Nifty Apps for Newbies

[MrVisible]

I've got Ubuntu up and running. I've got the Nvidia drivers going, I'm printing, I'm (rather obviously) on the net. I've messed around with gDesklets a bit (they're not to my taste, really) and decided against Beryl, because I'm not into the eye candy much.

What I am into is gee-whiz, why-can't-all-programs-do-that applications. Amarok, for instance, blew my doors off. I love the heck out of Tomboy Notes. I'm also into the sheer fun of games like Frozen Bubble and Techoballz. I'm loving Ubuntu, and I'm even being productive with it.

So I ask you, o great and wise Ubuntu community... what are the apps you think I should take a look at? What applications do you live and die by, what applications make you all warm and fuzzy inside every time you see their splash screen? What programs do you show your friends to convert them to die-hard Ubuntu users?

There's so much to choose from, it's hard for a newbie to know where to start.

[era86]

Gaim and xmms!

No better way to waste time than to chat on AIM and Yahoo! with friends while bumping music!

[daz4126]

inkscape
supertux
f-spot
banshee
scribes

enjoy...

DAZ

[K.Mandla]

Audacious is my fave-rave audio player. I would mention PCManFM and gColor2 as well, although the latter is rather esoteric. Aside from those, most of the ones already mentioned are very strong too.

[~LoKe]

Conky, MPD/NCMPC/Sonata.

[tbodine]

XChat -- chat on IRC
Gaim -- chat on AIM/Yahoo/Jabber/ICQ/a lot of others..
XMMS -- listen to music
GIMP -- edit some images
and there's a ton more, it depends on what you're in to!

[Brunellus]

I've got Ubuntu up and running. I've got the Nvidia drivers going, I'm printing, I'm (rather obviously) on the net. I've messed around with gDesklets a bit (they're not to my taste, really) and decided against Beryl, because I'm not into the eye candy much.

What I am into is gee-whiz, why-can't-all-programs-do-that applications. Amarok, for instance, blew my doors off. I love the heck out of Tomboy Notes. I'm also into the sheer fun of games like Frozen Bubble and Techoballz. I'm loving Ubuntu, and I'm even being productive with it.

So I ask you, o great and wise Ubuntu community... what are the apps you think I should take a look at? What applications do you live and die by, what applications make you all warm and fuzzy inside every time you see their splash screen? What programs do you show your friends to convert them to die-hard Ubuntu users?

There's so much to choose from, it's hard for a newbie to know where to start.
/bin/bash

The shell is probably the niftiest bit of software you can get to learn.

[MrVisible]

Gaim - Got it. Chatted most of the day with a friend. Mostly about how awesome Ubuntu is.

xmms - It's nice, but I'm stuck on Amarok right now. It does things with my 65 gigs of music that I never thought could be done.

inkscape - Holy flurking schnit! My graphics tablet is having the time of its life.

supertux - Played that for an hour last night. Boing!

f-spot - moving all of my photos to an EXT3 partition....now.

banshee - I tried this before Amarok, and it's nice. What's amazing is that, for some reason, it has incredibly good taste in random playlists. There were moments the other day when I wondered what streaming station I was listening to. Brilliant.

scribes - I'm kind of assuming this is Scribus. In which case, wow. Nice, nice program, that will make me very happy in the long run.

Audacious - Still stuck on Amarok.

PCManFM - That's beautiful. You just replaced Gnome Commander. That's a really nice app.

gColor2 - Esoteric, but useful. It helped with my theme.

Conky - It's nice, but I like my desktop clean. I may use it on occasion, though.

MPD/NCMPC/Sonata - Still happy with Amarok.

XChat - Got it. Eventually I'll get around to chatting.

Gaim - All day.

GIMP - As a long-term photoshop user, I'm looking forward to learning it.

And finally...

"/bin/bash

The shell is probably the niftiest bit of software you can get to learn."

That's something I'm excited about. I was a DOS geek, back in the day. Cut my teeth on a command line. Right now I'm going through http://linuxcommand.org/learning_the_shell.php bit by bit, but if you have any other resources to help get me started, I'm all ears.

Great bunch of apps so far, folks. Thanks!

I'm off to play with inkscape some more. After Heroes, of course.

