2018 has been an awesome year for a lot of applications, especially those that are both free and open source. And while various Linux distributions come with a number of default apps, users are free to take them out and use any of the free or paid alternatives of their choice.

Today, we bring you a list of Linux applications that have been able to make it to users’ Linux installations almost all the time despite the butt-load of other alternatives.

To simply put, any app on this list is among the most used in its category, and if you haven’t already tried it out you are probably missing out. Enjoy!

Backup Tools

Rsync

Rsync is an open source bandwidth-friendly utility tool for performing swift incremental file transfers and it is available for free.

$ rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]

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To know more examples and usage, read our article “10 Practical Examples of Rsync Command” to learn more about it.

Timeshift

Timeshift provides users with the ability to protect their system by taking incremental snapshots which can be reverted to at a different date – similar to the function of Time Machine in Mac OS and System restore in Windows.

BitTorrent Client

Deluge

Deluge is a beautiful cross-platform BitTorrent client that aims to perfect the μTorrent experience and make it available to users for free.

Install Deluge on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deluge-team/ppa $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install deluge

qBittorent

qBittorent is an open source BitTorrent protocol client that aims to provide a free alternative to torrent apps like μTorrent.

Install qBittorent on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install qbittorrent

Transmission

Transmission is also a BitTorrent client with awesome functionalities and a major focus on speed and ease of use. It comes preinstalled with many Linux distros.

Install Transmission on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install transmission-gtk transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon

Cloud Storage

Dropbox

The Dropbox team rebranded their cloud service earlier this year to provide an even better performance and app integration for their clients. It starts with 2GB of storage for free.

Install Dropbox on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf - [On 32-Bit] $ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf - [On 64-Bit] $ ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

Google Drive

Google Drive is Google’s cloud service solution and my guess is that it needs no introduction. Just like with Dropbox, you can sync files across all your connected devices. It starts with 15GB of storage for free and this includes Gmail, Google photos, Maps, etc.

Check out: 5 Google Drive Clients for Linux

Mega

Mega stands out from the rest because apart from being extremely security-conscious, it gives free users 50GB to do as they wish! Its end-to-end encryption ensures that they can’t access your data, and if you forget your recovery key, you too wouldn’t be able to.

Download MEGA Cloud Storage for Ubuntu

Commandline Editors

Vim

Vim is an open source clone of vi text editor developed to be customizable and able to work with any type of text.

Install Vim on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/vim $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install vim

Emacs

Emacs refers to a set of highly configurable text editors. The most popular variant, GNU Emacs, is written in Lisp and C to be self-documenting, extensible, and customizable.

Install Emacs on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelleyk/emacs $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install emacs25

Nano

Nano is a feature-rich CLI text editor for power users and it has the ability to work with different terminals, among other functionalities.

Install Nano on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/programs-ppa $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install nano

Download Manager

Aria2

Aria2 is an open source lightweight multi-source and multi-protocol command line-based downloader with support for Metalinks, torrents, HTTP/HTTPS, SFTP, etc.

Install Aria2 on Ubuntu and Debian, using following command.

$ sudo apt-get install aria2

uGet

uGet has earned its title as the #1 open source download manager for Linux distros and it features the ability to handle any downloading task you can throw at it including using multiple connections, using queues, categories, etc.

Install uGet on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:plushuang-tw/uget-stable $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install uget

XDM

XDM, Xtreme Download Manager is an open source downloader written in Java. Like any good download manager, it can work with queues, torrents, browsers, and it also includes a video grabber and a smart scheduler.

Install XDM on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/apps $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install xdman

Email Clients

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is among the most popular email applications. It is free, open source, customizable, feature-rich, and above all, easy to install.

Install Thunderbird on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install thunderbird

Geary

Geary is an open source email client based on WebKitGTK+. It is free, open-source, feature-rich, and adopted by the GNOME project.

Install Geary on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:geary-team/releases $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install geary

Evolution

Evolution is a free and open source email client for managing emails, meeting schedules, reminders, and contacts.

Install Evolution on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install evolution

Finance Software

GnuCash

GnuCash is a free, cross-platform, and open source software for financial accounting tasks for personal and small to mid-size businesses.

