What are you essential linux software programs?

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aceo07 · #1 Post by **aceo07** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:14 am

I got Slackware 10.2 running on my X22. Now I'm in the process of installing software.

What are some essential pieces of software that you always install?
My current list is:
Firefox
Gaim
MPlayer
OpenOffice

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:25 am

I downloaded 10.2 iso and tried to install it but i get a kernal not found or something, did you have to install the bare.i from a floppy or am I missing something else.

dkpw · #3 Post by **dkpw** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:35 pm

Hi Aceman,

In no particular order, my most used apps in Slackware on the T41 are:

Firefox (EN-GB)
Thunderbird
OpenOffice 1.1.5 - I prefer it to OpenOffice 2.0 - it's faster.
Webmin
VNC for Linux
GQView for quick image viewing
Acrobat for Linux
Guarddog - front end for IPtables
Limewire
Skype
ProFTPd
Xine DVDlibs for protected DVDs

Etc. etc.

Regards

dkpw

dkpw · #4 Post by **dkpw** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 1:40 pm

Kyocera wrote:I downloaded 10.2 iso and tried to install it but i get a kernal not found or something, did you have to install the bare.i from a floppy or am I missing something else.

No, the choice of kernel screen is the one counter-intuative screen in the install process. I've had a couple of stumbles with this in the past.

The best option to choose is "skip and use the default" which will install the default generic 2.4.31 IDE kernel. Once you have completed your install and managed to login, the first thing I would recommend is following the instructions for upgrading the kernel to 2.6.x. This offers additional support for laptops and in my experience is faster and just as stable as the default 2.4 kernel.

You can find the instructions and the necessary Slackware packages on the second install CD. This will give you a stable 2.6.13 kernel.

Let us know how you get on - good luck.

Regards

dkpw

aceo07 · #5 Post by **aceo07** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:00 pm

Kyocera wrote:I downloaded 10.2 iso and tried to install it but i get a kernal not found or something, did you have to install the bare.i from a floppy or am I missing something else.

Did you install lilo and did you get the lilo screen when you booted up? If you didn't get the lilo selection screen, then I had the same problem.

I think I had a similar problem to yours. It said "no operating system found" when I booted. During the install you can install the kernel from the cd or whatever source you used. However, if you're installing the LILO onto the harddrive, also make a bootdisk. After the installation is complete, bootup with the bootdisk and login. LILO was having a problem installing during the initial installation.

Use the command "lilo -P ignore" and it will reinstall lilo and ignore any problems that stopped it from installing before. After this you can boot up from the harddrive instead of the bootdisk.

Hope this helps.

aceo07 · #6 Post by **aceo07** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:04 pm

dkpw wrote:Hi Aceman,

In no particular order, my most used apps in Slackware on the T41 are:

Firefox (EN-GB)
Thunderbird
OpenOffice 1.1.5 - I prefer it to OpenOffice 2.0 - it's faster.
Webmin
VNC for Linux
GQView for quick image viewing
Acrobat for Linux
Guarddog - front end for IPtables
Limewire
Skype
ProFTPd
Xine DVDlibs for protected DVDs

Etc. etc.

Regards

dkpw

hmm. Thanks for the list. Certainly a few that I haven't thought of.

Are there any programs similar to ZoneAlarm in windows? I want to know which programs are trying to connect to the internet/network and stop them if needed.

dkpw · #7 Post by **dkpw** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:58 pm

aceo07 wrote:Are there any programs similar to ZoneAlarm in windows? I want to know which programs are trying to connect to the internet/network and stop them if needed.

I'm not familiar with anything directly analagous.

Although you could get a similar effect by using Guard-dog which is a very nice front end to the hideously complex IPtables. You create zones and then indicate which services (as opposed to applications) are allowed to and from each zone.

If you use KDE, the KDE SystemGuard is a front end to the TOP utility and handy for seeing which processes are running.

I'd say Guard dog would be your best first try. You could also try LinuxQuestions.org with the same questions, there's many people on there with loads of experience.

