Five Linux Apps to Install on Day One

I read a How to Geek blog post titled 5 apps new Linux users should install on day one (HT Tux Machines). The author, Dibakar Ghosh, recommended the following apps:

1. GNOME Tweaks and GNOME Extensions (if using GNOME)
2. KDE Connect or GSConnect
3. A Chromium-based browser
4. OnlyOffice
5. Flatpak

All five recommendations are sensible. My only amendments to those five apps specifically would be that I opt for Brave Origin as my Chromium-based browser and I prefer LibreOffice to OnlyOffice.

Of course, there are many more recommendable apps out there. I offer five additional recommendations:

• Ghostwriter: KDE’s Ghostwriter is a simple markdown editor with built-in Pandoc (which should also be installed on every Linux workstation) export through its GUI. I have been using it to draft almost all of my long-form documents for more than five years. It is a “must-install” on all of my machines.  (See my Ghostwriter review.)
• mpv Media Player: A simple, minimalist app for watching videos (it also handles music). Combine with yt-dlp to stream videos in MPV. VLC is also a common choice with a full GUI, but I prefer mpv.
• Okular: KDE’s Okular is my go-to PDF viewer. It is a strong default option even on non-KDE desktops (I prefer it to Evince).
• Syncthing: I use Syncthing to continuously sync files between my computers and phones. It is a part of my own essential apps collection.
• Thunderbird: Mozilla’s Thunderbird is my go-to email client. There are other options, but I would rate Thunderbird as a good default choice for people starting out on Linux.

For some honorable, more specialized mentions: Calibre (great ebook manager and converter; “ok” ebook reader); Lutris (very nice game manager and WINE front-end (consider WINE a good “essential” pick); Qalculate (my favorite “normal” desktop calculator); Steam (if you use Steam); Recoll (powerful full-text desktop file search); RetroArch (for playing retro games); and Zotero (great reference manager and reader, combine with Syncthing for local storage across devices).

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