What piece of software do you use the most?

[LordCantenberry]

There is always a lot of discussion on Linux boards about what app can I do this with or I used this in windows, what can I do the same thing with in Linux? So heres the question, what application do you use most under Linux? and why do you use this application as opposed to another program.

An example of this is if you choose Abiword as your most used app then why you use it instead of say Open Office.

I thought this might be an interesting and helpful topic because it might give others looking for a similiar app suggestions on what to use and also provide insight into what people use most on Linux.

[Shaggy]

If I had to pick one it would be the most obvious one, Firefox. But aside from that it would be a mix of Mplayer, XMMS, and K3B. Most of my text editing is done in VI but if it is supposed to look good it'll be done in OOo. Programming is done from command line for the most part.

Sadly 2 of those I had to install from source, hopefully that'll get fixed for other people in Hoary.

[fng]

Firefox, gaim, xchat, quake3, aterm, thunderbird

[Arbite]

Firefox, gaim, xchat, aterm, thunderbird

[BWF89]

I'm useing Windows XP...

Mozilla 1.7.5, I use this more than Firefox because Firefox stopped working...

OpenOffice, I use it because it has everything I need and I don't want to install alot of programs...

Limewire, I use it because it's an open soure filesharing network as compared to WinMX which is propriatory...

Burn4Free, This is a propriatory program but I can't find a free software solution that will burn ISO files...

AIM, because GAIM doesn't minimize into the taskbar when I don't want to have my buddylist on screen...

Half-Life 2, because I couldn't live without it...

[Suzan]

Firefox, Thunderbird, GAIM, xChat, Camorama

[rwabel]

amule, tuxcommander/krusader, easytag, gnomebaker, nvu, gimp, azureus, gparted/qtparted, gthumb, f-spot (you need mono for it), lieferea, leafpad

[Quest-Master]

Gnome Terminal, Gaim, XChat, Firefox, Quanta, ZSNES (games :D), ABC (Yet Another Bittorrent Client), and gEdit.

[Ste]

Firefox, thunderbird, xchat and apt-get :)

[mark]

Mozilla (both the suite and Firefox, depending on sites/files), Mozilla Mail/Thunderbird (tryin' to get used to the "new order"), Gnumeric (about 2 years worth of checkbook spreadsheets!), Gnome Terminal, apt-get/Synaptic, OO.o Writer, CD Player, fortune (6) and Gnome Mahjongg...more or less in the order of usage.

Hey...I'm a simple man...

[robstr12]

The Venerable vi text editor
FireFox
GIMP
gthumb

[Sensebend]

Firefox, PAN, Thunderbird, XMMS, GIMP, OpenOffice, Mplayer, X-chat, GAIM, vim, k3b.

[Cygnia]

Thunderbird, Firefox, Rhythmbox, gThumb, XChat, Various games from Universe.

[wulf]

The one piece of software that I have running all the time, at home and at work, is gkrellm (a stack of system monitors). Other applications that get frequent use include firefox, urxvt, liferea, xmms, gvim and thunderbird.

Wulf

[zeroK]

Gaim (because it simply feels somehow better than licq)
GVim (because I'm not an Emacs fans ;-) and I need real unicode support)
Firefox (.... well, I also have an Opera license ;-) )
GMPC
Thunderbird (because Evolution has no Socks5-proxy support)

[xsos]

gaim, firefox, evolution, xmms, and xine-ui. and the best of all is inkscape :D

[wulf]

Ah yes - Inkscape. Great application! That's been one of my favourite new discoveries since installing Ubuntu.

Wulf

[jdodson]

firefox

[paulle]

firebird, thunderbird, abiword, gnumeric, gimp, inkscape, nano, gnome-terminal, gedit, apt-get, synaptic, totem-xine.

[paulle]

gnucash

[DharmaOne]

Firefox, Evolution (am I the only one?), Open Office, FreeMind, ET, Totem or MPlayer

-DharmaOne

[wulf]

What source did you get FreeMind from? That's mindmapping software, isn't it?