Regards,

dkpw

jogego · #8 Post by **jogego** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:12 pm

No matter what distro I use, the following are absolutely essential for me:

Opera
Thunderbird
Openoffice
Acrobat for Linux
Gaim
Konqueror
Amarok
Firefox
gftp
Wifi-Radar
Katapult
Kompose

I run either Suse 10 or Ubuntu or Kubuntu or Mepis. Since I have my home folder as a separate partition on my hard disk, installing another distro is a matter of 30 minutes and all my settings are kept.

teetee · #9 Post by **teetee** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:47 pm

In addiontion to firefox, mozilla, Acrobat reader, terminal(xfterm4), VNC
server/viewer(tight VNC), Gaim, Openoffice, gftp(now I often use fireftp
extension of firefox instead), XMMS, GIMP, GQview, xv, and xfce
notes(simpler to knotes but probably uses different library)

Here are the other useful tools for me on daily basis:
Gkrellm - system monitor
XnView - Image browser, batch converter
Xchm - .chm ebook reader
Namp
Azureus
Dia - Flow chart creator
texmaker - A nice frontend for making tatex document.

Some bioinfo/biology lab data analysis tools:
TNImage - for SDS-PAGE image analysis
Gromos96 (text only), NAMD/VMD, Amber7 - molecular dynamics calculation

For server programs
rsync - for incremental lab data backup
ntpd - time adjustment
vnc, mail, samba, cups, etc.

yossarian · #10 Post by **yossarian** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:50 pm

My personal favourites for the GUI are:
firefox, thunderbird, gaim, xemacs, gvim, xmms, videolan, openoffice, xpdf, a bunch of tools for latex like ghostview, xchat and gimp

For the CLI I think the following userland apps are rather essential:
screen, checkinstall (especially if using slackware), vi, ssh, ncftp, mpg123 or mpg321, ogg123, irssi, mutt

For system administration etc:
tcng (for QoS if you have the need) + script, iptable scripts, tcpdump, ethereal(gui), and something like portsentry(to confuse portscanners) and some sort of IDS like snort. You may also find cryptsetup useful if you fancy encrypted drives.

tecneeq · #11 Post by **tecneeq** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:48 pm

I have NetBSD 3 on my T23 and this is what i use:

I don't use xorg. I have different hardware architectures and need a GUI that is the same on all of them. Wich means i use XFree86. However, xorg trys hard to be portable and i think in time i'll switch. My .xresources:
http://www.tecneeq.de/files/dotfiles/ho ... Xresources

My WM is TWM an here is my .twmrc:
http://www.tecneeq.de/files/dotfiles/ho ... en/_.twmrc

Firefox/Thunderbird for WWW and Mail/News. My .procmailrc:
http://www.tecneeq.de/files/dotfiles/ho ... procmailrc

For filemanagement i use konqueror. XMMS and mplayer for tunes and flics. My shell is korn shell and my editor is nvi. For irc i use irssi.

tecneeq · #12 Post by **tecneeq** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:53 pm

aceo07 wrote:Are there any programs similar to ZoneAlarm in windows? I want to know which programs are trying to connect to the internet/network and stop them if needed.

The only choice when it comes to application layer networking in linux is this:
http://l7-filter.sourceforge.net/

benplaut · #13 Post by **benplaut** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:08 am

in no specific order:

My window manager is Enlightenment DR17-
Xchat
Firefox
OpenOffice2
Nautilus
Xterm
Xterm

Xterm

Gaim 2
SciTE
BZflag
Supertux
mupen64

stgreek · #14 Post by **stgreek** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:21 am

tecneeq wrote:
aceo07 wrote:Are there any programs similar to ZoneAlarm in windows? I want to know which programs are trying to connect to the internet/network and stop them if needed.
The only choice when it comes to application layer networking in linux is this:
http://l7-filter.sourceforge.net/

Firestarter is another one I believe, it is effectively an iptables gui but adds some sort of app monitoring. Havent tried it extensively though

christopher_wolf · #15 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:23 pm

Not really a software package, but rather a command/utility

kill -9

I use Firestarter and it works pretty well; appllication monitoring, though, isn't resource-intensive from what I can see.

chubes · #16 Post by **chubes** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 2:18 pm

Password Gorilla: It's a password management utility written in Tcl, which drastically simplifies my password management. I've got around 25-30 different passwords I use on a daily basis. It's cross platform too, should you have to use Windows for some horrible reason or another.

http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/Gorilla/

Crossover Office: Run word, lotus notes, excel, powerpoint, and other windows applications in linux. Even Internet Exploder 6.0! No need for Windows anymore. Costs money though, but is worth it.

http://www.codeweavers.com/

Joshua5150 · #17 Post by **Joshua5150** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:17 am

I'm running Debian GNU/Linux Sarge 3.01r2 and here are my apps that I use.

