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Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

188 points by dustinkirkland 9y ago

We asked the HackerNews community, “What do you want to see in Ubuntu 17.10?”: https://ubu.one/AskHN and a passionate discussion ensued, the results are at: http://ubu.one/thankHN You can check that link and see our progress. Already in beta for 17.10: - GNOME replaced Unity - Bluetooth improvements with a new BlueZ - Switched to libinput - 4K/Multimonitor/HiDPI improvements - Upgraded to Network Manager 1.8 - New Subiquity server installer - Minimal images (36MB, 18% smaller) And several others have excellent work in progress, and will be complete by 17.10: - Autoremove old kernels from /boot - EXT4 encryption with fscrypt - Better GPU/CUDA support Your feedback matters! There are hundreds of engineers working for you to continue making Ubuntu amazing! We're now reviewing the desktop applications we package and ship in Ubuntu. We invite you to submit the apps you find most useful in Linux, in the format defined below. You can suggest multiple apps in priority order (e.g. Web Browser: Firefox, Chrome, Chromium). Please note apps that are now you use exclusively on the web (e.g. Email Client: Gmail web, Office Suite: Office360 web). If the software isn’t open source, note that (e.g. Music Player: Spotify non-free). If we missed a category, please add it in the same format. If your apps aren’t packaged yet, please let us know, as we’re creating hundreds of new snap packages for desktop apps. === Web Browser: ??? Email Client: ??? Terminal: ??? IDE: ??? File manager: ??? Basic Text Editor: ??? IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: ??? Office Suite: ??? Calendar: ??? Video Player: ??? Music Player: ??? Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: ??? === We’ve cross-posted this thread to Reddit and Slashdot. We very much look forward to another friendly, energetic, collaborative discussion. Thanks! twitter.com/@DustinKirkland @Canonical @Ubuntu

