All AWESOME Linux Applications and Tools

Hello, F.O.S.S lovers!

Welcome to our list of awesome Linux applications and tools.

Below are listed the coolest software available for your Linux machine for different tasks and they are grouped by category. They comprise of both applications covered on GeeksMint, TecMint, and apps that are yet to be cover on either website.

You can always come here and find an application using the table of categories and as usual, you are free to point out apps, tools, or categories that you think are worthy of being on the list but have been left out.

Important: This page is updated systematically based on recommendations and suggestions from our readers.

Last Updated On: 25th March 2021

Antivirus Tools

• ClamAV – an open-source antivirus for fending off malware, viruses, and Trojans, among other malicious threats.
• ClamTk – A lightweight graphical front-end for the popular command-line based ClamAV.
• ChkrootKit – A free and open-source lightweight toolkit to locally check for signs of a rootkit.
• RootKit Hunter – A remarkable lightweight, open-source security monitoring and analyzing tool.
• Comodo – A powerful cross-platform anti-virus and email filtering software.
• Sophos – A open-source antivirus engine effectively detects and cleans viruses, trojans, and other malware.
• BitDefender – A powerful and versatile anti-virus software suite for Linux
• F-PROT – A free powerful anti-virus scanning engine for use on home/personal Linux workstations.

Audio Players

• Audacious – A multi-platform, lightweight, free GTK-based music player focused on outstanding audio quality and multiple codec support.
• Clementine – a multi-platform Amarok-inspired music player that delivers an efficient user flow and outstanding UI.
• Google Play Music – An unofficial but modern cross-platform Desktop client for Google Play Music.
• Lollypop – A modern, lightweight, material design-inspired music player built to work wonderfully on the GNOME desktop environment.
• Museek – A cross-platform open-source music player application developed to be simple and yet, efficient.
• Musique – A lightweight and open-source iTunes-like music player with various control options.
• Rhythmbox – A free and open-source audio player that plays and helps organize digital audio files.
• Tomahawk – An advanced music player that compiles all your streams, radio stations, local audio files, cloud storage music, etc into one app.
• SMPlayer – A free media player with support for virtually any video and audio format that you can think of.
• Deepin Music – A music player developed by the Deepin Technology Team to focus on local music playing.
• Harmony – A beautiful cross-platform music player with support for cloud services.
• Sayonara Player – A C++-written audio player with a focus on speed and support by the Qt framework.
• Nightingale – A beautiful cross-platform and open-source app with support for various audio formats.
• Exaile – A lightweight but powerful python-based music player with music management capabilities.
• Strawberry Player – A tool for playing music and keeping your music collection neat and organized.
• Qmmp – A Qt-based multimedia player with a focus on simplicity and versatility.
• Mellow Player – A Cross-Platform Qt Cloud Music desktop application with the main focus of working with web-based music streaming services.

Artificial Intelligence

• Deeplearning4j – A Java library and computing framework containing a variety of deep learning algorithms.
• Caffe – A speed, expression, and modularity-focused framework for deep learning.
• H20 – An open-source platform for in-memory, distributed, and scalable predictive analysis and machine learning.
• Mllib – A Spark’s scalable machine learning library consisting of common learning algorithms and utilities.
• Apache Mahout – An open-source project primarily used for creating machine learning algorithms that are scalable.
• OpenNN – A machine learning research software library that implements neural networks.
• Oryx 2 – A specialized Apache Spark and Apache Kafka-based lambda architecture for real-time mega-scale machine learning.
• OpenCyc – An A.I project containing a comprehensive compilation of day-to-day knowledge.
• SystemML – A flexible machine learning system that automatically scales to Spark and Hadoop clusters.
• NuPIC – An open-source HTM theory-based platform and community for machine intelligence.

Backup Utilities

• Rsync – A user-favourite command for syncing files locally and remotely on Unix and Linux computers.
• Fwbackups – A feature-rich, free and open-source cross-platform backup application.
• Bacula -An open-source data backup and recovery software that was made to be enterprise-ready features such as backup configuration, remote backing up and many more.
• backupninja – A backup tool that allows users to perform secure and remote backups over a network. It lets users design backup activity configuration files.
• sbackup – A backup suite for gnome desktops where users can access all configuration through the Gnome interface.
• Kbackup – A backup software for Unix and Linux users which creates compresses the files being backed up.
• BackupPC – An enterprise back up tool which can be used on Mac OS X, Windows and Unix/Linux.
• Amanda – An open-source backup tool that runs on both Unix/Linux and Windows.
• Back In Time – A backup tool for Unix/Linux which saves a snapshot of the directory being backed up.
• Box Backup – An open-source backup tool with support for auto backup sessions.
• Luckybackup – A free to download and easy to use backup and synchronization tool.
• Borg Backup – an efficient and secure deduplicating backup program.
• rdiff-backup – A powerful and easy-to-use Python script for local/remote incremental backup.
• Restic – A free and open-source easy-to-use command-line based backup app.
• rsnapshot – A free rsync-based open-source backup tool for Unix-like OSes.
• Burp – A free, security-focused, and open-source feature-rich backup & restore software.
• Duplicity – A free open-source, secure and bandwidth-efficient backup tool based on rsync.
• REDO Backup & Recovery – A complete backup and disaster recovery solution for Linux systems.
• urBackup – An easy to setup open-source backup tool for client and server systems.

Boot Loaders

• GRUB – It is the most commonly used bootloader.
• LILO – It is a simple and powerful Linux bootloader.
• BURG – It is a new kind of bootloader which ships with features such as support for multiple platforms like Linux and Mac OS X.
• Syslinux – A lightweight bootloader with the ability to work from a CD-ROM, over a network, etc.