Wulf

[poofyhairguy]

Firefox, Abiword

(and one not mentioned so far, but should be tried)

Gxine -What totem should be!

[CompShrink]

Firefox of course.

Rythmbox, because of the right click pause/next/prev on the tray icon, and minimize to tray, and itunes-like rating system.

Gaim, which can minimize to the tray, just enable the system tray plugin, then when you hit the exit button on the menubar (not file>exit) the buddylist will disapear to the taskbar icon. Just for your info bwf89.

gnome-term of course is nice, I use vnstat in it to monitor my daily bandwidth usage to make sure I don't go over my university's daily limit. I find it simple, and it reads from proc to make it's own database which it updates every 5 min(or when you manually call for it to update), so it has almost no drain on resources.

VNStat wasn't in any of the repositories i have in synaptic, but the developer's main download page has a deb.

People need to give more descriptions, like the creator suggested, so we can learn about new apps.

What is inkscape?

[wulf]

Inkscape is a vector graphics package - good for putting together diagrams and also for creating icons (for example, I've created my own custom SVG icon for GKrellM, which I could post a link to if anyone is interested).

Wulf

[TopDog]

As "everybody" else... Firefox, Thunderbird, Gaim, Xchat is the first four apps I always start up after boot.

Why Thunderbird instead of Evolution? Ease of use... I want Local folders, spam-filter and as plain as possible interface. Thunderbird gives me that and nothing else.

I'm thinking about getting Abiword instead of OOo Writer. It feels lighter and better (I use Abiword on my laptop).

I use Bluefish to edit webpages, Gedit to edit other stuff... gFTP to up/download from webservers.

GIMP of course. Just installed Inkspace, like it better than Sodipodi, though I'm not good at any of them... PS: Links to tourtorials on Inkspace is appreciated.

VLC Media player instead of Mplayer in Firefox because Mplayer didn't work... Totem for DVD's because gxine and others tend to crash. Rhythmbox for music because it's there and it works (installed XMMS at first, but kinda liked Rhythmbox, so I'm sticking to it for now).

K3b to burn CD's and DVD's because it's the only good app I found... looks bad, but does the job.

Torsmo is monitoring my resources, because it's light and easily configurable, and not as buggy as gDesklets.

I think that basicly covers the apps I use from day to day.

[DharmaOne]

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I believe I just used the binaries and compiled it. Works great!
If this does work let me know and I will check which version
I did download. (on my home Ubuntu box).

If you write, design or need to organize your thoughts, this
program is great. Plus the breakdowns it creates are perfect
when you go to explain your idea to someone else.

I am a filmmaker and author and use it to do outlines and
script breakdowns. I taught a friend how to use it and she
used the program to plan a large party.

www.mtfitz.com

-DharmaOne

[wulf]

It looks like the .deb file downloadable from the website you gave (freemind_0.7.1-1_all.deb) needs JRE 1.4 installed. I haven't set up Java on this machine yet.... maybe later.

Wulf

[DharmaOne]

Yes, I did install Java on my system.

I've learned about a lot of nice programs here.

thanks all,
-DharmaOne

[wulf]

I've given freemind a quick go (having set up Java); looks quite nice but I'll have to play more tomorrow. One piece of software that I used to have running all the time on my previous install at work (Mandrake 9.1) was tuxcards, which was a handy notebook for keeping track of where I was on various projects. I'm currently using an XML file open in gVim but freemind might provide a good alternative if it proves to be stable and not too much of a resource hog.