dm319 9y ago
ubuntu-mate has a nice software boutique, which I think is a great idea for people new to the world of FOSS. It's a nice curated list of great FOSS software sorted by category.
Freak_NL 9y ago
For most I would say the current defaults more than suffice. Web Browser: Firefox. Of the two modern web browsers that are applicable (Chromium being the other), Mozilla and Firefox are more in tune with the free software mentality many users of Ubuntu adhere. It is an excellent browser as well. Email Client: Thunderbird? Are there mature alternatives that will work for most people that use a standalone mail application? Terminal: Keep gnome-terminal, it's perfectly fine for most. IDE: None. Leave this to the user. An IDE need not be present by default, as it depends greatly one the language chosen. For simple scripting Gedit suffices at first, and associating code files with Gedit by default is fine too. File manager: I take it Gnome Shell still ships with Nautilus? Basic Text Editor: Nothing wrong with Gedit. PDF Reader: Evince. Mature and fast. Office Suite: LibreOffice of course. Video Player: Something that supports everything you can throw at it. Music Player: I'm partial to Quod Libet. :)
- jhasse 9y ago
  > Video Player: Something that supports everything you can throw at it. I would go with mpv there instead of the obvious VLC. It just so much faster and bug-free!
  - enzanki_ars 9y ago
    And if you love the command line, MPV (https://mpv.io/ https://mpv.io/) is an even faster and contains less bugs than VLC.
  - cJ0th 9y ago
    I only recently discovered mpv. Is it possible to make it resume the playback where it was left off?
    - grover_hartmann 9y ago
      Yes, from the mpv(1) man page: Q Like q, but store the current playback position. Playing the same file later will resume at the old playback position if possible. Just quit with Q instead of q.
      - cJ0th 9y ago
        awesome! thanks a lot!
brudgers 9y ago
What I want is no change unless there is a good reason to change. The internet voting for Browsey McBrowseface etc. is not, in my opinion, a good reason to change. There are things Canonical does well, I think. Those things are technical. When it comes to trying to be Microsoft/Apple/Google, it misses the mark. In part because it assumes that which PDF reader it ships with matters to users. Good luck.
- keithpeter 9y ago
  I would echo brudgers sentiment here but would table the suggestion for a meta-package or series of meta-packages that would install R, texlive, octave, iPython and a good selection of other mathematical/data processing software. My 'vision'(+) would be something like UbuntuStudio for data/maths. (+) I can no longer use words like 'vision', 'paradigm' &c without distancing speech marks because of their misuse in the corporate world. The survey: Web Browser: Firefox with pocket &c disabled and javascript toggled off, Chromium for when I need javascript &c. Also a hosts.txt file that deep-sixes ignorant Web trackers. Email Client: Evolution. Terminal: Gnome-terminal (minimal use case) IDE: RDesktop File manager: default, Nautilus at present Basic Text Editor: default, Gedit at present IRC/Messaging Client: N/A PDF Reader: default, Evince at present Office Suite: Libreoffice but also use of texlive and pandoc (and groff!) Calendar: Evolution Video Player: VLC Music Player: default, presently Rhythmbox Photo Viewer: shotwell
  - artursapek 9y ago
    > turning off JS by default for a browser Year of the Linux laptop would never come
    - keithpeter 9y ago
      I'm not suggesting that anyone else run a Web browser with javascript switched off - I interpreted the list as some kind of survey of current use. However I'm pleasantly surprised at how many Web sites do actually convey their main content with javascript disabled, and the increase in speed and battery life is marked. The 'year of the linux desktop' meme is a little moot as phones/tablets now provide the mass computing experience for many people, and the primary experience for people under 25 or so (I'm a teacher).
ovh 9y ago
Totally agree with Freak_NL. For video player, definitely VLC.
- jhasse 9y ago
  Why not mpv?
FranOntanaya 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome-Terminal IDE: None File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Whatever supports Slack and Discord I guess. PDF Reader: Current choice is fine. Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: I prefer SMPlayer to VLC for simple playback Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: gThumb Screen recording: Kazam
- jhasse 9y ago
  > I prefer SMPlayer to VLC for simple playback I'm curious: What's your opinion on mpv vs. SMPlayer?
  - nilsocket 9y ago
    SM-Player is based on MPV.
Giako 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium, Firefox, Chrome Email Client: Thunderbird, Web GMail Terminal: Terminix IDE: IntelliJ IDEA Community, Eclipse File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: GEdit PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Drive Calendar: Thunderbird Lightning, Google Calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Spotify webapp, Spotify client non-free
jacek 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Opera (non-free) Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Tilix, gnome-terminal IDE: Atom, gnome-builder File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: telegram-desktop PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: gnome-calendar Video Player: gnome-mpv, smplayer Music Player: gnome-music, Spotify (non-free) Photo Viewer: gnome photo viewer (don't know the name) Screen recording: don't use Photo editing: Darktable Note taking: QOwnNotes Research source organization: Zotero
j0ar 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Opera Email Client: Geary, Thunderbird, pantheon-mail (when the new version is ready) Terminal: gnome-terminal, pantheon-terminal IDE: ??? File manager: Nautilus, Thunar, pantheon-files Basic Text Editor: gedit, scratch-text-editor (from elementaryOS) IRC/Messaging Client: Telegram PDF Reader: envince Office Suite: Libre Calendar: gnome-calendar (please please please with Caldav support for posteo) Video Player: totem, mpv (gnome-mpv) Music Player: audacious Photo Viewer: gnome-viewer Screen recording: ???
dustinkirkland 9y ago
If you'd prefer, you can fill out the survey here: https://ubu.one/apps1804 https://ubu.one/apps1804
_R_ 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome, Chromium Email Client: unity-mail Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: VIM File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Drive Calendar: Gnome Calendar, Google Calendar Video Player: VLC, YouTube Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Gnome Image Viewer Screen recording: None
devillius 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium, Chrome Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: Atom, VS Code File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: None Office Suite: Libreoffice, Openoffice Calendar: None Video Player: VLC Music Player: None Photo Viewer: None Screen recording: Recordmydesktop (Kali recorder)
brian_herman 9y ago
Kind of offtopic but is there a linux terminal program that when you paste a bunch of commands with carriage returns asks you if you want to continue?
- notamy 9y ago
  I don't think something like that exists; the closest I've seen to anything like that is pantheon-terminal prompting you about pasting when a command is sudo
- laumars 9y ago
  I'm not sure I understand your question correctly but KDE's terminal (konsole) warns you if you try to paste large amounts of text
  - brian_herman 9y ago
    So if you have the following command: echo "hello" python -v I want it to warn me if there are returns or carrage returns in the paste. iterm does this
- xiaq 9y ago
  Some terminal emulators / shells use some heuristics, but the most reliable way is to use a combination of a terminal emulator and shell that support bracketed paste mode. This article (https://cirw.in/blog/bracketed-paste https://cirw.in/blog/bracketed-paste) lists some terminal emulators that supports bracketed paste, and a zsh plugin that makes zsh handle bracketed paste in a safe manner. As an alternative to zsh, Elvish (https://github.com/elves/elvish https://github.com/elves/elvish) supports bracketed paste out of the box. When you paste anything that includes a carriage return, Elvish will insert a literal return instead of executing it. (Disclaimer: I am the author of Elvish.)
acidburn1995 9y ago
Web Browser: palemoon Email Client: mutt Terminal: terminator IDE: jetbrains stuff, vim File manager: ranger, nautilus Basic Text Editor: vim IRC/Messaging Client: hexchat PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: libreoffice Calendar: cal, webshit Video Player: mplayer,vlc,totem Music Player: clementine Photo Viewer: feh Screen recording: shutter
- Theodores 9y ago
  Since this post mentioned vim, can we have that as the default and installed editor for command line use? On the demo disk as well as the install. The nano editor is accessible for people like my Dad but he just calls when it is time to edit the crontab so nano only reaches the people that don't need the arm bands. There is a GUI on desktop for people wanting nano.
petepete 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Geary Terminal: Gnome terminal IDE: ??? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Empathy/Polari PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: Libre Office Calendar: Gnome calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Gnome music Photo Viewer: Shotwell (definitely not Darktable or RawTherapee, far too complicated) Screen recording: Built in Gnome screen recorder
gremlinsinc 9y ago
Web Browser : Google Chrome Stable Email: Thunderbird Terminal : Terminator IDE: Sublime Text3/Vs Code. File Manager: Thunar/Nautilus Basic Text: Gedit IRC: Irssi PDF ? (Usually just use chrome) Office Suite: Libre Calendar : (don't use) Video Player.: vlc Music Player: A good google play music/spotify app that can stream to chromecast would be nice... Photo Viewer: N/a Screen Recording: Don't know of any. Caveat.. not a ubuntu user here per se... But left because of some of the bloatware/opinonated stuff and it crashed a lot. Plus I like Antergos with i3-gnome better than anything I've ever used before... Much better performance, less crashes/bugs...etc..
brian_herman 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: vscode File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: libreoffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: vlc Music Player: vlc Photo Viewer: evince Screen recording: never use one so I dont really have an opinion
Kostic 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Tilix[0], Gnome Terminal, IDE: Visual Studio Code (although it's not a fully fledged IDE) File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Polari, HexChat PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Lollypop[1] Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome Screen recording: Peek[2] [0] https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix [1] http://gnumdk.github.io/lollypop-web/ http://gnumdk.github.io/lollypop-web/ [2] https://github.com/phw/peek https://github.com/phw/peek
- sametmax 9y ago
  Same but vlc for videos
  - Kostic 9y ago
    VLC is indeed superior in comparison with Totem but it does not integrate nicely into GNOME as Totem would. MPV is also a very capable player. There is even an GTK frontend which obeys GNOME HIG and which is called gnome-mpv[0]. Maybe it would be a nice pick for the default video player. [0] https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv
    - gknoy 9y ago
      MPV also has the benefit of having a _really good_ command line API, which is in fact the main way I use it: mpv --no-border --autofit-larger=320x200 --loop=inf --volume=60 foo.mp4 It also has built-in support for youtube-dl so that you can do things like `mpv [youtube url]`. (It's possible that VLC lets you do both of these, of course.)
    - moosingin3space 9y ago
      IIRC, mpv already has native Wayland support, whereas VLC's was lacking. gnome-mpv is pretty nice, though.
    - ColanR 9y ago
      I'd rather have the superior player than the superior aesthetics, IMHO.
dallamaneni 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Terminator IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin, Thunderbird PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC
kevincox 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: neovim File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit (but actually neovim) IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: Libreoffice Calendar: Lightning (thunderbird plugin) Video Player: Totem Music Player: Totem/None Photo Viewer: eog Screen recording: I don't use them frequently enough to remember one I like.
SingletonIface 9y ago
Web browser: Firefox, Chromium. Comment: It is important that neither Chrome nor Chromium eat too much market share in order for the web to remain healthy. Email client: ??? Comment: I use mutt but I'm wishing for something better. mutt is too limited Terminal: Terminology, urxvt IDE: None; neo-vim is sufficient for programming tasks, don't need most IDE features. File manager: What ever is the default for the selected DE. Basic Text Editor: neo-vim IRC/Messaging Client: irssi and Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Don't know Video player: VLC Music player: Tomahawk Photo Viewer: What ever is default for the selected DE Screen recording: Open Broadcast Studio
mrkrabo 9y ago
I've removed the ones I don't use. Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Evolution Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: VSCode File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: HexChat PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: mpv Music Player: GTK3 frontend of Audacious Photo Viewer: eog
smacktoward 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird. (Note: I'm a bit worried about the future of TB, with Mozilla cutting back its support of the project. Since it's been the default email client in Ubuntu since forever, it would be great to see Canonical pitch in to support it more.) Terminal: GNOME Terminal IDE: Does Ubuntu need to ship with an IDE? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Does Ubuntu need to ship with an IRC client? PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: GNOME Calendar, Lightning Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: No opinion Screen recording: No opinion
- tradesmanhelix 9y ago
  ++ To Canonical supporting TB more. Really don't want to see this important project go away. I use it on a daily basis in order not to have to deal with the Outlook365 web and M$ tracking me via its web apps.
antihero 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: None Terminal: Tilix? IDE: vs-code File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: vs code IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calenar Video Player: mpv Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: ???
haspok 9y ago
I have but one humble wish: when I want to start the calculator app I open the Dash and type "calc". However for some reason LibreOffice Calc has higher priority than the Calculator app, so I always have to select it specifically (instead of just pressing Enter) - even though I might have never used the LibreOffice Calc on this computer. Can you make the LibreOffice Calc app lower priority in the Dash please. Thank you.
- pksadiq 9y ago
  In case you don't know: You can simply type the expressions in gnome-shell search to get results. eg.: if you type "3+5" (without quotes), the result 8 will be shown. You can also have complex expressions like "3kg in lb", "sin (90)" etc. Once the result is shown, you can simply press the Enter key to open the result in gnome-calculator.
  - Queue29 9y ago
    I'm in the same boat as OP. When I type "calc", I want the calculator. LibreOffice Calc is on my list of things to immediately remove on every reformat.
    - ccrush 9y ago
      Why don't you rename the shortcut to LibreOffice Excel?
- vetinari 9y ago
  Now that Gnome Shell replaced unity, you can use the search box itself as a simple calculator. No need to run an extra app.
- jerknextdoor 9y ago
  I am so glad that I am not the only person that has this frustration. I wish I could remove other apps or give them lower priority in the dash, but this is absolutely the worst.
- mod 9y ago
erazor42 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: gmail Terminal: terminator IDE: Sublime / VSCode File manager: terminator Basic Text Editor: Sublime IRC/Messaging Client: irssi PDF Reader: Chromium plugin Office Suite: Libre office (I'd prefer Microsoft one) Calendar: Google calendar Video Player: vlc Music Player: YouTube :D Photo Viewer: basic gallery Screen recording: -
a_humean 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium, Firefox, Chrome Email Client: Gmail web Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: VS Code File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: xchat PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: Office360 web, LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar, Google Calendar web Video Player: smplayer Music Player: cmus, Spotify non-free Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome
koot 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Emacs / Sublime Text 3 / Geany File Manager: Thunar / PCManFM / Caja (Anything but Nautilus they stripped to many features after 2.32) Basic Text Edtor: Gedit IRC / Messaging Client: Hexchat / Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC / SMPlayer Music Player: Deadbeef / Audacious / Rhythmbox Photo Viewer: EOG Screen Recording: ???
toxicbits 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Geary Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Gnome Builder File manager: Gnome Files Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Polari PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Gnome MPV Music Player: Lollypop Photo Viewer: Gthumb Screen recording: Peek
gkya 9y ago
I'm using the latest Ubuntu GNOME, and I can say that I'm pleased with how it is. Using GNOME's own software where available is going to be better IMHO.
williamdclt 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium, Chrome Email Client: none Terminal: gnome-terminal, terminator IDE: none File manager: DE default Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: none PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: Libre office Calendar: ??? Video Player: VLC Music Player: ??? Photo Viewer: DE default Screen recording: ???
tradesmanhelix 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox ESR, Waterfox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Konsole IDE: vim, emacs, Atom File manager: Dolphin Basic Text Editor: kwrite, gedit IRC/Messaging Client: irssi PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Lightning Thunderbird Plugin Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine, cmus Photo Viewer: Gwenview Screen recording: Peek
mherrmann 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: None File manager: fman (non-free) Basic Text Editor: Sublime Video Player: vlc
- lucb1e 9y ago
  Three out of your four suggestions are non-free, not just one.
nitins 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Geary Terminal: Terminator IDE: - File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: - Video Player: SMPlayer Music Player: Lollypop Photo Viewer: - Screen recording: -
pksadiq 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Evolution Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: gnome-builder? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Polari/?? PDF Reader: Evince (gnome-documents?) Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: gnome-calendar Video Player: Totem/VLC Music Player: rhythmbox (gnome-music?) Photo Viewer: gnome-photos/eog Screen recording: ???
blubberblase23 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Terminator IDE: Vim ;) File manager: pcmanfm Basic Text Editor: vim/gedit IRC/Messaging Client: pidgin PDF Reader: mupdf Office Suite: libreoffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: vlc Music Player: vlc Photo Viewer: nomacs Screen recording: don't know At the most important: Init System => OpenRC
aibara 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Lightning (Thunderbird add-on) Video Player: VLC Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: gThumb P.S. Thanks for working on autoremoving old kernels from /boot!
jasonkostempski 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox unmodified (e.g. no Ubuntu start page) Email Client: None, users still using desktop clients know what they want and how to get it. Terminal: No preference IDE: None, this should be chosen by the user if they want one. File manager: No preference Basic Text Editor: No preference IRC/Messaging Client: None, same situation as email PDF Reader: No preference Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Like the calendar the clock opens (no preference) or a calendar you can add events to (does a modern desktop calendar for Linux even exist)? Video Player: VLC Music Player: Whatever is least bloated Photo Viewer: Whatever is least bloated Screen recording: None, most people don't need or want this.
- aruggirello 9y ago
  > calendar you can add events to (does a modern desktop calendar for Linux even exist)? I don't know about Gnome - but KDE has both a desktop calendar/organizer app (Korganizer) and a (unrelated) Plasma widget for the toolbar - the gorgeous Event Calendar Plasma widget, which shows your Google Calendar events.
  - moosingin3space 9y ago
    There is a Gnome calendar app: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Calendar https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Calendar.
    - gurkendoktor 9y ago
      And then there's also https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/California https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/California And of course elementaryOS has its own GTK+3-based calendar: https://launchpad.net/maya https://launchpad.net/maya So basically, the same situation as with mail clients, photo apps, music players, ... I wish the GNOME world would decide to just merge all the features into one app per task and then kill the others.
rodolphoarruda 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: GEdit PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC
sp332 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, but consider defaulting to 52 ESR since FF57 may cause breakage in November (one month after your Ubuntu release). Whatever browser you use, don't be afraid to change the settings or extensions for security. HTTPS Everywhere or Privacy Badger or an adblocker built-in goes a long way in protecting your users. Photo Viewer: must open quickly. If I want to manage a zillion photos I can download something else, but when I just open a file I want to see it right away.
itomato 9y ago
Crowdsourcing at its worst. Get with a modern Product Management philosophy, and quit begging the community for ideas. Crossposting to Reddit, Slashdot and HN on the same day smacks of utter desperation.
- 0xCMP 9y ago
  Or it's a community project asking for input from the community...
  - itomato 9y ago
    Why don't they get a website or mailing list or something?
hysan 9y ago
I'm pretty sure anything I'd suggest would already be included in other people's lists so I'm going to request something different. Personally, I'd like a well maintained set of applications that integrates nicely into the default desktop. So things like global shortcuts (ideally having them be the same for common actions), panel and notification integrations, nicely setup default launcher icons, works well with the search bar, looks great with the default icon set, etc. Example: whatever calendar app you include should work with the calendar in GNOME's panel. I'd also like to emphasize on the well maintained part since I personally prefer that my core set of applications to not become stale over time or even worse, just have tons of quality of life/paper cut bugs that remain unpatched for years. Whatever is chosen as default should get continued support and help from Ubuntu itself. If you can do that, I would definitely come back and give Ubuntu another chance.
- vegbrasil 9y ago
  This. The default apps from 17.04 are already great. We just need more integration and updates.
- bokchoi 9y ago
  Yes, this is the most important aspect. Functional, stable, maintained, consistent, and nicely integrated applications.
Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
PDF reader: lightweight greenfield project that just puts pdf.js in a GTK3 webview My answer to all of the other questions, though, is "nothing that's suitable for noobs". To this end, please make it easy to clean out the gunk and bring in power user tools.
- MrBingley 9y ago
  Do you, by chance, use Arch Linux?
  - Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
    Sometimes!
markstos 9y ago
=== Web Browser: Chromium, Firefox Email Client: Fastmail web, Gmail web Terminal: konsole, terminator File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit, Gvim IRC/Messaging Client: Slack web, Signal web PDF Reader: Chromium, Firefox Office Suite: LibreOffice, GSuite web Calendar: Google Calendar web Music Player: Google Music web, Clementine Photo Viewer: eog, shotwell, gimp Screenshot tool: Shutter Sound source switcher: indicator-sound-switcher Clipboard Manager: glipper PDF Annotation: xournal Markdown Viewer: ghostwriter Markdown Editor: ghostwriter ===
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tombert 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Evolution Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: No IDE by default. Most users aren't developers File manager: Files/Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Atom IRC/Messaging Client: Nothing, let user install their own. PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: I don't really like it, but LibreOffice is probably the best option right now. Personally, I'd almost prefer an option to just have LaTeX and TeXStudio pre-installed. Calendar: No Preference Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: No preference Screen recording: No preference
- pitaj 9y ago
  Atom isn't a basic text editor. It's closer to an IDE. I'd go a step further and say no Email client. Most users don't use email clients at all, and Thunderbird is really old looking nowadays.
- mycat 9y ago
  Using electron app for _basic_ editor?
  - tombert 9y ago
    I don't use it much personally, since I'm basically married to Vim, I just like it better than Gedit, and sublime text is proprietary. You're probably right though, an electron app is a bit heavy.
interfixus 9y ago
Web Browser: Pale Moon Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: [DE default] IDE: Geany File manager: [DE default] Basic Text Editor: ??? IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: qpdfview Office Suite: [none] Calendar: Thunderbird/Lightning Video Player: SMPlayer Music Player: ??? Photo Viewer: Viewnior, [DE default] Screen recording: ???
c2h5oh 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Termite Basic Text Editor: Leafpad, gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin Office Suite: Libre Office Video Player: mpv Screen recording: OBS Studio
43224gg252 9y ago
