The Great Software List for Linux

GNU/LINUX DISTROS
Kubuntu (F)
Kubuntu is an KDE and Ubuntu-based distribution that is a community developed operating system. Perfect for laptops, desktops and servers, and whether you use it at home, at school, or at work, Kubuntu contains many of the best apps Linux has to offer, from word processing and image applications, to web server software and programming tools. The latest KDE makes this distro better than anything Microsoft offers!

Linux Mint (F)
Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories.

SimplyMEPIS (F)
MEPIS Linux is a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution designed for both personal and business purposes. It includes cutting-edge features such as a live, installation and recovery CD, superior hardware detection and configuration, NTFS partition resizing, ACPI power management, WiFi support, anti-aliased TrueType fonts, a personal firewall, all in KDE. I love this.

FreeBSD (F)
Not a Linux distro per se, but FreeBSD offers advanced networking, performance, security and compatibility features today which are still missing in other operating systems, even some of the best commercial ones. This loaded in only 12 minutes on my system, including HD reformats!

ZenWalk (F)
A Slackware-based GNU/Linux operating system with a goal of being slim and fast by using only one application per task and with focus on graphical desktop and multimedia usage. Modular, customizable, and lets you get straight to work with the most popular apps.

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DESKTOP ENVIRONMENTS
KDE (cross-platform)
KDE is an international technology team that creates Free Software for desktop and portable computing. Among KDE's products are a modern desktop system for Linux and UNIX platforms, comprehensive office productivity and groupware suites and hundreds of software titles in many categories including Internet and web applications, multimedia, entertainment, educational, graphics and software development. KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind. KDE4's full-featured applications run natively on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows, and OS X.

Gnome
The GNOME desktop environment, an intuitive and attractive desktop for users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop.

Xfce
Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for various *-nix systems. Designed for productivity, it loads and executes applications fast, while conserving system resources. Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and reusability. It consists of a number of components that together provide the full functionality of the desktop environment. They are packaged separately and you can pick and choose from the available packages to create the best personal working environment.

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TEXT EDITING, SCRIPTING
Kate Text Editor (KDE)
No doubt this is the most powerful and customizable of the MDI editor bunch, Kate lets you work the way you need to, and comfortably.

BASH
Bash is a shell, or CLI (command language interpreter), that appears in the GNU operating system. Most sh scripts can be run by Bash without modification, including: command line editing; unlimited size command history; job control; shell functions and aliases; indexed arrays of unlimited size; and integer arithmetic in any base from 2 to 64.

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OFFICE APPS/WORD PROCESSING
OpenOffice Writer (cross-platform)
The Open Source powerhouse with a universal file format, great usability, and runs on every platform. Also check out IBM's Lotus Symphony.

Zoho Writer (cloud app)
Zoho brings never-seen-before tools to the word processor. I love this.

Google Docs (cloud app)
Fast, responsive, and doesn't let you make a mistake.

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OFFICE TOOLS
SpeedCrunch calculator (cross-platform)
SpeedCrunch is a fast, high precision, and very powerful desktop calculator. You will be impressed.

ConvertAll unit converter
Now I know that kbps is a measure of bandwidth! ConvertAll is exceptional in this category.

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SYSTEM TOOLS
xs
to be added.

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GRAPHICS, IMAGE TOOLS
GIMP Image Editor (cross-platform)
A high-end image editor that runs on multiple platforms. Excellent!

Picasa (cross-platform)
Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit, and share all the pictures on your computer. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. (Requires Wine.)

Gwenview
Browsing, viewing, editing, presenting, Gwenview is a KDE tool that is impressive.

F-Stop photo manager
F-Spot is a full-featured personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop. F-Spot simplifies digital photography by providing intuitive tools to help you share, touch-up, find, and organize your images.

XnView (cross-platform)
Freeware viewer and editor that holds its own against any other.

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MULTIMEDIA, VIDEO EDITING
VLC, VideoLAN media player (cross-platform)
Cool cross-platform media player and streaming server. Plays everything I throw at it.

MPlayer (cross-platform)
MPlayer is a movie player which runs on many systems. It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5, WMV, and H.264 movies.

Audacity audio editor (cross-platform)
Solid cross-platform audio editor that makes editing easy.

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WEB-DEV: CSS, RSS, FTP
Bluefish Editor
An extremely powerful editor targeted towards programmers and web designers, with many options to write website, scripts, and programming code. Bluefish is pretty fantastic.

K ompoZer (cross-platform)
An excellent HTML/CSS editor built on the NVU architecture. Works on Linux as well.

WordPress (cross-platform)
Besides being the best blogging platform, WordPress serves well as a CMS, with broad features that will grow with you.

SilverStripe (F)
One of the most promising CMS apps to come around in years. Build and manage websites, forms, manage contacts without going through email, and auto resampling. Wow!

Opera browser (cross-platform)
The most accurate CSS browser ever built, to a fault, and my personal favorite.

Mozilla Firefox (cross-platform)
Wildly popular browser that is extensible, customizable, and updated frequently.

FileZilla FTP (cross-platform)
Great, reliable cross-platform FTP client that does it all.

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USENET, P2P/FILE SHARING TOOLS
Pan Newsreader (F, Linux)
A Linux newsreader that is a lot like XNews, but supports NZB. Easy, fast, and it works well.

