Useful Programs

have you heard of this cool program called cowsay
it makes a cow say something

 

have you heard of this cool program called cowsay
it makes a cow say something

Who hasn't? And we can't forget fortune, which gives you a random quote.

 

Since everybody seems to just be focusing on programs that are compatible with Windows, (and maybe other OSes) I'm going to go ahead and list off some programs that are usually made for Linux. A lot of them will likely have Windows ports, which likely won't be as good, likely due to the fact that they're running on Windows. Windows: Good for gaming. And getting viruses. And pretty much nothing else.

Quick list of software that was already mentioned that you can get for Linux that I would recommend: 7 Zip [Sort of]; Audacity; Dropbox; Hexedit; Apache OpenOffice [Although the last time I used it was years ago]; youtube-dl; FFMpeg

Software Name (package-name)

7 Zip (p7zip): I say that this is sort of 7 Zip because, as far as I can tell, it's not a program. It just adds support for .7z (and .7za so I hear) to your archive manager. Speaking of that...

File Roller (file-roller): This is a pretty good file compressor/decompressor. Self explanatory, really.

Thunar (thunar): This is a file manager for Linux systems using Xfce desktop environments. I really like this one, but whatever file manager that comes with your distro should be fine.

Gedit (gedit): The best notepad software I've ever used. I haven't tried Notepad++ yet, but I'm pretty sure that I'll like Gedit better.

EasyTAG (easytag): This is a pretty good program for editing ID3 tags. If you don't know what those are, they're the information tagged to an .mp3 file.

Banshee (banshee): Music player. It plays music. I think it plays videos too.

VLC (vlc): This program can play and convert audio and video files. Personally, if you want file conversion software, just use FFMpeg (audio and video) or SoundConverter (audio only)

SoundConverter (soundconverter): I already explained what this did in the recommendation above this one.

SimpleScreenRecorder (see spoiler for instructions): This is a very simple and very powerful screen recorder. I use this one with OpenShot video editing software (which I actually don't recommend due to severe stability issues. (at least on the system that I've been using it on,

Spoiler

Instructions for download on Ubuntu and Linux Mint:
---
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder
# if you want to record 32-bit OpenGL applications on a 64-bit system:
sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder-lib:i386
---
Official site (contains install instructions for other distros): http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/

AssaultCube (go to http://assault.cubers.net/ since the apt version is old): Great game I rate 8/8. Amazing for reking skrubs. Don't believe me? Then 1v1 me One Shot One Kill on TwinTowers_SuperCubes_GigaEdition_1.2 (I may have memorized that map name from playing on it so many times.)

 

Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 is my main choice of image editing software. Ten years old and it still operates like a dream.

 

I had not heard of cowsay... I was really hoping it would speak what I typed in Moos...
Aw.

So, one more program to add related to my previous recommendation of ImDisk.
After stressing over why some programs wouldn't work running redirected to a virtual RAMdrive, like Microsoft Edge for instance...
I figured out that ImDisk doesn't emulate all the characteristics of a disk for mounting. So to appear in Disk Management and fool Windows I discovered the free ArsenalImageMounterControl.exe on github, a commandline version of Arsenal Image Mounter that finally gets those annoying applications to work through symlinks!

VICTORY! Oh, but to save a ramdisk through commandline, you can use the free tiny program rawcopy, also found on the ImDisk site.

Was going to stick with Chrome, but I like how Edge is softer on the eyes.

EDIT:
Another program I forgot to mention:
Apowersoft Phone Manager

It's a trial program with a bunch of different functions for both Android and Iphone such as seeing files that you can't find normally. Like I made voice recordings on the iPhone, but they wouldn't show up!!! Probably because I had upgraded the operating system, so iTunes wouldn't let me get the files I needed off of it. Not rooted. But, with the manager, it was pretty simple. Plus it has screen mirroring functions to the computer. So even without a special cable I can put the phone on the big screen! (But, SLOW frame rate sadly..) Anyway a great alternative to iTunes.
After the trial period ends, some functions still work forever. Like the screen mirroring. But some file functions don't... Recommended still.

 

Eh, why not.

IDA + HexRays decompiler - Very great toolkit for statical analysis of executables. Needs to be paired with separate tool for modifications. Does include debugger. Ahem..
Hiew - Nice (dis)assembler for working directly on executables.
Ollydbg - Popular debugger. Never really got used to it.
HxD - Handy-dandy hex editor.
JetBrains IDEA - Very pleasant Java IDE. Written in Java, rather heavy on the resources. Eat your heart out NetBeans and Eclipse!
Syntevo Smartgit - I'm too lazy to learn to use command-line GIT client.
Code::Blocks - I'm too lazy to learn to use makefiles. Rather horrible C/C++ IDE.