Calendar Apps

• Korganizer – A calendar application for scheduling with many rich features like supporting multiple calendars and todo lists.
• Evolution – A Gnome personal management tool consisting of a calendar, address book, and an email client.
• California – A relatively new calendar software for Gnome desktops.
• Day Planner – A free open-source calendar software developed for Linux users to plan easily and manage their time.
• Lightning – A calendar app used to easily organize schedules and events. It has an extension for the Thunderbird email client.
• Calcurse – A command-line-based calendar and scheduling app.
• Rainlendar – An open-source calendar app that displays all tasks and events on your desktop.
• Kalendar – A beautiful, easy-to-use cross-platform Gregorian calendar that works best in KDE desktop.

Clipboard Managers

• CopyQ – A smart clipboard manager that allows you to edit your system’s clipboard content.
• Indicator Bulletin – An applet that allows you intelligently search for and edit your clipboard content using regular expressions.
• Clipboard Anywhere – A free, lightweight, and cloud-enabled clipboard application with which you can copy to and paste from its clipboard.
• GPaste – A powerful clipboard manager for Gnome-based systems.
• Klipper – A clipboard app for KDE desktops.
• Clipman – A lightweight clipboard application for distros like Xubuntu.
• Diodon – A lightweight at the same time powerful clipboard app that works best when integrated with Unity and Gnome desktops.
• Pasie – A clipboard manager for ubuntu with an app indicator on the top bar.
• Parcellite – A lightweight clipboard app which is stripped down and contains few features like history management.
• Glipper – A clipboard management app for Gnome environments.
• Clipit – A lightweight GTK+ clipboard manager.
• Keepboard – A cross-platform clipboard manager that allows users to save the history of their clipboard.

Chat Clients

• Chatty – A Twitch chat client for everyone who appreciates a dedicated desktop application.
• Caprine – A sleek Facebook Messenger client for desktops.
• Cutegram – A user-friendly, free and open-source telegram client.
• Ghetto Skype – An electron-built Skype client for Linux desktops via Skype Web.
• Messenger for Desktop – An unofficial client for Facebook messenger.
• ScudCloud – An alternative Slack client for Linux.
• YakYak – Desktop chat client for Google Hangouts.
• Franz – A cross-platform messaging app which can support various social media platforms like Twitter and HipChat.
• HexChat – A completely free IRC XChat-based chat client.
• Jitsi – A free and open-source instant messaging VoIP app with support for video conferencing.
• pidging – A free cross-platform and an easy to use chat client used by millions.
• Telegram – A messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it is super fast, simple and free.
• Viber – A free VoIP app for making calls and messages to other Viber users around the globe.
• Weechat – A cross-platform command-line based chat app which is lightweight and highly extensible.
• Rambox – A free, open-source and Cross-Platform many-in-one platform with support for various web services.
• Manageyum – A desktop application that enables you to use your online services from one app.
• Keybase – A relatively new open-source chatting application for computers and mobile phones.

Commandline Players

• Cmus – A powerful, open-source ncursed-based command-line music player.
• MOC – A console audio player for LINUX, designed to be powerful and easy to use.
• Mp3blaster – An audio player for the Linux text console.

Commandline Editors

• Vi/Vim Editor – A command-line based text editor with a lot of rich features making the most commonly used.
• Nano Editor – An easy to use command-line based text editor.
• Emacs Editor – A command-line text editor which is highly customizable.
• Nice Editor – NE is an easy to use text editor for beginners, but powerful and fully configurable.

Cloud Storage Tools

• Dropbox – A cloud storage that provides real-time data synchronization across multiple devices.
• OwnCloud – A suite of client-server software for creating file hosting services and using them.
• nextCloud – An actively maintained fork of ownCloud, a suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services.
• Seafile – An open-source synchronization and sharing platform with a focus on performance and privacy.
• Pydio – A powerful open-source cloud storage app with file sharing and synchronization just like the others.
• ceph – A distributed storage system focusing on scalability and performance.
• Syncany – An open-source cloud storage platform with support for cloud sharing and a focus on security..
• cozy – A cloud storage app used for file sharing, synchronization and has a package that can build a complete App Engine.
• GlusterFS – A scalable network filesystem built for data-intensive tasks like media streaming and cloud storage.
• StackSync – A cloud storage app which has three main components namely; a synchronization server, operation swift, and desktop and mobile client.
• Git-annex – A file sharing and storage app which is independent of any commercial organization or any central server.
• Yandeh.Disk – A cross-platform cloud storage app which allows synchronization between different devices and ability to share them online.
• Mega – A tool that makes possible to share selected local directories via the web.
• NAS4Free – An open-source Storage NAS (Network-Attached Storage) distribution based on FreeBSD.
• Syncthing – A free, open-source peer-to-peer file synchronization application.

Control Panels

• cPanel – An easy-to-navigate Linux-based web hosting dashboard featuring automation tools for easier web hosting.
• Plesk – A secure web hosting control panel for running websites and cloud applications.
• ISPConfig – An open-source and multilingual control panel which enables the use of more than one server under the same control panel.
• Ajenti – A web-based, open-source control panel for a wide variety of server management tasks.
• EHCP – An open-source and very effective Hosting Control Panel that offers you to host any websites.
• Virtualmin – A powerful and flexible web hosting control panel for Linux and BSD systems.
• WebMin – A web-based interface for setting up Apache, DNS, file-sharing services, etc.
• Froxlor – A lightweight and efficient control panel for servers. It is developed by experienced Server Administrators for the purpose of simplifying the management of Linux servers.
• ISPsystem – A commercial web hosting control panel for managing Linux server and websites including handling CMS, domains, emails, and backups.
• Vesta CP – An open-source Unix/Linux web hosting control panel.

