Software "Essentials" that everyone should have?

[Undertaker555]

Which tools and programs you would consider as "Essentials that everyone should have"?

I mean like tools, that make life easier and just everyone should have.

For example, I would call these "Essenials":

- Meld (A great program to manage files, compare folders and merge them.)
- FileRenamer (I like this renamer tool better than the one that comes default with Mint.)
- Notepadqq (Really great for doing more complex tasks in a notepad program.)
- NAPS2 (Best scanner program in my opinion.)
- VLC (People say it's bad on Linux, but that is not true. It's great.)
- GIMP (Great program to edit photos and create arts.)
- Vivaldi / other Chromium browser (Now wait, before you judge: I am using Firefox as my main browser, but Vivaldi allows PWA! Basically install websites as apps.. This means, you can easily install games, programs, email clients, etc. all as their own applications to Linux. If there are no Linux versions, these are perfect replacements for a full setup. Even on Windows I preferred to have these lightweight PWA versions of bigger clients. Weather apps, Google Earth, Outlook, etc. everything can be installed as an "app".


As you see, I don't have many tools to suggest, but this is why I created this thread.
I am curious on what tools you are using.
Maybe I am missing something?

Not so long ago I came from Windows, and I'm still kind of searching for a CD/DVD burner software to replace CDBurnerXP, and for a good alternative PDF reader to replace SumatraPDF.
But you can suggest anything here.
Whatever tools make the days easier, and Linux more fun, just suggest it all.

[JoeFootball]

Which tools and programs you would consider as "Essentials that everyone should have"?

I'm not sure that's an easy answer, as everyone's requirements and preferences differ. For example, for me, nothing you listed would be essential, however for you, perhaps they are.

I am curious on what tools you are using

Speaking for myself, essential tools are Geany, Guake, and Firefox.

By the way, the last time I looked, Notepadqq hasn't been updated in years, though I concede that I've not looked in some time. Edit: I just checked, and the last stable was 2018, and the last beta was 2019.

[kc1di]

I Think everone's list would differ according to what they need/want.
I for one use Midnight commander in my list.
I Also use Vivaldi, but many would not.
So you may get many varying replies to this one.

[AndyMH]

As said, everybody is different, no mention of email, I use evolution. For graphics I use pinta and if a bit more involved then krita. My needs in this area do not justify the time required to come down the learning curve with gimp.

Not so long ago I came from Windows, and I'm still kind of searching for a CD/DVD burner software to replace CDBurnerXP, and for a good alternative PDF reader to replace SumatraPDF.
But you can suggest anything here.
Whatever tools make the days easier, and Linux more fun, just suggest it all.

It's a long time since I burnt anything to CD/DVD but I use xfburn. There are others but xfburn is simple and straightforward. If you don't like the default pdf reader then there are lots of others, I use qpdfview.

[Undertaker555]

@kc1di

So you may get many varying replies to this one.

That's the point of the thread.
I just want to get inspiration, and get to know new tools and programs that maybe will make my life easier

For example, if I wouldn't know that Notepadqq exists, I would struggle using the normal Text Editor for some tasks.
So if then someone would say "I think Notepadqq is a great program", I would research about it and immediately download it.
I created this thread out of curiosity, what exists on Linux.

Of course, using Mint for a server for example, in such cases nobody will ever need GIMP on it.
But rather I meant in daily use, which tools can become useful from time to time.


@AndyMH
I think xfburn sounds great.
Software that is straightforward is the kind of software I like.

The qpdfview is a good replacement, too.
I want a PDF reader that is specialized for books, something that is comfortable to use for hours.
I will check that out.
Actually, that there are so many PDF readers is the real problem.
I really struggle to find the perfect reader, because there are just too many out there..

EDIT:
I just realized that Pinta is literally the thing that I always wanted since I left Windows.
I'm struggling with GIMP and the Drawing program is not really easy to use, too.
Pinta is something I will definitely check out too.

[AndyMH]

I've always been happy with xed, have tried others. Use for general note taking and bash scripts. Anything else, I use an IDE, vscode for C++ and html, lazarus for pascal, not a python fan.

