The following list includes applications that I have used under more than one operating system (usually Windows and Linux):
OFFICE SOFTWARE TOOLS
OpenOffice.org is a suite of applications (word processor, spreadsheet, database, etc.) that provides the same functionality as Microsoft Office
LibreOffice is another suite of applications that can replace Microsoft Office
OpenProj is a project management application, similar to Microsoft Project
Dia is an application for creating basic diagrams, flowcharts, network maps, etc. It can be installed directly into Fedora Linux with the command 'yum install dia'.
PDF TOOLS
PDF Split and Merge is a tool that can break multi-page PDF files apart as well as stitch together multiple single-page PDF files into one document.
WEB TOOLS
BROWSERS
Midori is a small, fast, lightweight web browser for Linux platforms from elementary OS.
Mozilla Firefox is an open source web browser for Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems.
FireFTP, an FTP client
Google Chrome is a lightweight (in memory/resource/storage footprint, but not necessarily in features) browser based on Google's open source Chromium project. The browser runs on Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
Installing Google Chrome in Linux is a little tricky. Here's how to do it for Red Hat / Fedora / Centos:
Create a filed named /etc/yum.repos.d/google-chrome.repo that contains the following text:
[google-chrome]
name=google-chrome
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/i386
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
Download and install Google Chrome:
yum install google-chrome-stable
NOTE: Google has stopped supporting Chrome on the latest RHEL and derivatives. There are two options:
Richard K Lloyd has created a page that describes how to install Chrome on RHEL / CentOS 6.x. You can download the Google Chrome install script from his page. However ... I have experienced a number of minor application crashes, so I don't recommend this approach.
Johnny Hughes from CentOS has offered a process for installing Chromium (the software on which Google Chrome is based) on CentOS:
If you have a repo file for Google Chrome in /etc/yum.repos.d/, you need to rename, move or delete it.
Create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/chromium.repo:
[chromium-el6]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Chromium EL6
baseurl=http://people.centos.org/hughesjr/chromium/6/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Testing-6
Run the command 'yum install chromium' to install Chromium.
He also recommends installing some additional packages (libpdf for viewing PDF files, and pepperflash for viewing pages that use Flash animations), but I haven't needed them so far.
ADD-ONS
Adobe Flash Player is a browser add-on that provides animation and other functionality for websites with Flash content. The Flash Player is supported on Windows, Macintosh and Linux platorms. You can verify whether your browser has this add-on installed, and which version is installed, by using Adobe's "about" page.
Adobe Reader is a free add-on that allows you to open and read PDF documents. It is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems. It can be installed for Linux, but ... it's not very straightforward. The following are the commands I issued from a Fedora 12/14 shell prompt (with superuser privileges) to install:
rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
yum install AdobeReader_enu
Adobe Shockwave is a free add-on that is used by some online games. It is available for Windows and Macintosh systems only (not for Linux).
WEBSITE TOOLS
LINK CHECKERS
LinkChecker is a tool for Windows and Linux that can scan URLs for broken links
Same for WebCheck, a Python script
SECURITY TOOLS
VPN CLIENTS
OpenVPN client packages for Windows, Mac and Linux, for connecting to an OpenVPN server
Shrew Soft VPN client connects to IPSec remote access VPN servers.
FILE COMPRESSION TOOLS
PeaZip is a cross-platform file compression and decompression utility that operates on a variety of compressed file types (ZIP, RAR, TAR, etc.)
RAR is a less-common file compression format created by RARLAB. There are free RAR unpacking tools for Windows and for Linux, but ... getting the Linux version is a little messy:
rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum install unrar
GRAPHICS TOOLS
Inkscape, an open source vector graphics drawing program
Shape Collage is a free program that can be used to create collages of any shape from your own pictures
AUDIO/SOUND TOOLS
audacity is an open source audio editing tool that can be used to splice, cut, record tracks, convert, and add effects. To install on Fedora Linux, use the command 'yum install audacity'.
avidemux is an open source video editing tool that allows you to splice, split, rotate, filter, convert and add captions to video files. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. To install on Fedora Linux, use the command 'yum install avidemux'.
VIDEO EDITING TOOLS
Lightworks is a non-linear editing (NLE) program for editing raw video into a finished product; there are free and paid versions for Windows, Mac and Linux
IM TOOLS
Pidgin is an open source IM tool that can work directly with servers for MSN Messanger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and a number of others. It can also interface to Skype through Skype's client (running in silent mode).
Configure Pidgin to talk to Google Talk for Google Apps (how to use an email address from a Google-registered domain for Pidgin and Google Talk)
ANTIVIRUS/ANTIMALWARE TOOLS
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
IDEs
Eclipse is an open source IDE for the Linux, Windows and Mac platforms; the base install supports Java development, but a CDT (C/C++ Development Toolkit) add on can be installed to enable the IDE to be used for developing C and C++ applications.
Sun Java is needed to run Eclipse
CVS Integration is a great add-on tool that provides access to CVS functionality within Eclipse. Just find the "Install" button, click and hold it, then drag it to your running copy of Eclipse.
Code::Blocks is a lightweight IDE for Windows, Linux and Mac systems
Terminal emulators
PuTTY has turned out to be the nicest tool for setting up a serial port terminal session in a Linux GUI environment; it is available for Windows systems as well. For RHEL based Linux systems, it can be installed from the command line by using the command 'yum install putty' (with administrative privileges).
CoolTerm is a terminal emulator for Mac, Windows and Linux systems (the Mac version seemed to work OK, but the Linux version didn't work very well)
PORTABLE APPLICATIONS are versions of applications that are designed to be compact enough to carry around on a USB flash drive.
Five portable antivirus and antimalware tools to carry with you at all times
Article that describes how to create a portable version of Clonezilla live with Tuxboot
OTHER TOOLS
BleachBit is a "CCleaner for Linux" that also offers a version for Windows
Clonezilla is an open source application for imaging and cloning systems, much like the proprietary application Norton Ghost
VirtualBox is an open source virtualization tool that allows running "guest operatiog systems" from Linux, Windows or Mac O/S.