Giganews
The proven best Usenet server you'll find. Get the Unlimited account, too.

RAR, WinRAR (cross-platform)
The master of all archive tools, RAR for Linux and WinRAR can do almost everything. And your WinRAR license also works for the Linux version and vice-versa.

QuickPAR (Wine)
Utility for creating, checking, and extracting Parity Volumes (PAR files), although this function is built into Linux.

Pidgin IM client (cross-platform)
A multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once.

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FILE MANAGEMENT
Krusader File Manager
A well-designed fast, easy renamer with all its functions on one screen and it integrates with the Krusader file manager.

Thunar File Manager
A well-designed fast, easy renamer with all its functions on one screen and it integrates with the Krusader file manager.

Xfe File Manager
A well-designed fast, easy renamer with all its functions on one screen and it integrates with the Krusader file manager.

XYplorer File Manager (should be cross-platform! but Windows only)
Best all-around customizable file manager with great support, customizable keyboard shortcuts, scripting, and incredible search capabilities. XYplorer also offers both a free, older version and a Lifetime license option if you prefer at a fraction of the cost of Directory Opus.

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ARCHIVE, SYNCHING, DOWNLOAD, RENAMING TOOLS
Beyond Compare (cross-platform)
Beyond Compare lets you easily compare your files and folders. Focus on the differences you're interested in and ignore those you're not, and then merge the changes, synchronize your files, and generate reports for your records. You can compare entire drives and folders at high speed, checking just sizes and modified times. FTP sites and zip files are integrated seamlessly, so you can update your website with the touch of a button. Expensive, but proven.

Super Flexible File Synchronizer (cross-platform)
Advanced, full of high-end features, and is the class of the category.

RAR, WinRAR (cross-platform)
The master of all archive tools, RAR and WinRAR can do almost everything.

7-Zip (cross-platform)
Powerful open source archiver that lets you move to 7z format if you choose. Great for splitting files, too.

PeaZip (cross-platform)
Yet another archive tool that does anything you need.

KRename
A well-designed fast, easy modular renamer whose functions include regular expressions and it integrates with the Krusader file manager.

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The Great Software List /for Linux is an advocate of great software along with notable Open Source software for the Linux platform. It is composed of high quality programs that share most or all of the following features:

          (1) Ease of use based on a well-designed user interface;
          (2) Customizability where applicable, and a generous array of keyboard shortcuts;
          (3) Stability;
          (4) Cross-platform if available.

In my experience, most software programs are missing two to three key features or options that would make them significantly better. This page is provided so that you don't have to spend weeks finding the perfect program. The Great Software List /for Linux stands in praise of small software, and why it has become important. Offer developers your honest, critical feedback. Support great Open Source and Freeware programs by donating to their developers. Perhaps one of the best software apps I've come across is the XYplorer File Manager (for Windows) by Donald Lessau, who combines the best of both worlds by offering a true Lifetime license to XYplorer, but providing a donation page for those of us who donate small amounts each month to independent developers.

Although there are often two or more apps within each broad category, each app is worthy and it's better to let the user decide which may be best for them. All programs were tested on a 64-bit Intel Quad-core chip under a GNU/Linux distro.

Check the list, and if you know of other great software, let me know. I'm terribly derelict with email. Otherwise, developers please use the simple award PNG above for your website. The content of this site is constantly changing as apps come and go, even across versions, so come back at least once a month to see what's new. Ratings are good for each year that your software is listed.

Here is a more expansive discussion of these points, along with what makes software great and why this site exists. And these time-tested tips cover suggestions for both users and developers. And finally, for an example of great genetic code writing, go here! I support their inspirational work to say the least.

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SUPPORT
— Open Standards and Free Libre Open Source software (FLOSS). We need both, so advocate and promote both.
— GNU/Linux, especially to new users who shouldn't have to experience Microsoft's crazy horseshit.
— The OASIS OpenDocument (ODF) format.
— Great software by purchase, registration, donations, and upgrading.
— Great software by advocating, blogging, supporting, teaching others it to others.
— Developers with informative bug reports and critical feedback.
— 1-year license options and 30-day trial periods (some software has to have time to grow on you).
— Developers who make it easy and cheap to donate frequently to their work. Impulse donations!
— Users who provide honest criticism, praise or feedback in forums, reviews, and blog posts.
— Helping others solve their software problems in forums and newsgroups. These people are the heroes!
— Fast-loading, lean software that uses memory efficiently.

OPPOSE
— Software piracy — it kills the small developer more than anyone else.
— Snarky, selfish, mean, bitchy, needy, greedy, miserly users.
— DRM (Digital Rights Management), the RIAA, Trusted Computing — all that fascist crap.
— Spyware, Adware, or Product activation and validation devices, phone-home schemes.
— Closed, proprietary, redundant, or incompatible file formats (Let's just say it: Microsoft.)
— Slow-loading, memory-hogging software (Adobe, this has your name written all over it.)
— Feature-bloated software or slow, buggy software.
— Programs that neglect user customization, notably a lack of keyboard shortcuts.
— Complex, noisy, or senseless user interfaces in applications.
— Complex and restrictive EULAs.
— Obvious, frivolous, and invalid patents that crush creativity and encourage a litigation.

                        CONTACT Zaine Ridling at: zridling@gmail.com