What are your 'must have applications/software'?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

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.

Thanks for the link to that list!

[antikythera]

Google Chrome
PlayOnLinux
VirtualBox
Thunderbird
HP Toolbox (hplipgui)
xsane
GIMP
LibreOffice
VLC
Synaptic Package Manager

That's pretty much my day to day usage of Linux. I use KDEConnect but could live without it. It is essentially me being too lazy to get off my backside and walk a couple of metres to check the phone or send an SMS.

[Portreve]

Gimp, Scribus, Inkscape, EasyTag, Sound Converter, a s***ton of fonts, and probably a few other things I'm not thinking of atm...

[Hoser Rob]

SMPlayer, Cherrytree, Audacious, Leafpad, Chrome, Vivaldi, I'm forgetting some but those I always put on a new intall.

[exploder]

LibreOffice, K3B, Clementine, KTorrent, VLC, Firefox, Gimp and ClamTk.

[blackcarajillo]

Telegram, vim, youtube-dl, mpv, newsbeuter and a lot of other stuff I just cannot remember.

[SteveR]

An absolute must, personal accounting software, such as KMyMoney or GnuCash.

Additionally: LibreOffice, MariaDB, Firefox, and Google. Plus other utilities from the Mint repositories on an as needed basis.

MariaDB, also implies the need for Apache2, PHP, and PhpMyAdmin

[smurphos]

Not much for me - in addition to what's preinstalled on Mint

Geany
Meld
GPrename
SpaceFM - I don't use it as a standalone file manager but I integrate it's search into Nemo
Lollypop
Google Play Music Desktop
Audacity
Handbrake
Chrome
Virtualbox
Inkscape
ImageMagick
Sassc
Aptik
D-feet
Dconf-editor
KeepassXC
xdotool
devhelp
Flameshot

[senjoz]

First after installation of Linux Mint I go through recommendations from Pjotr, https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com. I apply meny of those recommendations. Then I install: GParted, Htop, Tlp, Powertop, Powerstat, MidnightCommander, DoubleCommander, Dconf-editor, Nvme-cli, Smartmontools, Build-essential, Checkinstall, Back in Time, NoScript for Firefox and uBlock Origin for Firefox. That are my must have applications. I avoid installing other software as much as possible. Some candidates, depending on what the computer will be used for, are: Gimp, EtherApe, OpenVas and Lazarus.

Regards,
Jože

[Vladimir00]

Chromium
qBittorrent
Wine
Winetricks
PlayOnLinux
Pinta

[miscbyproduct]

Thank you for grouping them. Helps a lot towards giving some idea what each of them are.

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)

[lewtwo]

I am still running 19.X on my desktop but I have Oracle VirtualBox to run test systems. I run several installs for each version of Linux Mint Mate that I use and make notes so the next time I have a straightforward and consistent procedure to build a 'base' OS image to my liking. So from those notes for "Linux Mint 20 Ulyana MATE 1.24.0" here are my ''Must Have":

1) Disk partitioning:
A second disk drive (or at least a seperate partition) should be set up for timeshift data
Install "gparted" because "gnome-disks" can not create a partition table
sudo apt-get install gparted
....
3) Install Samba (Windows File Sharing):
sudo apt-get install samba
connect to smb://XXXX/public/software

4) Install Google Chrome:
cd ~/Downloads
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/goog ... _amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
# will not show up in menu until after reboot
/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

5) other Linux Utilities:
sudo apt-get update
# in case something goes wrong you may need these
sudo apt-get install "util-linux" traceroute partclone testdisk diskscan
# usefull additions
sudo apt-get install pinta keepass2 vlc fsarchiver
....
Other notes:
BACKUPS:
fsarchive is BY FAR the most reliable backup and can be run on a LIVE system or Live CD or Live USB
timeshift is the most convenient backup
rsync is more complex but can be extremely efficient

[rickNS]

Telegram, vim, youtube-dl, mpv, newsbeuter and a lot of other stuff I just cannot remember.

Here's a handy bit of code to list your manually installed packages;

Code: Select all

comm -23 <(apt-mark showmanual | sort -u) <(gzip -dc /var/log/installer/initial-status.gz | sed -n 's/^Package: //p' | sort -u)

here's mine with some removed;
chromium
glabels (does a lot more than labels, is quite easy to use graphics package)
google-earth-ver-7.1.8.3036 (newest versions don't work on my hardware)
gparted
higan (ninetendo emulator)
kazam (simple screen recorder)
kodi
ksnip (excellent screenshot tool)
mame (arcade emulator)
meld (visually compare directories, or complete file systems)
multisystem (create multiboot USBs)
openshot (video editor)
openssh-server
quicksynergy (share mouse, and keyboard between two or more computers)
screenfetch (just cool)
smplayer
systemback (backup/snapshot tool, and create custom live ISOs)
virtualbox
vlc
vokoscreen (another screen capture tool, can also capture webcam at same time)
youtube-dl

[bob466]

Mine are...

Asunder CD Ripper
Clementine
Handbrake
Make MKV
VLC
Sound Converter
XFBurn
Flameshot
Virtualbox
Etcher

Browsers...Google Chrome...Flash Peak Slimjet...Opera...Vivaldi and or cause Firefox.

[Vladimir00]

What do you consider must have applications?

I think there is no simple answer. It all depends on your needs.For me, the required applications are the following applications:Snap,Chromium,Wine,Winetricks,PlayOnLinux and qBittorrent.

[AndyMH]

There will be no consensus, you will get as many different opinions as responses. For me, the first things to install are backintime, keepass, chromium, virtualbox, crossover, evolution. Eye candy - my conky scripts, programming - lazarus, vs code, bluefish, and the list goes on.

EDIT - there is one must have - backup software.

[twerq]

Mint brings well-balanced application list out of the box. So as a regular user I feel Mint system as complete.
And when I go to perform some special activities such as sound or video editing, music composing, programming etc I definitely should install additional software. But I don't consider it as must have bc it's not essential for most of the users.

I can tell about software I prefer but seems like it would be offtopic in this thread.

[DAMIEN1307]

Simply put, "must have" is what is a "must have" for you personally.

We all use our systems in different ways based on our own individual needs or wants.

Only YOU can decide what are "must have" applications, software, programs, browsers, extensions, apps, etc...DAMIEN

[twerq]

Ok, according to my logs I run zynaddsubfx, seq24 and jack2 with a2jmidid most of all on my fresh install Mint 20 for noise production.
And sometimes I write for Android in Android Studio.

[antikythera]

Synaptic Package Manager
Google Chrome
VLC
PlayOnLinux
Timeshift
Thunderbird
HP Toolbox and xsane
LibreOffice
nano
top

Some are already included though