I actually use GNOME on Fedora as my daily driver but will probably switch to ubuntu if they can create a better gnome experience. Please try to ship GNOME that way it's meant to be shipped as far as software versioning goes. Please make quarter tiling and the ability to hide windows decoration a thing. Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: don't care, I coded my own Terminal: tilix (integrates better with GTK3 than GNOME-terminal) IDE: Builder is good (I use vim) File manager: Nautilus/ranger Basic Text Editor: Gedit/nano/vim IRC/Messaging Client: I use irssi PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: GNOME calendar, but update it Video Player: mpv Music Player: mpv Photo Viewer: mpv Screen recording: the one thats built into gnome, but make it better (adjust FPS/quality/convert size/etc).
SubiculumCode 9y ago
Whatever file browser is chosen, please include the damn up button, and please no buttons replacing the address bar. Also, PLEASE 'open terminal here' as a default option on right click.
- Jackneill 9y ago
  Nemo has those. (At least i think the right click is possible with plugins.)
  - lucb1e 9y ago
    Nemo did that out of the box on my Debian Stretch/Buster with Cinnamon setup. I assume it's not a plugin.
linopolus 9y ago
Web Browser: Safari.app Email Client: Mail.app Terminal: Terminal.app IDE: NeoVIM File manager: Finder.app Basic Text Editor: NeoVIM IRC/Messaging Client: Messages.app PDF Reader: Preview.app Office Suite: Pages.app/Numbers.app/Keynote.app Calendar: Fantastical 2.app Video Player: mpv Music Player: VOX.app Photo Viewer: Preview.app Of course, this is for a real world usable operating system, not ubuntu utopia.. If Linux, Gentoo is nice ;)
- linopolus 9y ago
  Ok now for real: Web Browser: Firefox+VimFX Email Client: Mutt Terminal: Urxvt IDE: NeoVIM File manager: Urxvt Basic Text Editor: NeoVIM IRC/Messaging Client: Irssi PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LaTeX Calendar: - Video Player: mpv Music Player: mpd+ncmpc Photo Viewer: cacaview
Jackneill 9y ago
Web Browser: chromium, firefox Email Client: thunderbird Terminal: alacritty IDE: vscode File manager: nemo Basic Text Editor: gedit, sublime text 3 IRC/Messaging Client: hexchat Office Suite: libreoffice Video Player: mpv, vlc, smplayer Photo Viewer: eog Screenshot taker: shutter
billconan 9y ago
=== Web Browser: chrome (close source) Email Client: web gmail/web outlook Terminal: ubuntu default (gnome terminal?) (I don't like it) IDE: QtCreator File manager: ubuntu default (gnome file manger?) (I don't like it) Basic Text Editor: sublime text (close source) IRC/Messaging Client: slack (close source) PDF Reader: ubuntu default Office Suite: libreoffice (hate it!) Calendar: ubuntu default Video Player: vlc Music Player: ubuntu default Photo Viewer: ubuntu default Screen recording: shutter ===
PascLeRasc 9y ago
I'd love for Chromium to be included by default and for that Amazon app to be removed. I have no idea what the Amazon thing even is but it's just Windows 10-esque spamware to me. As for IDE, it'd be really cool to have Arduino included, but some might consider that spamware ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- pitaj 9y ago
  Arduino is a horrible IDE. It doesn't even have high DPI support, making it entirely unusable in my XPS 15.
  - takno 9y ago
    Absolutely agree that it's a horrible IDE. Java 9 has better HiDPI support in Linux though, so it may get a little better in the future
johnchristopher 9y ago
If I may make a suggestion: I'd rather have a quizz at first install and user account creation that would ask what users want with sane defaults hiding behind an `I don't know` checkbox (ie: don't configure any mail client if people just use GMail). It would definitely ease the adoption from first users instead of throwing a huge pile of shortcuts to their face when they click the apps menu for the first time. I would also make it very easy to do the most common first things users do: opening an image, browsing the web, playing music. Don't send them to players/viewers with different UI than the rest of the workspace or ask them what pic viewer they want to use among 4 different apps. First impressions matters :).
- BornInTheUSSR 9y ago
  Really like this idea, a wizard to get all your preferences on setup that preconfigures defaults. Expand it to programming toolsets or whatever your primary use is and have a way to save and share it between different linux versions or even OS's a la dotfiles.
  - ColanR 9y ago
    Love the idea of a wizard - but a lot of users will want as painless a setup as possible. if they can worry about configuration when they feel like it, if they feel like it, they may be happier. i.e., some way to use a one-time app for running that wizard later.
    - gt_ 9y ago
      I second this. Ubuntu default config probably isn't perfect for anybody, but nothing is in the way, which I consider a major benefit. If I need automatic configuration, none of these ideas will move faster than a decent Bash script. Some configurations cannot be scripted well and that's where the room for improvement is.
- Queue29 9y ago
  This really is a great idea.
- 9y ago
pdfttgz 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Builder File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Vim IRC/Messaging Client: Polari PDF Reader: Chromium Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Shotwell Screen recording: No preference
NuDinNou 9y ago
Web Browser: GNOME Web Email Client: - Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: - File manager: GNOME Files Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: - PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: GNOME Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: GNOME Music Photo Viewer: gThumb Screen recording: -
Jackneill 9y ago
Another humble wish: a subl/vscode like ctrl+shift+p multifunctional menu, where you can write commands, launch things, etc.
- zanny 9y ago
  The Gnome runner and Krunner from KDE both do this. I'm not sure if the Gnome variant supports arbitrary commands like Krunner does, but they at least have opening applications, unit conversion, and web search.
  - Shorel 9y ago
    It's not the same. He means something that can access all commands available in a given application, not a launcher. Ubuntu's Unity has that, giving search access to all the menu entries in the opened application. Sublime Text implementation is even more powerful, giving search access to all commands, and the list includes commands provided by extra packages added to Sublime. So I can do, for example: 'ctrl+shift+p', install package, gitsavvy, <enter>; 'ctrl+shift+p', git diff current file, <enter>;
    - acchan 9y ago
      https://github.com/p-e-w/plotinus https://github.com/p-e-w/plotinus
dabockster 9y ago
I'm really looking forward to seeing how native GNOME will look with official Ubuntu support and not as a community flavor. Anyways, here's my request list: --------------------------------- Web Browser: Firefox, Vivaldi (people keep claiming it's open source, so look into it) Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: GNOME default IDE: LOL (Serious answer is VSCode since it seems to be a nice in-between for a full IDE and a simple text editor) File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: No preference IRC/Messaging Client: HexChat PDF Reader: No preference Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird, No preference Video Player: VLC Music Player: RhythmBox, Spotify (maybe just a downloader program - don't include the full install out of the box) Photo Viewer: No preference Screen recording: No preference Games: Include Steam out of the box? ------------------- This list also comes with the usual stuff like dump Systemd, continue working on MESA drivers/networking drivers/drivers in general, etc. Hope to see some great stuff in 17.10!
Sir_Substance 9y ago
I'd really like to ask for a "nothing, thanks" option. The main reason I use xubuntu is because it offers a xubuntu-core package that comes with the desktop, apt and /nothing else/. When I installed unity version of ubuntu, the install was always followed with about an hour of uninstalling shite I didn't care about. The new unity uninstall dialogue never worked correctly, and uninstalling 5 things in a row would cause it to lose track of what was installed and start duplicating entries. When I install a fresh system, I really want it to be fresh.
Theodores 9y ago
A genuine long term Ubuntu fan, not used Windows since Vista. Happy with everything. Let's have a look at what I left behind: Web Browser: IE6 Email Client: Outlook Express Terminal: putty IDE: MS Studio File manager: Explorer Basic Text Editor: Notepad IRC/Messaging Client: Skype PDF Reader: Adobe Acrobat Office Suite: MS Office Calendar: Outlook Video Player: RealPlayer Music Player: Winamp Photo Viewer: Cracked copy of Photoshop Screen recording: Print screen key I don't use alternative programs to the above, I don't write Word docs or need to as communication has changed. I don't have an email client. My point is that this list of defaults is stuck in the past, we use computers differently and need an updated list of default applications. There should be a default app for your phone and what happens when you plug it in. There should be built in IoT apps too, so your computer can be at the heart of gadgets you get for the home.
edelans 9y ago
=== Web Browser: Chrome, Firefox Email Client: none Terminal: default IDE: Atom File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: nano IRC/Messaging Client: none PDF Reader: default Office Suite: google apps Calendar: none Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify, non-free Photo Viewer: default Screen recording: Kazam ===
antouank 9y ago
=== Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Gmail web Terminal: xfce4 terminal IDE: neovim File manager: Thunar Basic Text Editor: neovim IRC/Messaging Client: google hangouts web PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: google calendar Video Player: vlc Music Player: vlc Photo Viewer: ristretto Screen recording: xfce4 Screenshooter ===
mazr 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: None Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: None File manager: Gnome default Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: Gnome Default Office Suite: None Calendar: None Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Gnome default Screen recording: Gnome Default
RealityDisorder 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird (altho would prefer a modern alternative) Terminal: rxvt-unicode IDE: IntelliJ family File manager: ??? Basic Text Editor: vim IRC/Messaging Client: irssi/pidgin PDF Reader: Atril/xpdf Office Suite: Abiword/Gnumeric Calendar: Thunderbird + Lightning (altho would prefer a modern alternative) Video Player: mpv Music Player: deadbeef, Clementine Photo Viewer: feh, eom Screen recording: open broadcaster software
Entangled 9y ago
Sublime is all I need. I'll build everything else.
aruggirello 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird IDE: Atom Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Google Calendar web
fatzombi_ 9y ago
i switched to lubuntu last year (ubuntu had some serious unity problems), i really like unity, give gnome more unity ish design
frik 9y ago
> We asked the HackerNews community, "What do you want to see in Ubuntu 17.10?" Yeah, and the experiment went horrible wrong :( The last thing the community wanted was a plain Gnome 3 shell for 17.10. The older Unity was great, the latest Unity and Gnome3 are crap! (ugly as hell (macOS UI clone for the cheap), and worse usability than older Unity and macOS) So you single handled destroyed the default Ubuntu with some weird decisions. And this systemd trainwreck is still on board. For applications: * Web Browser: Chromium (with sane privacy default settings) * Email client: Gnome Evolution * File manager: Unity 7 file manager * Basic Text Editor: GEdit (older version with menu bar, from Ubuntu 14) * Office Suite: LibreOffice or Callibri * Calendar: Evolution
shock 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Tilix[0], Gnome Terminal, IDE: IntelliJ, Eclipse File manager: Double Commander[1] Basic Text Editor: Vim IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince/MuPDF Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Vlc, Kodi Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome Screen recording: Simple Screen Recorder[2] [0] - https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix [1] - https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/ https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/ [2] - http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/ http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/
- lucb1e 9y ago
  Cool to see SSR in here. A friend made that and I always thought it was much better than existing tools, at least at the time, both in how fast they are, their ease of use and the options they provide (some have options you just never touch, others lack options that you wanted to change; SSR has neither).
jtolmar 9y ago
I'm generally happy with all the Ubuntu default apps. Basic text editor: gedit. Search has been a lot less usable since it moved to the top right bar. Keyboard sequences like control-f + part of a word + escape do strange things like sending you back to where you started. I'd like to be able to pilot to different parts of the code using control-f, down/enter/tab, up/shift-tab, and escape. Also searching a huge file hangs because it stops to highlight every instance of the first character before processing the second. It should never be faster to open a terminal, find the file, and run grep. Also the entire app hangs to do syntax highlighting on giant xml files.
jakobdabo 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: URXVT IDE: Qt Creator, Eclipse, Geany File manager: Thunar Basic Text Editor: Mousepad IRC/Messaging Client: Riot, Gajim PDF Reader: Evince, Zathura Office Suite: Libre Office Video Player: VLC Media Player, mplayer, mpv Music Player: DeaDBeeF Photo Viewer: ??? Screen Recording: ???
ameliaquining 9y ago
Web browser: Chromium, Firefox Email client: Gmail Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: Atom, Emacs, Visual Studio Code Basic text editor: Atom, gedit, nano, Emacs PDF Reader: Chromium, evince, Adobe Acrobat (non-free) Office Suite: Google Docs, LibreOffice Calendar: Google Calendar Video player: Totem, mplayer Music player: Totem, mplayer Photo viewer: Eye of GNOME, Shotwell Screen recording: RecordMyDesktop And a category that's been traditionally missing from Linux distros and really shouldn't be: Simple raster graphics editor (like Microsoft Paint): GNU Paint
chauhankiran 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Basic Text Editor: gEdit Video Player: VLC
Grue3 9y ago
Browser: Firefox LTE (pre-web extensions) Terminal: guake IDE: Emacs File manager: anything but default gnome manager Music player: audacious
thibran 9y ago
The default "simple" console text editor "nano" should be replaced by the much more intuitive editor called "ne" (a less known gem).
xiaomai 9y ago
In most cases I prefer the standard gnome stuff (browser is the big exception). Web Browser: Chromium / Firefox / Epiphany Email Client: Evolution / Mutt / Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal File manager: nautilus Text editor: gedit IRC: weechat / polaris Office Suite: google docs / libreoffice Calendar: google calendar / gnome calendar Video Player: Totem / mpv Photo Viewer: Shotwell (I wish gnome-photos would work but its reliance on Tracker makes it unusable for me (what is with tracker not following symlinks?? please fix that). Screen recording: I wish the gnome-builtin one did sound, since it doesn't I use SimpleScreenRecorder)
pmontra 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome terminal is ok IDE: none. I'm using emacs for all the things. Which standard IDE could handle all languages well? I think this is for developers and we pick our tools. If this is a IDE for learning, I don't know if this is the right way to learn. Maybe vim. File manager: nautilus is ok Basic Text Editor: gedit should be ok. I never use it because I don't need a basic editor. IRC/Messaging Client: no idea. I use my phone for messaging. PDF Reader: evince. Office Suite: Libreoffice from their PPA. The distro is usually way too behind. This is a general problem with many packages not in the core of the OS. Maybe it's time to give up on trying to be current and let developers package their stuff in any sensible format. Calendar: I use the offline calendar on my phone. Video Player: VLC, Gnome Video is just too basic. Music Player: YouTube :-) Seriously, I use Rhythmbox and it's kinda ok, when it doesn't mess with the metadata of a full directory of files. I'm chmod 400 my mp3 to make them safe. Photo Viewer: eog? I used shotwell and its predecessor (fspot?) and I lost all labels migrating among versions and computers. I'm not wasting my time anymore with sw that organize picture collections. If at least they had import / export to / from csv. Screen Recording: I liked to use Green Recorder https://launchpad.net/~mhsabbagh/+archive/ubuntu/greenproject https://launchpad.net/~mhsabbagh/+archive/ubuntu/greenprojec... but how about adding a video editor too?
- Rondom 9y ago
  Gnome has a smorke screen recorder built in already. Press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R to record
  - pmontra 9y ago
    That doesn't work for me, probably because I'm on Gnome flashback. I don't like Activities and other quirks of Gnome Shell. Luckily with Ubuntu 16.04 the flashback mode gained back all the functionality of the Gnome 2 desktop. I googled for the package name of that screen recorder, with no success, but Green Recorder is pretty good. I also don't seem to have an embedded screen shapshotter (PrntScreen works). I've been using shutter for ages.
cromulen 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome, Firefox Email Client: Various web clients Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: VS Code File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: vim IRC/Messaging Client: Slack, Discord PDF Reader: Chrome, Evince Office Suite: Google drive web Calendar: Google calendar web Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free Photo Viewer: The default one Screen recording: None
khc 9y ago
web browser: firefox photo viewer: shotwell
sunstone 9y ago
Synaptic, geany, vlc thanks.
blfr 9y ago
Video Player: mpv! I had been using Ubuntu for years before realising that this amazing improvement over mplayer exists. And it has everything: GPU decoding, excellent UI, keyboard shortcuts, it's fast, and never fails. Of the software I use regularly, this one is by far the closest to perfection.
nilsocket 9y ago
TextEditor:- I really hate gedit, it takes around 1 to 3 seconds to save a file. It doesn't notify user if some foreign process changed or removed file. When ever a user types in a bracket, parentheses..., It does mean that he/she is going to close that (most probably). Indentation, only God can understand what it means for source code files. Only one thing which I like in gedit is, cobalt. I don't use Ubuntu, because I need a feature-rich desktop, not the opposite. I could've used Kubuntu, but I hate it because of apt (for being too slow) What I like in Ubuntu is better power management. I could've used Fedora, but I hate it's package manager, for being inconsistent, and this text like Microsoft, "please wait while your system is being updated", "reboot to update your system". Rather than feeling the pain everyday, I take pain for few hours and install Arch Linux, with KDE. Having the best feature-rich DE, with latest and up-to-date packages, a package manger which just works out of the box even in worst network conditions, for having every application in one place... I literally forgot what's the name for, including those community or independent developers application, URL into main repositories, which will most probably break the system. I don't know why you guys choosed GNOME, everything is damn slow. I accept that it provides simplicity for its users.
acabal 9y ago
Web browser: Firefox Email client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal File Manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit (But can you patch the ridiculous "find next" shortcut key to ctrl + f/enter from ctrl + f/ctrl + g?) PDF Reader: Gnome default Office Suite: LibreOffice Music Player: I always felt like Banshee was the superior Gnomish music player but it seems to unmaintained unfortunately. Rhythmbox is the next best basic one IMHO. Photo viewer: Gnome default
- anopows 9y ago
  >But can you patch the ridiculous "find next" shortcut key to ctrl + f/enter from ctrl + f/ctrl + g? Yes this is one of the things that I am really annoyed with gedit. All searches (to my knowledge) in browsers and IDE's work by pressing enter to get to the new search entry. The only exception which comes to my mind is vim which has 'n' to go to the next search entry(also completely different to gedit). But in comparison vim, excepts the user to learn a lot of new commands, gedit on the other hand should imo follow the simplicity of other GNOME apps. To search a keyboard shortcut in the manual and then memorize it for such a simple editor is just tedious and irritating.
bitL 9y ago
Autoremove old kernel from /boot - this might look nice on "paper" however I have significant issues on latest LTS with any version of kernel 4.8 and 4.10 where I can't ever get to desktop, so I have to stick with 4.4 (Broadwell Core M ultrabook). If a reliable kernel is gone, I might not be able to boot unless I prepare an emergency USB stick and carry it with me all the time...
jdlyga 9y ago
The default apps in Ubuntu under Unity are good as-is. I don't feel the need for any changes. But after looking at the 17.10 image, it absolutely needs dash to dock. Gnome is unusable to a lot of people without it. Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly, remember. Also, improving the look of GDM is a must. It looks fairly ugly by default.
dd9990 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox (unmodified, no pre-installed Ubuntu extensions) Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal or Tilix [0] IDE: Gnome Builder File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: N/A PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LiberOffice Fresh (preferably via a snap to keep updated) Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Gnome MPV with youtube-dl [1] or VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Digikam Screen recording: N/A [0] https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix [1] https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv
tradesmanhelix 9y ago
Also, maybe try the Ubuntu Mate approach and let users pick their own solution. I'd love to see Ubuntu implement something like the Ubuntu Mate Welcome [1] and/or Software Boutique [2]. [1] https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/ubuntu-mate-welcome https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/ubuntu-mate-welcome [2] https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/ubuntu-mate-welcome-screen/1616 https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/ubuntu-mate-welcome-screen/1...
w4rh4wk5 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Terminator IDE: none File Manager: nemo Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging: Hex-Chat, Empathy PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: Libreoffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: ristretto Screen recording: obs
TeMPOraL 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome non-free, Emacs Email Client: Gmail web, Emacs Terminal: xterm, fish shell, Emacs IDE: Emacs File manager: default, Emacs Basic Text Editor: Emacs IRC/Messaging Client: Emacs PDF Reader: whatever that default one is, Emacs Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Emacs Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free Photo Viewer: whatever the default is Screen recording: OBS I'm not joking with that Emacs thing. Please, oh please, ensure Ubuntu has always a recent Emacs version.
- lucb1e 9y ago
  I downvoted because I don't think it's constructive to force Emacs on everyone. In my post, I thought of including vim as the default text editor (I have set it as default on my work and home computers, also when opening a text/code file from a browser or file manager) and definitely as the default terminal editor (instead of nano), but many people are just not going to make use of it. If you want something specific, you should just install it yourself I think. > please, ensure Ubuntu has always a recent Emacs version. Outdated software is an issue in general. This is one of the reasons I hear people don't like Ubuntu, Debian or Mint because Fedora is actually up to date. Never mind that Fedora frequently breaks and Debian totally has a testing release, but Ubuntu is just lacking in this.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Hey, I'm not forcing Emacs on anyone! The poster asked to "submit the apps you find most useful in Linux", so I listed what I use, honest-to-God. I don't see how a legit datapoint deserves a downvote, but whatevs.
    - lucb1e 9y ago
      Hmm, I'm inclined to undown. I think the intention of this question is "what should the defaults be", not strictly "what do you use". I don't mean to offend, though. Undowned.
  - Shorel 9y ago
    The few applications I care about having the very last versions in Ubuntu, have a PPA, and I just use the PPA. Frequent breaks are worse IMO.
wasd 9y ago
One of my greatest frustrations is the default email client. It's caused a lot of headaches with mailto links. I would prefer if Ubuntu did not ship with one.
neves 9y ago
Music Player: Clementine
lucb1e 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nemo Basic Text Editor: Anything except Gedit. For example Geany is fine. Messaging Client: Telegram, Pidgin IRC client: Hexchat PDF Reader: Evince Calendar: Thunderbird's built-in Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free, VLC Screen recording: SSR (ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder) System monitor: htop, gnome-system-monitor Calculator: apcalc
newscracker 9y ago
Web browser: Firefox Email client: Thunderbird File Manager: Thunar File Manager Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: mpv ---------- Completely unrelated, but having Ubuntu work well on a Mac (and retaining habits learned on a Mac) with the external Apple Magic Trackpad would be great. It's a huge source of frustration and annoyance for me for various reasons, right after the keyboard shortcuts. Native to Ubuntu, I will also miss Unity not being developed further or not being developed with the focus that existed before. Another one, though not a desktop default app. Please add a well maintained and working VNC server (or make it available). I tried a few, gave up and went with TeamViewer (which is a commercial product, but free for personal use). Not being able to screen share with a mostly headless machine has been very frustrating.
rasengan 9y ago
The switch to libinput is good. I would also strongly suggest including libinput-gestures which enables multi-touch gestures. It's a fascinating feature which helps one's work flow. Dash to Dock is another good one as are several other nice GNOME extensions. bumblebee / gfx support would be nice :-) Tiling Extensions as well. The GNOME screen recorder works fine built in. :)
abbiya 9y ago