Wulf

[Lovechild]

Webbrowser (Epiphany or Firefox - on Ubuntu I use Epiphany because firefox doesn't work with the danish translation)

Email client (Evolution)

IRC Client (XChat - since there's sadly no better GNOME2 alternative)

IM Client (GAIM - Since Gossip still doesn't support anything but Jabber and I sadly need that)

[machiner]

Ubuntu

And the ancillary productive (or - playful) applications:

firefox
gxine
kmail
liferea
gnome-terminal
gedit
apache
kate
krusader
madman
xmms
gthumb
synaptic

winxp: on that occassional boot -- (not even set up. Just stopped services and use Total Commander as a shell)

dvdxcopy platinum

[Xappe]

Web: firefox
Mail: Thunderbird, Evolution, Mail Notification (wow, the first one i've ever found using the IMAP protocol)
IM: licq (and gaim for MSN, don't like the way gaim handles icq away messages)
DC: Valknut (the gui is not good, but it's the best one for linux)
IRC: X-Chat
Media: XMMS, MPlayer, VLC
bittorrent: Azureus

[emperor]

By far it would be: firefox,

The other used alot apps would be: evolution, tvtime, rhythmbox, vi, wine (quicken 2000), and xine,

[prospectofdeath]

in no particular order:

terminal (bash)
ssh
apache
mysql
php
ut2004
btdownloadcurses.py
gaim
firefox
evolution
gimp
totem
xmms

oh.. and hi, this is my first post to ubuntuforums. you have been very helpful so far.

[k.ODOMA]

Browser: Firefox
Mail/RSS Reader: Thunderbird
Editor: Vim
DVDs: Xine
CD-Ripper: Sound Juicer (FLAC)

[Yukonjack]

(for example, I've created my own custom SVG icon for GKrellM, which I could post a link to if anyone is interested).
Wulf

Yes Wulf if you don't mind I like to see it, I'm working on one for my personel use. At the moment I use this weird little pinguin.
See attachment

[jdodson]

firefox. close second gnome-terminal.

[Yukonjack]

gkrellm, terminal, epiphany, sylpheed-gtk2 used to be evolution, gimp, inkscape, gthumb, xchat, gedit, dictionary, realplayer, xmms, openoffice, sticky notes and a few more.

[TravisNewman]

Terminal (from OS Works, made for use with XFCE, but I'm using it in Gnome) and nano lately, because I've been trying to diagnose Xen issues with one of the Xen developers (since it doesn't want to work in Ubuntu it doesn't seem)

But on a normal day, Firefox

[Phreakazoid]

Firefox, Gaim, X-Chat, rhythmbox, cdparanoia, custom built oggenc.

I guess most of these choices are pretty obvious... I use cdparanoia and oggenc rather than a GUI ripper (like Sound Juicer or Grip), because I'm anal about my audio: I use sample offsets to get the exact correct timing, and I use advanced encoder options with oggenc (also Ubuntu Warty has an old version of libvorbis, and there have been massive quality improvements since that version).

[miho]

firefox, mplayer, azureus, xmms

[ups]

Firefox, X-Chat, Gaim, vi, synaptic, d4x, rhythmbox, mplayer, liferea, gnome-terminal

[Randabis]

Galeon, XMMS, Terminal, X-Chat, Thunderbird, GAIM, gDesklets, Azureus

[topcop]

eclipse 3
firefox
thunderbird
gaim
gedit
monodevelop
openoffice
gimp
xsane
gnomebaker
beep-media-player
pine

[carlc]

firefox, evolution, xmms, pan, gedit

[landotter]

Webbrowser (Epiphany or Firefox - on Ubuntu I use Epiphany because firefox doesn't work with the danish translation)



IRC Client (XChat - since there's sadly no better GNOME2 alternative)


:p

You put up with Epiphany--a persnickity webbrowser, but moan for a lack of better IRC client?? LOL

Maybe I'm missing out, but Xchat seems to be one of the nicest IRC clients on any platform.


My list:

Firefox
Pan
Xchat
Gaim
Gimp
Gnomebaker
Realplayer
Straw
Evolution
OOo
mpg123

[Marquis_de_Carabas]

Nothing particularly original here:

Firefox, Thunderbird, MPlayer, Azureus, XMMS/Rhythmbox (depending on mood), Cedega (mostly for GTAIII, which would probably work under WineX but I'm lazy...), GEdit, the excellent Crack Attack (vaguely Tetrisy game...most annoying thing is that I haven't been able to get the sound working under Ubuntu, whereas it was fine under Mandrake).