Install GnuCash on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc)-getdeb apps" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb.list' $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install gnucash

KMyMoney

KMyMoney is a finance manager software that provides all important features found in the commercially-available, personal finance managers.

Install KMyMoney on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:claydoh/kmymoney2-kde4 $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install kmymoney

IDE Editors

Eclipse IDE

Eclipse is the most widely used Java IDE containing a base workspace and an impossible-to-overemphasize configurable plug-in system for personalizing its coding environment.

For installation, read our article “How to Install Eclipse Oxygen IDE in Debian and Ubuntu”

Netbeans IDE

A fan-favourite, Netbeans enables users to easily build applications for mobile, desktop, and web platforms using Java, PHP, HTML5, JavaScript, and C/C++, among other languages.

For installation, read our article “How to Install Netbeans Oxygen IDE in Debian and Ubuntu”

Brackets

Brackets is an advanced text editor developed by Adobe to feature visual tools, preprocessor support, and a design-focused user flow for web development. In the hands of an expert, it can serve as an IDE in its own right.

Install Brackets on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/brackets $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install brackets

Atom IDE

Atom IDE is a more robust version of Atom text editor achieved by adding a number of extensions and libraries to boost its performance and functionalities. It is, in a sense, Atom on steroids.

Install Atom on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install snapd $ sudo snap install atom --classic

Light Table

Light Table is a self-proclaimed next-generation IDE developed to offer awesome features like data value flow stats and coding collaboration.

Install Light Table on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dr-akulavich/lighttable $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install lighttable-installer

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor created by Microsoft to offer users the best-advanced features in a text editor including syntax highlighting, code completion, debugging, performance statistics and graphs, etc.

Download Visual Studio Code for Ubuntu

Instant Messaging

Pidgin

Pidgin is an open source instant messaging app that supports virtually all chatting platforms and can have its abilities extended using extensions.

Install Pidgin on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/backports $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install pidgin

Skype

Skype needs no introduction and its awesomeness is available for any interested Linux user.

Install Skype on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt install snapd $ sudo snap install skype --classic

Empathy

Empathy is a messaging app with support for voice, video chat, text, and file transfers over multiple several protocols. It also allows you to add other service accounts to it and interface with all of them through it.

Install Empathy on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install empathy

Linux Antivirus

ClamAV/ClamTk

ClamAV is an open source and cross-platform command line antivirus app for detecting Trojans, viruses, and other malicious codes. ClamTk is its GUI front-end.

Install ClamAV/ClamTk on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install clamav $ sudo apt-get install clamtk

Linux Desktop Environments

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a free and open-source derivative of GNOME3 and it follows the traditional desktop metaphor conventions.

Install Cinnamon desktop on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment lightdm

Mate

The Mate Desktop Environment is a derivative and continuation of GNOME2 developed to offer an attractive UI on Linux using traditional metaphors.

Install Mate desktop on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt install tasksel $ sudo apt update $ sudo tasksel install ubuntu-mate-desktop

GNOME

GNOME is a Desktop Environment comprised of several free and open-source applications and can run on any Linux distro and on most BSD derivatives.

Install Gnome desktop on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt install tasksel $ sudo apt update $ sudo tasksel install ubuntu-desktop

KDE

KDE is developed by the KDE community to provide users with a graphical solution to interfacing with their system and performing several computing tasks.

Install KDE desktop on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt install tasksel $ sudo apt update $ sudo tasksel install kubuntu-desktop

Linux Maintenance Tools

GNOME Tweak Tool

The GNOME Tweak Tool is the most popular tool for customizing and tweaking GNOME3 and GNOME Shell settings.

Install GNOME Tweak Tool on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

Stacer

Stacer is a free, open-source app for monitoring and optimizing Linux systems.

Install Stacer on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oguzhaninan/stacer $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install stacer

BleachBit

BleachBit is a free disk space cleaner that also works as a privacy manager and system optimizer.

Download BleachBit for Ubuntu

Linux Terminals

GNOME Terminal

GNOME Terminal is GNOME’s default terminal emulator.

Install Gnome Terminal on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-terminal

Konsole

Konsole is a terminal emulator for KDE.

