What are you essential linux software programs?

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pointwood · #31 Post by **pointwood** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 6:21 am

Just bought my z61t and installed Kubuntu Dapper (6.06.1) on it the other day. Here is apps I've used since then (in random order):

Konqueror (web, filemanager), Thunderbird, Katapult (app launcher), Konsole, Apt-get, Vim, Adept, Konversation, Firefox, Krita, Digicam, Kopete, Kaffeine, Amarok and probably a few other applications

Dead1nside · #32 Post by **Dead1nside** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:11 am

This is the second time that I've heard someone partition their "home" directory seperatley to allow them to easily change distros.

Could someone walk me through it please?

djpharoah · #33 Post by **djpharoah** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:33 am

Dead1nside wrote:This is the second time that I've heard someone partition their "home" directory seperatley to allow them to easily change distros.

Could someone walk me through it please?

Before you install your linux distro, just make a partition for /home.

Depedning on your distro and what applications you want to have installed, leave about 5-10GB+ free for /

Once thats done you can use /home with any distro. I actually at one time had my /home shared between my Gentoo and Arch install.

Dead1nside · #34 Post by **Dead1nside** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:36 am

So then you mount the partition. Is it only personal configuration that is saved in home, or is it all your apps?

(Still haven't installed linux, just gathering info for when I do)

Thanks for arduously explaining this to me.

johncch · #35 Post by **johncch** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:51 am

Sorry to hijack the topic, haha, but after installing SuSE 10.1 and finally getting everything to work (I hope it's working, including Xgl/Compiz), I would just like to know what's everyone's favourite bit torrent program? I used to use bitcomet on Windows but I kinda dislike Azureus's sluggishness. What's a good client that's SuSE compatible?

pointwood · #36 Post by **pointwood** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 3:42 am

KTorrent

doppelfish · #37 Post by **doppelfish** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:48 am

OK, lemme see:

General usefulness:
- WMaker, my favourite window manager,
  WmPrefs and Wmakerconf (yes, both of them)
  rxvt (away, away, you horrible xterm)
  xchm (viewer for .chm-ebooks)
  GnuCash (balance your checkbook)
  OpenOffice (2.something I think it is)
  FreeMind (a mind-mapping tool)
  JabRef (Literature reference manager, works well with LaTeX)
  GdCalc since the batteries on my HP41-CX are empty
  xscreensaver (see the homepage)
  xpad ("PostIt"-like note for your screen, on autostart)
  xosd (on-screen display, works good with xmms)
Development:
- XEmacs, the all-terrain vehicle of text manipulation
  teTeX incl. xdvi, when text has to look good
  GhostView (view PostScript files)
  pstools and psutils (PostScript manipulation)
  Acroread
  JDK 1.5 (Sun Java Development Kit)
  Eclipse (the IDE for everything and nothing in particular)
  CDT plugin for Eclipse (C/C++ development perspective)
  CVS (Concurrent Version System) and SVN (err, subversion)
  Gnu CC (C/C++ Compiler)
  ddd (the Display Data Debugger) and of course gdb (the GNU Debugger)
Image manipulation:
- Gimp (Photoshop lookalike),
  xv (oldie but goodie),
  Inkscape (vector drawing),
  Dia (diagram layout),
  ImageMagick (display and manipulate images)
Data visualisation:
- GraphViz (see their homepage. For when dia gets too complicated.)
  GnuPlot (A command-driven interactive function plotting program. Hey, try to plot 2.3GB worth of data with excel ...)
Communication:
- Firefox (to view forum.thinkpads.com)
  Seamonkey (to receive topic reply notifications from forum.thinkpads.com)
  GnuPG (for those s00per seekrit message that only the NSA may read)
  Psi (a jabber client. Find me as doppelfish@jabber.org),
  xchat (clicky-pointy IRC client. doppelfish on all reputable networks)
  skype (yeah ... yeah, I know ...)
Multimedia (i. e. listen to music while you work):
- xmms (audio player, plays mp3s and streams),
  audacity (audio file editor),
  RealPlayer (yes, yes, I know ...),
  vlc (video player with a nice GUI)
  mplayer incl. gmplayer (video player with a horrible GUI but more decoders that actually work)
  lame (audio encoder, esp. for MP3, good for ripping CDs to your hard drive)
System Utilities:
- wget (command line tool to get web pages)
  rsync (synchronize file system trees fast - the ideal solution for the daily backup)
  gkrellm (system monitor shows CPU load, network and disk I/O, battery level, CPU temperature and oh so much more)
  gkrellmwireless plugin (signal strength and noise of your wlan card)
  grkellmmixer plugin (yes, exactly)
  xkb plugin (show which keyboard layout is active right now; also indicate num lock and caps lock status)