Web Browser: firefox Email Client: dont include one Terminal: stable one with wayland support IDE: vs code File manager: mate's Basic Text Editor: no gedit for sure IRC/Messaging Client: dont bother to include one PDF Reader: smallest and stable one Office Suite: dont include Calendar: no good apps are there Video Player: vlc Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: include only one, no need to photo manager Screen recording: include the stable
tapper 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nemo Basic Text Editor: Geany Messaging Client: Telegram, Pidgin IRC client: Hexchat PDF Reader: Evince Calendar: Thunderbird's built-in Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free, VLC Screen recording: SSR (ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder) System monitor: htop, gnome-system-monitor Calculator: apcalc
dcintes 9y ago
Web Browser: Vivaldi, Firefox IDE: eclipse Basic Text Editor: gedit Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: Vlc Screen recording: Obs
zanny 9y ago
Meta-observation: There are three primary applications everyone wants fairly uniformly. Firefox, LO, and VLC. It is really interesting from an integration perspective to consider all three: * Firefox pulls in gtk3 and gtk2 dependencies. * VLC pulls in Qt and sdl1. * LO pulls in Python. Of note, both Firefox and VLC use ffmpeg, which is nice. But my macro point - the most popular applications for Linux right now all use pretty much entirely different infrastructure. All three pull in at least a dozen library or package dependencies each, there is little overlap, and between them you have the entirety of GTK and Qt. On top of that, they are about 130MB, 50MB, and 400MB installed respectively. I'm not going to make conclusions about how this relates to the desire to write composable software, or how these various monolith projects are also the most desired. It is just interesting that just from the big three staples you are looking at more space used on installation media than a CD just from them and their immediate dependencies. Qt alone is around 400MB including webengine. Gtk is another 90MB. So you are looking at over 1GB of binaries, libraries, and art assets to run 3 programs, and at runtime they will all be pulling these respective libraries into resident memory with almost no overlap.
- michaelmrose 9y ago
  Its foolishness to try to find a whole list of apps that use the same gui toolkit instead of the best apps, python is installed by default on every linux system under the sun, and you can't just convert from installed size to memory usage. The universe just doesn't work that way.
  - zanny 9y ago
    Its not installed size to memory usage. Its shared common libraries vs unshared libraries. Pulling in Qt means every Qt app will load so's for all the same things the core GTK libraries do, and take up memory that in a purely GTK environment would never be used because all the apps shared the same libraries in memory. This also dramatically affects the performance of app switching and opening new apps. This is how Android has a tiny memory footprint - one gui toolkit, one runtime, one way to do everything. You really notice on Android when you open an NDK app that isn't using the Android Frameworks GUI components because they take a long time to open. This is also why Windows in general is a bloated mess - depending on what software you are running it might be Windows Forms or XDA or their new app frameworks (Metro and/or 10) or .net or Qt or the old style COM API from the 95-98 days. Or worse, nowadays, you can get an Electron app that starts up its own browser rendering engine and doesn't share anything with the Chrome instance you have running at the same time despite using the same libraries. None share fundamental primitives, so opening programs from each toolkit eats memory alive. And then every program you install pretty much has to assume you don't have any library dependencies installed as well, so they pull down their entire toolkit in some .Z patch version that is incompatible with any other app using it so almost the same library gets loaded multiple times.
tapoxi 9y ago
Remove the following: * Email client * IDE * IRC/Messaging Client * Calendar * Office Suite Only absolute necessities in a default install. I still don't understand why Linux distributions insist on shipping so much stuff by default.
Keeblo 9y ago
I really like Ubuntu, but there are two things that I would recommend changing/fixing: 1. Replace the default PDF reader with something faster. It takes the default PDF viewer (in 17.04) 10+ seconds to open files that MuPDF can open in 2 seconds. MuPDF is very basic, so it might not be the best option for the default viewer, but hopefully there's something faster than the current default. 2. Allow the software center app to request sudo privileges when installing .deb files from the GUI. When I set up my most recent Ubuntu desktop I downloaded the Chrome deb from Google and then tried to install it by double clicking the file in the GUI file browser. The software center app opened and tried to install it, but instead of asking me for sudo privileges (which I had), it failed to install. My options were A) install it from the command line with sudo or B) install gdebi and use that to install the deb from the GUI. As someone who is comfortable working in Linux, it's not a big deal for me to install a deb from the command line. The inability to install a deb by double clicking it would be a showstopper/major issue for someone who is brand new to Linux and isn't trying to "learn Linux". P.S. There's an argument to be made that people should just learn to use the command line, but Ubuntu's slogan is "Linux for human beings". Besides, the worst way to introduce someone to the wonderful world of FOSS software is to give them a headache while they're trying to set up their computer :-)
- michaelmrose 9y ago
  Zathura can use mupdf as a backend and has much better bindings/features compared to mupdf, it also supports other ebook formats. Still pretty keyboard driven and not an optimal choice for ubuntu. Maybe ubuntu should have a more minimal spin with i3wm and apps like zathura.
  - Keeblo 9y ago
    I second that! The i3wm rocks, but it's kind of a pain to set up. Many applications expect certain GUI elements to be present, and a lot of "It Just Works" aspects of Ubuntu (e.g. hotkeys on laptop media keyboards working) are built into the desktop environment and have to be reconfigured for i3wm.
    - 9y ago
dillon 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email: Anything simple and lightweight Terminal: Default GNOME Term. IDE: Shouldn't be in a default install File Manager: Anything simple and lightweight + tabs (Nautilus) Basic Text Editor: vi IRC/Messaging: Pidgin or Empathy PDF: Default GNOME Viewer Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Default GNOME Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Default GNOME Screen Recording: Something full featured? Additionally: Maps: Anything supporting OSM (GNOME Maps) Software Center: GNOME's Software Center
sathackr 9y ago
Native Windows user, raised on it since 3.0. Made Ubuntu 16.04 my primary OS about 14 months ago after MS tried to cram Windows 10 down my throat and insisted on packaging the Windows Store, CandyCrushSaga and Facebook apps in Server 2016 and making them essentially impossible to remove. Every day I get more and more comfortable. It hasn't been without frustration, and often I've wanted to give up and go back, but so far I've stuck to it. ----- Web Browser: Google Chrome Email client: None since I use gmail and Office 365, and not much will cooperate with O365 except OWA. Terminal: default preinstalled app IDE: Not a developer File manager: default preinstalled app(Nautilus?) Basic text editor: gedit, or the non-gui version of emacs. I know I know..... IRC/Messaging: Google voice and Slack web pages, via Google Chrome PDF Reader: Evince or Google Chrome. Not really because I prefer either, just the first ones I found and they were 'good enough'. Office Suite: Preinstalled libreoffice has been 'good enough' for me. Also Google Sheets(via Chrome) Calendar: Don't use one, probably would if O365 integration worked better. Video Player: Default preinstalled player because it usually works, but VLC occasionally if I have something the built-in won't play. Music Player: None -- Pandora/Soundcloud/Youtube/DI.FM/Google Play, all web, via Google Chrome. Photo Viewer: default preinstalled has worked pretty well for me. I think I like it better than the Windows Photo viewer that MS took away from me with 8/10 Screen recording: None. I make heavy use of the preinstalled screenshot utility, though I wish it was a bit more like the windows snipping tool. It's fairly annoying to use it to grab multiple screenshots when you're trying to just select an area, though I like that you can grab a quick succession using the prt-screen and save them all. Other apps I use often: Steam libvirt/VMM Remmina, though I wish it had more features for RDP. Seems sessions are much slower than when using a MS rdp client. PlayOnLinux Occasionally Gimp, though it's pretty annoying to use in 16.04 because of the way it creates multiple separate windows.
- mlcdf 9y ago
  Regarding your last comment about Gimp, this feature (the multi-window mode) can be disable. Open Gimp > "Windows" > check "Simple-Window mode".
  - sathackr 9y ago
    Interesting -- I went in to enable that option and it was already checked. It's been a couple of weeks since I last used Gimp -- maybe it was changed in an update? In any case, thanks!
Kliment 9y ago
Browser: Firefox Email client: Thunderbird Basic text editor: Geany Office suite: LO but allow users to select defaults at install or at any other time
mi100hael 9y ago
Web Browser: FireFox, Chromium, Chrome only as last resort for media compatibility Email Client: Thunderbird, mutt Terminal: Gnome Terminal, Terminator IDE: Netbeans Basic Text Editor: vim, gVim, gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pigin, Hexchat Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: NextCloud web Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Shotwell I guess
ptr_void 9y ago
Everyone default seems to be gnome nowadays, I don't understand why. One of the main reason for me to stick with Ubuntu was unity being a great DE. === Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: ??? Terminal: Gnome terminal IDE: VIM + plugins, Visual Studio Code File manager: 16.0 default Basic Text Editor: VIM IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: 16.04 default Office Suite: LibreOffice, markdown + pandoc -> pdf Calendar: ??? Video Player: VLC Music Player: ??? Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: Simple Screen Recorder ===
vkandy 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal, Terminator IDE: Webstorm (several) File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: pidgin/hexchat PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: Libre Office Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: Rythmbox Photo Viewer: Shotwell Screen recording: Peek Bonus: htop, KeePass2
stuaxo 9y ago
Terminal: Terminix
hd4 9y ago
I don't know if this is the appropriate thread but can we have some better support for F2FS in Ubuntu please? From what I know, we can't even install to a F2FS partition using the default installer.
supersexman 9y ago
Web Browser: Opera non-free (you can also make a commercial agreement with Opera, this would raise their market share) Email Client: Terminal: terminator IDE: Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: VLC Music Player: Amarok
ColanR 9y ago
I really like the defaults that ubuntu gnome currently has. If I could make one request, it would be to include gdebi in the default install. I've found it much more convenient for adding .deb packages than software center.
lousken 9y ago
Web browser: Firefox Email: None, Thunderbird Terminal: xfce4-terminal IDE: None, Qt creator, Visual studio code File manager: Thunar, Nautilus, for terminal Midnight commander Basic text editor: Mousepad, for terminal vim IRC/Messaging Client: Empathy, Pidgin, none PDF Reader: Okular, Firefox (integrated) Office suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome native Video player: smplayer (or any Mplayer version with GUI), for terminal ffplay Music player: Clementine, for terminal cmus Photo viewer: Ristretto Screen recording: xfce4-screenshooter, OBS Studio Extra Shell: zsh Password manager: Keepass, KeepassXC Task manager: htop Other: Numlockx, git Basic photo editor similar to picpick/mspaint on windows: Pinta (guess is closest to that) (currently xubuntu 16.04 user)
Shorel 9y ago
Web browser: Chromium. Bittorrent client: Deluge. I use Kodi for videos and music and sublime text to edit texts, and I don't see any reason to force complex or proprietary software as the defaults.
petecox 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Chrome and Vivaldi each have their own apt repository, so why Ubuntu would bundle or package them, I'm not sure but give the option of adding an entry to sources.list. I mainly use Chrome for websites requiring flash support and letting Google manage that rather than the FOSS Chromium is simpler. Basic Text Editor: Geany. Decent feature set and it has support in Windows and I prefer cross platform tools. Video Player, Music Player: VLC. Again it works on multiple operating systems and with few dramas. Office Suite: Libreoffice, again it's cross platform. I have written a couple of things in Lyx but it's niche. PDF Reader: NOT Okular - it's very versatile but chokes when rendering image-heavy 40 page film festival brochures. Atril or whatever the Gnome version is called are snappier. Email Client: On linux, I use webmail. Too many hoops to jump through in getting Office365 and Gmail working seamlessly without typing in a bunch of IMAP/SMTP settings voodoo - lack in patience and too lazy in 2017 for that! Would revisit if something worked out of the box. The rest? Well you've committed to Gnome and the default apps would suffice.
bsharitt 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: I'm pretty much all web apps, and would actually like not having evolution or thunderbird installed by default. I think email clients are something to leave up to the users to specifically install Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Visual Studio Code. I don't care if it's installed by default, but the ability to install out of the box without a web visit and .deb download would be great. File manager: I guess I use Nautilus by default, but don't take that as an endorsement Basic Text Editor: I use vim, but Gedit suffices. IRC/Messaging Client: Like email, I think this should be left out of a base install these days. PDF Reader: Evnince it fine, but ePub support in it, or what ever PDF/document viewer is default would be wonderful(bonuse points for mobi too) Office Suite: Libre Office seems to be the only real option and it's fine Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: I used to install VLC day, one, but actually have kept Totem lately Music Player: I don't think there's any good options, Rhythmbox is still much better than Gnome Music if you're tempted to go all Gnome with the default DE switch Photo Viewer: EOG is fine, just don't make a big heavy gallery app the default opener even if one is installed by default.
zumu 9y ago
Is there an option to have none of that installed? First thing I do on any distro is uninstall that stuff
luis3380 9y ago
Web Browser: chrome Email Client: thunderbird Terminal: IDE: codeblocks File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: evince Video Player: vlc Office Suite: libreoffice (last version) Music Player: clementine
riffic 9y ago
Give more love to Ubuntu server. Remove this update notification from the MOTD (this message encourages newbs to break their box): https://imgur.com/a/6SD97 https://imgur.com/a/6SD97 further elaboration provided here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14006747 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14006747
ajitid 9y ago
Most of them are preferring VS Code as their IDE, Firefox as their web browser and VLC for playing media
PleaseHelpMe 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox/ Chrome Email Client: No Email Client. Terminal: Terminator IDE: No IDE. File manager: Nautilus/ Thunar. (I was looking for something with dual panel view but no good solution seems to exist right now) Basic Text Editor: Gedit/ Sublime. IRC/Messaging Client: No IRC/MEssaging client or Hexchat. PDF Reader: Evince/ qPdfViewer Office Suite: Libreoffice (But do we have an alternative?) Calendar: Gnome Calendar seems fine. Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: gThumb Screen recording: OBS/ Kazam.
rvern 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, not Chromium, Epiphany or anything else. Email Client: Evolution, Thunderbird if you really don't want to pick Evolution. Do install one by default. Terminal: GNOME Terminal. IDE: none. File manager: Nautilus. Basic Text Editor: gedit. IRC/Messaging Client: none, Pidgin, Polari, HexChat. PDF Reader: Evince. Office Suite: LibreOffice; LibreOffice Base should be excluded. Calendar: GNOME Calendar. Video Player: Totem, not VLC. Music Player: Rhythmbox, perhaps GNOME Music in a future release. Photo Viewer: Eye of GNOME, maybe include Shotwell too. Screen recording: GNOME Shell's built-in recording. Also include file-roller, gnome-calculator, gnome-characters (not gucharmap), gnome-clocks, gnome-disks, baobab, gnome-documents, gnome-font-viewer, gnome-system-monitor, yelp, gnome-logs, bijiben, seahorse, gnome-screenshot, gnome-software, and gnome-weather, and consider including gnome-boxes, devhelp, gnome-dictionary, gitg, gimp, gnome-maps, gnome-tweak-tool, and deja-dup. This is almost exactly identical to Fedora Workstation's default apps. In general, I have a strong preference for embracing the GNOME apps and GTK+ 3. The only exceptions are Firefox instead of Epiphany and LibreOffice instead of AbiWord and Gnumeric.
larkery 9y ago
Web Browser: conkeror Email Client: emacs Terminal: urxvt IDE: emacs File manager: emacs Basic Text Editor: emacs IRC/Messaging Client: emacs PDF Reader: emacs + epdftools Office Suite: n/a Calendar: emacs Video Player: n/a Music Player: emacs Photo Viewer: feh Screen recording: n/a
- linopolus 9y ago
  There you have a great operating system – it lacks a good editor, though.
c8g 9y ago
Terminal: Tilix Video Player: vlc
zhte415 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: <web> Terminal: GNOME Terminal IDE: none File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: GEdit or Sublime Text IRC/Messaging Client: none PDF Reader: Firefox Office Suite: LibreOffice, but in a work environment use MS Office, and even MS Office 2007 (at work) is light-years ahead of LibreOffice in terms of how I use Office. I do like the pop-out right column for editing, but find I have to go through menu after menu for simple things like formatting a text box in Impress. Calc table functions lack MS Office in all aspects. Calendar: none Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Whatever the default is. Is good enough to not notice what it is. Screen recording: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+r. Mainly record screen at work (Windows) where ShareX produces nice quality and file sizes.
pratikborsadiya 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Terminal: Gnome-terminal IDE: Sublime text File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: nano Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC
gurkendoktor 9y ago
I don't really care as long as the Software app is in good shape. It should find common software and maybe even have a link to software that it doesn't find (search for Spotify->show link with PPA installation instructions). My only wish is OpenVPN (+GUI integration).
type0 9y ago
Gdebi Meld KeepassXC mpv player and SMPlayer Audacious Geeqie image viewer Caffeine (to turn the screensaver off) Devhelp IDE: GNOME builder would be great to add those to the repos for Ubuntu server / command line: micro editor terminal_velocity
nandop 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Evolution Terminal: Gnome Teminal IDE: Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: Document Viewer Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Image Viewer Screen recording: ???
simonvdv 9y ago
First of all, thanks for getting in touch with your users! Hope you'll be able to extrapolate some useful info from it :) My basic suggestion would be to keep it simple, so stay with the GNOME apps where you can. Also it might make sense to make a distinction between what people feel is a good choice of software and which of those should be included in the default install. IMHO stuff like and IDE, e-mail client, IRC client, messaging client, office suite and screen recording don't have to be included in the default install as long as it's easy enough for everyone to add them later (or customize during install). Regarding specific items: - Terminal: gnome-terminal, but if possible look into make the tabs a bit less tall and fix the search dialog so it can be closed by pressing escape - File manager/photo viewer: nautilus, but look into fixing the preview (spacebar) so that it allows opening the preview window once and then allow navigating through all files in the chosen directory using the arrow keys - Calendar: gnome-calender, but make sure you use gnome 3.24 or later so it support dark mode - Screenshots: gnome-screenshot, but please fix it so it's possible to take multiple screenshots in succession. Right one has to close and open it to do so. - Video player: Technically mpv, maybe with the gnome-mpv GUI. Though mpv might be too difficult to use for some users? - Music player: Imho none of them is really good enough :( Elementary's noise might be at some point
nahtnam 9y ago
I just want to say that the web browser should be Firefox for the sole reason that most people will install chrome and having both chrome and chromium would be confusing.
sunseb 9y ago
Init: Alternative to systemd please. :)
rosco18 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Geary Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Eclipse File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Messenger for desktop PDF Reader: Default on old version Office Suite: WPS office Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: TOTEM Music Player: Evince Photo Viewer: ??? Music Player: Rhythmbox Photo Viewer: shotwell Screen recording: default on old version
chavlu 9y ago
Ubuntu y Google deberían de aliarse ambos son open source, el nuevo ubuntu debería de utilizar las aplicaciones de Google y tener ciertas funciones geniales que un dispositivo Android tiene.
chavlu 9y ago
Ubuntu and Google they should play as a team, Google has many tools and ubuntu many knowledge, people like both. Ubuntu should start using Google apps, and ubuntu should be easier to get in stores.
frik 9y ago
Consider giving Ubuntu MATE even more love. It's the Ubuntu as it should be with a proper shell, not this Gnome3 UI-mess but with great Gnome2 alike UI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_MATE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_MATE
alok-g 9y ago
Please make sure to honor accessibility features and select applications that do. I need dark themes because my eyes become red without. It is painful to use apps that do not honor theme colors and do not provide their own means to change colors either.
flurdy 9y ago
Web Browser: Brave, Firefox Email Client: Gmail web Terminal: Terminator IDE: IntelliJ, Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Atom, VIM IRC/Messaging Client: Gitter, Slack non-free Office Suite: Google Docs web Calendar: Google Calendar web Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free Screen recording: Google Hangout non-free, Floobits non-free Games platform: Steam non-free Source control GUI: GitKraken
fsantucci 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: YahooMail, Gmail Terminal: Tilix IDE: Visual Studio Code, Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Vim, Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Telegram PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice, WPS Office Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC, MediaInfo Music Player: Lollypop, Spotify, EasyTAG Photo Viewer: Shotwell Screen recording: Simple Screen Recorder Shell: zsh Bitmap Image Editor: GIMP 2D Vetorial Image Editor: Inkscape
akerro 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox with µblock Origin and https everywhere installed system-wide
sigi21 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: ??? IDE: ??? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: ??? IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: ??? Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: ???
sigi21 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nautilus Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC
Nala_Alan 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Gmail (web), Protonmail (web) Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: Sublime Text 3 (non-free), Visual Studio Code File manager: default Basic Text Editor: nano IRC/Messaging Client: HexChat PDF Reader: default Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: none Video Player: mpv Music Player: unsure, i would go with DeaDBeeF and Spotify (non-free) Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: none Extra: KeePass, git, gpg
ubu4 9y ago
Office Suite: libreoffice Video Player: VLC E-Mail Client: Thunderbird Webbrowser: Firefox and Chromium
someone666a 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox/Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Whatever IDE: No! File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gnote IRC/Messaging Client: No! PDF Reader: Whatever Office Suite: No!/Libreoffice Calendar: Whatever/No! Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Whatever Screen recording: No!
yAnonymous 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox IDE: Visual Studio Code PDF Reader: Firefox Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine
holgerrlp 9y ago
Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome-Terminal IDE: Geany File manager: Nemo Basic Text Editor: Pluma PDF Reader: Atril Office Suite: Libreoffice Calendar: Orage Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome Screen recording: Simple-Screen-Recorder
HuangYuSan 9y ago
Web Browser: Chrome non-free, Firefox Email Client: Inbox web, Mutt Terminal: GNOME Terminal File manager: Nautilus, Nemo Basic Text Editor: Atom, Gedit PDF Reader: Evince, Chrome Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Docs web, Office 2016 with VMWare Player non-free Calendar: Google Calendar web Video Player: Totem Movie Player Music Player: Google Play Music web Photo Viewer: GNOME image viewer
arbeluga 9y ago
Web Browser: Firefox, Epiphany Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird (Lightning) Video Player: VLC, Totem Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: EyeOfGnome Screen recording: "Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R" in Gnome
saikatsg 9y ago
- Web Browser: Chromium/GNOME Web - Email Client: Gmail-web - Terminal: Guake/GNOME Terminal - IDE: Visual Studio Code - File manager: Nautilus/Files - Basic Text Editor: Leafpad/Bluefish - IRC/Messaging Client: Hexchat/Polari - PDF Reader: Evince - Office Suite: LibreOffice - Calendar: GNOME Calendar - Video Player: VLC/SMPlayer/GNOME Videos - Music Player: GNOME Music/Audacious - Photo Viewer: gThumb/GNOME Photos - Screen recording: Peek/Kazam