Install Konsole on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install konsole

Terminator

Terminator is a feature-rich GNOME Terminal-based terminal app built with a focus on arranging terminals, among other functions.

Install Terminator on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install terminator

Guake

Guake is a lightweight drop-down terminal for the GNOME Desktop Environment.

Install Guake on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install guake

Multimedia Editors

Ardour

Ardour is a beautiful Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for recording, editing, and mixing audio professionally.

Install Ardour on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dobey/audiotools $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install ardour

Audacity

Audacity is an easy-to-use cross-platform and open source multi-track audio editor and recorder; arguably the most famous of them all.

Install Audacity on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install audacity

GIMP

GIMP is the most popular open source Photoshop alternative and it is for a reason. It features various customization options, 3rd-party plugins, and a helpful user community.

Install Gimp on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install gimp

Krita

Krita is an open source painting app that can also serve as an image manipulating tool and it features a beautiful UI with a reliable performance.

Install Krita on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kritalime/ppa $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install krita

Lightworks

Lightworks is a powerful, flexible, and beautiful tool for editing videos professionally. It comes feature-packed with hundreds of amazing effects and presets that allow it to handle any editing task that you throw at it and it has 25 years of experience to back up its claims.

Download Lightworks for Ubuntu

OpenShot

OpenShot is an award-winning free and open source video editor known for its excellent performance and powerful capabilities.

Install Openshot on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install openshot-qt

PiTiV

Pitivi is a beautiful video editor that features a beautiful code base, awesome community, is easy to use, and allows for hassle-free collaboration.

Install PiTiV on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ flatpak install --user https://flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.pitivi.Pitivi.flatpakref $ flatpak install --user http://flatpak.pitivi.org/pitivi.flatpakref $ flatpak run org.pitivi.Pitivi//stable

Music Players

Rhythmbox

Rhythmbox posses the ability to perform all music tasks you throw at it and has so far proved to be a reliable music player that it ships with Ubuntu.

Install Rhythmbox on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install rhythmbox

Lollypop

Lollypop is a beautiful, relatively new, open source music player featuring a number of advanced options like online radio, scrubbing support and party mode. Yet, it manages to keep everything simple and easy to manage.

Install Lollypop on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnumdk/lollypop $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install lollypop

Amarok

Amarok is a robust music player with an intuitive UI and tons of advanced features bundled into a single unit. It also allows users to discover new music based on their genre preferences.

Install Amarok on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install amarok

Clementine

Clementine is an Amarok-inspired music player that also features a straight-forward UI, advanced control features, and the ability to let users search for and discover new music.

Install Clementine on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:me-davidsansome/clementine $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install clementine

Cmus

Cmus is arguably the most efficient CLI music player, Cmus is fast and reliable, and its functionality can be increased using extensions.

Install Cmus on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jmuc/cmus $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install cmus

Office Suites

Calligra Suite

The Calligra Suite provides users with a set of 8 applications which cover working with office, management, and graphics tasks.

Install Calligra Suite on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install calligra

LibreOffice

LibreOffice the most actively developed office suite in the open source community, LibreOffice is known for its reliability and its functions can be increased using extensions.

Install LibreOffice on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install libreoffice

WPS Office

WPS Office is a beautiful office suite alternative with a more modern UI.

Download WPS Office for Ubuntu

Screenshot Tools

Shutter

Shutter allows users to take screenshots of their desktop and then edit them using filters and other effects coupled with the option to upload and share them online.

Install Shutter on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:shutter/ppa $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install shutter

Kazam

Kazam screencaster captures screen content to output a video and audio file supported by any video player with VP8/WebM and PulseAudio support.

Install Kazam on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kazam-team/unstable-series $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install kazam python3-cairo python3-xlib

Gnome Screenshot

Gnome Screenshot was once bundled with Gnome utilities but is now a standalone app. It can be used to take screencasts in a format that is easily shareable.

Install Gnome Screenshot on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install gnome-screenshot

Screen Recorders

SimpleScreenRecorder

SimpleScreenRecorder was created to be better than the screen-recording apps available at the time of its creation and has now turned into one of the most efficient and easy-to-use screen recorders for Linux distros.

