Application Recommendations for Linux - Tips and Tricks

To make the transition to Linux easier, we recommend the following software for Linux

1

Krita

Anyone who has worked with Photoshop will also be able to use Krita under Linux. Krita is a painting program. It can even read and process Photoshop's proprietary format, including all layers.

It also supports Wacom graphics tablets and simplifies working with them. In contrast to Photoshop, the brush menu and settings are very easily accessible via buttons on the pen.

Basically, Krita is suitable for advanced creatives and those switching from Adobe Photoshop, as it requires some familiarization, but you quickly learn to work with it. It has similar filter options to Photoshop.

2

KolourPaint

In contrast to image editing programs such as Photoshop or Krita, it deliberately avoids complicated functions such as layers or filters.

It is a simple painting program that looks like Paint in Windows. It is modeled after Paint from Windows XP. KolourPaint is sufficient for quick screenshots and image editing. The program can open and save formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, ICO, and others. It can also work with transparency.

3

Visual Studio Code

For programmers, Visual Studio Code is one of my recommendations. The free IDE offers everything you need to edit code and includes syntax highlighting, code folding, debugging, autocompletion, and version control. Visual Studio Code is developed as an open project on GitHub and, with 19,000 contributors, is the most supported project on GitHub.

If that's not enough, you can fall back on SublimeText or one of JetBrain's proprietary programs.

4

Haruna

The video player can play all videos and even display HDR videos on SDR. A double-click on the video file and it plays immediately if Haruna is configured as the default player. It is similar to the MPC-HD Player for Windows, but has some optimizations, such as playing HDR content on SDR monitors.

5

VLC (initially called "VideoLAN Client")

The classic that plays all video and audio formats. It can play virtually all audio and video formats without additional codecs. The VLC Player is particularly appreciated for its stability, low resource consumption, and lack of advertising.

One day, students from one of the network clubs at the École Centrale Paris came home drunk with a traffic cone. This club later became the VideoLAN project. When a logo was sought for the program, the choice fell on the cone, which has since grown into a considerable collection.

6

Joplin

Anyone who has worked with OneNote will also be able to use Joplin. Joplin is a notebook program that allows you to create notes within the program. PDFs, images, audio and video files, and any other files can be attached to the notes. It can also be exported to PDF and HTML, and encryption is also optionally possible.

7

LibreOffice

The free office suite. If you can do without Office file formats and work directly with LibreOffice file formats, you will be satisfied with it.

Originally, LibreOffice was split off from OpenOffice, which used to belong to Sun, because Sun was bought by Oracle, and LibreOffice continues to appear as a free open-source project.

8

WPS 2019

In contrast to LibreOffice, WPS 2019 is free but not open source. WPS Office (formerly Kingsoft Office or KSOffice) is developed by the Chinese Kingsoft Corporation, based in Zhuhai.

It can handle the file formats of Microsoft Office better than LibreOffice and also looks like the Microsoft Office Suite.

However, the internationally standardized OpenDocument standard (file extensions: *.odt, *.ods, etc.) is not supported as a file format. So if you happen to have a file with these file extensions, you can still open it with LibreOffice.

The product has its own PDF converter, uses MDI mode to display multiple open documents, and advertises high compatibility with the Microsoft Office Suite.

9

VMWare Workstation Pro

VMWare is virtualization software that allows you to create and run virtual machines on your own PC. Why VMWare and not VirtualBox?

VMWare Workstation Pro has now become free for home use, and it offers the best 3D accelerator driver for guest systems, allowing you to play old 32-bit games under Windows XP via VMWare, for example, without a drop in 3D graphics performance. For example, Pizza Syndicate 2 and Dungeon Keeper 2.

VirtualBox also has 3D support, but the support and drivers for guest systems seem to be very buggy and you can't do anything with it. Especially if you use applications that require 3D graphics accelerators, such as Adobe Photoshop.