[dyous87]

Open Office - word processing, spread sheets, slide shows etc
The Gimp - Amazing free photo editing programs similar somewhat to photoshop
Inkscape - Great vector graphics drawing program
NVU - Pretty decent html editor if you are into web design
Gaim - Great multi-protocol instant messaging program
Frostwire - Cool p2p sharing program based on limewire pro code
gftp - Simple, streamlined ftp protocol with ssh2 support
Devede - Cool program for converting avi and mpeg videos to dvd images to burn to a dvd for watching on a home dvd player
wine - program for running some windows programs on linux (if you really have to :lolflag: )
freeciv - high quality free clone of Civilization II
automatix - great program that automatically installs popular linux programs and needed audio and video codecs as well as extras.

[fuscia]

you could try vym. http://www.insilmaril.de/vym/ (it's in the repos.)

[SunnyRabbiera]

Kobo deluxe, great 2D arcade game retroish goodness! :D

[tubasoldier]

If your thinking about looking into KDE and KDE apps as well then here is my list of Kool Stuff:

Kooka - simple scanning using a SANE backend.

K3B - IMO it is the best cd writing software available. Even better than the junk in windows.

Xchat - I love IRC. Been on irc since i was a young lad... the mere age of 14. over 15 years now.

k9copy - DVD copying software.

Audacity - Sound Editing

Enemy Territory - Not completely open source but a killer online multiplayer shoot-em-up!

Gcompris - a great set of educational games for kids.

[migla]

Add to panel: tomboy and deskbar.

Install and then add to panel: ontv, shows now playing and upcoming programmes (from selected regions of the world) with the help of xmltv. The version in edgy repos may be troublesome, but the feisty one works very nicely for me.

Liferea - linux feed reader.

games: wesnoth, pingus, wormux, xmoto, Wolfenstein ET-mod Truecombat: Elite

[picpak]

Konqueror: A file browser-web-browser-FTP combo. When you pop in an audio CD, it automatically gives you MP3s, OGGs, WAVs and FLACs of each song. I mean...how cool is that.

Streamtuner: Great for listening to online radio

Applications > Add/Remove: ...So much easier than Synaptic

Bittornado: Nice and light Bittorrent client with all the features I need

Filelight: Graphical representation of your hard drive space. Kinda slow though.

3ddesktop: Lets me switch desktops in a 3D view

Conky: A nice lightweight system monitor

Opera: This thing is a browser-chat-mail-and-kitchen-sink combination of everything...and it's lighter than Firefox!

Kolourpaint: Sometimes I need an easier image editor than the GIMP.

[Hendrixski]

The coolest thing you can do is learn the tools that give you a voice in what Ubuntu looks like. Learn to file bug reports, or request new features. Write some documentation or make existing documentation less confusing. Learn how to program and join an open source project. It's kind of like painting, or writing poetry. It's not easy, it takes some learning, but it's VERY COOL, and VERY REWARDING. Plus, then you can make the software even cooler than it already is.

[Malac]

Ubuntu-System-Panel still in alpha but way cool.
(Warning: I am biased as I'm a contributor to the project. :) )

[reacocard]

Gajim - simple, clean Jabber IM client
Geany - clean, light IDE
Exaile - Amarok, but for GTK+
Beryl + Emerald - the best looking desktop ever
Screenlets - Widgets/Dashboard for linux
AWN - coolest taskbar ever
Deluge - simple bittorrent client
Liferea - simple RSS aggregator
Specto - event notifier
Network Manager - manage wifi with ease

XFCE - clean, light, simple DE, with all the features of heavier ones.

I'll probably think of more later. :)

UPDATE:
k3b - the best cd/dvd burning tool of any OS. (brasero is a good GTK alternative)
Ex Falso - simple, powerful music tag editor

[kiddo]

HomeBank (http://homebank.free.fr) (available in feisty), this is heaven compared to GNUCash :)
Specto (http://specto.sf.net) (available in feisty, har har)
Tremulous (http://tremulous.net) - kick some space marine's (or alien's) butt! :) completely addictive online FPS
gshare (http://yimports.com/~cpinto/projects/gnome/gshare/): it allows you to share stuff *easily* on your LAN using a built-in FTP daemon and avahi

[TheVeech]

When you come across a great project, don't forget to spread the word!
(I've tried to cover all bases)

