• fr: Applications utiles ()

Useful applications

XTerm

XFCE include Terminal which should already been installed.

Text editor

XFCE include Mousepad which is basically Windows’s Notepad. You’ll have to install it :

apt-get install mousepad

Archive manager

There is also XFCE tools to help you deal with archives. There is Squeeze which is an archive manager and there’s also a plugin to Thunar (Xfce file manager) which bring a helpful contextual menu to compress/uncompress. The following command install both tools :

apt-get install thunar-archive-plugin

Image viewer

XFCE include Ristretto which is very light image viewer. You’ll have to install it :

apt-get install ristretto

If you need to modify images (not only view them), you’ll need GIMP :

apt-get install gimp

Burn CD / DVD

We’ll use yet another XFCE tool : Xfburn.

apt-get install xfburn

FTP client

I prefer gFTP because it’s very easy and it has almost no dependancies.

apt-get install gftp

Internet browser

Of course Firefox which is called IceWeasel in Debian (change fr with your language) :

apt-get install iceweasel iceweasel-l10n-fr

Flash player

Before there was a flashplugin-nonfree package. I didn’t manage to find it in Lenny so I installed it with the official installer from adobe :

su -
cd 
wget http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
tar xvzf install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz
cd install_flash_player_9_linux
./flashplayer-installer

The installation is made by root (su -) so it will make a global install. The only question the installer will ask is :

Please enter the installation path of the Mozilla, Netscape, or Opera browser (i.e., /usr/lib/mozilla): 

You’ll have to answer : /usr/lib/iceweasel

Torrent

There is of course Azureus (now Vuze), but I prefer something lighter, my choice is Deluge :

apt-get install deluge-torrent

Media player

There are two choices.

xfmedia

Use xfmedia based on xine :

apt-get install xfmedia

MPlayer

Personnally I prefer to install MPlayer by compiling the sources. See here.

Remote administration

See here for the installation of NoMachine.

NZB downloader

I really like SABnzbd. It’s easy to setup and it works with IPV6].

There is no all-in-one package for debian so you’ll have to install it the hard way :

• update your apt sources to include non-free packages. Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list so it looks like that :

#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Lenny_ - Official Beta i386 NETINST Binary-1 20080705-09:34]/ lenny main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux testing _Lenny_ - Official Beta i386 NETINST Binary-1 20080705-09:34]/ lenny main

deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ lenny main

deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main

• follow this howto for Ubuntu

Calculator

I personally like galculator.

apt-get install galculator

System monitor

See here for the installation of Conky.