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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What are your must-have programs? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Trying to discover new/unheard Linux desktop programs (Sorry for the confusion).

Edit: I apologise for confusing a lot of people. I meant Linux desktop “programs” coming from Windows/Mac. I'm used to calling them “apps”.

Edit: 🙌 I’m overwhelmed with the great “programs” people have recommended in the comment section. Thank you guys.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

There's no doubt there are a great variety of Linux packages in use.

Recently I did a CD install of Debian 12 (Bookworm) desktop with Gnome, which loads a bunch of stuff over the Net. Here are extra packages that I installed manually. The first set is used by and with an automated configuration script that I wrote, so they have to come in to begin with.

Title	Description	Purpose
info	Gnu info processor	"Config"
curl	Command line tool for transferring data with URL syntax	"Config"
dbus-x11	Simple interprocess messaging system (X11 deps)	"Config"
emacs	Editor	"Config"
gconf2	GNOME configuration database system (support tools)	"Config"
mc	Midnight Commander - a powerful file manager	"Config"
python3-iniparse	Access and modify configuration data in INI files	"Config"
python-lxml-doc	Python XML documentation	"Config"
python3-lxml	Pythonic binding for the libxml2 and libxslt libraries	"Config"
sakura	Simple but powerful libvte-based terminal emulator	"Config"