Communication Apps

• Skype – A VoIP service for free calls and messages as well as cheap internet calls.
• Pidgin – An instant messaging client with support for all chat services including Yahoo, Google Talk, and Aim.
• Empathy – A messaging platform with text, voice, video chat, and file transfer support.
• Viber – With Viber, you can send free calls and messages to other Viber users anywhere in the world.
• Wire – A best instant messaging app that provides business chats, one-click voice and video conference calls and shared documents — all protected with end-to-end encryption.
• Slack – A real-time messaging, archiving and search for modern teams.
• Retroshare – An free and open-source peer-to-peer communication and file sharing app, based on a friend-to-friend network.
• Ring – A privacy and freedom-focused communication platform.
• Discord – All-in-one voice and text chat for gamers that’s free, secure, and works on both your desktop and phone.
• Telegram – A messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it’s super-fast, simple and free.

Data Backup and Recovery

• Clonezilla – A free disk cloning, disk imaging, data recovery, and deployment computer program.
• Photorec – A file data recovery tool designed to recover deleted or lost files including video, documents and photos from hard disks.
• System Rescue CD – An OS tool for troubleshooting and repairing Linux desktops and servers.
• Qt4-fsarchiver – An fsarchiver GUI app for saving/restoring folders, partitions, and GPT/MBR.
• TestDisk – A free and open-source data recovery tool for recovering deleted data.
• TimeShift – A free system restore tool for Linux that uses rsync+hardlinks to create filesystem or BTRFS snapshots.
• Mondorescue – A free and open-source disaster recovery app capable of creating full Linux Clone/Backup ISO Images.
• Bareos – An open-source app that allows users backup, recovery and protect data on Linux systems.
• REDO Backup & Recovery – A complete backup and disaster recovery solution for Linux systems.

Desktop Customization

• Compiz Settings Manager – An advanced configuration tool and window manager
• Compiz Config Settings Manager is a configuration tool for Compiz with which you may want to become familiar
• GNOME Tweak – A useful tool for configuring systems via setting options that include desktop hot corners, icon sizes, theme and icon customization, etc.
• Unity Tweak – A settings manager for the Unity desktop that provides users with a fast, simple and easy-to-use interface. for customization.

Desktop Environments

• GNOME 3 – A popular, free open-source desktop environment for Linux users.
• KDE Plasma 5 – A highly customizable desktop environment.
• Cinnamon – A desktop environment made up several components like a fork of the Gnome shell.
• Mate – A desktop environment which comes as the default for Linux MINT.
• Unity – A graphical desktop shell environment for Gnome desktops.
• Xfce – An open-source lightweight desktop environment for Linux/Unix systems.
• LXQt – An open-source lightweight desktop environment for Linux and BSD systems.
• LXDE – A free desktop environment with comparatively low resource requirements.
• Pantheon – A simple Mac OS X look-alike desktop environment.
• Deepin – A simple and productive desktop environment for Linux.
• Enlightenment – A desktop environment which has libraries for mobiles and TV interfaces.
• Budgie – A Linux desktop environment.

Download Managers

• Flareget – A multi-threaded download manager and accelerator available for both Linux and Windows environments.
• uGet – A popular download manager available for both Linux and Windows environments.
• XDM – A download manager written in Java which can speed up download speed up to 500%.
• Steadyflow – A GTK+ based download manager that aims for minimalism, ease of use, and a clean, malleable codebase.
• DownThemAll – The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox.
• Persepolis – A open-source download manager and a GUI for aria2.
• MultiGet – An easy-to-use download manager with support for multi-task with multi-thread on multi-server.
• Axel – A command-line download accelerator for Linux.

Diff Tools

• diff Command – A Unix command-line tool which shows the difference between two files.
• colordiff – A Perl script with colour and syntax highlighting which shows the difference between two files.
• wdiff – A command-line app which shows the difference between two files on a word by word basis.
• Vimdiff – An advanced manner in comparison to diff utility.
• Kompare – A GUI diff app which allows for the merging of files.
• DiffMerge – A cross-platform app used to compare and merge files.
• Meld – A visual tool for diff and merging.
• Diffuse – A Linux GUI diff tool that is written in Phyton.
• XXdiff – A free Unix/Linux based directory comparator and merge app.
• KDiff3 – A cross-platform diff and merge app.
• TkDiff – A cross-platform and easy to use diff app.

Editors

• Atom – A free and open-source text and source code editor for Linux.
• Bluefish – A text editor used mainly by web developers on Linux environments.
• Brackets – A modern text editor made specifically for web development.
• Emacs – An extensible, customizable, free text editor and more.
• Geany – A text editor which offers basic IDE-like features.
• Gedit – A general-purpose text editor.
• Kate – A feature-rich text editor that is highly customizable.
• Sublime – A popular lightweight cross-platform text editor.
• VSCode – A cross-platform open-source text editor developed by Microsoft.
• Kakoune – A free, open-source, powerful, interactive, fast, scriptable and a fully customizable code editor with a client/server architecture.
• Lighttable – The next generation code editor.
• Micro – A modern, easy-to-use and intuitive cross-platform terminal-based text editor that works on Linux.
• Nano – A command-line text editor for Unix-like systems.
• Vim – An advanced text editor with a more complete feature set.

Email Utilities

• Mutt – A lightweight but powerful email client for Unix operating systems.
• Alpine – An open-source command-line based email client which is easy to use.
• Sup – A command-line based email client which enables users to deal with a lot of emails.
• Not Much Mail – A Linux based email system that can be used with a text editor or the command-line.