[Dylanby]

Most of the apps I use have already been listed.
I'll add streamtuner & streamripper.

[Quest-Master]

Hehe, I used X-Chat even when I was on Windows.

Gotta love it. <3

[Lovechild]

Epiphany, Blam!, Muine, Evolution and gaim (sadly since the gaim UI makes me want to vomit)

[grj]

vim - because most of the work I do with my computer is text based and vim is the best.

latex - because some of the text work I do needs to look good and latex is the best.

lynx - because it is text based and I do not have to fire up gnome just to surf the web and lynx is the best.

firefox - because many sites do not do well with lynx and firefox is the best.

Oh, I also use apt quite often. Yes, it is the best also.

[kassetra]

web editing: Bluefish, CSSed, Nvu, Peacock (debating screem again...)
bitmap graphics: Gimp, (+other high-end programs through VMWare)
vector graphics: Inkscape, Sodipodi (+other high-end programs through VMWare)
web viewing/testing: Firefox, Mozilla (+another unmentionable, also in VMWare)
windows emulation: VMWare
communications: Evolution, GAIM, BloGTK
animation editing: Moho
playing music: Zinf, XMMS
adding/removing software: Synaptic
viewing movies: GXine

[Xappe]

i'll have to change Valknut in my list to the new linuxdc++ (also called Wulfor reloaded)...

[ThePainter]

Firefox,Thunderbird.
I only turn XMMS off to whatch a movie on Xine so that probably gets the most use.

I would just like to say back in XP I always wrote my websites in notebook and have just discovered Quanta, isnt it great ?

[Jspired]

Firefox and Evolution. Next to that, gGFTP

[jwb]

ls and cd are my favorites. And grep. That sounds funny.

grep

grep

grep

And Pingus.

[-Rick-]

Firefox, Gaim and KDevelop

[ubuntu_fan]

Firefox, Xine, vim, GnomeTerminal

[IceAxe18]

firefox, xchat, totem-xine, gftp, evolution mail

[anthony_barker]

xterm, (bash plus associated tools grep etc)
ssh, ncftp, links, wget, apt-get
python, ipython
vi (sometimes emacs)
Bittornado - btdownloadcurses.py
gaim
firefox
xpdf (prefer kpdf), flash
mutt
vsound/realplayer, lame
xine (until recently mplayer)
mpg123, ogg123, grip
gqview
gcc
wine (xnews, lotus notes + occasionally ms office for work)

http://www.newsforge.com/os/03/10/07/2139246.shtml?tid=23

[CAPTAIN RON FL]

Mozilla 1.7.5
Xchat
Gimp
gFTP

[lucus]

CD player (now listening to rainer maria)
mozilla firefox (to visit this site)
root terminal
vi (editing config files to get my laptop fully working)
mahjongg (cause the game is ridiculously enthralling)
GIMP (this program is wonderful for graphics)
and soon i will be using openoffice word processor

[paretooptimum]

Like most people: Firefox, Thunderbird (can't get Evolution to run with gmail), gimp, AbiWord, Gnumeric, openoffice 2 beta, totem, rhythmbox, gaim, also tomboy.

I'm trying to make a list of comparable functions in Ubuntu here:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/WhatWindowsUsersWant

Can some of you please share you knowledge and help?

[dizzie]

In bash: ssh, sftp, mc, irssi, mpg123, mutt, mplayer, vi, nano, boinc (seti@home)

and when in X :

fluxbox as wm, irssi or xchat, xmms or alsaplayer, evolution, mplayer, quanta, FF, and gaim

:mrgreen:

[poofyhairguy]

Like most people: Firefox, Thunderbird (can't get Evolution to run with gmail), gimp, AbiWord, Gnumeric, openoffice 2 beta, totem, rhythmbox, gaim, also tomboy.