Title	Description	Purpose
"apcupsd"	"APC UPS Power Management"	"Monitor"
"artha"	"Handy off-line thesaurus based on WordNet"	"Utils"
"backintime"	"Simple backup/snapshot system"	"Utils"
"brasero"	"CD/DVD burning application for GNOME"	"Utils"
"bwm-ng"	"Small and simple console-based bandwidth monitor"	"Monitor"
"ccze"	"Robust, modular log coloriser"	"Utils"
"certbot"	"Automatically configure HTTPS using Let's Encrypt "	"Utils"
"claws-mail-dillo-viewer"	"HTML viewer plugin for Claws Mail using Dillo"	"Mail"
"claws-mail-feeds-reader"	"Feeds (RSS/atom) reader plugin for claws mail"	"Mail"
"claws-mail-plugins"	"Claws mail"	"Mail"
"claws-mail-spam-report"	"Spam reporting plugin for claws mail"	"Mail"
"cmake"	"Cross-platform, open-source make system"	"Retroshare"
"conky-all"	"Highly configurable system monitor"	"Monitor"
"copyq"	"Advanced clipboard manager with editing and scripting features"	"Utils"
"cups"	"Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - PPD/driver support, web interface "	"Utils"
"dcraw"	"Decode raw digital camera images"	"Photo"
"devilspie"	"Automatically resize windows"	"Utils"
"dict"	"Dictionary client/server and a selection of dictionaries, too"	"Utils"
"dictd"	"Dictionary server"	"Utils"
"diction"	"Utilities to help with style and diction"	"Utils"
"exiv2"	"EXIF/IPTC photo metadata manipulation tool"	"Photo"
"festival"	"General multi-lingual speech synthesis system"	"Utils"
"ftp"	"Classical file transfer client"	"Utils"
"gedit"	"Popular text editor for the GNOME desktop environment"	"Editor"
"gimp"	"GNU Image Manipulation Program"	"Photo"
"git"	"Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system"	"Utils"
"gnome-audio"	"Audio files for GNOME"	"Utils"
"gnome-extra-icons"	"Optional gnome icons"	"Utils"
"gnucash"	"Personal bookkeeping and finance"	"App"
"golang"	"Go programming language compiler"	"yamn"
"hplip"	"HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP)"	"Utils"
"hplip-gui"	"HP Linux Printing and Imaging - GUI utilities (Qt-based)"	"Utils"
"hugin"	"Panorama photo stitching program"	"Photo"
"imagemagick"	"Image manipulation programs"	"Photo"
"libbz2-dev"	"High-quality block-sorting file compressor library"	"Retroshare"
"libcurl4-openssl-dev"	"Development files and documentation for libcurl (OpenSSL flavour)"	"Retroshare"
"libglib2.0-dev"	"Development files for the GLib library"	"Retroshare"
"libjpeg-turbo-progs"	"Programs for manipulating JPEG files including loss-less rotation"	"Photo"
"libmicrohttpd-dev"	"Library embedding HTTP server functionality"	"Retroshare"
"libopencv-dev"	"computer vision core library"	"Retroshare"
"libqt5opengl5-dev"	"Qt 5 OpenGL library development files"	"Retroshare"
"libqt5multimedia5"	"Qt 5 Multimedia module"	"Retroshare"
"libqt5network5"	"Qt 5 network module"	"Retroshare"
"libqt5x11extras5-dev"	"Qt 5 X11 extras"	"Retroshare"
"libreoffice-base"	"Database component for LibreOffice"	"Utils"
"librsvg2-bin"	"Command-line and graphical viewers for SVG files"	"Photo"
"libsqlcipher-dev"	"Sqlcipher shared library"	"Retroshare"
"libssl-dev"	"Secure Sockets Layer toolkit - development files"	"Retroshare"
"libspeex-dev"	"The Speex codec library"	"Retroshare"
"libspeexdsp-dev"	"The Speex extended library"	"Retroshare"
"libupnp-dev"	"Portable SDK for UPnP devices"	"Retroshare"
"libxslt1-dev"	"XSLT 1.0 processing library"	"Retroshare"
"libxss-dev"	"X11 Screen Saver extension library (development headers)"	"Retroshare"
"lm-sensors"	"Utilities to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors"	"Monitor"
"mosquitto"	"MQTT version 5.0/3.1.1/3.1 compatible message broker"	"Home Automation"
"mosquitto-clients"	"Mosquitto command line MQTT clients"	"Home Automation"
"net-tools"	"NET-3 networking toolkit"	"Utils"
"numlockx"	"Enable numlock in X11 sessions"	"Unknown"
"openhab-addons"	"OpenHAB Home Automation"	"Home Automation"
"otpclient"	"Simple GTK+ software to generate OTPs (TOTP and HOTP)"	"Utils"
"pandoc"	"General markup converter"	"Utils"
"pcmanfm"	"Extremely fast and lightweight file manager"	"Utils"
"python-is-python3"	"Symlinks /usr/bin/python to python3"	"Devel"
"python3-babel"	"Tools for internationalizing Python applications - Python 3.x"	"Devel"
"python3-calmjs"	"Node.js Python framework for building toolchains and utilities"	"Devel"
"python3-cheetah"	"Text-based template engine and Python code generator (Python 3)"	"WeeWX"
"python3-configobj"	"Simple but powerful config file reader and writer for Python 3"	"WeeWX"
"python3-dateparser"	"Python parser for human readable dates"	"Devel"
"python3-doc"	"Python documentation"	"Devel"
"python3-ephem"	"Compute positions of the planets and stars with Python 3"	"WeeWX"
"python3-nltk"	"Natural language processing"	"Utils"
"python3-pycryptodome"	"Cryptographic Python library"	"eoas"
"python3-pyqt5"	"Python 3 bindings for Qt5"	"Devel"
"python3-pyqt5.qtmultimedia"	"Python 3 bindings for Qt5's Multimedia module"	"Devel"
"python3-serial"	"pyserial - module encapsulating access for the serial port "	"WeeWX"
"python3-setuptools"	"Python distutils enhancements (setuptools compatibility)"	"Devel"
"python3-tz"	"The Olson timezone database"	"Utils"
"python3-usb"	"USB interface for Python (Python3)"	"WeeWX"
"python3-venv"	"Venv module for python3"	"WeeWX"
"python3-vobject"	"Parse iCalendar and VCards in python"	"Android"
"python3-xdg"	"Freedesktop.org standards"	"Tonto2"
"qgit"	"Qt application for viewing GIT trees"	"Utils"
"qrencode"	"QR code encoder into PNG image"	"Photo"
"qtcreator"	"Integrated development environment (IDE) for Qt"	"Retroshare"
"qtmultimedia5-dev"	"APIs for multimedia functionality"	"RetroShare"
"qtox"	"Tox client"	"Retroshare"
"qttools5-dev"	"Qt 5 tools development files"	"Retroshare"
"rapidjson-dev"	"Fast JSON parser/generator for C++ with SAX/DOM style API"	"Retroshare"
"rblcheck"	"Query real-time black list (RBL) servers"	"Mail"
"retroshare-gui"	"Secure communication with friends"	"Retroshare"
"rsync"	"Fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool"	"Utils"
"sane"	"Scanner graphical frontends"	"Photo"
"sqlite3"	"Command line interface for SQLite 3"	"Firefox Devel"
"sqlitebrowser"	"GUI editor for sqlite databases"	"Unknown"
"ssh"	"Secure shell client and server (metapackage)"	"Utils"
"tcl8.6-dev"	"Tcl (the Tool Command Language) v8.6"	"Retroshare"
"tesseract-ocr"	"Command line OCR tool"	"Unknown"
"timeshift"	"System restore utility"	"Utils"
"torsocks"	"Use socks-friendly applications with Tor"	"QTox"
"trash-cli"	"Freedesktop.org trash implementation"	"Utils"
"tree"	"Displays an indented directory tree, in color"	"Utils"
"ttf-bitstream-vera"	"Bitstream Vera family of free Truetype fonts"	"Utils"
"whois"	"Intelligent WHOIS client"	"is_tout.py"
"xsane"	"Graphical frontend for Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE)"	"Photo"
"zbar-tools"	"Bar Code Scanner and Decoder"	"Photo"
"zip"	"Archiver for .zip files"	"Utils"

Here are third-party packages I admire. These are not available in Debian repositories although some provide Debian-compatible repositories of their own.

Tor Browser Bundle: Anonymizing Network Browser

This is available from https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/ as a tarball. This should be unpacked and the whole tor-browser_en-US directory moved to the ~user folder. This is so that the browser can auto-update at user authority as the need arises.

RetroShare: Secure Communications with Friends

This has its own Debian-compatible repository.

metar: A Package to Parse METAR Coded Weather Reports

~/lab_pip/bin/activate
pip install metar --upgrade

weeWX: Open source software for backyard weather stations.

From http://weewx.com/docs/debian.htm. Although a Debian package exists, doing any development practically requires that all the code be in user-space, so don't install the package. Download it instead.

OpenHAB: Home Automation

This has its own Debian-compatible repository.

Ant: GTK3/4 Themes by eliverlara

From https://www.gnome-look.org/browse?cat=135&ord=latest.

This is for claws-mail. It provides better contrast.