Email Clients

• Thunderbird – A free email client with easy setup and customize and it’s loaded with great features.
• Evolution – An email client which includes an address book and a calendar.
• KMail – An email client which is a component of KONTACT.
• Geary – A Gnome email client which is easy to use.
• Sylpheed – A lightweight cross-platform email client.
• Claws – A lightweight and fast email client which is user-friendly.
• Trojita – A super-fast desktop email client for Linux.
• Vmail – Vim-like Gmail client.

Emulators

• Wine – A popular Linux app used for running Windows-based games and software on Linux.
• PlayonLinux – An open-source gaming app used to install any windows based app and games on Linux.
• DOSBOX – A DOS-emulator for easily porting DOSBox to different platforms using the SDL-library.

Finance Software

• GnuCash – A personal and small-business financial-accounting software.
• HomeBank – HomeBank is free software that will guide you to manage your personal accounting.
• KMyMoney – A personal finance accounting manager by KDE.
• Skrooge – A personal finances manager, powered by KDE.

Firewalls

• Iptables – A popular command-line utility for configuring Linux kernel firewall.
• Firewalld – A firewall which changes can be applied instantly without the need for a restart.
• Shorewall – An open-source gateway/firewall configuration tool for GNU/Linux.
• UFW – An easy to use firewall for configuring and managing a firewall on Ubuntu and Debian distributions.
• Vuurmuur – A powerful firewall manager built on top of iptables on Linux.
• pfSense – An open-source firewall and router based on FreeBSD.
• IPFire – A professional and hardened Linux firewall distribution that is secure and easy to operate.
• SmoothWall – An open-source firewall which is highly configurable by using its web-based interface.
• Endian – A firewall based on a concept that they can be deployed as routers, proxies, and VPNs.
• ConfigServer Firewall – A cross-platform firewall which is very versatile.
• GuFW – One of the easiest firewalls in the world of Linux.

FTP Clients

• CrossFTP – A powerful FTP client that makes it extremely simple to manage the FTP related tasks.
• Filezilla – A popular cross-platform FTP client that supports SSL/TLS connections.
• FireFTP – A free, secure, cross-platform FTP/SFTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP/SFTP servers.
• gFTP – A free multi-threaded file transfer client for Linux systems.
• Konqueror – An advanced file managers for KDE with support for FTP and SFTP servers.
• LFTP – A sophisticated file transfer program supporting several network protocols (FTP, HTTP, SFTP, fish, torrent).
• Nautilus – A file manager for Gnome desktop with the support for FTP and SFTP servers.
• NcFTP – An FTP client program which debuted in 1990 as the first alternative FTP client.

File Managers

• Konqueror – A powerful file manager for KDE desktops.
• Nautilus – A simple file manager and comes as the default for Gnome systems.
• Dolphin – A lightweight, free and open-source file manager.
• Midnight Commander – A command-line file manager app which can only search, copy, move and delete files and directories.
• Krusader – A file manager like Midnight Commander but with a GUI.
• PCManFM – A feature-rich file manager usually on LXDE desktops.
• XFE – A file manager for X windows.
• Nemo – A file manager which is the default for Cinnamon desktops.
• Thunar – A lightweight file manager for Xfce desktops.
• SpaceFM – A stable multi-panelled file manager for Linux desktops.
• Caja – An advanced file manager which allows users to explore directories, preview files and more.
• Ranger – An open-source command-line based file manager.
• Double Commander – A free cross-platform open-source file manager with two panels side by side.
• nnn – A terminal file browser with a strong focus on bridging the gap between the terminal and the desktop environment.
• Polo – A modern, light-weight file manager for Linux with support for multiple panes and tabs.
• Vifm – A file manager with ncurses interface, which provides Vi[m]-like environment for managing objects within a file system.

Games

• Steam – A cross-platform gaming platform that opens the gates to many games.
• Wine – Wine (“Wine Is Not an Emulator”) is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications and games on Linux.
• PlayOnLinux – A graphical front-end for the Wine software compatibility layer which allows Linux users to install Windows-based games.
• RetroArch – A frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.
• Itch.io – A simple way to find and share indie games online for free.
• Lutris – An open gaming platform for Linux. It helps you install and manage your games in a unified interface.
• Gnome Games – A collection of about 15 puzzle video games that is part of the standard free and open-source GNOME desktop environment.
• Minigalaxy – A simple GOG client for Linux

Git Clients

• GitKraken – A powerful GUI app which its users interact better with their repositories.
• Git-cola – A powerful and highly configurable GUI Git client.
• SmartGit – A cross-platform GUI based Git client.
• Giggle – A free Linux based GUI git client that uses GTK+ toolkit.
• Gitg – A Gnome app for viewing Git repositories.
• Git GUI – A cross-platform GUI platform that focuses on commit generation.
• Qgit – A powerful and easy to use GUI git Client.
• GitForce – An easy to use GUI git client for Linux and Windows.
• Egit – A git plugin to be used with the Eclipse IDE
• GitEye – A powerful git client with features like code reviewing.
• GITK – A multi-layered GUI client for GIT users.

Graphics

• GIMP – An open-source GNU image manipulation program.
• Aftershot – A powerful, fast and highly customizable photo management app.
• Agave – A very simple application for the GNOME desktop that allows you to generate a variety of colour-schemes from a single starting colour.
• Blender – A 3D creation suite with support for all the 3D pipelines.
• Digikam – An open-source photo editing app meant for photographers.
• Fotoxx – An open-source photo collection manager which can also be used for photo editing.
• gThumb – A free and open-source image viewer and organizer with options to edit images.
• Inkscape – An alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
• Kdenlive – A simple video editing app for basic use.
• Krita – A popular image editing software.
• Lightworks – A professional video editing app made for everyone.
• OpenShot – A cross-platform feature-rich video editing app.
• Pinta – A free, open-source program for drawing and image editing.
• Pitivi – An open-source video editing app.
• Shotwell – The default image editing app for Pantheon.
• Shotcut – A free, open-source, cross-platform video editor with a sleek User Interface.
• VidCutter – An open-source cross-platform video editor with which you can quickly trim and join video clips.
• FlowBlade – A multi-track non-linear video editor for Linux.
• Kdenlive – A free and open-source video-editing software from KDE.
• Cinelerra – A video editing and compositing software package designed for the Linux operating system.
• Ardour – A free and open-source audio editing application permits you to record, edit, mix and even master it.