I'm trying to make a list of comparable functions in Ubuntu here:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/WhatWindowsUsersWant

Can some of you please share you knowledge and help?

Yeah. You need a good downloader.

d4x

its in the universe and it rocks.

[Marquis_de_Carabas]

Like most people: Firefox, Thunderbird (can't get Evolution to run with gmail), gimp, AbiWord, Gnumeric, openoffice 2 beta, totem, rhythmbox, gaim, also tomboy.

I'm trying to make a list of comparable functions in Ubuntu here:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/WhatWindowsUsersWant

Can some of you please share you knowledge and help?

Just something I noticed at first glance - you say there is no Soulseek functionality in Ubuntu, but Nicotine is available in Universe. A perfectly decent client in my experience.

Also there are several Firefox plugins to increase download functionality.

[Wardhog]

Gnucash.

I had no idea my wife spends that much.

[dewfis]

ls -l

Of course, that's probably not the killer app of which you speak.

Mostly, gcc, make, glade, vi.

I like AbiWord because its so much lighter than OpenOffice.
Also like KOffice.

[kahping]

firefox, gnomebittorrent, mplayer, evolution, gaim, gimp

roughly in that order :razz:

i think i'll just compile mplayer myself rather than use the one provided by the repositories; somehow, it just doesn't perform well on my computer (video and audio tends to go off sync randomly) :???:

kahping

[KLineD]

This is what I use the most (in no particular order)

Firefox: For browsing the web. A similar app in WinXP would be: Internet Explorer or the same Firefox

Gaim: Instant messaging. A similar app in WinXP would be: Trillian or the same Gaim, if you only need to connect to msn then just windows messenger.

OpenOffice: Productivity suite. A similar app in WinXP would be: Microsoft Office or the same OpenOffice.

K3B: Burning app. A similar app in WinXP would be: Nero.

Eclipse IDE: multipurpose IDE (most focused on Java). A similar app in WinXP would be: The same Eclipse

DIA: A GTK+ Diagram Editor with lots of functionality. A similar app in WinXP would be: Maybe Visio??? I really dont know haven't ever used it.

gedit: a simple text editor. A similar app in WinXP would be: notepad but it comes nowhere near. Maybe UltraEdit but it's way overbloated. gedit it's well balanced between lightweight and functionality in my opinion.

And that's what I use the most

[jordanau]

This is interesting to me. It is interesting that most everyone uses their computer for email, internet access, multimedia, chat, games, and word processing. It is just an interesting reminder to me that a computer is no more than a tool.
Anyway,

Evolution, Firefox, XChat, telnet for nethack, gnucash (It was a little depressing putting my opening balance of my checkbook in as -$13.99), Mplayer, Bittornado (if I can get that yellow light to go away), rhythymbox, Open Office (Especially spreadsheet)

[danip]

OOo i want to use abiword but it does not import files saved under windows very well and saved files under abiword do not import very well onto winblows.

[bored2k]

Bittornado official 4.0 --> Because it owns most of the other clients and it is LIGHT .

Firefox --> Because mommy taught me better :D .

Nano [command line text editor] --> Very user friendly, and keeps me in the shell Im working on.

VLC --> Simple, ugly and useful [just like me ^_^]

Gnome-terminal

[Buffalo Soldier]

GNOME Terminal
Epiphany - newly convert, used to be firefox user.
Evolution
GAIM
XChat
Rhythmbox
Totem-gstreamer
OpenOffice - when and if I remember that I actually have assignments to do :)

[ubuntu_demon]

1 amule (because it's always running I don't click on it much)
2 firefox
3 gaim
4 gnome-terminal
5 vnc
6 thunderbird
7 bittorrent

[jsgotangco]

firefox
gaim
x-chat
emacs-wiki
emacs planner mode
thunderbird
Terminal Server Client
Terminal
gThumb
XMMS

And of course, how can i miss...

VLC