MX Linux Forum

hoping to buildup a list here suitable for the bottom "Links" section of MX wiki page
mxlinux.org/wiki/applications/software-recommendations
edited May 24, 2019 to remove the wiki hyperlink and insert the following "tip"
.
Tip:
When you discover an interesting program which isn't currently available natively
via MX packageinstaller or via synaptic (using only stock MX//debian repositories),
you can post a request in the PACKAGE REQUESTS subforum
.





Not necessarily limited to sites that host downloadable linux / FOSS software
mention sites that review or otherwise raise awareness of open source software titles

linux-apps.com {---------- presents a subset (no game apps) of the 6,000+ applications listed at http://www.opendesktop.org
sourceforge.net
linux.softpedia.com
freshfoss.com

www .webupd8.org
omgubuntu.co.uk

edited to add:
As discussed in the "Flatpak or Appimage will be the future?" topic http://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?f=108&t=42127
pasting found-on-the-web commandlines containing "wget... sudo install" (or "curl... sudo install") to your terminal is a Really Bad Idea !

Another good idea! I'll wait a bit before setting up the Wiki entry (also the other one) to see what else gets suggested.

BTW: I made both of these a sticky post.

Yes--our packagers get ideas for packages to add or update to our repos from those blogs.

Sometimes I just get a hint of something in some other forum's post and have to hunt it down--like finding the better glxspheres(64) benchmark mentioned somewhere, then tracking it down to a "virtualgl" application which is not in Debian, and then packaging it for our test repo so I can use that benchmark to test performance with Bumblebee on or off.

I only learn about applications by reading the forum, not following any other Linux sites or publications.

I do work on the basis that anything decent and useful will be mentioned in the forum and would satisfy my basic needs.

I might say that when I primarily used MS, open source software sites like Source Forge were useful in my adopting Thunderbird, Open Office, Gimp, Scribus, Inkscape, Stellarium/Celestia, VLC, Calibre etc and in hindsight, made switching to Linux pretty painless. Virtual Box (as I read about here) covered a couple of specialist applications and provided some reassurance if needing to access my collection of academic references (Endnotes), although Wine achieves the same result now with greater simplicity.

When searching for an application to crop digital photograph files, for example,
I go to my favorite web search engine (startpage.com), and type "linux program to crop photos". That usually gives me plenty to read about on the web what people like, don't like, and so on. When I find a particular app. that sounds worth trying, then I open a shell and type to see if it's already installed my computer.
If nothing appears, then I type to see if APT maintains a version in the repositories.
Debian maintains over 42,300 highly-vetted software packages in its repositories, so that's the first place to look. If I don't see something that looks promising, then back to the web.
If that fails, ask here. Or if you find two or three packages that you think will do what you're looking for, you can either (A) ask for recommendations here, or (B) install all three, try each one, and see if any of them work. Then you can narrow it down to whichever application most easily does the task.

I found an interesting one today: fossmint.com They have a diverse group of contributors, including some from the under-represented Sub-Saharan Africa region.

Jeesh, there are a lot of Electron-based applications out there now. I like their ease of use, but their bloat is annoying. If they could all just use one system install of Chromium instead...

fossmint might be a sister site to "tecmint.com" (which hasn't yet been mentioned in this topic).
They've published about 50 "by-task" or "by-category" articles http://www.tecmint.com/category/top-tools/
which raise awareness and present alternatives, usually without steering readers toward a single "best" or "top" item

The comments below the tecmint articles are often informative (and are easily missed ~~ need to click "older comments" to see all of 'em).

These 2 sites include user reviews/comments for each software listed.
alternativeto.net (filtered: linux platform)
slant.co (example topical page, reached by entering "linux terminal" in the slant.co searchbox)

Oftentimes I have learned from Sparky's Facebook and/or Forum pages. For example, they recently added Leo editor and outliner IDE because of a request from a user. I had never heard of an outlining editor--had to Google it. Might be useful for some MX'ers.