Amarok - If music's the food of love, this is the restaurant
VLC Media Player - for when others fail (ditched Mplayer just to try it, and it stuck)
Epiphany - Web browser - basic but nice and fast (use same basic hacks as FF in about:config)
Firefox - Web browser, for when I need extra, usually unnecessary features from certain extensions
Pan - Usenet Newsreader
Vym and Kdissert - Mindmapping (currently prefer Kdissert)
Abiword & OO.org - Word Processing
Scribus - Desktop Publishing
Screem & Bluefish - HTML editing (I prefer Screem)
Agave - for colour schemes (might even help with DIY!)
GnuCash - Finances. Still does it for me
GdMap - Explore you hard disk for waste quickly & visually
K3B & Brasero - disk burning
Firestarter - for configuring firewall features
Revelation - Password storage
Tomboy Notes - Post it-like thingy
Gnome-pilot applet - For my Palm LifeDrive - works perfectly with Evolution
Evolution - email, contacts, memos, tasks, etc
WebHTTrack - website copier for storing sites for offline reading (be careful of huge sites!)
Liferea - RSS/Atom feed reader
GIMP & Inkscape - photo/graphic manipulation (OO.org Drawing is installed but hidden in Graphics menu)
Debian Reference - (documentation) there's always something to learn
GNU Paint - when I'm using a Wacom tablet, this is great for jotting down notes by hand
Eiciel - GUI for changing permissions
Change Password - Because permanent passwords aren't that good an idea
www.Last.fm (Last.fm apps in repositories) - Social music site
Netspeed applet - for keeping an eye on network speed
System Monitor applet - for keeping an eye on different parts of the system
Prnt Scrn button on keyboard - Absolutely essential (don't forget Alt + Prnt Scrn)
Keyboard Shortcuts - for reconfiguring certain ideological keyboard keys so they do something useful for once (left, menu; right, Terminal)
Synaptic - Software install (play around with the preferences, too)

and finally the best of the lot:

Terminal - Beautiful, just beautiful

[jolger]

WOAH!!! love this thread!!! :D please post more ^^


my favs:

- gaim
- wine (for playing WoW :P)
- amarok
- bmp player (some media player, im using it as an alarm clock (pretty usefull for people who are haing a hard time getting up in the morning :P), look for bmp-alarm or something in the repos!)
- unreal tournament 2004, its not free but its the best first person shooter i've seen for linux so far
- firefox :P


thats about it... please keep posting usefull info everyone :D this is great ^^

[Iceni]

Can anyone suggest me a good html editor - I prefer to write the code myself and basicly used the old homesite for the last 8-10 years:) Anything moderately like it for linux?

[Brunellus]

Can anyone suggest me a good html editor - I prefer to write the code myself and basicly used the old homesite for the last 8-10 years:) Anything moderately like it for linux?
Nvu or Bluefish.

[reacocard]

Can anyone suggest me a good html editor - I prefer to write the code myself and basicly used the old homesite for the last 8-10 years:) Anything moderately like it for linux?

try Bluefish.

[Iceni]

Thanks :)

[tigerpants]

Window managers:

E17 (Enlightenment)
Fluxbox

[MrVisible]

This is really an abundance of riches, isn't it? I mean, wow. Really. Wow. With possibly a Keanu-style 'whoa' thrown in there.

Here's what's on my "I must explore this" list in Tomboy right now:

Kobo

wormux

Exaile - There's one for Gnome? ("It comes in pints?")

Beryl + Emerald - Eh. Maybe. Someday. Eye candy generally doesn't impress me. If it doesn't improve productivity, get it out of my way.

XFCE - what are the system requirements for a Xubuntu box? I have an ancient IBM Thinkpad I'd like to play with, but it has an embarassing 64 mb of RAM.

brasero - nice.

Ex Falso - I have 43 days worth of MP3s, according to Amarok. I may need this.

gshare - I was thinking about playing with Samba, but this sounds so good...

Amarok - If music's the food of love, this is the restaurant -- Oh, how I love me some Amarok. But this Exaile you speak of... it is tempting.

Kdissert - Interesting...

Screem & Bluefish - are both on my really serious to-download list

GdMap - Oh, yeah.

WebHTTrack - I've been looking for just this app...

GNU Paint - good idea

www.Last.fm - I've been meaning to check it out for ages.

Netspeed applet - I think I love you.

System Monitor applet - Wow, that's nifty.