dm319 9y ago

ubuntu-mate has a nice software boutique, which I think is a great idea for people new to the world of FOSS. It's a nice curated list of great FOSS software sorted by category.

Freak_NL 9y ago

For most I would say the current defaults more than suffice. Web Browser: Firefox. Of the two modern web browsers that are applicable (Chromium being the other), Mozilla and Firefox are more in tune with the free software mentality many users of Ubuntu adhere. It is an excellent browser as well. Email Client: Thunderbird? Are there mature alternatives that will work for most people that use a standalone mail application? Terminal: Keep gnome-terminal, it's perfectly fine for most. IDE: None. Leave this to the user. An IDE need not be present by default, as it depends greatly one the language chosen. For simple scripting Gedit suffices at first, and associating code files with Gedit by default is fine too. File manager: I take it Gnome Shell still ships with Nautilus? Basic Text Editor: Nothing wrong with Gedit. PDF Reader: Evince. Mature and fast. Office Suite: LibreOffice of course. Video Player: Something that supports everything you can throw at it. Music Player: I'm partial to Quod Libet. :)

jhasse 9y ago
> Video Player: Something that supports everything you can throw at it. I would go with mpv there instead of the obvious VLC. It just so much faster and bug-free!
- enzanki_ars 9y ago
  And if you love the command line, MPV (https://mpv.io/ https://mpv.io/) is an even faster and contains less bugs than VLC.
- cJ0th 9y ago
  I only recently discovered mpv. Is it possible to make it resume the playback where it was left off?
  - grover_hartmann 9y ago
    Yes, from the mpv(1) man page: Q Like q, but store the current playback position. Playing the same file later will resume at the old playback position if possible. Just quit with Q instead of q.
    - cJ0th 9y ago
      awesome! thanks a lot!

brudgers 9y ago

What I want is no change unless there is a good reason to change. The internet voting for Browsey McBrowseface etc. is not, in my opinion, a good reason to change. There are things Canonical does well, I think. Those things are technical. When it comes to trying to be Microsoft/Apple/Google, it misses the mark. In part because it assumes that which PDF reader it ships with matters to users. Good luck.

keithpeter 9y ago
I would echo brudgers sentiment here but would table the suggestion for a meta-package or series of meta-packages that would install R, texlive, octave, iPython and a good selection of other mathematical/data processing software. My 'vision'(+) would be something like UbuntuStudio for data/maths. (+) I can no longer use words like 'vision', 'paradigm' &c without distancing speech marks because of their misuse in the corporate world. The survey: Web Browser: Firefox with pocket &c disabled and javascript toggled off, Chromium for when I need javascript &c. Also a hosts.txt file that deep-sixes ignorant Web trackers. Email Client: Evolution. Terminal: Gnome-terminal (minimal use case) IDE: RDesktop File manager: default, Nautilus at present Basic Text Editor: default, Gedit at present IRC/Messaging Client: N/A PDF Reader: default, Evince at present Office Suite: Libreoffice but also use of texlive and pandoc (and groff!) Calendar: Evolution Video Player: VLC Music Player: default, presently Rhythmbox Photo Viewer: shotwell
- artursapek 9y ago
  > turning off JS by default for a browser Year of the Linux laptop would never come
  - keithpeter 9y ago
    I'm not suggesting that anyone else run a Web browser with javascript switched off - I interpreted the list as some kind of survey of current use. However I'm pleasantly surprised at how many Web sites do actually convey their main content with javascript disabled, and the increase in speed and battery life is marked. The 'year of the linux desktop' meme is a little moot as phones/tablets now provide the mass computing experience for many people, and the primary experience for people under 25 or so (I'm a teacher).

ovh 9y ago

Totally agree with Freak_NL. For video player, definitely VLC.

jhasse 9y ago
Why not mpv?

FranOntanaya 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome-Terminal IDE: None File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Whatever supports Slack and Discord I guess. PDF Reader: Current choice is fine. Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: I prefer SMPlayer to VLC for simple playback Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: gThumb Screen recording: Kazam

jhasse 9y ago
> I prefer SMPlayer to VLC for simple playback I'm curious: What's your opinion on mpv vs. SMPlayer?
- nilsocket 9y ago
  SM-Player is based on MPV.

Giako 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium, Firefox, Chrome Email Client: Thunderbird, Web GMail Terminal: Terminix IDE: IntelliJ IDEA Community, Eclipse File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: GEdit PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Drive Calendar: Thunderbird Lightning, Google Calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Spotify webapp, Spotify client non-free

jacek 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Opera (non-free) Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Tilix, gnome-terminal IDE: Atom, gnome-builder File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: telegram-desktop PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: gnome-calendar Video Player: gnome-mpv, smplayer Music Player: gnome-music, Spotify (non-free) Photo Viewer: gnome photo viewer (don't know the name) Screen recording: don't use Photo editing: Darktable Note taking: QOwnNotes Research source organization: Zotero

j0ar 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Opera Email Client: Geary, Thunderbird, pantheon-mail (when the new version is ready) Terminal: gnome-terminal, pantheon-terminal IDE: ??? File manager: Nautilus, Thunar, pantheon-files Basic Text Editor: gedit, scratch-text-editor (from elementaryOS) IRC/Messaging Client: Telegram PDF Reader: envince Office Suite: Libre Calendar: gnome-calendar (please please please with Caldav support for posteo) Video Player: totem, mpv (gnome-mpv) Music Player: audacious Photo Viewer: gnome-viewer Screen recording: ???

dustinkirkland 9y ago

If you'd prefer, you can fill out the survey here: https://ubu.one/apps1804 https://ubu.one/apps1804

_R_ 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome, Chromium Email Client: unity-mail Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: VIM File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Drive Calendar: Gnome Calendar, Google Calendar Video Player: VLC, YouTube Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Gnome Image Viewer Screen recording: None

devillius 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium, Chrome Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: Atom, VS Code File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: None Office Suite: Libreoffice, Openoffice Calendar: None Video Player: VLC Music Player: None Photo Viewer: None Screen recording: Recordmydesktop (Kali recorder)

brian_herman 9y ago

Kind of offtopic but is there a linux terminal program that when you paste a bunch of commands with carriage returns asks you if you want to continue?

notamy 9y ago
I don't think something like that exists; the closest I've seen to anything like that is pantheon-terminal prompting you about pasting when a command is sudo
laumars 9y ago
I'm not sure I understand your question correctly but KDE's terminal (konsole) warns you if you try to paste large amounts of text
- brian_herman 9y ago
  So if you have the following command: echo "hello" python -v I want it to warn me if there are returns or carrage returns in the paste. iterm does this
xiaq 9y ago
Some terminal emulators / shells use some heuristics, but the most reliable way is to use a combination of a terminal emulator and shell that support bracketed paste mode. This article (https://cirw.in/blog/bracketed-paste https://cirw.in/blog/bracketed-paste) lists some terminal emulators that supports bracketed paste, and a zsh plugin that makes zsh handle bracketed paste in a safe manner. As an alternative to zsh, Elvish (https://github.com/elves/elvish https://github.com/elves/elvish) supports bracketed paste out of the box. When you paste anything that includes a carriage return, Elvish will insert a literal return instead of executing it. (Disclaimer: I am the author of Elvish.)

acidburn1995 9y ago

Web Browser: palemoon Email Client: mutt Terminal: terminator IDE: jetbrains stuff, vim File manager: ranger, nautilus Basic Text Editor: vim IRC/Messaging Client: hexchat PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: libreoffice Calendar: cal, webshit Video Player: mplayer,vlc,totem Music Player: clementine Photo Viewer: feh Screen recording: shutter

Theodores 9y ago
Since this post mentioned vim, can we have that as the default and installed editor for command line use? On the demo disk as well as the install. The nano editor is accessible for people like my Dad but he just calls when it is time to edit the crontab so nano only reaches the people that don't need the arm bands. There is a GUI on desktop for people wanting nano.

petepete 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Geary Terminal: Gnome terminal IDE: ??? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Empathy/Polari PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: Libre Office Calendar: Gnome calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Gnome music Photo Viewer: Shotwell (definitely not Darktable or RawTherapee, far too complicated) Screen recording: Built in Gnome screen recorder

gremlinsinc 9y ago

Web Browser : Google Chrome Stable Email: Thunderbird Terminal : Terminator IDE: Sublime Text3/Vs Code. File Manager: Thunar/Nautilus Basic Text: Gedit IRC: Irssi PDF ? (Usually just use chrome) Office Suite: Libre Calendar : (don't use) Video Player.: vlc Music Player: A good google play music/spotify app that can stream to chromecast would be nice... Photo Viewer: N/a Screen Recording: Don't know of any. Caveat.. not a ubuntu user here per se... But left because of some of the bloatware/opinonated stuff and it crashed a lot. Plus I like Antergos with i3-gnome better than anything I've ever used before... Much better performance, less crashes/bugs...etc..

brian_herman 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: vscode File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: libreoffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: vlc Music Player: vlc Photo Viewer: evince Screen recording: never use one so I dont really have an opinion

Kostic 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Tilix[0], Gnome Terminal, IDE: Visual Studio Code (although it's not a fully fledged IDE) File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Polari, HexChat PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Lollypop[1] Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome Screen recording: Peek[2] [0] https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix [1] http://gnumdk.github.io/lollypop-web/ http://gnumdk.github.io/lollypop-web/ [2] https://github.com/phw/peek https://github.com/phw/peek

sametmax 9y ago
Same but vlc for videos
- Kostic 9y ago
  VLC is indeed superior in comparison with Totem but it does not integrate nicely into GNOME as Totem would. MPV is also a very capable player. There is even an GTK frontend which obeys GNOME HIG and which is called gnome-mpv[0]. Maybe it would be a nice pick for the default video player. [0] https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv
  - gknoy 9y ago
    MPV also has the benefit of having a _really good_ command line API, which is in fact the main way I use it: mpv --no-border --autofit-larger=320x200 --loop=inf --volume=60 foo.mp4 It also has built-in support for youtube-dl so that you can do things like `mpv [youtube url]`. (It's possible that VLC lets you do both of these, of course.)
  - moosingin3space 9y ago
    IIRC, mpv already has native Wayland support, whereas VLC's was lacking. gnome-mpv is pretty nice, though.
  - ColanR 9y ago
    I'd rather have the superior player than the superior aesthetics, IMHO.

dallamaneni 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Terminator IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin, Thunderbird PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC

kevincox 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: neovim File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit (but actually neovim) IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: Libreoffice Calendar: Lightning (thunderbird plugin) Video Player: Totem Music Player: Totem/None Photo Viewer: eog Screen recording: I don't use them frequently enough to remember one I like.