Chromium/vivaldi user. Vivaldi for backup/alternative.

What are you doing for backup? I use timeshift for the system and backintime for home. Both run automatically saving to an ext4 partition on an internal/removable drive used only for backup. Infrequently I'll take an image backup of my system drive with foxclone.

How are you keeping track of changes? I have a launcher on the desktop pointing at a text file on the backup drive. Whenever I make a change I make a date/timestamped note of it. Helps to know what you have installed and how when you come to do a fresh install.

If you want to waste hours, have a look at conky, a system monitor ++. There is a show-off thread:
viewtopic.php?t=30209 old, now closed and
viewtopic.php?t=390490 new, since topics now get locked after 6mths.

Mine: viewtopic.php?p=2289459#p2289459

Best way to proceed - find one you like, copy it and modify it.

Pinta meets 99% of my needs, I only use krita if I have to (and then I have to google to find out how).

[Hoser Rob]

I don't use a single one of those programs. I don't use a scanner and don't use anything like Gimp so those don't count. I'd hardly call Gimp am essemtial for every user. Many don't manipulate images.

I always have VLC installed but I never seem to use it. My default video player is SMplayer, has been for years. Personally I think VLC is the most over rated program around, on Windows too. The video performance is nowhere as good as mpv based players and the UI is a joke. Why in the frak do you have to go into the Codecs section to change the size of the video prefetch cache? Its a good music player though.

Chromium and Chrome can do PWAs too.

[Undertaker555]

@Hoser Rob
About the UI of VLC you are right. It definitely is horrible.
I just love VLC because of the video performance.
And now you are telling me that the video performance is bad..
Seems like I will have to check out SMplayer

But about the Chromium and Chrome, yes, they indeed allow PWA's.
Though, I am not sure if these are the best Chromium alternatives out there..
Of all Chromium browsers I would only use either Ungoogled-Chromium, or Vivaldi..



Also, there is something that I need.
What is the best alternative for Rufus on Windows?

I see there are quite a lot of different ways of creating bootable drives.
But none of them seem so easy as Rufus.

What is a program that comes close to it?
When I am searching "Rufus alternative for Linux", it just shows me mostly results that show how to create a bootable Linux Live drive with Rufus..

[AndyMH]

Ventoy without a doubt. It is a multi-boot solution. Once you have installed ventoy to a stick you copy (not burn) isos to it, as many as will fit or as you need. When you boot the stick ventoy asks which iso you want to boot.
https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html
Not quite as straightforward to install from linux as win.

There is also mint's usb imagewriter which works for most linux distros (won't work with a win iso). Until I found ventoy this was my usual tool. Simple to use.

[Undertaker555]

@AndyMH

Thanks. I came across Ventoy many times while researching.
I just hoped that there would be something just slightly easier, but I guess if I will create my first few bootable's it will be fine.

So Ventoy it will be.


EDIT:
Btw. by easy I don't mean to create a simple USB drive, rather I mean to modify a Windows ISO for example..
I mean, Microsoft recently forces Windows 11 users to have an internet connection when first setting up an user.
They force you to have a Micorosoft Account for this.
Rufus allows to put a simple checkbox and disable the need of a Microsoft Account.
With Ventoy that will be much harder. I will have to manually edit the ISO I think.
That is what I meant with easy, in case you wondered.

The Windows thing is just an example.
There are other reasons, like creating a Linux Live with persistency.
I am not sure how Ventoy handles this, but with Rufus it's again very easy.
I guess, there will be enough tutorials how to do it with Ventoy though. It's just a bit more work.

[AndyMH]

If you download the tar.gz and extract it you have to run the installer, highlighted below:

Which would be navigate to the folder in nemo, right click "open in terminal" and then ./VentoyGUIx86_64.

Or you can download the iso, burn it to a stick with mint's usbimagewriter, boot from it and then install ventoy to the stick you just booted from.

[Undertaker555]

I see.
So for example if I would need a Windows 11 setup for some reason and don't want the Microsoft Account and hardware restrictions, I would have to edit the ISO manually, and then add it the normal way to Ventoy.