Google Drive Clients

• CloudCross – An open-source cross-platform app that enables the synchronization of local files to a remote server.
• Rclone – A command-line based synchronization app for directories.
• google-drive-ocamlfuse – A Google-backed command-line fuse-based filesystem project for performing directory operations on your Google Drive account.
• Grive2 – An independent open-source implementation of Google Drive’s client for Linux.
• GoSync – A GUI-enabled Google Drive client for Linux.

Hacking & Penetration Tools

• Aircrack-ng – A complete suite of tools to assess WiFi network security.
• THC Hydra – A parallelized login cracker which supports numerous protocols to attack.
• John the Ripper – A free password cracking software tool.
• Metasploit Framework – The world’s most used penetration testing framework.
• Netcat – A powerful networking utility which reads and writes data across network connections.
• Nmap – A strong network security scanner.
• Nessus – A remote security vulnerability scanning tool.
• WireShark – A free and open-source packet analyzer.
• Snort – A free open-source network intrusion detection system.
• Kismet Wireless – A wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system.
• Nikto – An open-source web server scanner.
• Yersinia – A network security/hacking tool.
• Burp Suite Scanner – A graphical tool for testing Web application security.
• Hashcat – A most advanced password recovery utility.
• Maltego – A software used for open-source intelligence and forensics.
• BeEF – A browser exploitation framework tool.
• Fern Wifi Cracker – A wireless security auditing and attack software program.
• GNU MAC Changer – An utility that makes the manipulation of MAC.
• Wifite2 – A tool for auditing wireless networks.
• Pixiewps – An offline Wi-Fi Protected Setup brute-force utility.

Hosting Billing Softwares

• WHMCS – A leading web hosting and billing software that automates all aspects of your business from billing, provisioning, domain reselling, etc.
• HostBill – A hosting billing platform designed for acquiring customers, automating provider services and more.
• BILLmanager – An all-in-one web hosting billing software based on Linux.
• Blesta – A customer management, billing, and support system for web hosting providers.
• WeFact Hosting – An easy to use billing app designed for startup hosting and web design companies.
• Freeside – An open-source host billing app with ticketing platforms.
• phpCOIN – An open-source product specially designed for small and mid-sized hosting resellers.
• CitrusDB – An open-source billing system for small businesses.

Init Systems

• System V Init – A package contains programs to control the startup, running and shutdown of all other programs.
• SystemD – A new init scheme for Linux systems.
• Upstart – An event-based init scheme developed by the makers of Ubuntu.
• OpenRC – A dependency-based init scheme for Linux/Unix systems.
• runit – A cross-platform Unix init scheme with service supervision.

IRC Clients

• WeeChat – A light cross-platform command-line based IRC.
• Pidgin – Also a popular messaging client with the ability to support most chat services.
• XChat – An IRC chat client for Linux and Windows which you can connect multiple chats networks at once.
• HexChat – A cross-platform IRC chat client which is also free.
• Irssi – A command-line based IRC chat client which is easy to use.
• Konversation – A Linux based IRC client which is user-friendly.
• Quassel – A cross-platform IRC chat client which is considered to be newly fashioned.

IDE Editors

• Netbeans – A popular open-source IDE used mainly for Java and C/C++ development.
• Code::Blocks – A free, highly extensible and configurable, cross-platform C++ IDE.
• Eclipse – An open-source cross-platform IDE commonly mostly among Java developers.
• CodeLite – A free open-source cross-platform IDE, built for programmers.
• Bluefish – A cross-platform editor which makes writing HTML faster.
• Brackets – A modern text editor made specifically for web development.
• Atom – An advanced text editor that can be customized into an IDE.
• Sublime – A popular lightweight cross-platform text editor.
• JetBrains – A commercial IDE which provides solutions for almost every language/framework.
• Microsoft’s Visual Studio – A cross-platform open-source text editor developed by Microsoft.
• KDevelop – An open-source cross-platform IDE.
• Geany IDE – A free lightweight cross-platform IDE.
• Ajunta DeveStudio – A simple Gnome IDE which supports multiple languages.
• GNAT Programming Studio – A free and easy to use IDE mainly for developers to interact with their code.
• Qt Creator – A cross-platform IDE which is not free.
• Emacs Editor – A free, powerful, highly extensible and customizable, cross-platform text editor.
• VI/VIM Editor – A free, powerful, popular and highly configurable text editor.

Image Editors

• GIMP – An open-source GNU image manipulation program.
• Pinta – The Linux version of windows paint.
• DigiKam – An open-source photo editing app meant for photographers.
• ShowFOTO – A free standalone image editor with powerful image editing tools.
• RawTherapee – A free image editing app for optimizing photos.
• Fotoxx – An open-source photo collection manager which can also be used for photo editing.
• F-spot – An open-source image editing app for Gnome desktops.
• UFRaw – An app which reads and edits RAW image files.
• GTKRawGallery – An open-source image editing app mainly used for retouching.
• LightZone – A free open-source image editing app mainly used by photographers.
• Pixeluvo – A powerful layer-based image editing app.
• Photivo – An open-source image editing software for Linux systems.
• AfterShot Pro – A powerful and highly customizable photo management app.
• Darktable – An open-source image editing app which can be used to make RAW files.
• Mypaint – A free and open-source raster graphics editor with more emphasis on painting.