I learn from https://www.youtube.com/ or http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/

a supplemental on-topic PSA:

as one recent linux newbie, i came across this;
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
let's leave to those experts knows best.

http://www.linuxalt.com/
lists windows {{{---}}} linux equivalents and alternatives for various software titles
example: ====== also ======

https://www.osalt.com/
worth a look, but AFAIK the sites list(s) haven't been updated since 2012
Find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software
Our mission is to provide easy access to high quality open source alternatives to well-known commercial products.

https://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives
provides an "alternatives lookup" list similar to linuxalt.com

the https://linuxappfinder.com/ site also provides categorized pages of software
(its categorized lists are well-populated, but are not up-to-date)

a curated collection of "golden oldies" (gtk, fltk) gui applications
https://412collection.neocities.org/index.html


"Linux App Finder's mission is to catalog useful GNU/Linux programs and provide a great resource to discover new apps."
https://linuxappfinder.com/


the Linux Alternative Project (formerly the Linux Equivalent Project) lists Linux equivalents and alternatives to Windows software
https://www.linuxalt.com/

https://www.ubuntupit.com/category/software/
Site contains approx 140 articles, for instance, one is titled "Free AutoCAD Alternative: Top 15 CAD Software For Linux"

For non GUI software..

https://github.com/mayfrost/guides/blob ... NATIVES.md
https://suckless.org/rocks/

Treasure trove of great ideas from Manjaro users, well worth going through the longer thread:

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/favorite-le ... apps/57320

At first I tried to see if there's already anything in the repos that meet my criteria search with If nothing shows up I google about it. Also, I use liferea and follow sites like tecmint, it's foss, planet debian, Linux journal, phoronix and a few others to keep on track of software and Linux related news. By the way, I think it'd be nice that MX has a rss feed to follow. Github is another good source to find out about software.

Moltke, your post about apt search reminds me to mention:

sudo apt install packagesearch
installation does provide a .desktop launcher, but it might not show up in desktop menu

You don't need elevated permissions to run this GUI program.
The command to launch the app (from Alt+F2 runner or from terminal commandline) is packagesearch

Many packages include "debtags" keywords//information within their metadata in addition to category and description.
packagesearch enables to you search the debtags data. For instance you can perform a search based on "similar to" somepackage.

skidoo wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:57 pm Moltke, your post about apt search reminds me to mention:

sudo apt install packagesearch
installation does provide a .desktop launcher, but it might not show up in desktop menu

You don't need elevated permissions to run this GUI program.
The command to launch the app (from Alt+F2 runner or from terminal commandline) is packagesearch

Many packages include "debtags" keywords//information within their metadata in addition to category and description.
packagesearch enables to you search the debtags data. For instance you can perform a search based on "similar to" somepackage.

Sounds like a synaptics like app, except for the elevated permissions part. I might give it a look to see what is like. Since you mentioned this I remember that MX has the cli-apt-based package manager which I've used too a few times, pretty useful.

.
https://kde.org/applications/



category: Games

Blinken . . . Memory Enhancement Game
Bomber . . . Arcade Bombing Game
Bovo . . . Five-in-a-row Board Game
GCompris . . . Educational Game
Granatier . . . Bomberman clone
Kajongg . . . Mahjong tile game from China
Kanagram . . . Letter Order Game
Kapman . . . Pac-Man Clone
KAtomic . . . Sokoban-like Logic Game
KBlackbox . . . Blackbox Logic Game
KBlocks . . . Falling Blocks Game
KBounce . . . Ball Bouncing Game
KBreakOut . . . Breakout-like Game
KDiamond . . . Three-in-a-row game
KFourInLine . . . Four-in-a-row Board Game
KGoldrunner . . . Hunt Gold, Dodge Enemies and Solve Puzzles
KHangMan . . . Hangman Game
Kigo . . . Go Board Game
Killbots . . . Strategy Game with Robots
Kiriki . . . Yahtzee-like Dice Game
KJumpingCube . . . Territory Capture Game
Klickety . . . Board Game
Kolor . . . Lines Tactical Game
KMahjongg . . . Mahjongg Solitaire
KMines . . . Minesweeper-like Game
Naval . . . Battle Ship Sinking Game
KNetWalk . . . Network Construction Game
KNights . . . Chess game
Kolf . . . Miniature Golf
Kollision . . . A simple ball dodging game
Konquest . . . Galactic Strategy Game
KPatience . . . Patience Card Game
KReversi . . . Reversi Board Game
KShisen . . . Shisen-Sho Mahjongg-like Tile Game
KSirk . . . World Domination Strategy Game
KSnakeDuel . . . A race in hyperspace
KSpaceDuel . . . Space Arcade Game
KSquares . . . Connect the dots to create squares
KSudoku . . . Sudoku Game
Potato . . . Guy Picture Game for Children
Kubrick . . . 3-D Game based on Rubik's Cube
LSkat . . . Card Game
Palapeli . . . Jigsaw puzzle game
Picmi . . . Logic Game