SingletonIface 9y ago

Web browser: Firefox, Chromium. Comment: It is important that neither Chrome nor Chromium eat too much market share in order for the web to remain healthy. Email client: ??? Comment: I use mutt but I'm wishing for something better. mutt is too limited Terminal: Terminology, urxvt IDE: None; neo-vim is sufficient for programming tasks, don't need most IDE features. File manager: What ever is the default for the selected DE. Basic Text Editor: neo-vim IRC/Messaging Client: irssi and Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Don't know Video player: VLC Music player: Tomahawk Photo Viewer: What ever is default for the selected DE Screen recording: Open Broadcast Studio

mrkrabo 9y ago

I've removed the ones I don't use. Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Evolution Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: VSCode File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: HexChat PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: mpv Music Player: GTK3 frontend of Audacious Photo Viewer: eog

smacktoward 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird. (Note: I'm a bit worried about the future of TB, with Mozilla cutting back its support of the project. Since it's been the default email client in Ubuntu since forever, it would be great to see Canonical pitch in to support it more.) Terminal: GNOME Terminal IDE: Does Ubuntu need to ship with an IDE? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Does Ubuntu need to ship with an IRC client? PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: GNOME Calendar, Lightning Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: No opinion Screen recording: No opinion

tradesmanhelix 9y ago
++ To Canonical supporting TB more. Really don't want to see this important project go away. I use it on a daily basis in order not to have to deal with the Outlook365 web and M$ tracking me via its web apps.

antihero 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: None Terminal: Tilix? IDE: vs-code File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: vs code IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calenar Video Player: mpv Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: ???

haspok 9y ago

I have but one humble wish: when I want to start the calculator app I open the Dash and type "calc". However for some reason LibreOffice Calc has higher priority than the Calculator app, so I always have to select it specifically (instead of just pressing Enter) - even though I might have never used the LibreOffice Calc on this computer. Can you make the LibreOffice Calc app lower priority in the Dash please. Thank you.

pksadiq 9y ago
In case you don't know: You can simply type the expressions in gnome-shell search to get results. eg.: if you type "3+5" (without quotes), the result 8 will be shown. You can also have complex expressions like "3kg in lb", "sin (90)" etc. Once the result is shown, you can simply press the Enter key to open the result in gnome-calculator.
- Queue29 9y ago
  I'm in the same boat as OP. When I type "calc", I want the calculator. LibreOffice Calc is on my list of things to immediately remove on every reformat.
  - ccrush 9y ago
    Why don't you rename the shortcut to LibreOffice Excel?
vetinari 9y ago
Now that Gnome Shell replaced unity, you can use the search box itself as a simple calculator. No need to run an extra app.
jerknextdoor 9y ago
I am so glad that I am not the only person that has this frustration. I wish I could remove other apps or give them lower priority in the dash, but this is absolutely the worst.
mod 9y ago

erazor42 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: gmail Terminal: terminator IDE: Sublime / VSCode File manager: terminator Basic Text Editor: Sublime IRC/Messaging Client: irssi PDF Reader: Chromium plugin Office Suite: Libre office (I'd prefer Microsoft one) Calendar: Google calendar Video Player: vlc Music Player: YouTube :D Photo Viewer: basic gallery Screen recording: -

a_humean 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium, Firefox, Chrome Email Client: Gmail web Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: VS Code File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: xchat PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: Office360 web, LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar, Google Calendar web Video Player: smplayer Music Player: cmus, Spotify non-free Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome

koot 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Emacs / Sublime Text 3 / Geany File Manager: Thunar / PCManFM / Caja (Anything but Nautilus they stripped to many features after 2.32) Basic Text Edtor: Gedit IRC / Messaging Client: Hexchat / Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC / SMPlayer Music Player: Deadbeef / Audacious / Rhythmbox Photo Viewer: EOG Screen Recording: ???

toxicbits 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Geary Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Gnome Builder File manager: Gnome Files Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Polari PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Gnome MPV Music Player: Lollypop Photo Viewer: Gthumb Screen recording: Peek

gkya 9y ago

I'm using the latest Ubuntu GNOME, and I can say that I'm pleased with how it is. Using GNOME's own software where available is going to be better IMHO.

williamdclt 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium, Chrome Email Client: none Terminal: gnome-terminal, terminator IDE: none File manager: DE default Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: none PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: Libre office Calendar: ??? Video Player: VLC Music Player: ??? Photo Viewer: DE default Screen recording: ???

tradesmanhelix 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox ESR, Waterfox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Konsole IDE: vim, emacs, Atom File manager: Dolphin Basic Text Editor: kwrite, gedit IRC/Messaging Client: irssi PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Lightning Thunderbird Plugin Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine, cmus Photo Viewer: Gwenview Screen recording: Peek

mherrmann 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: None File manager: fman (non-free) Basic Text Editor: Sublime Video Player: vlc

lucb1e 9y ago
Three out of your four suggestions are non-free, not just one.

nitins 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Geary Terminal: Terminator IDE: - File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: - Video Player: SMPlayer Music Player: Lollypop Photo Viewer: - Screen recording: -

pksadiq 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Evolution Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: gnome-builder? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Polari/?? PDF Reader: Evince (gnome-documents?) Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: gnome-calendar Video Player: Totem/VLC Music Player: rhythmbox (gnome-music?) Photo Viewer: gnome-photos/eog Screen recording: ???

blubberblase23 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Terminator IDE: Vim ;) File manager: pcmanfm Basic Text Editor: vim/gedit IRC/Messaging Client: pidgin PDF Reader: mupdf Office Suite: libreoffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: vlc Music Player: vlc Photo Viewer: nomacs Screen recording: don't know At the most important: Init System => OpenRC

aibara 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Lightning (Thunderbird add-on) Video Player: VLC Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: gThumb P.S. Thanks for working on autoremoving old kernels from /boot!

jasonkostempski 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox unmodified (e.g. no Ubuntu start page) Email Client: None, users still using desktop clients know what they want and how to get it. Terminal: No preference IDE: None, this should be chosen by the user if they want one. File manager: No preference Basic Text Editor: No preference IRC/Messaging Client: None, same situation as email PDF Reader: No preference Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Like the calendar the clock opens (no preference) or a calendar you can add events to (does a modern desktop calendar for Linux even exist)? Video Player: VLC Music Player: Whatever is least bloated Photo Viewer: Whatever is least bloated Screen recording: None, most people don't need or want this.

aruggirello 9y ago
> calendar you can add events to (does a modern desktop calendar for Linux even exist)? I don't know about Gnome - but KDE has both a desktop calendar/organizer app (Korganizer) and a (unrelated) Plasma widget for the toolbar - the gorgeous Event Calendar Plasma widget, which shows your Google Calendar events.
- moosingin3space 9y ago
  There is a Gnome calendar app: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Calendar https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Calendar.
  - gurkendoktor 9y ago
    And then there's also https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/California https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/California And of course elementaryOS has its own GTK+3-based calendar: https://launchpad.net/maya https://launchpad.net/maya So basically, the same situation as with mail clients, photo apps, music players, ... I wish the GNOME world would decide to just merge all the features into one app per task and then kill the others.

rodolphoarruda 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: GEdit PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC

sp332 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, but consider defaulting to 52 ESR since FF57 may cause breakage in November (one month after your Ubuntu release). Whatever browser you use, don't be afraid to change the settings or extensions for security. HTTPS Everywhere or Privacy Badger or an adblocker built-in goes a long way in protecting your users. Photo Viewer: must open quickly. If I want to manage a zillion photos I can download something else, but when I just open a file I want to see it right away.

itomato 9y ago

Crowdsourcing at its worst. Get with a modern Product Management philosophy, and quit begging the community for ideas. Crossposting to Reddit, Slashdot and HN on the same day smacks of utter desperation.

0xCMP 9y ago
Or it's a community project asking for input from the community...
- itomato 9y ago
  Why don't they get a website or mailing list or something?

hysan 9y ago

I'm pretty sure anything I'd suggest would already be included in other people's lists so I'm going to request something different. Personally, I'd like a well maintained set of applications that integrates nicely into the default desktop. So things like global shortcuts (ideally having them be the same for common actions), panel and notification integrations, nicely setup default launcher icons, works well with the search bar, looks great with the default icon set, etc. Example: whatever calendar app you include should work with the calendar in GNOME's panel. I'd also like to emphasize on the well maintained part since I personally prefer that my core set of applications to not become stale over time or even worse, just have tons of quality of life/paper cut bugs that remain unpatched for years. Whatever is chosen as default should get continued support and help from Ubuntu itself. If you can do that, I would definitely come back and give Ubuntu another chance.

vegbrasil 9y ago
This. The default apps from 17.04 are already great. We just need more integration and updates.
bokchoi 9y ago
Yes, this is the most important aspect. Functional, stable, maintained, consistent, and nicely integrated applications.

Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago

PDF reader: lightweight greenfield project that just puts pdf.js in a GTK3 webview My answer to all of the other questions, though, is "nothing that's suitable for noobs". To this end, please make it easy to clean out the gunk and bring in power user tools.

MrBingley 9y ago
Do you, by chance, use Arch Linux?
- Sir_Cmpwn 9y ago
  Sometimes!

markstos 9y ago

=== Web Browser: Chromium, Firefox Email Client: Fastmail web, Gmail web Terminal: konsole, terminator File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit, Gvim IRC/Messaging Client: Slack web, Signal web PDF Reader: Chromium, Firefox Office Suite: LibreOffice, GSuite web Calendar: Google Calendar web Music Player: Google Music web, Clementine Photo Viewer: eog, shotwell, gimp Screenshot tool: Shutter Sound source switcher: indicator-sound-switcher Clipboard Manager: glipper PDF Annotation: xournal Markdown Viewer: ghostwriter Markdown Editor: ghostwriter ===

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

tombert 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Evolution Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: No IDE by default. Most users aren't developers File manager: Files/Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Atom IRC/Messaging Client: Nothing, let user install their own. PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: I don't really like it, but LibreOffice is probably the best option right now. Personally, I'd almost prefer an option to just have LaTeX and TeXStudio pre-installed. Calendar: No Preference Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: No preference Screen recording: No preference

pitaj 9y ago
Atom isn't a basic text editor. It's closer to an IDE. I'd go a step further and say no Email client. Most users don't use email clients at all, and Thunderbird is really old looking nowadays.
mycat 9y ago
Using electron app for _basic_ editor?
- tombert 9y ago
  I don't use it much personally, since I'm basically married to Vim, I just like it better than Gedit, and sublime text is proprietary. You're probably right though, an electron app is a bit heavy.

interfixus 9y ago

Web Browser: Pale Moon Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: [DE default] IDE: Geany File manager: [DE default] Basic Text Editor: ??? IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: qpdfview Office Suite: [none] Calendar: Thunderbird/Lightning Video Player: SMPlayer Music Player: ??? Photo Viewer: Viewnior, [DE default] Screen recording: ???

c2h5oh 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Termite Basic Text Editor: Leafpad, gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin Office Suite: Libre Office Video Player: mpv Screen recording: OBS Studio

43224gg252 9y ago

I actually use GNOME on Fedora as my daily driver but will probably switch to ubuntu if they can create a better gnome experience. Please try to ship GNOME that way it's meant to be shipped as far as software versioning goes. Please make quarter tiling and the ability to hide windows decoration a thing. Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: don't care, I coded my own Terminal: tilix (integrates better with GTK3 than GNOME-terminal) IDE: Builder is good (I use vim) File manager: Nautilus/ranger Basic Text Editor: Gedit/nano/vim IRC/Messaging Client: I use irssi PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: GNOME calendar, but update it Video Player: mpv Music Player: mpv Photo Viewer: mpv Screen recording: the one thats built into gnome, but make it better (adjust FPS/quality/convert size/etc).

SubiculumCode 9y ago

Whatever file browser is chosen, please include the damn up button, and please no buttons replacing the address bar. Also, PLEASE 'open terminal here' as a default option on right click.

Jackneill 9y ago
Nemo has those. (At least i think the right click is possible with plugins.)
- lucb1e 9y ago
  Nemo did that out of the box on my Debian Stretch/Buster with Cinnamon setup. I assume it's not a plugin.

linopolus 9y ago

Web Browser: Safari.app Email Client: Mail.app Terminal: Terminal.app IDE: NeoVIM File manager: Finder.app Basic Text Editor: NeoVIM IRC/Messaging Client: Messages.app PDF Reader: Preview.app Office Suite: Pages.app/Numbers.app/Keynote.app Calendar: Fantastical 2.app Video Player: mpv Music Player: VOX.app Photo Viewer: Preview.app Of course, this is for a real world usable operating system, not ubuntu utopia.. If Linux, Gentoo is nice ;)

linopolus 9y ago
Ok now for real: Web Browser: Firefox+VimFX Email Client: Mutt Terminal: Urxvt IDE: NeoVIM File manager: Urxvt Basic Text Editor: NeoVIM IRC/Messaging Client: Irssi PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LaTeX Calendar: - Video Player: mpv Music Player: mpd+ncmpc Photo Viewer: cacaview

Jackneill 9y ago

Web Browser: chromium, firefox Email Client: thunderbird Terminal: alacritty IDE: vscode File manager: nemo Basic Text Editor: gedit, sublime text 3 IRC/Messaging Client: hexchat Office Suite: libreoffice Video Player: mpv, vlc, smplayer Photo Viewer: eog Screenshot taker: shutter

billconan 9y ago

=== Web Browser: chrome (close source) Email Client: web gmail/web outlook Terminal: ubuntu default (gnome terminal?) (I don't like it) IDE: QtCreator File manager: ubuntu default (gnome file manger?) (I don't like it) Basic Text Editor: sublime text (close source) IRC/Messaging Client: slack (close source) PDF Reader: ubuntu default Office Suite: libreoffice (hate it!) Calendar: ubuntu default Video Player: vlc Music Player: ubuntu default Photo Viewer: ubuntu default Screen recording: shutter ===

PascLeRasc 9y ago

I'd love for Chromium to be included by default and for that Amazon app to be removed. I have no idea what the Amazon thing even is but it's just Windows 10-esque spamware to me. As for IDE, it'd be really cool to have Arduino included, but some might consider that spamware ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pitaj 9y ago
Arduino is a horrible IDE. It doesn't even have high DPI support, making it entirely unusable in my XPS 15.
- takno 9y ago
  Absolutely agree that it's a horrible IDE. Java 9 has better HiDPI support in Linux though, so it may get a little better in the future

johnchristopher 9y ago

If I may make a suggestion: I'd rather have a quizz at first install and user account creation that would ask what users want with sane defaults hiding behind an `I don't know` checkbox (ie: don't configure any mail client if people just use GMail). It would definitely ease the adoption from first users instead of throwing a huge pile of shortcuts to their face when they click the apps menu for the first time. I would also make it very easy to do the most common first things users do: opening an image, browsing the web, playing music. Don't send them to players/viewers with different UI than the rest of the workspace or ask them what pic viewer they want to use among 4 different apps. First impressions matters :).