Install SimpleScreenRecorder on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder

recordMyDesktop

recordMyDesktop is an open source session recorder that is also capable of recording desktop session audio.

Install recordMyDesktop on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install gtk-recordmydesktop

Text Editors

Atom

Atom is a modern and customizable text editor created and maintained by GitHub. It is ready for use right out of the box and can have its functionality enhanced and its UI customized using extensions and themes.

Install Atom on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install snapd $ sudo snap install atom --classic

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is easily among the most awesome text editors to date. It is customizable, lightweight (even when bulldozed with a lot of data files and extensions), flexible, and remains free to use forever.

Install Sublime Text on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install snapd $ sudo snap install sublime-text

Geany

Geany is a memory-friendly text editor with basic IDE features designed to exhibit shot load times and extensible functions using libraries.

Install Geany on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install geany

Gedit

Gedit is famous for its simplicity and it comes preinstalled with many Linux distros because of its function as an excellent general purpose text editor.

Install Gedit on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install gedit

To-Do List Apps

Evernote

Evernote is a cloud-based note-taking productivity app designed to work perfectly with different types of notes including to-do lists and reminders.

There is no any official evernote app for Linux, so check out other third party 6 Evernote Alternative Clients for Linux.

Everdo

Everdo is a beautiful, security-conscious, low-friction Getting-Things-Done app productivity app for handling to-dos and other note types. If Evernote comes off to you in an unpleasant way, Everdo is a perfect alternative.

Download Everdo for Ubuntu

Taskwarrior

Taskwarrior is an open source and cross-platform command line app for managing tasks. It is famous for its speed and distraction-free environment.

Install Taskwarrior on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install taskwarrior

Video Players

Banshee

Banshee is an open source multi-format-supporting media player that was first developed in 2005 and has only been getting better since.

Install Banshee on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:banshee-team/ppa $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install banshee

VLC

VLC is my favourite video player and it’s so awesome that it can play almost any audio and video format you throw at it. You can also use it to play internet radio, record desktop sessions, and stream movies online.

Install VLC on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install vlc

Kodi

Kodi is among the world’s most famous media players and it comes as a full-fledged media centre app for playing all things media whether locally or remotely.

Install Kodi on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install kodi

SMPlayer

SMPlayer is a GUI for the award-winning MPlayer and it is capable of handling all popular media formats; coupled with the ability to stream from YouTube, Chromcast, and download subtitles.

Install SMPlayer on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install smplayer

Virtualization Tools

Qemu

Qemu is a generic, free and open source machine virtualizer and emulator that is capable of running any Operating System on any architecture that it supports. It runs Xen and KVM virtual machines with near native performance and enables users to run programs for another Linux/BSD on their machine.

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is an open source app created for general-purpose OS virtualization and it can be run on servers, desktops, and embedded systems.

Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - $ wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.2 $ virtualbox

VMWare

VMware is a digital workspace that provides platform virtualization and cloud computing services to customers and is reportedly the first to successfully virtualize x86 architecture systems. One of its products, VMware workstations allows users to run multiple OSes in a virtual memory.

For installation, read our article “How to Install VMware Workstation Pro on Ubuntu“.

Web Browsers

Chrome

Google Chrome is undoubtedly the most popular browser. Known for its speed, simplicity, security, and beauty following Google’s Material Design trend, Chrome is a browser that web developers cannot do without. It is also free to use and open source.

Install Google Chrome on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add - $ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list' $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

Firefox

Firefox Quantum is a beautiful, speed, task-ready, and customizable browser capable of any browsing task that you throw at it. It is also free, open source, and packed with developer-friendly tools that are easy for even beginners to get up and running with.

Install Firefox Quantum on Ubuntu and Debian, using following commands.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next $ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade $ sudo apt install firefox

Vivaldi

Vivaldi is a free and open source Chrome-based project that aims to perfect Chrome’s features with a couple of more feature additions. It is known for its colourful panels, memory-friendly performance, and flexibility.

Download Vivaldi for Ubuntu

That concludes our list for today. Did I skip a famous title? Tell me about it in the comments section below.

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