Huge List of the Best Open-Source Apps

**TheWiseNoob** · August 26th, 2007

Top 100 Open-Source Linux Apps

Currently at 92/100 apps

Once it hits 100, only apps much better than others listed will be put on the list and the least popular will be removed.

I made this list because I realized how long it took, for me, to discover even a small portion of these apps when I first started using Linux. Hopefully someone new to Linux or looking for programs they have never used finds this helpful.

The "Installation" part of this list is currently incomplete. All of the application names lead to its project site. Posting how to install one of these programs, another program you think should be on this list, a revision I should make to the organization of the list, or notifying me of any mistake/broken link on the list would help me a lot. I will be constantly updating this. Enjoy!

BitTorrent Clients

Azureus
Java-based BitTorrent client for both beginners and advanced users. There as features included, such as, multiple torrent downloads, advanced seeding rules, pausing a torrent, importing torrents, and much, much more.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "azureus". Mark the program named "azureus" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

Deluge
A very lightweight, BitTorrent client using GTK and python. It is one of the most rapidly developing clients and is very comparable to µTorrent. Integrates well with the GNOME desktop environment.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "deluge-torrent". Mark the program named "deluge-torrent" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

KTorrent
A BitTorrent client for KDE. It is very lightweight and has many of the features that most BitTorrent clients include. Though it is still missing many key features, is under heavy development.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "ktorrent". Mark the program named "ktorrent" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

rTorrent

EyeCandy

Avant Window Navigator(AWN)
A dock-like bar which sits at the bottom of the screen tracking open windows. It requires a compositor to be running, or it will not display properly. Has stcks feature, like in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

INSTALLATION

First, open terminal so you can edit your sources.list:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

and add these two lines:

Code:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/ feisty avant-window-navigator
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/ feisty avant-window-navigator

Now enter:

Code:

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

To install AWN, enter:

Code:

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr

~Visit Site~

Compiz Fusion
A compositing window managers for the X Window System that is able to take advantage of OpenGL acceleration. The integration allows it to perform compositing effects in window management, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace. It was created from the remerging of Beryl into Compiz.

INSTALLATION

Enter this first:
Code:
```
sudo apt-get -y remove compiz-core desktop-effects
```
This will remove any older/broken installs of Compiz Fusion.

If you are using Gutsy, skip to step 4. Do this to edit your sources.list:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

and add these two lines:

Code:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy

You can now close Gedit.

Next, enter this:

Code:

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb/DD800CD9.gpg

Then this:

Code:

sudo apt-key add DD800CD9.gpg

Code:

sudo apt-get upgrade

Now enter this to install to install Compiz Fusion:

Code:

sudo apt-get -y install compiz compiz-gnome compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra libcompizconfig-backend-gconf

To start Compiz Fusion, enter this in Terminal or Run:
Code:
```
compiz --replace
```
You can edit Compiz Fusion settings by going to System -- Preferences -- Compiz Config Settings Manager .

~Visit Site~

Emerald
A window decorator for Compiz Fusion and Beryl. A much more extensive decorator than Metacity.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "emerald". Mark the program named "emerald" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

gDesklets
Tiny applets that sit on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness. You can populate your desktop with status meters, icon bars,weather sensors, news tickers, and whatever else you can imagine. gDesklets does not require a compositor to work correctly.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "gdesklets". Mark the program named "gdesklets" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

Screenlets
Screenlets are small, owner-drawn applications written in Python. They are a form of eyecandy that are easy to create and can be used as Widgets. They help create a Mac-Like Desktop Environment.

INSTALLATION

This application requires you to have a compositor, like Compiz Fusion or Beryl, for it to work properly.
Download the latest screenlets source from the Screenlets Download Page. Extract the folder, in the archive, to your Desktop and rename it to screenlets.
Open terminal and enter:
Code:
```
cd Desktop/screenlets
```
Then enter:
Code:
```
sudo make install
```
Screenlets is now installed.
To install the menu items, using the same terminal window, enter:
Code:
```
 sudo make menu
```
The menu items are now installed and there should be a "Screenlets" directory in you Applications Menu now.
You must start each screenlet individually. There are 3rd-party screenlets located at the Screenlets Download Page.

~Visit Site~

File Browser/Search

Affinity

Appfinder
An application finder for the GNOME or Xfce4 Desktop Environment. It will search for installed applications on your system.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "xfce4-appfinder". Mark the program named "xfce4-appfinder" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

Beagle
A desktop search utility for indexing and searching user's data. At the moment, it can index filesystems, Pidgin logs, Evolution data, RSS and many more.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "beagle". Mark the program named "beagle" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

Nautilus
The official file manager for the GNOME desktop. It allows to browse directories, preview files and launch applications associated with them. It is also responsible for handling the icons on the GNOME desktop. It works on local and remote filesystems.

INSTALLATION

Installed by default on Ubuntu. The source can be found here.

~Visit Site~

Thunar
The file manager designed to be the default file manager of Xfce 4.4 It has been designed to be fast and easy to use.

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "thunar". Mark the program named "thunar" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

Games

Alien Arena 2007

INSTALLATION

Open Synaptic Package Manager and serach for "alien-arena". Mark the program named "alien-arena" for installation. Click apply.

