My Application List, Suggestions Welcome!

[kirkquitar]

I just started using Ubuntu again, and am trying to get my Desktop set up. These are the programs/drivers/etc that I'm using. This list is obviously biased towards Gnome, if you have any suggestions, I want to hear them, I'd rather hear about Gnome apps, but if there's software that stands out as unparalleled such as GnomeBaker vs K3B or Amarok vs Exaile, feel free to suggest, or post your own lists.

Graphics/Text Viewers/Editors
Gimp (Photo Editor)
Blender (3D Modeler)
Scribus (Publishing)
Inkscape (Vector Graphics)
OpenOffice.org (Office Suite)
Amaya (HTML Editor)
Code::Blocks (C++ IDE)
Scribes (Text Editor)
F-Spot (Photo Organizer)

Media Playback
Exaile (Audio Playback/Managing)
VLC (Video Playback)

Media Creation
Ardour (Digital Audio Workstation)
JAMin (Audio Mastering)
RoseGarden (Midi/Sequencing)
Hydrogen (Drum Machine)
Audacity (Simple Audio Recording)
Pitivi/Cinelerra/Jahshaka (Video Editors, Not sure which)

CD/DVD
GnomeBaker (CD/DVD Burning/Ripping)

Security
ClamAV (Antivirus/Mailfilter)
Firestarter (Firewall)

Internet
Pidgin/aMSN (MSN replacement, Not sure which)
Firefox (Web Browser)
Deluge (Torrenting)
Linux DC++ (DC++ Client)
Thunderbird (Email)
Gwget (Download Manager)

Drivers/Settings
Alsa (Audio Drivers)
Envy (Installs Video Drivers)
Irqbalance (Dual-Core Interrupt Manager)
OpenQuicktime (Quicktime Library)
GCC (Compiler)

Eye Candy
Compiz (Who doesn’t know what this is?)
AWN (Dock)
gDesklets/Screenlets (Small Desktop Apps, Not sure which)
Emerald (Window Decorator)

Other
Checkgmail (You guessed it.)
Gnome Launch Box (Launcher, I don’t want Katapult)
WINE (Open Source implementation of Windows API)
Beagle (Search)
Gnome Commander (File Manager)

[LaRoza]

Abiword (Word Processing)

Opera (Browser)

Fluxbox (DE) (My favourite)

[hessiess]

Blender (3D Modeller)

blender is NOT just a 3d modeller, its also a compositor/ renderer(scanliner with raytracing)/ presidual material editor/ game engine/ physics engine/ anamatior AND video sequence editor

[kirkquitar]

blender is NOT just a 3d modeller, its also a compositor/ renderer/ presidual material editor/ game engine/ physics engine/ anamatior AND video sequence editor

Haha I half expected someone to say something about Blender... But it needs a Ray Tracer in order to give quality renderings (if I remember correctly) and I would prefer a dedicated video editor. But I agree that it's a wicked program with tons of functionality.



Abiword (Word Processing)

Opera (Browser)

Fluxbox (DE) (My favourite)

I'll have to check out Abiword, I prefer Firefox over Opera because of the Open Source aspect... if Opera decides to fill the browser with advertisements (like it was at one point) then there's nothing you can do about it. I was looking at some Fluxbox screenshots recently, and it looked good. Any favourite features or reasons you prefer Fluxbox over Gnome? Because I think that I should try it out maybe...

[hessiess]

But it needs a Ray Tracer in order to give quality renderings

have you ever seen elephants dream?(utube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsGEWHNJ3s8))
made with blender, with hardly any ray tracing:)
also all of pixars films (except cars) dident use any ray tracing at all

[JurB]

Glipper :)
Very useful clipboard app, can't live without it.

[urukrama]

Try krusader, instead of Gnome-commander. I know it is a KDE app, but the extra libraries it loads are well worth it. It is an amazing file manager. Way better than gnome-commander.

When it comes to library based audio players, I prefer Quod Libet (and Ex Falso for tag editing) over Exaile, though Exaile is fine as well.

[skwishybug]

I would suggest:
Xara Xtreme for vector graphics
Claws mail for e-mail
And go with pidgin over aMSN. aMSN I found to be very buggy

[funrider]

epiphany or konqueror as the web broswer
ktorrent to download new version of ubuntu!

[Cochise]

Brasero (CD Burning)
Transmission (Bittorrent) - i used to use this before switching to deluge, you may like it very light on resources

[-grubby]

kolourpaint:simple image editing

[Scruffynerf]

Conky : Highly configurable system/resources/other meter, very light on resources. Huge thread in here somewhere about it.

[UbuWu]

Brasero instead of gnomebaker
Video editor: Kdenlive
If you are going to use gutsy, don't install beagle, tracker is already included and compiz too.
Emesene (as msn replacement)

[anaconda]

I know it is KDE, but i would suggest
krita instaead of gimp.

expecially the new version that will come next month..