Linux Shells

• Bash Shell – The default shell found in most Linux systems today.
• Tcsh/Csh Shell – An interactive login shell and shell script command processor.
• Ksh Shell – A powerful and complete Linux shell.
• Zsh Shell – An interactive Linux shell with features from other shells like BASH shell.
• Fish Shell – A fully interactive and user-friendly shell.

Log Management

• Graylog 2 – An open-source log management app with administrative functions.
• Logcheck – An open-source security log management app.
• Logwatch – A highly customizable Linux based log management app which can be used for analyzing and reporting.
• Logstash – An open-source Linux based data logging and collection app.

Markdown Editors

• Atom – A powerful open-source highly customizable text editor with IDE support.
• GNU Emacs – A popular editor which can be used for writing Markdown.
• Remarkable – A best markdown editor for Linux and Windows systems.
• Haroopad – An open-source cross-platform markdown editor with document processing.
• ReText – A simple Markdown editor common in Linux systems.
• UberWriter – A feature-rich markdown editor for Linux systems.
• Mark My Words – A lightweight yet powerful markdown which is relatively new.
• Vim-Instant-Markdown – An open-source text editor that can be used to write Markdown.
• Bracket-Markdown – An open-source cross-platform Markdown editor.
• SublimeText-Markdown – A popular lightweight editor used to write Markdown.

Mail Transfer Agents

• Sendmail – A popular mail transfer agent found on Linux servers.
• Postfix – A free and open-source mail transfer agent that routes and delivers electronic mail.
• Exim – A free mail transfer agent developed for Unix systems.
• Qmail – An open-source modern Linux mail transfer agent.
• Mutt – A command-line based mail transfer agent for Unix systems.
• Alpine – A command-line based mail transfer agent for Linux systems.

Movie Subtitles

• VLC Media Player – An open-source audio and video playing app with subtitle capabilities.
• Subliminal – An easy-to-use program that searches and downloads movie subtitles.
• SubDownloader – A program for automatic find and download/upload subtitles for your movies.
• SMPlayer – A free GUI media player with subtitles functionality.

Music Making Software

• Audacity – An open-source cross-platform audio recording and editing app.
• Cecilia – An audio signal processing platform aimed at sound designers.
• Mixxx – A music mixing software that can help you become a professional DJ.
• Ardour – A complete music-making app for professionals on Linux and Mac OS X.
• Hydrogen Drum – An advanced drum sampler app for Linux systems.
• Guitarix – A virtual guitar amplifier app.
• Rosegarden – A professional music composing and editing app.
• Qtractor – An audio multi-track app made for personal home use.

Note Taking Apps

• Evernote – A popular cross-platform note-taking app.
• Medleytext – An open-source cross-platform note-taking app with functionalities made for developers.
• Tusk – An unofficial open-source Evernote client built using Electron.
• QOwnNotes – An open-source note-taking app with a To-Do List functionality.
• ForeverNote – An open-source web version of Evernote.
• Standard Notes – A cross-platform electron-based note-taking app with an emphasis on simplicity and security.
• Whatever – An unofficial open-source Evernote client for Linux systems.
• Everpad – An Evernote client well integrated with Linux desktop.

Office

• LibreOffice – A free and open-source cross-platform office suite.
• Apache OpenOffice – An open-source office productivity software suite.
• Calligra – An open-source Office suite which is one of the oldest.
• WPS – A quick-growing office app used on both desktops and mobile.
• Softmaker – A closed-source office suite just like Microsoft Office.
• Oxygen Office – An office app with a nice manoeuvring GUI.
• Yozo Office – A not so popular office app which supports a lot of Microsoft Office file formats.
• Google Docs – An online-based word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation program respectively.
• Zoho Docs – An online document management software that lets you manage and store all your files on the cloud.

PDF Viewers

• Okular – A free universal document viewer.
• Evince – A lightweight document which is the default for Gnome desktops.
• Foxit – A cross-platform PDF reader which is secure.
• PDF JS – A web-based PDF viewer.
• XPDF – An old open-source PDF viewer.
• GNU GV – An old PDF viewer which can also view Postscript files.
• Mupdf – A complete but lightweight PDF viewer.
• Qpdfview – A tabbed PDF viewer for Linux systems.
• llpp – A graphical PDF viewer.
• MuPDF – A lightweight open-source tool for viewing and converting PDF.

Screen Recorders

• Kooha – A simple GTK-based screen recording application for recording screens and audio from your desktop or microphone.
• Peek – A simple animated gif screen recorder for linux.
• SimpleScreenRecorder – A powerful feature-rich screen recorder.
• recordMyDesktop – A lightweight screen recorder for Linux desktops.
• Vokoscreen – A screen recorder which can record both audio and videos in many formats.
• ScreenStudio – A screen recorder app which can record HD videos on Linux desktops.
• Kazam Screencaster – A screen recording app for Linux desktops.
• Byzanz – A text-based screen recorder for Linux.
• VLC Player – A cross-platform media player with screen recording functionality.
• OBS – An open-source cross-platform video recording and streaming app.

Screenshot Tools

• Shutter – A powerful screenshots app with many features.
• Imagemagick – A powerful and open-source tool for editing, converting and displaying image files.
• Gnome Screenshot – A screenshots app found on Gnome systems.
• Kazam – A video recording app which can be used to take desktop screenshots.
• Gimp – An open-source image editor used for taking screenshots.
• Deepin Scrot – Snapshot tools for Linux deepin.
• ScreenCloud – A free and easy to use tool for taking and sharing screenshots.
• Flameshot – A free, open-source, simple yet powerful application for taking screenshots.
• Lookit – A free open-source, straightforward tool for quickly taking screenshots.