category: . . . Education

Artikulate . . . Artikulate Pronunciation Trainer
Blinken . . . Memory Enhancement Game
Cantor . . . Frontend to Mathematical Software
GCompris . . . Educational Game
KAlgebra . . . Graph Calculator
Kalzium . . . Periodic Table of Elements
Kanagram . . . Letter Order Game
KBibTeX . . . BibTeX Editor
KBruch . . . Exercise Fractions
KGeography . . . Geography Trainer
KHangMan . . . Hangman Game
Kig . . . Interactive Geometry
Kiten . . . Japanese Reference/Study Tool
KLettres . . . Learn The Alphabet
KmPlot . . . Mathematical Function Plotter
KStars . . . Desktop Planetarium
KTouch . . . Touch Typing Tutor
KTurtle . . . Educational Programming Environment
KWordQuiz . . . Flash Card Trainer
LabPlot . . . LabPlot
Marble . . . Virtual Globe
Minuet . . . Music Education Software
Parley . . . Vocabulary Trainer
Rocs . . . Rocs Graph Theory
Step . . . Interactive Physical Simulator

example linked page for one of the applications

category: Graphics

SymbolEditor . . . Cross Stitch Symbol Editor
digiKam . . . Photo Management Program
Gwenview . . . KDE Image Viewer
KColorChooser . . . Color Chooser
KGraphViewer . . . Graphviz DOT graph viewer
KolourPaint . . . Paint Program
KPhotoAlbum . . . Photo Album
Krita . . . Digital Painting
KRuler . . . Screen Ruler
KXStitch . . . Cross Stitch Editor
Okular . . . Document Viewer
Showfoto . . . Photo Viewer and Editor
Skanlite . . . Image Scanning Application

category: Internet

Akregator . . . Feed Reader
Choqok . . . Micro-blogging Client
Falkon . . . Web Browser
KGet . . . Download Manager
KMail . . . Mail Client
Konqueror . . . Web Browser, File Manager and Viewer
Konversation . . . IRC Client
Kopete . . . Instant Messenger
KRDC . . . Remote Desktop Client
Krfb . . . Desktop Sharing
KTorrent . . . BitTorrent Client
PIM . . . Setting Exporter Saves and restores all data from PIM apps
Banji . . . VoIP app
SieveEditor . . . Editor for email filter Sieve scripts

category: Multimedia

Amarok . . . Audio Player
Player . . . Dragon Player Video Player
Elisa . . . Music Player
JuK . . . Music Player
K3b . . . Disk Burning
Kaffeine . . . Media Player
Kamoso . . . Camera
Kdenlive . . . Video Editor
KMix . . . Sound Mixer
KMPlayer . . . Media Player
Kwave . . . Sound Editor
Plasma . . . Camera Mobile Photos

category: Office

Flow . . . Flowchart & Diagram Editing
Plan . . . Project Management
Calligra . . . Sheets Spreadsheet
Calligra . . . Stage Presentation
Calligra . . . Words Word Processor
KAddressBook . . . Contact Manager
KBibTeX . . . BibTeX Editor
KEuroCalc . . . Currency converter and calculator
KEXI . . . Visual database apps builder
Kile . . . LaTeX Frontend
KMail . . . Mail Client
KMyMoney . . . Personal Finance Manager
Kontact . . . Personal Information Manager
KOrganizer . . . Personal Organizer
Lokalize . . . Computer-Aided Translation System
Okular . . . Document Viewer
SieveEditor . . . Editor for email filter Sieve scripts
Skrooge . . . Manage your money
Tellico . . . Collection Manager

category: System

KHelpCenter . . . Help Center
Apper . . . Software Management
Discover . . . Software Center
Dolphin . . . File Manager
ISO . . . Image Writer Write an ISO Image to a USB Disk
KDE . . . Connect Connect and sync your devices
KDiskFree . . . View Disk Usage
Info . . . Center Info Center
Konsole . . . Terminal
KSysGuard . . . System Monitor
KSystemLog . . . System Log Viewer
KWalletManager . . . Wallet Management Tool
Muon . . . Package Manager Package Manager
KDE . . . Partition Manager Partition Editor
Yakuake . . . Drop-down Terminal