10

Filezilla

Anyone who wants to upload or download files over the Internet using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) cannot avoid Filezilla. This is especially interesting for software developers and IT professionals. Text files can also be opened in the local text editor. FileZilla then monitors the opened file and offers to upload the file if changes are made.

11

Firefox

The best all-around browser. There are also Chromium or Brave Browser, but Firefox is unbeatable in terms of extensions and themes. For example, the Facebook Container, Flagfox, KeePassXC extensions and the Qwant search engine for Firefox.

After Netscape lost the browser war and disappeared almost overnight, a gap opened up for users who didn't want to use IE on Windows systems. Firefox filled this gap in 2002 with the release of Firefox 0.2 and quickly gained a large and very active user community.

The project was developed by the Mozilla Foundation, which was founded by former Netscape employees as a non-profit organization. The Firefox is not actually a fox, but a bear, more precisely a panda. The Lesser or Red Panda is also called Firefox by the Chinese because of its coloring.

12

Thunderbird

The free and open-source email program. It can also read news feeds and also offers a calendar for schedulers, although I prefer the Deepin calendar because it is integrated directly into the system and reminds me of upcoming appointments. Thunderbird, on the other hand, must be left open to be reminded of appointments.

13

PuTTY

PuTTY is also available under Linux. Anyone who works with SSH connections will know it. This allows you to log in to your own servers and administer the servers. A tip in advance: the appearance, such as font and size, can be configured; it is recommended to use a monospace font in size 12 or 14 for this. PuTTY can not only establish SSH connections, but also organize X11 and port forwarding, and it can also handle SSH keys.

14

Steam

Anyone who wants to play Windows games under Linux and also buys games via Steam cannot avoid Steam. With Proton, Steam offers a Wine execution layer for Windows games. This allows Windows games to be played under Linux.

Users can buy, download, and update games, unlock achievements, use mods, and interact in communities. With cloud storage and regular sales, Steam is a leading provider in the gaming sector.

15

OpenTTD

The classic game. Anyone who knows Transport Tycoon will be happy about OpenTTD, because OpenTTD is a free reimplementation (reconstruction) of the engine of the 1994 business simulation game Transport Tycoon Deluxe by Chris Sawyer.

The player is the boss of a transport company and must lead it to success. At the beginning of the game, there are already some cities and businesses in the game landscape; the player's perspective on the game landscape is isometric. It is possible to build more complex rail systems with the help of signaling systems and thus optimize the routes of the rail vehicles.

16

K3b

The burning program. Anyone who still has optical drives in their PC needs K3B. It supports all common CD formats such as .iso, .cue with .bin, .m4s etc. In addition to burning, it also offers functions such as ripping audio CDs.

Unfortunately, there is no package for Deepin, but it is available in the Debian repository and can be installed manually.

17

Koodo Reader

The reading program for all common e-book formats. It remembers where you last left off and displays the eBook in a 2-page view by default. It also estimates the remaining reading time on request.

Calibre and Thorium Reader are available as alternatives. Thorium is said to be particularly helpful for the visually impaired, as it allows books to be read aloud.

18

RSS Guard

The feed reader. It enables the central reading of articles from all sources in one place. The integrated web browser automatically displays the articles from the feed directly. Ideal for people who want to read a lot of news. It can check at regular intervals and then informs you via notification when new articles have appeared.

19

KeePassXC

This is a secure open-source password manager. It enables the encryption of the password file and thus the secure storage of all passwords. It also offers integration into the Firefox browser.

20

Kdenlive

Kdenlive is a free and open-source video editing program that is roughly on par with commercially available professional software. The range of functions (e.g. filters, audio tools, etc.) can be significantly expanded by optionally installing plugins.

However, there is no way around DaVinci Resolve for professional video editing, which is proprietary, i.e. not open source, and offers even higher-quality functions. It offers HDR color grading and can be extended with proprietary plugins.

Conclusion

The programs presented offer many ways to stay free without having to register. Linux and its distributions are also free.