BornInTheUSSR 9y ago
Really like this idea, a wizard to get all your preferences on setup that preconfigures defaults. Expand it to programming toolsets or whatever your primary use is and have a way to save and share it between different linux versions or even OS's a la dotfiles.
- ColanR 9y ago
  Love the idea of a wizard - but a lot of users will want as painless a setup as possible. if they can worry about configuration when they feel like it, if they feel like it, they may be happier. i.e., some way to use a one-time app for running that wizard later.
  - gt_ 9y ago
    I second this. Ubuntu default config probably isn't perfect for anybody, but nothing is in the way, which I consider a major benefit. If I need automatic configuration, none of these ideas will move faster than a decent Bash script. Some configurations cannot be scripted well and that's where the room for improvement is.
Queue29 9y ago
This really is a great idea.
9y ago

pdfttgz 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Builder File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Vim IRC/Messaging Client: Polari PDF Reader: Chromium Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Shotwell Screen recording: No preference

NuDinNou 9y ago

Web Browser: GNOME Web Email Client: - Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: - File manager: GNOME Files Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: - PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: GNOME Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: GNOME Music Photo Viewer: gThumb Screen recording: -

Jackneill 9y ago

Another humble wish: a subl/vscode like ctrl+shift+p multifunctional menu, where you can write commands, launch things, etc.

zanny 9y ago
The Gnome runner and Krunner from KDE both do this. I'm not sure if the Gnome variant supports arbitrary commands like Krunner does, but they at least have opening applications, unit conversion, and web search.
- Shorel 9y ago
  It's not the same. He means something that can access all commands available in a given application, not a launcher. Ubuntu's Unity has that, giving search access to all the menu entries in the opened application. Sublime Text implementation is even more powerful, giving search access to all commands, and the list includes commands provided by extra packages added to Sublime. So I can do, for example: 'ctrl+shift+p', install package, gitsavvy, <enter>; 'ctrl+shift+p', git diff current file, <enter>;
  - acchan 9y ago
    https://github.com/p-e-w/plotinus https://github.com/p-e-w/plotinus

dabockster 9y ago

I'm really looking forward to seeing how native GNOME will look with official Ubuntu support and not as a community flavor. Anyways, here's my request list: --------------------------------- Web Browser: Firefox, Vivaldi (people keep claiming it's open source, so look into it) Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: GNOME default IDE: LOL (Serious answer is VSCode since it seems to be a nice in-between for a full IDE and a simple text editor) File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: No preference IRC/Messaging Client: HexChat PDF Reader: No preference Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird, No preference Video Player: VLC Music Player: RhythmBox, Spotify (maybe just a downloader program - don't include the full install out of the box) Photo Viewer: No preference Screen recording: No preference Games: Include Steam out of the box? ------------------- This list also comes with the usual stuff like dump Systemd, continue working on MESA drivers/networking drivers/drivers in general, etc. Hope to see some great stuff in 17.10!

Sir_Substance 9y ago

I'd really like to ask for a "nothing, thanks" option. The main reason I use xubuntu is because it offers a xubuntu-core package that comes with the desktop, apt and /nothing else/. When I installed unity version of ubuntu, the install was always followed with about an hour of uninstalling shite I didn't care about. The new unity uninstall dialogue never worked correctly, and uninstalling 5 things in a row would cause it to lose track of what was installed and start duplicating entries. When I install a fresh system, I really want it to be fresh.

Theodores 9y ago

A genuine long term Ubuntu fan, not used Windows since Vista. Happy with everything. Let's have a look at what I left behind: Web Browser: IE6 Email Client: Outlook Express Terminal: putty IDE: MS Studio File manager: Explorer Basic Text Editor: Notepad IRC/Messaging Client: Skype PDF Reader: Adobe Acrobat Office Suite: MS Office Calendar: Outlook Video Player: RealPlayer Music Player: Winamp Photo Viewer: Cracked copy of Photoshop Screen recording: Print screen key I don't use alternative programs to the above, I don't write Word docs or need to as communication has changed. I don't have an email client. My point is that this list of defaults is stuck in the past, we use computers differently and need an updated list of default applications. There should be a default app for your phone and what happens when you plug it in. There should be built in IoT apps too, so your computer can be at the heart of gadgets you get for the home.

edelans 9y ago

=== Web Browser: Chrome, Firefox Email Client: none Terminal: default IDE: Atom File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: nano IRC/Messaging Client: none PDF Reader: default Office Suite: google apps Calendar: none Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify, non-free Photo Viewer: default Screen recording: Kazam ===

antouank 9y ago

=== Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Gmail web Terminal: xfce4 terminal IDE: neovim File manager: Thunar Basic Text Editor: neovim IRC/Messaging Client: google hangouts web PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: google calendar Video Player: vlc Music Player: vlc Photo Viewer: ristretto Screen recording: xfce4 Screenshooter ===

mazr 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: None Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: None File manager: Gnome default Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: None PDF Reader: Gnome Default Office Suite: None Calendar: None Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Gnome default Screen recording: Gnome Default

RealityDisorder 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird (altho would prefer a modern alternative) Terminal: rxvt-unicode IDE: IntelliJ family File manager: ??? Basic Text Editor: vim IRC/Messaging Client: irssi/pidgin PDF Reader: Atril/xpdf Office Suite: Abiword/Gnumeric Calendar: Thunderbird + Lightning (altho would prefer a modern alternative) Video Player: mpv Music Player: deadbeef, Clementine Photo Viewer: feh, eom Screen recording: open broadcaster software

Entangled 9y ago

Sublime is all I need. I'll build everything else.

aruggirello 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird IDE: Atom Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Google Calendar web

fatzombi_ 9y ago

i switched to lubuntu last year (ubuntu had some serious unity problems), i really like unity, give gnome more unity ish design

frik 9y ago

> We asked the HackerNews community, "What do you want to see in Ubuntu 17.10?" Yeah, and the experiment went horrible wrong :( The last thing the community wanted was a plain Gnome 3 shell for 17.10. The older Unity was great, the latest Unity and Gnome3 are crap! (ugly as hell (macOS UI clone for the cheap), and worse usability than older Unity and macOS) So you single handled destroyed the default Ubuntu with some weird decisions. And this systemd trainwreck is still on board. For applications: * Web Browser: Chromium (with sane privacy default settings) * Email client: Gnome Evolution * File manager: Unity 7 file manager * Basic Text Editor: GEdit (older version with menu bar, from Ubuntu 14) * Office Suite: LibreOffice or Callibri * Calendar: Evolution

shock 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Tilix[0], Gnome Terminal, IDE: IntelliJ, Eclipse File manager: Double Commander[1] Basic Text Editor: Vim IRC/Messaging Client: Pidgin PDF Reader: Evince/MuPDF Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Vlc, Kodi Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome Screen recording: Simple Screen Recorder[2] [0] - https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix [1] - https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/ https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/ [2] - http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/ http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/

lucb1e 9y ago
Cool to see SSR in here. A friend made that and I always thought it was much better than existing tools, at least at the time, both in how fast they are, their ease of use and the options they provide (some have options you just never touch, others lack options that you wanted to change; SSR has neither).

jtolmar 9y ago

I'm generally happy with all the Ubuntu default apps. Basic text editor: gedit. Search has been a lot less usable since it moved to the top right bar. Keyboard sequences like control-f + part of a word + escape do strange things like sending you back to where you started. I'd like to be able to pilot to different parts of the code using control-f, down/enter/tab, up/shift-tab, and escape. Also searching a huge file hangs because it stops to highlight every instance of the first character before processing the second. It should never be faster to open a terminal, find the file, and run grep. Also the entire app hangs to do syntax highlighting on giant xml files.

jakobdabo 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: URXVT IDE: Qt Creator, Eclipse, Geany File manager: Thunar Basic Text Editor: Mousepad IRC/Messaging Client: Riot, Gajim PDF Reader: Evince, Zathura Office Suite: Libre Office Video Player: VLC Media Player, mplayer, mpv Music Player: DeaDBeeF Photo Viewer: ??? Screen Recording: ???

ameliaquining 9y ago

Web browser: Chromium, Firefox Email client: Gmail Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: Atom, Emacs, Visual Studio Code Basic text editor: Atom, gedit, nano, Emacs PDF Reader: Chromium, evince, Adobe Acrobat (non-free) Office Suite: Google Docs, LibreOffice Calendar: Google Calendar Video player: Totem, mplayer Music player: Totem, mplayer Photo viewer: Eye of GNOME, Shotwell Screen recording: RecordMyDesktop And a category that's been traditionally missing from Linux distros and really shouldn't be: Simple raster graphics editor (like Microsoft Paint): GNU Paint

chauhankiran 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Basic Text Editor: gEdit Video Player: VLC

Grue3 9y ago

Browser: Firefox LTE (pre-web extensions) Terminal: guake IDE: Emacs File manager: anything but default gnome manager Music player: audacious

thibran 9y ago

The default "simple" console text editor "nano" should be replaced by the much more intuitive editor called "ne" (a less known gem).

xiaomai 9y ago

In most cases I prefer the standard gnome stuff (browser is the big exception). Web Browser: Chromium / Firefox / Epiphany Email Client: Evolution / Mutt / Thunderbird Terminal: gnome-terminal File manager: nautilus Text editor: gedit IRC: weechat / polaris Office Suite: google docs / libreoffice Calendar: google calendar / gnome calendar Video Player: Totem / mpv Photo Viewer: Shotwell (I wish gnome-photos would work but its reliance on Tracker makes it unusable for me (what is with tracker not following symlinks?? please fix that). Screen recording: I wish the gnome-builtin one did sound, since it doesn't I use SimpleScreenRecorder)

pmontra 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: gnome terminal is ok IDE: none. I'm using emacs for all the things. Which standard IDE could handle all languages well? I think this is for developers and we pick our tools. If this is a IDE for learning, I don't know if this is the right way to learn. Maybe vim. File manager: nautilus is ok Basic Text Editor: gedit should be ok. I never use it because I don't need a basic editor. IRC/Messaging Client: no idea. I use my phone for messaging. PDF Reader: evince. Office Suite: Libreoffice from their PPA. The distro is usually way too behind. This is a general problem with many packages not in the core of the OS. Maybe it's time to give up on trying to be current and let developers package their stuff in any sensible format. Calendar: I use the offline calendar on my phone. Video Player: VLC, Gnome Video is just too basic. Music Player: YouTube :-) Seriously, I use Rhythmbox and it's kinda ok, when it doesn't mess with the metadata of a full directory of files. I'm chmod 400 my mp3 to make them safe. Photo Viewer: eog? I used shotwell and its predecessor (fspot?) and I lost all labels migrating among versions and computers. I'm not wasting my time anymore with sw that organize picture collections. If at least they had import / export to / from csv. Screen Recording: I liked to use Green Recorder https://launchpad.net/~mhsabbagh/+archive/ubuntu/greenproject https://launchpad.net/~mhsabbagh/+archive/ubuntu/greenprojec... but how about adding a video editor too?

Rondom 9y ago
Gnome has a smorke screen recorder built in already. Press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R to record
- pmontra 9y ago
  That doesn't work for me, probably because I'm on Gnome flashback. I don't like Activities and other quirks of Gnome Shell. Luckily with Ubuntu 16.04 the flashback mode gained back all the functionality of the Gnome 2 desktop. I googled for the package name of that screen recorder, with no success, but Green Recorder is pretty good. I also don't seem to have an embedded screen shapshotter (PrntScreen works). I've been using shutter for ages.

cromulen 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome, Firefox Email Client: Various web clients Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: VS Code File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: vim IRC/Messaging Client: Slack, Discord PDF Reader: Chrome, Evince Office Suite: Google drive web Calendar: Google calendar web Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free Photo Viewer: The default one Screen recording: None

khc 9y ago

web browser: firefox photo viewer: shotwell

sunstone 9y ago

Synaptic, geany, vlc thanks.

blfr 9y ago

Video Player: mpv! I had been using Ubuntu for years before realising that this amazing improvement over mplayer exists. And it has everything: GPU decoding, excellent UI, keyboard shortcuts, it's fast, and never fails. Of the software I use regularly, this one is by far the closest to perfection.

nilsocket 9y ago

TextEditor:- I really hate gedit, it takes around 1 to 3 seconds to save a file. It doesn't notify user if some foreign process changed or removed file. When ever a user types in a bracket, parentheses..., It does mean that he/she is going to close that (most probably). Indentation, only God can understand what it means for source code files. Only one thing which I like in gedit is, cobalt. I don't use Ubuntu, because I need a feature-rich desktop, not the opposite. I could've used Kubuntu, but I hate it because of apt (for being too slow) What I like in Ubuntu is better power management. I could've used Fedora, but I hate it's package manager, for being inconsistent, and this text like Microsoft, "please wait while your system is being updated", "reboot to update your system". Rather than feeling the pain everyday, I take pain for few hours and install Arch Linux, with KDE. Having the best feature-rich DE, with latest and up-to-date packages, a package manger which just works out of the box even in worst network conditions, for having every application in one place... I literally forgot what's the name for, including those community or independent developers application, URL into main repositories, which will most probably break the system. I don't know why you guys choosed GNOME, everything is damn slow. I accept that it provides simplicity for its users.

acabal 9y ago

Web browser: Firefox Email client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal File Manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit (But can you patch the ridiculous "find next" shortcut key to ctrl + f/enter from ctrl + f/ctrl + g?) PDF Reader: Gnome default Office Suite: LibreOffice Music Player: I always felt like Banshee was the superior Gnomish music player but it seems to unmaintained unfortunately. Rhythmbox is the next best basic one IMHO. Photo viewer: Gnome default

anopows 9y ago
>But can you patch the ridiculous "find next" shortcut key to ctrl + f/enter from ctrl + f/ctrl + g? Yes this is one of the things that I am really annoyed with gedit. All searches (to my knowledge) in browsers and IDE's work by pressing enter to get to the new search entry. The only exception which comes to my mind is vim which has 'n' to go to the next search entry(also completely different to gedit). But in comparison vim, excepts the user to learn a lot of new commands, gedit on the other hand should imo follow the simplicity of other GNOME apps. To search a keyboard shortcut in the manual and then memorize it for such a simple editor is just tedious and irritating.