Firefox
thunderbird
amsn
xine
xmms
amarok
mplayer
gtkam
xchat
kwifimananger
synaptic
frozen-bubble

Dead1nside · #18 Post by **Dead1nside** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:03 pm

dkpw wrote: I prefer it to OpenOffice 2.0 - it's faster.

You can say that again, that's what you get when you build with Java. Why everyone loves that language I do not know.

Thinkpaddict · #19 Post by **Thinkpaddict** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:11 pm

Dead1nside wrote: You can say that again, that's what you get when you build with Java. Why everyone loves that language I do not know.

There's nothing wrong with Java. Each language has its applications.
With C you can do systems programming. With Java you can code once and run anywhere (more or less), take advantage of a very rich framework of classes, and facilities such as automatic garbage collection.

The truth is that you can do great things with Java (OpenOffice, Azureus, etc). Saying that the language is worthless because it doesn't perform as fast as C is like saying that cars are worthless because they can't fly.

And the reason why companies love Java is because for some things it is the language to use.

Another good example is Python (which like Java is compiled into bytecode). Python is even slower than Java, but because it is a much more expressive language, it is the language you use if you want to wip out a very fast prototype, or if you want ultimate end-user customization without recompiling. It is also just much faster to program in Python than in about any other language. Just take a look at the job listings for Google and see how many of them require Python.

Thinkpaddict · #20 Post by **Thinkpaddict** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:11 pm

Double post...

Dead1nside · #21 Post by **Dead1nside** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:20 pm

Well mainly I was talking about Java in relation to OpenOffice.Org 2.0, I can see that programming languages have their advantages and disadvantages I'm a student programmer myself.

But what I don't see is, as you say, Python is good for knocking out protoypes and has good networking. But OpenOffice.Org is slow and feels sluggish. (Not to mention there are a number of inadequacies that have yet to be resolved) Why use a language like that for an office suite, then? If it's inadequacies are known. As you say. I want to use an open-source productivity suite, but there just isnt any real competition to Office yet.

What was OpenOffice.Org 1.x programmed in?

frankausmtank · #22 Post by **frankausmtank** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:19 pm

my 'essentials':
gimp - photo editing
inkscape - vector based drawing
abiword - openoffice is just too much for the stuff I use it for.
opera/seamonkey - opera got lots of nice details you won't find in any mozilla based browser. I have both installed for compatibility reasons on some websites. the ffox+tbird-solution never made much sense to me. but maybe it's just a matter of taste.
tetex - if you use latex, you'll need it.
eclipse - ide for java and c++ (via plugins)
gaim - also a bit too 'heavy' for me. something like miranda for linux would be perfect for me. any ideas?
gnometris -

edit - I forgot k3b for cd authoring. I'm just so used to nero on windows machines that is was totally worth installing all those needed kde libs.

Thinkpaddict · #23 Post by **Thinkpaddict** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:29 pm

Dead1nside wrote: But what I don't see is, as you say, Python is good for knocking out protoypes and has good networking. But OpenOffice.Org is slow and feels sluggish. (Not to mention there are a number of inadequacies that have yet to be resolved) Why use a language like that for an office suite, then? If it's inadequacies are known. As you say. I want to use an open-source productivity suite, but there just isnt any real competition to Office yet.

What was OpenOffice.Org 1.x programmed in?

I think OpenOffice 1.x was mainly C, but I'm not sure.

I see your point about Java not being optimal for performance. Even so, I find OpenOffice 2 suitable for my needs. As for an alternative to MSOffice, have you considered Lotus SmartSuite?

Dead1nside · #24 Post by **Dead1nside** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:17 pm

I do rant about Java without really having programmed in it myself, but everything I seem to use that's made with Java doesn't seem as elegant as it could be. Bloated. Azureus I'm afraid I'm not a fan of for the same reason, I use the Python made BitTornado.

Did IBM just release that to the open source comunity? I should try it. I do think that spell and grammar checking really need a big push to compete with Microsoft Office.

Thanks for your advice. I'll look into SmartSuite.