[mindtrick]

Gnumeric for spreadsheets

[erginemr]

kirkquitar, your original list is well done and is already filled with the best application that the Gnome world offers. I can also add the following alternative applications to your list:

Graphics/Text Viewers/Editors
Gpaint (a very simple painting app, cf. Paint Brush)
Abiword (Part of Gnome Office, cf. MS Word)
Gnumeric (Part of Gnome Office, cf. MS Excel)
Vim & GVim (Text editor, part of the Swiss Army knife of a Linux geek, steep learning curve, but well worth the effort)
Geany (A simple, but powerful gerenral purpose programmer's editor)

Media Playback
Amarok (Best audio player, but uses KDE libraries)
Listen (Gnome Audio player / organizer, Similar to Amarok)
Banshee (Gnome Audio player / organizer, Similar to Amarok, but needs Mono libs)
Xmms (X Audio player, Similar to Winamp, but not developed anymore)
MPlayer (A top-notch video player)
Rhythmbox (Most people will disagree, but I also like Ubuntu's default audio player, it is simplistic but gets the job done in an elegant way, a la Gnome fashion)

CD/DVD
Brasero (Gnome CD/DVD Burning/Ripping)
Graveman (Gnome CD/DVD Burning/Ripping)
K3b (a brilliant CD/DVD burning app, but again uses KDE libraries)

Security
FProt & XFprot (Famous antivirus software and its graphical version)

Internet
Opera (Web Browser, lightning fast, on par with Firefox, it is ads free now)
Epiphany (The alternative original web browser of Gnome)
Frostwire (Linux version of Limewire, file sharing app)
aMule (Linux version of eMule, file sharing app)
Gdm (Gnome Download Manager, uses wget in the background, similar to Gwget but better and more stable)
Claws Mail (A powerful, alternative GTK only mail client)
Nvu (A WYSIWYG HTML editor, very easy to create HTML web pages)

Drivers/Settings
MS Audio/Video Codecs (don't remember the name of the package)

Other
Emelfm2 (File Manager similar to Gnome Commander, but unfortunately Katapult is better than both)
Glipper (Clipboard handler)
Hardinfo (System diagnosis software, gives information on your hardware)
Gnome Hide and Seek (Advanced settings for your Gnome Desktop)
Simple Backup and Restore (An automatic back-up and restore solution)
Totem-Xine (The xine version of Totem is better than the default Gstreamer version in terms of performance)

[fuscia]

you probably wouldn't be too interested in a lot of the minimal stuff i use, as you seem to be a high dollar gnome user, but you might be interested in mpd (i use ncmpc myself, but sonata might be more to your liking for running mpd). i'm guessing you prefer the format of gnome-commander and that's why you don't use nautilus, but have you ever tried thunar? aysiu has a script that would make it the default file manager, if you liked it.

[celticbhoy]

Amarok - Full media control.

[kirkquitar]

Thanks for the suggestions! Lots of options for me to check out. I'm sure that my tastes are going to change as I try different programs.

[LaRoza]

I'll have to check out Abiword, I prefer Firefox over Opera because of the Open Source aspect... if Opera decides to fill the browser with advertisements (like it was at one point) then there's nothing you can do about it. I was looking at some Fluxbox screenshots recently, and it looked good. Any favourite features or reasons you prefer Fluxbox over Gnome? Because I think that I should try it out maybe...

Abiword is lighter than OO Writer, and faster, although it has a few less features.

With Opera, I am using it now (on Ubuntu), and have a portable version on a flash drive so I can use it anywere. I never saw the advertisements that are in the past, and I don't feel they will come back.

I like Fluxbox because it is extremely lightweight. It is up as soon as I log on, I press enter and the log in screen disappears, and I am ready to go. My theme is very simple, but they can be made more complicated. I started a thread a while back on why I switched. Look for threads I started, it is called "Alternative DE's and WM's)

[kirkquitar]

Abiword is lighter than OO Writer, and faster, although it has a few less features.

With Opera, I am using it now (on Ubuntu), and have a portable version on a flash drive so I can use it anywere. I never saw the advertisements that are in the past, and I don't feel they will come back.

I like Fluxbox because it is extremely lightweight. It is up as soon as I log on, I press enter and the log in screen disappears, and I am ready to go. My theme is very simple, but they can be made more complicated. I started a thread a while back on why I switched. Look for threads I started, it is called "Alternative DE's and WM's)

Thanks LaRoza, I'm planning on installing Xubuntu Gutsy when it is officially released, I thought it would be safer to stick with Gnome for Beta/RC testing. Have you had any experience with XFCE/Compiz? I've become attached to compiz, but if it's just as functional on XFCE, then I might end up sticking with it. In your other thread you said you were sticking with XFCE, has that changed? Or are you just using XFCE with FluxBox as your WM?

