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GNU/Linux Applications

These are my preferred GNU/linux applications gathered together. Most of these programs are lightweight (fast, not bloated).
I have also included some applications I don't like but they could be useful for people who desperatly need a gui. So next to those apps which I don't find fast in performance there stands Q: quite fast ,and N: not fast.

Most of this, if not all, should be Free Software. Which means it's free as in beer and freedom at once. Yea that's right, have yourself a beer with the money you save.
In this list I try to use the names of the apt-get packages in Debian testing, when they exist (!).

If you can't find what you are looking for I have some tips:
- Check out Ratpoison's wiki and their program recommendations.
- Check out the applications used in Damn Small Linux, where a lot of small fast GUI applications are included. They have some good ideas too. Though I don't recommend their system as a whole for day to day use..
- If you want to find the "most popular applications" look at LinuxQuestions Awards.

There are more links to interesting websites about (fast) linux applications at the bottom of this page.

If you still didn't find it try "apt-cache search whatyouarelookingfor" (debian), "pacman -Ss" (arch linux) or use your favorite searchengine.

X Terminal Emulator

A terminal should be as fast as possible.

aterm
It is fast and has some nice features like pseudo transparency.
Aterm was born from the rxvt code (which is also fast).

urxvt
Rxvt with unicode support. Use this if you need unicode, I don't.

Shell

A shell is what you use in a terminal to execute commands and so on. You can change your own default shell with the command chsh in debian.

bash is the most used shell in linux. Supports aliases, auto complete, ... (learn it's handy features!)
dash is a very lightweight shell. Only used as startup shell (running scripts).
zsh has a lot of features, better tabcompletion, but is also a bit slower.

File managing

File managing can be perfectly done using the traditional tools from the command line like ls, cp, mv, cd, mkdir, rm, chmod, chown, chgrp, mount, umount, eject and so on. I recommend you to learn those commands.

Console filemanagers:
mc, midnight commander. 2 pane, ftp support. Start "mc -b" to have transparent background.(Recommended)

GUI:
emelfm, Patched emelfm1
This is a two pane file manager and the only GUI filemanager I bother to use. Emelfm-elm has copy and move progess bars.

xfe
quite nice, looks like windows explorer.

rox
Rox is very popular, said to be quite fast. I don't think it is fast or lightweight, but I add it anyway, since it's so popular.

PCmanFM
New fm which is getting much attention and many people like it. Said to be lightweight and fast, I don't think it is. Try it out for yourself ;) .

Printing

These are some printing subsystems.
apsfilter
To print using the old lpr or the more modern lprng. I use this and it works well. Though I don't really recommend you to use it.
cups
Most popular one, uses a html interface trough your browser.Very easy.

Debian Tools

System

Window managers/Desktop Environments

Try ratpoison and screen. It's a good combination.
For people who like to use the mouse I recommend icewm with the icebuntu theme.

Slit apps for fluxbox, openbox, wmaker,..

I don't use any of these, but they were my favorites when using flux and openbox.

Net Security

Net email

muttng is great with esmtp or ssmtp.

Net ftp

ncftp and lftp are both very good. Midnight Commander has great ftp support too.

Net Filesharing

Net chatting

Irssi and bitlbee really are the best! (or substitute irssi with weechat-curses)

Net browsers

Dillo, Links2 and Elinks are the lightest of these browsers. I use opera and elinks (console) most of the time.

dillo: graphical, very fast, GTK+ (my dillorc)
Dillo is a small and very fast web browser written in C using the GTK+ toolkit. It does currently not support frames, CSS, SSL, JavaScript. And it'll never support flash or java.
It's very well designed gui wise, but for now keyboard navigation is lacking. That should change in Dillo 0.9 though.
Patched version of Dillo adding frames, ssl, antialiasing, ...

links2, improved links, graphical and text-only
Links 2 displays graphics, renders fonts in different sizes (with anti-aliasing) and supports frames, JavaScript, SSL.
It is very fast but doesn't support CSS, flash and java.
It has nice keyboard navigation.

elinks, improved links, text-only
ELinks ("Experimental/Enhanced Links") is based on Links 0.9.
It has come a long way and is probably the best text-only browser.

A not fast browser you can have as reserve for viewing advanced websites:
N mozilla-firefox, slow, good featured, Gecko engine
Firefox supports a big range of technologies. But on the downside it's slow.
Using pagedown/pageup instead of scrolling is recommended on slower computers. That way firefox is still very usable on my 166mhz with 64mb ram. The concept of pagedown/pageup is actually much better then scrolling too (using your hands less), once you get used to it.

There are other mozilla based browsers like epiphany, kazehakase which you could try.. Use less resources then firefox, but they're not as user friendly in my opinion.

Q Opera, quite fast, good featured
My favorite browser, too bad it's not OSS but it's free none the less. It's faster than firefox and has better features without plugins. Definately the gui browser for old computers because it's got a feature to make the website fit on the screen if you use lower resolutions like 800x600 or 640x480.
One trick to make opera use a lot less memory is to type opera:config in the url box. Then search for Turbo Mode and disable it. Restart Opera.
An interesting website: Speed up Opera.

When building websites please check your site with a text browser. So you are sure people who are blind or who use text browsers can understand your site.
You can see how your site looks like in a text browser at lynxview.
Important and insightful readings for webmasters linked on the dillo website.

Net other tools

Viewers

xzgv, xpdf, less and mplayer.

Graphics

Sound

Moc is nice. Also mpd + ncmpc is ok. Xmms, also nice, uses fewest cpu on my p1.

Editors

Learn vim if you edit a lot, otherwise just stick to nano and nedit.

Word Processing

Please consider alternatives to writing documents in the .doc format.

Math

Presentation

Database

CD writing, ripping, ...

Games

Videogames suck. Get outside and have fun! :p

Other lists of light linux applications

Lists of linux applications

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