleachbit (file cleaner), wine / proton (emulator to run windows apps)
• Terminal: build-essential (dev tools for c & c++, needed to build apps from source), mc (midnight commander, two panel file manager), mpg321 (console mp3 player), htop (console system monitor), hwinfo (console hardware diag tool), alien (to convert rpm packages to deb format), firejail (sandboxing tool for other apps)

[josephcarter]

It seems the OP is into programming, by looking at the apps installed. Say, I am into music and listed Online video converter, ardor, mixxx, or rosegarden here. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

[Barbados99]

GIMP (I work with it every day)
PyCharm (a Python IDE)
Insync (syncs my Documents folder and subfolders to the cloud for realtime backups of my most important data files).

Other than those 3 programs I honestly wish Mint had far fewer default programs loaded in an install. I only use a handful of them and would prefer to have a minimal Mint installation that allowed me to then load the software that I actually use. I'm not talking about an Arch or Gentoo type thing here. But rather have Mint install the chosen DE of choice for a user (Cinnamon, Mate or XFCE) and the basics like the system and settings apps, and the software manager so a person could add the software of choice with a GUI. But then we could choose our Internet, email, office, graphics software, multimedia apps, etc. This would not be a "build it from scratch" type thing like Arch & Gentoo, but rather an easy way to simply choose apps to load through a GUI software manager. Just a thought.

It's not a big deal though. I have plenty of storage and it's not like the programs are causing me trouble disc space wise. Sometimes I get energetic and remove the files... but most of the time I just ignore them. But I do believe it would be a cool Mint option to allow a person to install a minimal installation and then a user could choose to load the applications that they truly want. JMO.

[Pepi]

You guys are forgetting your antivirus programs

[Moem]

You guys are forgetting your antivirus programs

That's right, I've forgotten them years ago and I'm glad I did!

[majpooper]

You guys are forgetting your antivirus programs

That's right, I've forgotten them years ago and I'm glad I did!

+1 - not to mention, not only are they unnecessary in linux they are dangerous.

[hydrurga]

My essential non-default must haves (in Linux Mint 20 MATE anyway) are:

VeraCrypt, FreeFileSync, GParted, GIMP, Cairo Dock, Geany, VirtualBox, Brackets, Quod Libet, CopyQ, XnView MP, KeePassXC, TeamViewer.

I use significantly more non-default packages than that, but I could probably get by without the rest.

[Portreve]

What are your 'must have applications/software'?

Only the ones which are, and none of the ones which aren't.

[BigEasy]

What software do you download/install immediately after setting up your workstation?

Google Chrome, of course, and Pale Moon web browsers, Viber messenger, SMplayer.

[AdamFirst]

This:

CherryTree
KeePassX
Leafpad
Plank
Recoll
Xfburn
AisleRiot Solitaire
Firefox + a second browser
Thunderbird
Foliate
GCstar Collections Manager
LibreOffice
Calibre
Asunder
Audacious
Pithos
GParted

[Fossy]

Mozilla Firefox / Google
Eid viewer
Evolution ( my favorite email client )

Shouldn’t have them , shouldn’t need a personal computer
Other Applications / Software are considered secondary.

[MartyMint]

Qjackctl
Catia
Ardour