As a side note, Opera Add Banners were only removed in version 8 (see http://www.markschenk.com/opera/history.html). My experience with Opera was probably 4-5 years ago, and I admit I'm completely judging it by that experience, haha Firefox was just such a relief from ie in windows that I had the mindset it's the best browser in the world. Does Opera offer as many plugins as Firefox? I'll have to try it out again anyway...

[Tlon]

Thanks LaRoza, I'm planning on installing Xubuntu Gutsy when it is officially released, I thought it would be safer to stick with Gnome for Beta/RC testing. Have you had any experience with XFCE/Compiz? I've become attached to compiz, but if it's just as functional on XFCE, then I might end up sticking with it. In your other thread you said you were sticking with XFCE, has that changed? Or are you just using XFCE with FluxBox as your WM?

As a side note, Opera Add Banners were only removed in version 8 (see http://www.markschenk.com/opera/history.html). My experience with Opera was probably 4-5 years ago, and I admit I'm completely judging it by that experience, haha Firefox was just such a relief from ie in windows that I had the mindset it's the best browser in the world. Does Opera offer as many plugins as Firefox? I'll have to try it out again anyway...

What about Compiz are you attached to? XFCE does some basic compositing that covers all of my eye-candy sweet-tooth (which, granted, is sated by transparent terminals and transparencies while moving). Cube doesn't work for me because I'm using multiple monitors.

Opera uses less resources than Firefox, is much faster, has built-in torrent client, and has a ton of plug-ins. That said, most of the plug-ins that I use only come in FF flavors, and I've found Opera to be bad for certain Web 2.0ish things.


Thanks to the parent for IRQBalance. What a cool app.

[betweenthetines]

I'm guessing you prefer the format of gnome-commander and that's why you don't use nautilus, but have you ever tried thunar? aysiu has a script that would make it the default file manager, if you liked it.

I second the suggestion for Thunar. It comes installed alongside Nautilus in Gutsy and after using Thunar I used script mentioned above to have it (mostly) replace Nautilus as my file manager. It's definitely worth checking out, as are many of the apps. mentioned above.

As a side-note, I really enjoy these types of threads as they usually end up full of some quite amazing software suggestions I haven't even known were out there before!

[Onyros]

Software I always recommend:

--> PCManFM (lightweight file manager - "Thunar with tabs")
--> Kazehakase (semi-lightweight browser0.4.9 rocks)
--> Psi (lightweight Jabber client)
--> Xara LX (vector drawing)
--> VLC (multimedia player)
--> Claws Mail (lightweight email client)
--> ePDFView (lightweight PDF viewer)
--> gPicView (lightweight image viewer)
--> Transmission (lightweight torrent client)
--> Dates (lightweight calendar app)
--> Tasks (lightweight to-do manager)
--> xPad (lightweight sticky notes app)... I could go on, and on :P

and last, but not least... Fluxbox. It's just getting better and better.

[urukrama]

--> Dates (lightweight calendar app)
--> Tasks (lightweight to-do manager)

Do you have links for those two apps? I searched for them, but couldn't find anything.

[Onyros]

Do you have links for those two apps? I searched for them, but couldn't find anything.I believe they're both in Universe, if I'm not wrong.


sudo apt-get install dates tasks

At least they're in Gutsy's Universe repos right now, if you need .debs I have at least one of them for Feisty as well (for Tasks, I believe), which will probably work for Dapper, as well ;)

[urukrama]

I believe they're both in Universe, if I'm not wrong.

At least they're in Gutsy's Universe repos right now, if you need .debs I have at least one of them for Feisty as well (for Tasks, I believe), which will probably work for Dapper, as well ;)

I'm one of those users that stick with Dapper :-) and both are not in the repos. Could you give me a little more information about them (developers, part of a bigger project? etc -- whatever is in the Help> About dialog), which might help me find the project website and install it from source.

Debs for other ubuntu releases (like Feisty) generally don't work on Dapper, often because they depend on later packages that are not included in Dapper.

[Onyros]

I'm one of those users that stick with Dapper :-) and both are not in the repos. Could you give me a little more information about them (developers, part of a bigger project? etc -- whatever is in the Help> About dialog), which might help me find the project website and install it from source.

Debs for other ubuntu releases (like Feisty) generally don't work on Dapper, often because they depend on later packages that are not included in Dapper.Heh, here you go, mate ;)

http://www.pimlico-project.org/ --> for both Dates & Tasks (has repos for Dapper, Edgy and Feisty - Gutsy's covered in Universe's repos)

They're developed by the same team, and there's another handy app - a Contact Manager - that they have developed, too.

Enjoy ;)

[urukrama]

Thanks, Onyros. For some reason I can't install it, though. The dapper repos don't seem to have it, and I need some dependencies I'd have to trace and install from source to build it from source. I'll stick to gtodo, which does all I need anyway.