As a Linux desktop user, we want to have all our programs readily available and start working as soon as our system installation finishes. However, there are still some programs to install to have everything we need available, ready to get going. In this article we will discuss how to set up a typical Linux desktop, reviewing the following areas:
- Internet (web browsers, file sharing applications , news readers, download managers, instant messaging)
- Multimedia (sound and movie players, sound and video editors, photo management, media management)
- Office (office suites, personal information managers, file management)
- Productivity tools (calendar and task management, note taking)
- Security (anti-virus, anti-rootkit, PGP, firewall)
Usually your Linux distribution comes withe Firefox in the default installation. You can also install Opera, which is another very good web browser and can be enhanced with plugins.
For file sharing, Transmission Bittorrent Client or Ktorrent are installed by default, but you can also check Azureus. For peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, you can use Amule and Gtk-Gnutella.
For a news reader, Akregator or Liferea are good choices.
Your typical download manager will be D4X, but I frankly recommend the 'Down them all!' extension of Firefox, which handles downloads much better.
For instant messaging, Pidgin is a must-have application which connects to various IM networks, from MSN to Gadu-Gadu. MSN fans also need to check aMSN. Skype is also available for Linux. Konversation is an IRC client for KDE and X-Chat-Gnome is for Gnome. Note: Pidgin also supports IRC protocol.
Here are our Internet programs, grouped by desktop environment:
- KDE: Firefox (and/or Opera), Ktorrent (and/orAzureus), Amule (and/or Gtk-Gnutella), Akregator, Kopete (Pidgin), aMSN, Skype, Konversation
- Gnome: Firefox (and/or Opera), Transmission (and/or Azureus), Amule (and/or Gtk-Gnutella), Liferea, Pidgin, aMSN, Skype, X-Chat-Gnome
When you say “multimedia”, the next word that comess to mind is codecs. You can check your distribution’s additional repositories or look in non-supported repositories to find and add proprietary codecs to your Linux desktop. Google “your-distribution codecs” and follow the instructions to install them.
For playing music, there are several players to choose from. Look at Amarok, which has very powerful music playing software. It is developed for KDE, so Gnome users will need to download additional dependencies. Another option is the Banshee media player, which supports playing movies as well. As well, keep the VLC player installed.
To play movies and clips, I suggest KMPlayer for KDE users and Totem for Gnome users. To edit your movies, you can use KDENLIVE, Kino or Cinelerra. To convert your movies to DVD, tovid is a great program.
To manage your photos, I found Digikam (KDE) is powerful software. You can also try F-Spot (Gnome) which has a simpler interface. I personally recommend Picasa from Google, which features basic editing of photos, uploading to your Picasa space, tagging etc.
For media management, Datacrow is one application that you will start to use and never want to change. You can catalog books, movie, CD and DVD collections and manage them any way you like. It downloads information from amazon.com and IMDB and presents it in a very clear way.
To sum:
- KDE: Amarok, KMPlayer (or Totem if you prefer), VLC, KDENLIVE, tovid, Digikam (or F-Spot depending on your choice), Picasa, Datacrow
- Gnome: Banshee, Totem, VLC, KDENLIVE, tovid, Digikam (or F-Spot depending on your choice), Picasa, Datacrow
Read on for office programs, productivity applications and security programs.