Thinkpaddict · #25 Post by **Thinkpaddict** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:35 pm

Dead1nside wrote:I do rant about Java without really having programmed in it myself, but everything I seem to use that's made with Java doesn't seem as elegant as it could be. Bloated. Azureus I'm afraid I'm not a fan of for the same reason, I use the Python made BitTornado.

Did IBM just release that to the open source comunity? I should try it. I do think that spell and grammar checking really need a big push to compete with Microsoft Office.

Thanks for your advice. I'll look into SmartSuite.

Thats alright. I also thought Java wasn't worth much until I had to learn it and program in it. Then I realized its power. For example, imagine being able to program a rich GUI application that will run in any platform for which there is a JVM. Have you ever looked into Windows GUI programming? I hear things are getting easier ("dumbed down"?) now with .NET, but learning how to do that in the Win32 API or even MFC is not easy. Plus, it will only work in the Windows platform.

BitTornado...I need to check that out. I just learned Python 1 month ago, and I want to see what can be done with it. Thanks for pointing it out.

As to Lotus Smartsuite: I personally like WordPro because it feels more limber and less obstrusive than Microsoft Word. I honestly could care less about grammar and thesaurus, but if that's important to you maybe that would be a factor against WordPro.

I don't know if Smartsuite is open source now, although I doubt it.
I got a CD for free with my refurbished T23 that I bought a while back.

Dead1nside · #26 Post by **Dead1nside** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:42 pm

It's really hard to learn a portable skill, I guess that's why people flock to Java as you say where there's a JVM you can run it.

But this sort of platform independence to me comes at a price. For example it's vendor lock in. Yes Java is quite open but it's all marketed by Sun. What can I do without the Sun JVM? That is why I love C, C++ is more powerful and you need it to do the GUI work but C is very elegant and easy to read and understand everything has meaning.

As for the grammar and spell checking, I was talking more about open source software gaining corporate backing. I guess this is the problem with a big suite of programs, people are already familiar with the bad ways of doing things with Microsoft Office, they've adapted to the flaws in the software instead of the software allowing them to work as they want. I'll check the Lotus suite out.

djpharoah · #27 Post by **djpharoah** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:57 pm

Firefox - browser
Thunar - filemanager
mpd - music daemon
banshee - ipod sync
OO2 - office
urxvt - terminal
zsh - shell
ob3+gnome = DE/WM

Thinkpaddict · #28 Post by **Thinkpaddict** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:49 pm

Dead1nside wrote:But this sort of platform independence to me comes at a price. For example it's vendor lock in. Yes Java is quite open but it's all marketed by Sun. What can I do without the Sun JVM? That is why I love C, C++ is more powerful and you need it to do the GUI work but C is very elegant and easy to read and understand everything has meaning.

I don't understand why needing the JVM is a point against Java. The JVM is necessary just because of the nature of Java. Do you mean that you wish there were more JVM choices? Actually, there are. You can even code your JVM if you wish, following the JVM specification.

As for C...I like C very much because it is one of the first languages that I learned, and because it is a simple language. You can just get The C Programming Language (around 200 pages), and it covers the whole C language. The language in itself is rather simple, and from that point of view you could say it is elegant.
The problem with C is that the reason why it is so simple and powerful is because it is a very low-level language (compared to Java, and especially compared to Python). This leads to C code not being particularly simple (you could argue whether this makes C code lack elegance, but what can't be argued is that C can be a nightmare to program in big systems). To make an analogy, imagine that you want to build a mansion. With C you are given bricks, mortar, and other raw construction materials. That's a very low level programming interface. It will take you much more effort to build your mansion, and there are many more pitfalls, but you will have much more control over the layout of the house, and it will be probably a more refined product in the end.

Let's not even mention that C is not object-oriented in nature. But yes, for some tasks, C is the way to go. And for some other tasks, you better choose something else (higher level and object-oriented).

#29 Post by **jdhurst** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:36 pm

Hmmm... Ethereal, Nmap and Nessus on my Linux machines amongst other things. Samba is a necessary tool for me. Open Office is at V2 and is a slug (but in my opinion, going back to V1 was ever thus). Then I have everything else that came with Ubuntu. ... JD Hurst

Bgradid · #30 Post by **Bgradid** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:54 pm

Amarok, Kmail, htop, konqueror, Pan, klibido, gaim, firefox, k3b, mplayer/xine

What are you essential linux software programs?

What are you essential linux software programs?

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