Security

• ClamAV – An antivirus Engine for Linux systems.
• Fail2ban – An open-source intrusion prevention framework.
• GuFW – A firewall powered by UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall).
• Mod_Security – An open-source intrusion detection and prevention software for web apps.
• Iptables – A popular command-line utility for configuring Linux kernel firewall.
• Firewalld – A firewall which changes can be applied instantly without the need for a restart.
• Shorewall – An open-source gateway/firewall configuration tool for GNU/Linux.
• UFW – An easy to use a firewall for configuring and managing a firewall on Ubuntu and Debian distributions.
• Vuurmuur – A powerful firewall manager built on top of iptables on Linux.
• pfSense – An open-source firewall and router based on FreeBSD.
• IPFire – A professional and hardened Linux firewall distribution that is secure and easy to operate.
• SmoothWall – An open-source firewall which is highly configurable by using its web-based interface.
• Endian – A firewall based on a concept that they can be deployed as routers, proxies, and VPNs.
• ConfigServer Firewall – A cross-platform firewall which is very versatile.
• GuFW – One of the easiest firewalls in the world of Linux.

Sharing Files

• D-lan – Easily exchange a large amount of data in a local area network environment.
• Meiga – A program that makes easy to share selected local directories via the web.
• Nitroshare – A cross-platform file sharing app. Files are shared on a local network.
• Network File Sharing – A file-sharing system developed for the sharing of files and directories between Unix/Linux systems.
• CrossFTP – A powerful FTP client that makes it extremely simple to manage the FTP related tasks.
• Filezilla – A popular cross-platform FTP client that supports SSL/TLS connections.
• FireFTP – A free, secure, cross-platform FTP/SFTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP/SFTP servers.
• gFTP – A free multi-threaded file transfer client for Linux systems.
• Konqueror – An advanced file managers for KDE with support for FTP and SFTP servers.
• LFTP – A robust file transfer app supporting all the popular network protocols not excluding torrent, HTTP, SFTP, fish, and FTP.
• Nautilus – A file manager for Gnome desktop with the support for FTP and SFTP servers.
• NcFTP – An FTP client program which debuted in 1990 as the first alternative FTP client.

Terminal

• Terminator – A powerful and advanced terminal which supports multiple terminal windows.
• Tilda – A stylish drop-down terminal based on GTK+.
• Guake – A drop-down terminal found in Gnome desktops developed in python.
• Yakuake – A drop-down terminal based on KDE.
• ROXTerm – A lightweight terminal made to provide similar features to the Gnome terminal.
• Eterm – A colourful terminal emulator.
• Rxvt – A drop-down terminal emulator for Linux systems.
• Wterm – A lightweight colour terminal.
• LXTerminal – A lightweight terminal emulator which is based on VTE.
• Konsole – A powerful terminal which supports multiple tabs.
• TermKit – A terminal emulator which is a mixture of GUI with a command-line.
• st – A simple terminal implementation for X.
• Gnome-Terminal – A terminal built into Gnome desktops.
• Final Term – An open-source terminal emulator with a nice UI.
• Terminology – A modern terminal emulator with features with the ability to preview media files. It can be used as a different desktop environment.
• Xfce4 – An easy to use and lightweight terminal emulator.
• xterm – A standard terminal emulator.
• LilyTerm – An open-source terminal emulator which is lightweight and fast.
• Sakura – A terminal emulator which can be used for text-based command-line programs.
• Tilix – A tiling terminal emulator for Linux using GTK+ 3.

Torrent Download Client

• aria2 – An open-source cross-platform command-line download manager.
• Deluge – A torrenting app which is considered to be one of the best.
• qBittorent – A cross-platform torrenting client.
• Quazaa – A cross-platform multi-network peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing client.
• Transmission – A great torrent client which comes installed with Ubuntu.
• uTorrent –
• Vuze – A torrenting client similar to BitTorrent.
• KTorrent – A BitTorrent application by KDE which allows you to download files using the BitTorrent protocol.
• Tixati – A free, simple and easy to use BitTorrent Client.
• WebTorrent Desktop – A streaming torrents which connects to both BitTorrent and WebTorrent peers.

Text Editors

• Vi/Vim Editor – A command-line based text editor with a lot of rich features making the most commonly used.
• Gedit – A general-purpose text editor.
• Nano – An easy to use command-line based text editor.
• Emacs – A command-line text editor which is highly customizable.
• Kate – A feature-rich text editor that is highly customizable.
• Lime –
• Pico – A command-line-based text editor which is recommended for new users.
• Jed – A command lin-based text editor with GUI features like a drop-down menu.
• gVim – A GUI version of the popular VIM editor.
• Geany – A text editor which offers basic IDE-like features.
• Leaf Pad – A lightweight GUI text editor popular within Linux users.
• Bluefish – A text editor used mainly by web developers on Linux environments.
• Pluma – A small and lightweight UTF-8 text editor for the MATE desktop environment.
• Xed – A small and lightweight text editor.

Themes for Linux

• The 10 Most Beautiful Linux Icon Themes of 2018
• Top 30 Best Ubuntu Themes That Will Blow Your Mind
• 6 Material-Inspired Themes/Icons for Your Linux Desktop
• 8 MacOS Like Docks for Ubuntu

To-Do List Apps

• Everdo – A nice looking tasked management app with smart filters and schedulers.
• Taskwarrior – A command-line based ToDo listing app for people always on their terminals.
• Go For It – A modern ToDo listing app which has a timer to keep track of how long you have spent on a particular task.
• Todo.txt – A simple and easy to use ToDo listing app.
• QOwnNotes – A free, open-source, and cross-platform note taking and to-do list application.
• Laverna – A modern open-source Markdown editor with a sleek UI and a focus on user privacy.
• Cloud Sticky Notes – A free, simple, and customizable Java-based sticky note-taking application.