~Visit Site~

Battle for Wesnoth

Frets On Fire

Neverball

Nexuiz

Open Arena

Sauerbraten

Stepmania

Scorched 3D

Tremulous

Graphics and Text Viewers/Editors

Amaya

Abiword

Blender

Bluefish

F-Spot

Gedit

The GIMP

Gnumeric Spreadsheet

GNU Paint

Inkscape

Kolourpaint

OpenOffice.org

Scribus

Zim Desktop Wiki

Music and Video Players

Amarok

Audacious

Banshee

Cheese

Totem

Exaile

gmusicbrowser

Kaffeine

Listen

Miro

MythTV

Rhythmbox

Songbird

VideoLAN Client(VLC)

XMMS2

Network Programs

aKregator

Ekiga VoIP

Evolution

FileZilla

gFTP

irssi

Kopete

Mumble

Pidgin

Straw

Thunderbird

XChat

Programming IDEs

Anjuta

Code::Blocks

Eclipse

Emacs

Geany

KDevelop

Netbeans

Vim

Python 2.5

Sound/Video Editors and Disc Burning Utilities

Audacity

Avidemux

DeVeDe

GnomeBaker

K3B

Kino

LiVES

Vive

Web Browsers

Epiphany

Firefox

Konqueror

Other Programs

AllTray

GNASH

Gparted

Nouveau

Qalculate

Tomboy Notes

WINE

I made this list because I realized how long it took, for me, to discover even a small portion of these apps when I first started using Linux. Hopefully someone new to Linux or looking for programs they have never used finds this helpful.

The "Installation" part of this list is currently incomplete. All of the application names lead to its project site. Posting how to install one of these programs, another program you think should be on this list, a revision I should make to the organization of the list, or notifying me of any mistake/broken link on the list would help me a lot. I will be constantly updating this. Enjoy!

**corney91** · August 26th, 2007

I think gmusicbrowser (http://squentin.free.fr/gmusicbrowser/gmusicbrowser.html) should be added to the list.

**smartboyathome** · August 26th, 2007

K3B isn't a video editor, it is a disc burner. Also, I think audacious and Kolourpaint need to be added. Scribus isn't a very good replacement to InDesign (because it 1 cannot open an InDesign document and 2 cannot import very much).

Edit: oops! I missed you including audacious.

**Dark Star** · August 26th, 2007

Awesome work bro

People try adding things instead of accusing him

Awesome again .. Keep it up

I'll add soon

**smartboyathome** · August 26th, 2007

Zim Desktop Wiki needs to be added.

**TheWiseNoob** · August 26th, 2007

-Added Songbird
-Added Zim Desktop Wiki
-Added Kolourpaint
-Added gmusicbrowser
-Group "Sound and Video Editors" changed to "Sound/Video Editors and Disc Burning Utilities"
-Added Audacious
-Updated XMMS to XMMS2

**TheWiseNoob** · August 26th, 2007

Sorry for double post.

-Added Neverball, Scorched3D, and Stepmania to "Games and Emulators"
-Group "Linux Games" changed to "Games and Emulators"
-Added Alien Arena 2007 Installation Guide
-Added Emerald Installation Guide
-Added Avant Window Navigator Installation Guide
-Added Screenlets Installation Guide

**Lord Illidan** · August 26th, 2007

I like the list.

Will you add Programming IDEs/Editors.

Eclipse,Kdevelop,Geany,Anjuta could all be added to that list.

Also, personally this would be better in a webpage or a wiki with each app having a link to an installation howto, as the way it's going it seems that it's getting pretty large, but nice effort.

**Fbot1** · August 26th, 2007

Much better:
KDE:

HTML Code:

BitTorrent Clients
    Azureus
    Qbittorrent

EyeCandy
    Avant Window Navigator(AWN)
    Emerald
    Compiz Fusion

File Browser/Search

Games and Emulators
    Battle for Wesnoth
    Nexuiz
    Tremulous

Graphics
    Blender
    Inkscape
    Krita

Office
    OpenOffice.org
    Scribus

Text editors
   Xemacs
   Microemacs
   Vim

Other Programming tools
    CMake
    GNU Debugger
    GCC
    Netwide Assembler

Music and Video
    Amarok
    Mplayer
    MythTV

FTP Programs
    FileZilla
    gFTP

Chat
    Kopete
    Mumble
    Pidgin

Sound/Video Editors and Disc Burning Utilities
    Audacity
    K3B

Web Browsers
    Firefox
    Konqueror
    Opera

Other Programs
    GNASH
    Scilab

Gnome:

HTML Code:

BitTorrent Clients
    Azureus
    Deluge

EyeCandy
    Avant Window Navigator(AWN)
    Emerald
    Compiz Fusion

File Browser/Search
    Beagle

Games and Emulators
    Battle for Wesnoth
    Nexuiz
    Tremulous

Graphics
    Blender
    The GIMP
    Inkscape

Office
    Abiword
    Gnumeric Spreadsheet
    OpenOffice.org
    Scribus

Text editors
   Xemacs
   Microemacs
   Vim

Other Programming tools
    CMake
    GNU Debugger
    GCC
    Netwide Assembler

Music and Video
    Mplayer
    MythTV

FTP Programs
    FileZilla
    gFTP

Chat
    Mumble
    Pidgin

Sound/Video Editors and Disc Burning Utilities
    Audacity

Web Browsers
    Firefox
    Opera

Other Programs
    GNASH
    Scilab

Terminal:

HTML Code:

BitTorrent Clients
    rTorrent
File Browser/Search


Games and Emulators
    Nethack

Office
    

Text editors
   Xemacs
   Microemacs
   Vim

Other Programming tools
    CMake
    GNU Debugger
    GCC
    Netwide Assembler

Music 

FTP Programs
    

Chat
    

Sound/Video Editors and Disc Burning Utilities
    

Web Browsers
  
    Links2

Other Programs
       ZSH

**smartboyathome** · August 26th, 2007

Mind if I compile this in Zim? I may distribute it sometime, or may just use it for reference

EDIT: Vim... ick, talk about an editor that shouldn't exist anymore.

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