category: Utilities

Ark . . . Archiving Tool
Filelight . . . Disk Usage Statistics
KAlarm . . . Personal Alarm Scheduler
Kate . . . Advanced Text Editor
KBackup . . . Backup Program
KCalc . . . Scientific Calculator
KCharSelect . . . Character Selector
KFind . . . Find Files/Folders
KFloppy . . . Floppy Formatter
KGpg . . . Encryption Tool
Kleopatra . . . Certificate Manager and Unified Crypto GUI
KMag . . . Screen Magnifier
KMouseTool . . . Automatic Mouse Click
KMouth . . . Speech Synthesizer Frontend
KNotes . . . Popup Notes
KRename . . . Batch File Renamer
Kronometer . . . Chronometer
Krusader . . . File Manager
KTeaTime . . . Tea Cooker
KTimer . . . Countdown Launcher
KWrite . . . Text Editor
Okteta . . . Hex Editor
RSI . . . Break Help prevent repetitive strain injury
Smb4K . . . Advanced Network Neighborhood Browser
Spectacle . . . Screenshot Capture Utility
Sweeper . . . System Cleaner
Zanshin . . . To Do Management Application


category: Development

Cervisia . . . CVS Frontend
Cuttlefish . . . Icon Viewer
Heaptrack . . . Profiler Frontend
KAppTemplate . . . KDE Template Generator
KCachegrind . . . Profiler Frontend
kdesvn . . . Subversion Revision Control
KDevelop . . . Integrated Development Environment
KDiff3 . . . Diff/Patch Frontend
KImageMapEditor . . . HTML Image Map Editor
Kirigami . . . Gallery Widget Browser for Kirigami
Kompare . . . Diff/Patch Frontend
Lokalize . . . Computer-Aided Translation System
Massif-Visualizer . . . Profiler Frontend
Plasma . . . Engine Explorer Plasma Data Engines Viewing Tool
Plasmoid . . . Viewer Plasma Widget Testing Tool
Umbrello . . . UML Modeller

https://www.nomachine.com/

Hidden Gem~~~ Works out of the box and free too!

Remote Application For all Platforms.

https://www.nomachine.com/sites/all/the ... images.jpg

https://www.nomachine.com/sites/all/the ... allery.jpg

Can we have appimage gui downloader. like libreoffice the one with appimage is newer than preinstalled in mxlinux 18.3.

and I also use Patchwork

https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ssbc/ ... enshot.jpg




Mod note: please mind remote linked image sizes, thanks.
Image changed to link
https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?f=133&t=48737

acecombat2, this isn’t a request thread, it’s a thread to share where users can find new/interesting applications.

Patchwork is in MXPI under Flatpaks right now.

There are separate Forum areas for package requests as laid out in Skidoo’s original first post.

Please read the How to ask for Help info, read the MX Manual, and FAQ.... and please try to keep post relevant to the thread.

To be straight I use a minimalist approach but when I look for something I generally tube to see what most like and watch them play with it. I USED to install everything in the repoz and do it myself but with the mini surge in Linux....one just needs a few hours of video viewing. 80% of the packages are a joke. 10 are pretty useful and the last 5-10 have some killer open/semi open source goodies.I hate to admit it but snap crap /Uoruntyou has many.........I'm a purist so ...patient. Once in a moon I grab a package from Mint deb and apply in MX or Deb test. The Mint boys do a good job screening

Not to be a grump, but use your computer and enjoy all it can do for you. Don't become a software collector. If you need to do something that isn't done by something already installed, go look for it or ask others what they use do that task. That is all.

The "Destination Linux" community has threads where people post interesting favorites. For example,

"Must have apps on any new Linux distro install"

I like hearing software choices vetted by other (real) people, as I trust ad-sponsored, published articles less and less.

I usually just google for whatever it is I'm looking to install. Recently it was 'facebook messenger linux app' and 'linux app youtube music player.' I found some great apps - one which I could add a Debian repo for, and one I had to install via Flatpak (though I might go back and build from scratch if this old 2GB all-in-one starts slowing down.

Facebook Messenger App - install from repo:
https://github.com/sindresorhus/caprine

Youtube Music App (flatpak)
https://gitlab.com/zehkira/monophony

Thank you for digging up a topic from 2020. Please don't dig up old topics again. Now closed.