Recommended Linux Apps

[Spacecadet]

I've finally made the jump to Linux

As a newbie though I'm at a loss as to which apps are "must haves" or very useful

Currently I have the usual:
Libre office
Gimp
Chrome
Spotify
VirtualBox
Eclipse
Sublime
Thunderbird

What else can the Linux using members of the congregation recommend?

 

[administrator]

Well done! Are you using it as your full-time desktop? What distro are you using?

Steam is now out for linux if you like games:
Featured Linux Games

If Thunderbird and gimp start to do your head in and you want to revert to Outlook and Photoshop then you could have a fiddle with Wine:
AdobePhotoshop - The Official Wine Wiki
WineHQ - Microsoft Outlook

Although TBH you may as well just stick them in a VM if your machine has enough power...

Are you going to be messing with any web dev stuff or it is desktop only?

 

[DirtyDog]

• jUploadr (if you use Flickr)
• gparted (might be part of the standard install, depending on your flavour of Linux)
• Shutter
• NixNote (if you use evernote)
• Calibre
• Banshee
• SQLiteMan (if you use anything which might have a SQL Lite database, eg Firefox, Banshee...)
• Chromium - sometimes it works better than Chrome

Plus the Linux ports of any "normal" apps - Dropbox, Skype etc.

I used to use Bibble for photo editing, but they got bought out.

VMWare for when you need to use Windows

 

[Spacecadet]

Well done! Are you using it as your full-time desktop? What distro are you using?

Steam is now out for linux if you like games:
Featured Linux Games

If Thunderbird and gimp start to do your head in and you want to revert to Outlook and Photoshop then you could have a fiddle with Wine:
AdobePhotoshop - The Official Wine Wiki
WineHQ - Microsoft Outlook

Although TBH you may as well just stick them in a VM if your machine has enough power...

Are you going to be messing with any web dev stuff or it is desktop only?

Thanks! Using Linux Mint
Can't use it quite as a full time desktop, mainly cause I'm a SQL Server dev by trade
Having said that, I'm cross training now into other tech... python, R, AWS etc... and so for the evenings and weekends Linux it is.

Got a dual boot setup now so I can go into dedicated windows when I need to, also using that for games. I have installed steam for Linux but I'll probably uninstall it soon as all the games I want to play are on windows.

I'm also running windows server in virtual machines and I can run those in either Linux or Windows

 

[Sysman]

Thanks! Using Linux Mint
Can't use it quite as a full time desktop, mainly cause I'm a SQL Server dev by trade
Having said that, I'm cross training now into other tech... python, R, AWS etc... and so for the evenings and weekends Linux it is.

Got a dual boot setup now so I can go into dedicated windows when I need to, also using that for games. I have installed steam for Linux but I'll probably uninstall it soon as all the games I want to play are on windows.

I'm also running windows server in virtual machines and I can run those in either Linux or Windows

If you get the urge to run servery things on Linux, don't do that in Linux Mint. The Linux Mint upgrade path is "Save your data then wipe and reinstall" and that gets tricky as soon as you start mucking around with config files for services. Even stuff like a "vanilla" installation of Apache can cause you grief here. BTDT

Stick the server version of Debian or CentOS or Scientific Linux in a virtual machine and then you can run it from either boot. The server versions of these tend to be pretty stable and you will appreciate that at some point in the future.

 

[stek]

Don't forget vi, sed and awk....