So Ventoy keeps the whole ISO as it is, and all modifications I want will not be done by Ventoy itself, rather it needs to be done in an earlier stage, when creating the ISO itself.


Also I wanted to ask, why do you think the way of Ventoy to handle bootable drives is better than for example BalenaEtcher?
It is because of the fact, that you can put multiple setups of different OS's on it, right?

[AndyMH]

I've never used balenaetcher, but since ventoy came out 2-3 years ago it has attracted a significant fan base, me included.

If you want to make changes to an iso you would need to that before copying to your ventoy stick, or burning it with another tool.

[Undertaker555]

I think it will be worth it.
For Windows there exist some great websites where you can create your own ISO.
So that should be fine.

And for the persistency of a Linux Live drive, I would have to follow some guides.
I am not entirely sure if that would even work with Ventoy, but I am quite sure that there are ways to achieve persistency without Rufus.

So I guess, Ventoy will still be best.
I like the idea of having multiple ISO's on one drive.
Right now there is so much wasted space on my USB drives, because I'm just able to place one OS on each..


Thank you people very much.
Just today I got 3 new programs that I will check out and most likely keep:
XFBurn, Pinta, Ventoy and maybe SMplayer.

Maybe even more, great suggestions will come.
The other suggestions I didn't mention are great, too.
But in my case I just don't need them.

[Samarian Sunset]

I always like reading these favorite software threads as it gives me some ideas to what software packages to look at. I see Pinta mentioned, I tried downloading that a couple of times as it looked nice, but it froze on my machine.

Not counting the packages that come installed on Mint these are my most used:
Firefox ESR
Brave as a backup
Grsync
yt-dlp
Wine/Photoshop
Handbrake

That's about it.

[Undertaker555]

@Samarian Sunset
Good ideas there.
About HandBrake I nearly forgot, and I didn't even know that it exists for Linux.

I gave Pinta a chance, but it was once again "too complex" for my use.
I'm still searching for the most simple painting program possible, but that is not so important.
The default Drawing program in Mint is already fine.

But recently I realized that I am missing a replacement for "Recuva".
This is a program to restore deleted files and to do data recovery.
So if someone got suggestions, I will gladly try them.

[AndyMH]

But recently I realized that I am missing a replacement for "Recuva".
This is a program to restore deleted files and to do data recovery.

Testdisk and photorec, both terminal programs.

Don't think you find anything simpler than pinta.

[Moem]

I gave Pinta a chance, but it was once again "too complex" for my use.

Maybe Kolourpaint?

[Midnight True]

if i may add i recommend tldr

The TLDR pages are a community effort to simplify the beloved man
pages with practical examples

example:

Code: Select all

 tldr ls
ls
List directory contents.More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/ls.

 - List files one per line:
   ls -1

 - List all files, including hidden files:
   ls -a

 - List all files, with trailing / added to directory names:
   ls -F

 - Long format list (permissions, ownership, size, and modification date) of all files:
   ls -la

 - Long format list with size displayed using human-readable units (KiB, MiB, GiB):
   ls -lh

 - Long format list sorted by size (descending):
   ls -lS

 - Long format list of all files, sorted by modification date (oldest first):
   ls -ltr

 - Only list directories:
   ls -d */

[Night Wing]

For me, browsers allow me to get to the internet. At this time I have five browsers. There are in order of preference for me.

1) Pale Moon
2) Mercury
3) Watefox
4) SeaLion
5) Firefox

Since I do clean installs for every point and/or major updates for the two distros I use (Mint, MX Linux), I use a thumb/flash drive for that. And the program I use to flash an iso to a flash/thumbdrive to make a bootable thumb/flash drive is Balena Etcher.

For ad blocking I use uBlock Origin in all of my browsers. To block some websites which like to track users via tracking cookies all over the internet even if the user does not have an account with them (Facebook, Meta), when using Mint, I use the program named Domain Blocker which can be found via the Synaptic Package Manager. The name to search for it is, "mintnanny" (without the quote marks).

When using Accessory programs, the two I use the most are Calculator and Screenshot.