That's it. Yeah, I think that's it.

cheers,
-- fish

toddyjoe · #38 Post by **toddyjoe** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:49 am

If you do anything related to audio or music (or even video), JACK is essential in my opinion.

princeatul · #39 Post by **princeatul** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:30 pm

0. vim (gvim) - after all you should be able to get some work done!!!
1. Firefox - to access information superhighway.
2. nmap - toy-n-tinker around
3. ethereal - toy-n-tinker around
4. superkaramba (_real_ eye candy!!!) - Impress your colleagues: http://netdragon.sourceforge.net/
(Note: above link seems down right now)
(more info @ wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperKaramba)
5. amarok - some soothing music after day's hard work
6. k3b - make/backup DVDs/CDs
Haven't started using wifi, so no clue for utilities towards that end.

magnus · #40 Post by **magnus** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:05 pm

Dead1nside wrote:This is the second time that I've heard someone partition their "home" directory seperatley to allow them to easily change distros.

Could someone walk me through it please?

There's a tutorial on ubuntuforums.com, but I can't find it.

However, it seems that the howto is listed in this blog as well:
http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/01/29/ ... partition/

tom lightbody · #41 Post by **tom lightbody** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:52 pm

well how about some more traditional tools,
inspired by christopher_wolf's mention of kill:

sh,cut,paste,pr,sed,awk,ed/vi/emacs,expr,grep,
dd,bc,echo,tar,(g)zip,make,gcc,sftp,ssh...

the "toolbox" list goes on:-)

doppelfish · #42 Post by **doppelfish** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:38 am

tom lightbody wrote:well how about some more traditional tools

Well, once you're running Linux, you're already running, basically, a toolbox.
Think of "Programs" as "Power tools" ...

cheers,
-- fish

al7kz · #43 Post by **al7kz** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 3:16 pm

For Ubuntu 6.06.1 or 6.10 on 600E, T20, T42:

abiword, acroread, streamtuner, streamripper, apache2, samba, smbfs, samba-doc, xmms, mozilla-thunderbird, opera, firestarter

Cheers, Joe

icantux · #44 Post by **icantux** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 11:44 am

doppelfish wrote: Well, once you're running Linux, you're already running, basically, a toolbox.
Think of "Programs" as "Power tools" ...

hehe... well said.

All of the above .... but to add:

- gizmo (VoiP - better quality than skype)
- wifi-radar (for my trusty ibm a/b/g)
- dosbox (to play some oldies)
- ::rip (ripper and decoder)
- swiftfox instead of firefox (faster startup and browsing).

Cheers!

zaratustra · #45 Post by **zaratustra** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:55 am

running Gentoo 2006.1 @ Z60m with Celeron-M and Intel graphics

Firefox&Thunderbird
Amarok
Xine&MPlayer
Kismet,Aircrack-ng

k3b

bzyk · #46 Post by **bzyk** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:42 am

tpb - a small piece of soft to mapping Thinkpad "HotKeys". For instatnce I have aterm mapped to my "Thinkpad" key.

Davemci · #47 Post by **Davemci** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:06 pm

If you have a DVD player you'll also need to get:

libdvdcss
libdvdread
mplayer

The first 2 are the libraries for playing encrypted DVDs and mplayer seems to be smoother then xine unless you have a really fast Thinkpad.

Spif · #48 Post by **Spif** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 11:45 am

GNOME. I know it is a desktop environment, but I feel it should be mentioned. Without a doubt my favorite part about running Linux (ideology aside, naturally.)

doppelfish · #49 Post by **doppelfish** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:15 am

Dead1nside wrote:What was OpenOffice.Org 1.x programmed in?

Rumors have it that it's predecessor, StarOffice, was first programmed in Java. At that time, the developers found it to be too slow and switched to C++, which is what it's still coded in today.
Ironically, the awful mess you can observe in the program folder/directory could've been avoided nicely by coding this monster in Java and using it's class loading magic, err, mechanism - and looking at projects like Eclipse or NetBeans, in particular, at their plugin architecture, I'd venture to say that this would work wonderfully on not too old a machine. Then again, at the time, it would have dissuaded people from using StarOffice at all ... who knows?

cheers,
-- fish[/i]

Dark Energy · #50 Post by **Dark Energy** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:09 pm

Running Debian Etch on a 2613HQU (or a T60p in normal language

) I use:

Firefox
gaim
openoffice
gxine (I prefer it to mplayer)
synaptic (a lot)
module-assistant (to do those [censored] fglrx compiles)
gedit
gperiodic
IRAF (astronomy package)
IDL (Science coding package, highly recommended)

What are you essential linux software programs?

Just the apps, ma'am

For me....

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