Photoshop 7 and CS6 - My image editor of choice. I keep both versions around.
Ximagic Denoiser & Quantizer - My favoritest PS plugins. Noise/artefact filtering and color reduction.
Drawpile - Multiplayer drawing. Spiritual successor to ye olde OpenCanvas(before they removed multiplayer functionality).
Lazy Nezumi - Mouse/tablet input smoothing, restraints, scripting and other fancy stuff. Makes graphical work with mice bearable. Has fallen in disuse for me ever since I got graphical tablet, though.

Goldwave - My wave editor of choice. Doesn't have as many effects as Audacity, but I like the interface better.
Audacity - Has boatloads of potentially useful effects/filters. Interface feels awkward.
Reaper - Digital Audio Workstation. Has a VERY reasonable trial mode and a heart-warming nagscreen. Very nice of them to do this.
ModPlug Tracker - Musical tool for classic tracker formats. Doubles as a player if you enjoy staring at the patterns as music plays.
Foobar - Music player. Decent alternative to Winamp. More stable too.
Mixmeister BPM Analyzer - Put song, push buttan, receive approximate BPM of song. Used to be offered for free on Mixmeister site, can probably be found elsewhere now.

Pale Moon - Firefox fork. Split off completely from Mozilla after Australis happened. Actively developed.
BBLean - Alternative shell for windows. Rather outdated.
Everything - Instantly find files around your PC. One of those tools you didn't know you needed and can't live without afterwards.
HFS - Share files from your PC. What sets it apart from other HTTP file servers is that it adds convenient right-click menu and copies URL on sharing. Best paired with Everything.
ZSoft Uninstaller - Alternative to windows' clunky Add/Remove Programs.
TreeSize - Find out how space on your HDD is wasted, recursively. Indispensable tool for cleanups.

Adobe Flash CS6 - One of my go-to tools for my flash needs. Bad for code, good for loops and animation.
FlashDevelop - My other go-to tool for flash needs. Decent IDE, good for code. No animation.
AS3 Sorcerer - Very good ActionScript 3 decompiler. Exclusively for code.
JPEXS Flash Decompiler - Another flash decompiler. Is actively developed and has lotsa features. Is written in *sic* Java.

 

Filezilla: free SFTP client
PuTTY: free SSH, COM terminal. Single exe, does not need external files.
GCC: C and C++ compiler.
MinGW-w64: GCC, but for Windows. Also includes various tools like make and ar. Portable, can compile both 32 and 64 bit binaries.
tcc: C compiler, small, very fast, Windows version is portable (and can access Win32 API). Can compile both 32 and 64 bit binaries.
Lua: Compile this for Windows and carry Lua around with you. I use it as a calculator, as it is faster than the built-in Windows Calculator and I don't know how to use dc or bc.
GParted: Partition editor for Linux. It's easier to learn than the command-line tools.
vim: Small, keyboard-oriented text editor.
Dev-C++: A C and C++ IDE for Windows. Has sketchy design choices, however. To add a new compiler switch to the GUI, one has to download the Pascal source, edit it, and then use Delphi to compile it.
dwm: Minimal window manager for Linux. Unparalleled for opening up large amounts of xterms. All functionality is accessed with the keyboard. Configured by editing the source and recompiling.
Puppy Linux: Small (<200MB) portable Linux distribution usable for rescue or old computers. Can run entirely from RAM. Better compatibility than Damn Small Linux (DSL) by virtue of being newer (kernel 3.0 vs. 2.4). However, DSL is smaller (50MB) and can run on processors as old as the 486.

 

Ah PuTTY, I have been using it for years. It is both lightweight and standalone. Great for when you need remote access to a web server.

Although I prefer Filezilla 3.9 over the more recent versions.

 

A large bump to the past, but I see no reason for a new thread.
Let's see what useful programs we've discovered...!

So, I found a free small program called audio-router today. Already 2 years since the last update on github, but it still seems to work with Windows 10. Helpful if you have multiple audio devices: like speakers, headphones, streaming devices and want different program's audio routed to each one.
https://github.com/audiorouterdev/audio-router

Oh and I'll second REAPER. Just noticed it was already mentioned. Found it recently and it is a powerful but affordable alternative to audio workstation programs like Cubase/Nuendo.