Keyboard Shortcuts - another great idea.

Reasons I'm excited that Feisty April is just around the corner:
Ubuntu-System-Panel
HomeBank
Specto
(I swear, I'm more excited about the Feisty release than about my birthday...)

And slightly off the beaten topic:

The coolest thing you can do is learn the tools that give you a voice in what Ubuntu looks like. Learn to file bug reports, or request new features. Write some documentation or make existing documentation less confusing. Learn how to program and join an open source project. It's kind of like painting, or writing poetry. It's not easy, it takes some learning, but it's VERY COOL, and VERY REWARDING. Plus, then you can make the software even cooler than it already is.
Since you brought it up... I've done a lot of database development in (cough)Access. Now that I'm in Ubuntu, I'd like to take a database I've made for the Hacker's Diet and convert it to a more useful format. I'm thinking Ruby on Rails might do well for me, but I'd also like to play around with a GUI for it too. It should be a good beginner project. Do you think Ruby is a good place to start, or is it a dead end? Or is that another thread altogether?

If I neglected to mention an app you brought up, I either have it, I'm looking into it, or I'm just plain overwhelmed.

Keep the suggestions coming. This is truly nifty.

[hizaguchi]

VLC - Media player that handles just about anything. It does certain WMV files better than Windows Media Player.

gdesklets - I just use it for the sticky note tool, which looks way nicer than Tomboy.

checkgmail - Nice Gmail checker.

LyX - Editor for typesetting without having to know LaTeX. Makes really professional-looking documents. It's completely replaced word processing for me.

[reacocard]

...
Exaile - There's one for Gnome? ("It comes in pints?")

Yes indeed. Still early in development (version 0.2.9 coming up soon), but already has most of Amarok's features. I maintain exaile repositories, both for stable (http://syzygy42.tuxfamily.org/dists/edgy/exaile/) and svn (http://syzygy42.tuxfamily.org/dists/edgy/exaile-svn/), so you can always keep up-to-date with the latest version.



Beryl + Emerald - Eh. Maybe. Someday. Eye candy generally doesn't impress me. If it doesn't improve productivity, get it out of my way.

It's not just eyecandy. Izoom (zoom the whole screen and still use mouse/keyboard) and scale (OSX's expose, but better) are both very useful, and there is also some support for tabbed windows.



XFCE - what are the system requirements for a Xubuntu box? I have an ancient IBM Thinkpad I'd like to play with, but it has an embarassing 64 mb of RAM.

I think XFCE might work with 64MB. You'll have to use the alternate install cd though, the live cd needs a minimum of 256MB.



Reasons I'm excited that Feisty April is just around the corner:
Ubuntu-System-Panel
HomeBank
Specto

USP and specto both have packages for edgy available as well, if you can't take the suspense.

[panch0]

My favorites are KPlayer, K3B, and Konqueror. Krita has gotten a lot better lately as well. These are all KDE programs of course.

[stueyboy]

There are some interesting apps listed there which I am about to install but I love Amarok for my music. I have got it set up so that I can stream music from it to my airtunes express in the kitchen which is something I never thought I would be able to do in Linux, however, there is always someone else out there who seems to want to do the same as me if you dig hard enough. One other thing I love is how easy it manages iPods and other devices without all the hassle that iTunes does (and it doesn't force you to install quicktime)

[evolvedlight]

Since you brought it up... I've done a lot of database development in (cough)Access. Now that I'm in Ubuntu, I'd like to take a database I've made for the Hacker's Diet and convert it to a more useful format. I'm thinking Ruby on Rails might do well for me, but I'd also like to play around with a GUI for it too. It should be a good beginner project. Do you think Ruby is a good place to start, or is it a dead end? Or is that another thread altogether?
Get RadRails from www.getdeb.com

Thats the best that i've found. You will also need something like mysql - check out ubuntu guide for how to install that

Steve

[daz4126]

Scribes is NOT scribus. It is a great little text editor that could be used for html or Ruby on Rails development and is much lighter-weight than Bluefish and Nvu (more of a text-editor than these)

http://scribes.sourceforge.net/

DAZ

[tkjacobsen]

Games:
xmoto
lbreakout2

Other:
kile (latex editing)
unison (sync even with *******)
screen (terminal multiplexer)
ssh
octave (matlab lookalike)
gnuplot (very powerfull plotting tool)