Best Linux Software: Our favorites for any desktop environment

When they recommend AVs for desktop use on Linux, you know something is very wrong!

On a more serious note, half the problem with Linux IMO is the lack of good applications. Almost all the really good ones are cross-platform anyway, and there are still a lot of holes, e.g.
- No good PDF reader or editor
- No good archive managers
- No good or even halfway decent file managers
- No good full-featured image viewers (e.g. Irfanview on Windows)

Part of this derives from the lack of standards. (No standard way to mount local volumes, no standard graphical toolkit, no standard yada yada.) Another part of it is the chicken-and-egg thing, where lack of market share means lack of mindshare with application developers. But one has to recognize that it's a problem.

(Also, recent trends in desktop development haven't helped. Breaking APIs every six months is not conducive to application development, and the applications matter. Are you listening, Gnome developers?)

 

The best Linux distro is/are the ones that work ootb on the hardware I'm using.

 

A must have program that i use is DeVeDe I'm surprised VLC isn't included here as well, Not the best looking... but most functional audio\video player I've used.

 

"Since there isn’t a distro that natively has the ability to open PDFs": Assumptive statement that's obviously false. Sure didn't recommend anything new and worthwhile.

 

For an archive manager check the B1 Archiver

 

Well, I'm a Kubuntu user and am happy with what it offers.

Reader: Okular is very good, IMHO. Editor: I don't have the need for one, but is LibreOffice (with libreoffice-pdfimport) not good enough?

Ark is okay for me.

Krusader is excellent.

Gwenview is good.

Again, I'm using Kubuntu and I'm not very familiar with what other flavours offer. I can't say that I'm really missing anything important (with the exception of a powerful application comparable to Amibroker ).

 

First of all you have to define "good". Personally I am satisfied with my choice of PDF reader, archive manager, file manager, and image viewer. However I do not know what your needs/wants are and how the currently available software is lacking for you.

Reader: Acroread, Evince, mupdf

File Roller

SpaceFM, Nemo, Sunflower

XnViewMP (currently in beta)

 

It seems an article written by a non linux user.
No unix user (that I know) would start a list of best programs with antiviruses.

Panagiotis

 

Any one running an AV on their Mac doesn'r deserve to own one!