Twitter Clients

• Tweetdeck – A highly customizable Twitter client which can be used to manage more than one Twitter account.
• Corebird – A simple Twitter client for Linux users.
• Choqok – An open-source Twitter client built for KDE desktops.
• Oysttyer – An open-source interactive text-based Twitter client for Linux.
• Rainbowstream – A powerful command-line based twitter client.
• Twitter CLI – A powerful command-line based Twitter client for Unix systems.
• Anatine – A lightweight cross-platform Twitter client.
• Franz – A cross-platform messaging app which can support various social media platforms like Twitter and HipChat.
• TwittVim – A command-line based twitter client that is a VIM plugin.

Status Bars

• Polybar – A fast and easy-to-use tool for creating status bars.
• Lemonbar – A lightweight bar based on XCB.
• tint2 – A simple, unobtrusive and light panel for Xorg.

USB Image Writer

• Etcher – A free and open-source cross-platform software used for burning images.
• Gnome Multi-Writer – A free and open-source tool for writing ISO to multiple devices.
• UNetbootin – A cross-platform utility that can create live USB systems.
• Rufus – A small utility for creating bootable USB flash drives.

Video Players

• VLC Media Player – An open-source audio and video playing app with subtitle capabilities.
• Kodi – A media player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation.
• Miro Music – A cross-platform video playing app which allows for the use of internet television.
• SMPlayer – A free GUI media player with subtitle functionality.
• MPV Player – A cross-platform media player app with a beautiful UI.
• Gnome Videos – A media player app which is the default found in Gnome systems.
• Bomi – A powerful and highly customizable media player.
• Banshee – An open-source media player app available to Linux users.
• MPlayer – A cross-platform media player which supports multiple languages.
• Xine – A cross-platform multimedia player written purely in C.

Video Editors

• Open Shot – A cross-platform feature-rich video editing app.
• Pitivi – An open-source video editing app.
• Avidemux – An open-source cross-platform video editing software for simple use.
• Blender – A 3D creation suite with support for all the 3D pipelines.
• Cinelerra – A video editing app for both new and experienced users designed by artists for artists.
• Kdenlive – A simple video editing app for basic use.
• Lightworks – A professional video editing app made for everyone.
• LiVES – A powerful cross-platform video editing app which is easy to use.
• MystiQ – A versatile open-source, cross-platform GUI multimedia converter.

Virtualization

• Virtualbox – A cross-platform virtual machine solution used by millions to run one OS on top of another.
• VMWare – Another popular virtual machine solution.

Virtual Machine Control Panels

• SolusVM – An easy-to-use VPS management application with full support for Linux KVM, OpenVZ, Xen HVM, and Xen Paravirtualization support.
• VMware vSphere – A popular server visualization app for building cloud infrastructure.
• VMmanager – A commercial VPS management panel featuring full OpenVZ and KVM Visualization support.
• Proxmox – An open-source visualization solution for running virtual machines and appliances.
• Virtkick – A commercial tool which combines VPS management and billing software all in one.
• Sadeem – A beautiful VPS designed for cloud hosting providers. It has a built-in billing system.
• Archipel – An open-source app for virtual machine management.
• Virtualizor – Another commercial VPS control panel which is easy to use for new users.
• Xen Orchestra – A powerful and complete commercial web-based VPS manager.
• Feathur – An open-source control panel for administrators and individual users. Feathur is controlled using SSH.
• WebVirtMgr – An open-source solution for managing virtual machines.
• OpenNode – An open-source server Visualization and management app which was designed for government organizations.

Web Browsers

• Google Chrome – The most popular browser found on both PCs and mobile phones developed by Google.
• Firefox – An open-source cross-platform web browser gaining a lot of attention lately.
• Vivaldi – A Chromium Engine based web browser with a beautiful interface.
• Opera – A web browser released in the 1990s, it is one of the oldest.
• Chromium – An lightweight open-source cross-platform web browser. Unlike Google Chrome, Chromium is fast.
• Midori – An open-source web browser which is the default in many Linux systems.
• QupZilla – A web browser which optimizes performance with memory consumption lower than most browsers.
• Konqueror – A multi-purpose web browser which can be used as a File management system.
• Epiphany – A web browser that has been part of the Gnome system and follows the Gnome design guidelines during development.
• Luakit – A highly configurable browser based on the WebKit.
• Pale Moon – An open-source, Goanna-based web browser available for Linux.
• Wexond – An innovative open-source privacy-centric web browser.

Web Browsers (CLI)

• Links – An open-source text and graphic web browser with a pull-down menu system.
• Links2 – An open-source graphics and text mode web browser.
• Lynx – A customizable text browser for the World Wide Web.
• w3m – A free open-source text-based web browser and terminal pager.

Window Managers

• Awesome – A highly configurable, next-generation framework window manager for X.
• i3 – A tiling window manager designed for X11.
• xmonad – A dynamically tiling X11 window manager.
• dwm – A dynamic window manager for X.
• bspwm – A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning.

Congratulations, you have made it to the end of the list! Share it with your loved ones.

Credit: Thanks to luongvo209 for creating this idea and compiling a list on GitHub. We have covered apps here which are not present in the original article. So, this page is pretty much a fork of his and it is curated by Ravi Saive, CEO of GeeksMint and TecMint, and Martins D. Okoi, Editor-in-chief of GeeksMint.

Which applications/tools have we left out? Drop your comments, tips, and suggestions in the comments section below.

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