bitL 9y ago

Autoremove old kernel from /boot - this might look nice on "paper" however I have significant issues on latest LTS with any version of kernel 4.8 and 4.10 where I can't ever get to desktop, so I have to stick with 4.4 (Broadwell Core M ultrabook). If a reliable kernel is gone, I might not be able to boot unless I prepare an emergency USB stick and carry it with me all the time...

jdlyga 9y ago

The default apps in Ubuntu under Unity are good as-is. I don't feel the need for any changes. But after looking at the 17.10 image, it absolutely needs dash to dock. Gnome is unusable to a lot of people without it. Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly, remember. Also, improving the look of GDM is a must. It looks fairly ugly by default.

dd9990 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox (unmodified, no pre-installed Ubuntu extensions) Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal or Tilix [0] IDE: Gnome Builder File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: N/A PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: LiberOffice Fresh (preferably via a snap to keep updated) Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Gnome MPV with youtube-dl [1] or VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Digikam Screen recording: N/A [0] https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix [1] https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv https://github.com/gnome-mpv/gnome-mpv

tradesmanhelix 9y ago

Also, maybe try the Ubuntu Mate approach and let users pick their own solution. I'd love to see Ubuntu implement something like the Ubuntu Mate Welcome [1] and/or Software Boutique [2]. [1] https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/ubuntu-mate-welcome https://github.com/ubuntu-mate/ubuntu-mate-welcome [2] https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/ubuntu-mate-welcome-screen/1616 https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/ubuntu-mate-welcome-screen/1...

w4rh4wk5 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Terminator IDE: none File Manager: nemo Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging: Hex-Chat, Empathy PDF Reader: Okular Office Suite: Libreoffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: ristretto Screen recording: obs

TeMPOraL 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome non-free, Emacs Email Client: Gmail web, Emacs Terminal: xterm, fish shell, Emacs IDE: Emacs File manager: default, Emacs Basic Text Editor: Emacs IRC/Messaging Client: Emacs PDF Reader: whatever that default one is, Emacs Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Emacs Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free Photo Viewer: whatever the default is Screen recording: OBS I'm not joking with that Emacs thing. Please, oh please, ensure Ubuntu has always a recent Emacs version.

lucb1e 9y ago
I downvoted because I don't think it's constructive to force Emacs on everyone. In my post, I thought of including vim as the default text editor (I have set it as default on my work and home computers, also when opening a text/code file from a browser or file manager) and definitely as the default terminal editor (instead of nano), but many people are just not going to make use of it. If you want something specific, you should just install it yourself I think. > please, ensure Ubuntu has always a recent Emacs version. Outdated software is an issue in general. This is one of the reasons I hear people don't like Ubuntu, Debian or Mint because Fedora is actually up to date. Never mind that Fedora frequently breaks and Debian totally has a testing release, but Ubuntu is just lacking in this.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Hey, I'm not forcing Emacs on anyone! The poster asked to "submit the apps you find most useful in Linux", so I listed what I use, honest-to-God. I don't see how a legit datapoint deserves a downvote, but whatevs.
  - lucb1e 9y ago
    Hmm, I'm inclined to undown. I think the intention of this question is "what should the defaults be", not strictly "what do you use". I don't mean to offend, though. Undowned.
- Shorel 9y ago
  The few applications I care about having the very last versions in Ubuntu, have a PPA, and I just use the PPA. Frequent breaks are worse IMO.

wasd 9y ago

One of my greatest frustrations is the default email client. It's caused a lot of headaches with mailto links. I would prefer if Ubuntu did not ship with one.

neves 9y ago

Music Player: Clementine

lucb1e 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nemo Basic Text Editor: Anything except Gedit. For example Geany is fine. Messaging Client: Telegram, Pidgin IRC client: Hexchat PDF Reader: Evince Calendar: Thunderbird's built-in Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free, VLC Screen recording: SSR (ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder) System monitor: htop, gnome-system-monitor Calculator: apcalc

newscracker 9y ago

Web browser: Firefox Email client: Thunderbird File Manager: Thunar File Manager Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: mpv ---------- Completely unrelated, but having Ubuntu work well on a Mac (and retaining habits learned on a Mac) with the external Apple Magic Trackpad would be great. It's a huge source of frustration and annoyance for me for various reasons, right after the keyboard shortcuts. Native to Ubuntu, I will also miss Unity not being developed further or not being developed with the focus that existed before. Another one, though not a desktop default app. Please add a well maintained and working VNC server (or make it available). I tried a few, gave up and went with TeamViewer (which is a commercial product, but free for personal use). Not being able to screen share with a mostly headless machine has been very frustrating.

rasengan 9y ago

The switch to libinput is good. I would also strongly suggest including libinput-gestures which enables multi-touch gestures. It's a fascinating feature which helps one's work flow. Dash to Dock is another good one as are several other nice GNOME extensions. bumblebee / gfx support would be nice :-) Tiling Extensions as well. The GNOME screen recorder works fine built in. :)

abbiya 9y ago

Web Browser: firefox Email Client: dont include one Terminal: stable one with wayland support IDE: vs code File manager: mate's Basic Text Editor: no gedit for sure IRC/Messaging Client: dont bother to include one PDF Reader: smallest and stable one Office Suite: dont include Calendar: no good apps are there Video Player: vlc Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: include only one, no need to photo manager Screen recording: include the stable

tapper 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nemo Basic Text Editor: Geany Messaging Client: Telegram, Pidgin IRC client: Hexchat PDF Reader: Evince Calendar: Thunderbird's built-in Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free, VLC Screen recording: SSR (ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder) System monitor: htop, gnome-system-monitor Calculator: apcalc

dcintes 9y ago

Web Browser: Vivaldi, Firefox IDE: eclipse Basic Text Editor: gedit Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: Vlc Screen recording: Obs

zanny 9y ago

Meta-observation: There are three primary applications everyone wants fairly uniformly. Firefox, LO, and VLC. It is really interesting from an integration perspective to consider all three: * Firefox pulls in gtk3 and gtk2 dependencies. * VLC pulls in Qt and sdl1. * LO pulls in Python. Of note, both Firefox and VLC use ffmpeg, which is nice. But my macro point - the most popular applications for Linux right now all use pretty much entirely different infrastructure. All three pull in at least a dozen library or package dependencies each, there is little overlap, and between them you have the entirety of GTK and Qt. On top of that, they are about 130MB, 50MB, and 400MB installed respectively. I'm not going to make conclusions about how this relates to the desire to write composable software, or how these various monolith projects are also the most desired. It is just interesting that just from the big three staples you are looking at more space used on installation media than a CD just from them and their immediate dependencies. Qt alone is around 400MB including webengine. Gtk is another 90MB. So you are looking at over 1GB of binaries, libraries, and art assets to run 3 programs, and at runtime they will all be pulling these respective libraries into resident memory with almost no overlap.

michaelmrose 9y ago
Its foolishness to try to find a whole list of apps that use the same gui toolkit instead of the best apps, python is installed by default on every linux system under the sun, and you can't just convert from installed size to memory usage. The universe just doesn't work that way.
- zanny 9y ago
  Its not installed size to memory usage. Its shared common libraries vs unshared libraries. Pulling in Qt means every Qt app will load so's for all the same things the core GTK libraries do, and take up memory that in a purely GTK environment would never be used because all the apps shared the same libraries in memory. This also dramatically affects the performance of app switching and opening new apps. This is how Android has a tiny memory footprint - one gui toolkit, one runtime, one way to do everything. You really notice on Android when you open an NDK app that isn't using the Android Frameworks GUI components because they take a long time to open. This is also why Windows in general is a bloated mess - depending on what software you are running it might be Windows Forms or XDA or their new app frameworks (Metro and/or 10) or .net or Qt or the old style COM API from the 95-98 days. Or worse, nowadays, you can get an Electron app that starts up its own browser rendering engine and doesn't share anything with the Chrome instance you have running at the same time despite using the same libraries. None share fundamental primitives, so opening programs from each toolkit eats memory alive. And then every program you install pretty much has to assume you don't have any library dependencies installed as well, so they pull down their entire toolkit in some .Z patch version that is incompatible with any other app using it so almost the same library gets loaded multiple times.

tapoxi 9y ago

Remove the following: * Email client * IDE * IRC/Messaging Client * Calendar * Office Suite Only absolute necessities in a default install. I still don't understand why Linux distributions insist on shipping so much stuff by default.

Keeblo 9y ago

I really like Ubuntu, but there are two things that I would recommend changing/fixing: 1. Replace the default PDF reader with something faster. It takes the default PDF viewer (in 17.04) 10+ seconds to open files that MuPDF can open in 2 seconds. MuPDF is very basic, so it might not be the best option for the default viewer, but hopefully there's something faster than the current default. 2. Allow the software center app to request sudo privileges when installing .deb files from the GUI. When I set up my most recent Ubuntu desktop I downloaded the Chrome deb from Google and then tried to install it by double clicking the file in the GUI file browser. The software center app opened and tried to install it, but instead of asking me for sudo privileges (which I had), it failed to install. My options were A) install it from the command line with sudo or B) install gdebi and use that to install the deb from the GUI. As someone who is comfortable working in Linux, it's not a big deal for me to install a deb from the command line. The inability to install a deb by double clicking it would be a showstopper/major issue for someone who is brand new to Linux and isn't trying to "learn Linux". P.S. There's an argument to be made that people should just learn to use the command line, but Ubuntu's slogan is "Linux for human beings". Besides, the worst way to introduce someone to the wonderful world of FOSS software is to give them a headache while they're trying to set up their computer :-)

michaelmrose 9y ago
Zathura can use mupdf as a backend and has much better bindings/features compared to mupdf, it also supports other ebook formats. Still pretty keyboard driven and not an optimal choice for ubuntu. Maybe ubuntu should have a more minimal spin with i3wm and apps like zathura.
- Keeblo 9y ago
  I second that! The i3wm rocks, but it's kind of a pain to set up. Many applications expect certain GUI elements to be present, and a lot of "It Just Works" aspects of Ubuntu (e.g. hotkeys on laptop media keyboards working) are built into the desktop environment and have to be reconfigured for i3wm.
  - 9y ago

dillon 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email: Anything simple and lightweight Terminal: Default GNOME Term. IDE: Shouldn't be in a default install File Manager: Anything simple and lightweight + tabs (Nautilus) Basic Text Editor: vi IRC/Messaging: Pidgin or Empathy PDF: Default GNOME Viewer Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Default GNOME Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Default GNOME Screen Recording: Something full featured? Additionally: Maps: Anything supporting OSM (GNOME Maps) Software Center: GNOME's Software Center

sathackr 9y ago

Native Windows user, raised on it since 3.0. Made Ubuntu 16.04 my primary OS about 14 months ago after MS tried to cram Windows 10 down my throat and insisted on packaging the Windows Store, CandyCrushSaga and Facebook apps in Server 2016 and making them essentially impossible to remove. Every day I get more and more comfortable. It hasn't been without frustration, and often I've wanted to give up and go back, but so far I've stuck to it. ----- Web Browser: Google Chrome Email client: None since I use gmail and Office 365, and not much will cooperate with O365 except OWA. Terminal: default preinstalled app IDE: Not a developer File manager: default preinstalled app(Nautilus?) Basic text editor: gedit, or the non-gui version of emacs. I know I know..... IRC/Messaging: Google voice and Slack web pages, via Google Chrome PDF Reader: Evince or Google Chrome. Not really because I prefer either, just the first ones I found and they were 'good enough'. Office Suite: Preinstalled libreoffice has been 'good enough' for me. Also Google Sheets(via Chrome) Calendar: Don't use one, probably would if O365 integration worked better. Video Player: Default preinstalled player because it usually works, but VLC occasionally if I have something the built-in won't play. Music Player: None -- Pandora/Soundcloud/Youtube/DI.FM/Google Play, all web, via Google Chrome. Photo Viewer: default preinstalled has worked pretty well for me. I think I like it better than the Windows Photo viewer that MS took away from me with 8/10 Screen recording: None. I make heavy use of the preinstalled screenshot utility, though I wish it was a bit more like the windows snipping tool. It's fairly annoying to use it to grab multiple screenshots when you're trying to just select an area, though I like that you can grab a quick succession using the prt-screen and save them all. Other apps I use often: Steam libvirt/VMM Remmina, though I wish it had more features for RDP. Seems sessions are much slower than when using a MS rdp client. PlayOnLinux Occasionally Gimp, though it's pretty annoying to use in 16.04 because of the way it creates multiple separate windows.

mlcdf 9y ago
Regarding your last comment about Gimp, this feature (the multi-window mode) can be disable. Open Gimp > "Windows" > check "Simple-Window mode".
- sathackr 9y ago
  Interesting -- I went in to enable that option and it was already checked. It's been a couple of weeks since I last used Gimp -- maybe it was changed in an update? In any case, thanks!

Kliment 9y ago

Browser: Firefox Email client: Thunderbird Basic text editor: Geany Office suite: LO but allow users to select defaults at install or at any other time

mi100hael 9y ago

Web Browser: FireFox, Chromium, Chrome only as last resort for media compatibility Email Client: Thunderbird, mutt Terminal: Gnome Terminal, Terminator IDE: Netbeans Basic Text Editor: vim, gVim, gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Pigin, Hexchat Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: NextCloud web Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Shotwell I guess

ptr_void 9y ago

Everyone default seems to be gnome nowadays, I don't understand why. One of the main reason for me to stick with Ubuntu was unity being a great DE. === Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: ??? Terminal: Gnome terminal IDE: VIM + plugins, Visual Studio Code File manager: 16.0 default Basic Text Editor: VIM IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: 16.04 default Office Suite: LibreOffice, markdown + pandoc -> pdf Calendar: ??? Video Player: VLC Music Player: ??? Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: Simple Screen Recorder ===

vkandy 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal, Terminator IDE: Webstorm (several) File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: pidgin/hexchat PDF Reader: evince Office Suite: Libre Office Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC Music Player: Rythmbox Photo Viewer: Shotwell Screen recording: Peek Bonus: htop, KeePass2

stuaxo 9y ago

Terminal: Terminix

hd4 9y ago

I don't know if this is the appropriate thread but can we have some better support for F2FS in Ubuntu please? From what I know, we can't even install to a F2FS partition using the default installer.

supersexman 9y ago

Web Browser: Opera non-free (you can also make a commercial agreement with Opera, this would raise their market share) Email Client: Terminal: terminator IDE: Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit Office Suite: LibreOffice Video Player: VLC Music Player: Amarok

ColanR 9y ago

I really like the defaults that ubuntu gnome currently has. If I could make one request, it would be to include gdebi in the default install. I've found it much more convenient for adding .deb packages than software center.

lousken 9y ago

Web browser: Firefox Email: None, Thunderbird Terminal: xfce4-terminal IDE: None, Qt creator, Visual studio code File manager: Thunar, Nautilus, for terminal Midnight commander Basic text editor: Mousepad, for terminal vim IRC/Messaging Client: Empathy, Pidgin, none PDF Reader: Okular, Firefox (integrated) Office suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome native Video player: smplayer (or any Mplayer version with GUI), for terminal ffplay Music player: Clementine, for terminal cmus Photo viewer: Ristretto Screen recording: xfce4-screenshooter, OBS Studio Extra Shell: zsh Password manager: Keepass, KeepassXC Task manager: htop Other: Numlockx, git Basic photo editor similar to picpick/mspaint on windows: Pinta (guess is closest to that) (currently xubuntu 16.04 user)

Shorel 9y ago

Web browser: Chromium. Bittorrent client: Deluge. I use Kodi for videos and music and sublime text to edit texts, and I don't see any reason to force complex or proprietary software as the defaults.

petecox 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Chrome and Vivaldi each have their own apt repository, so why Ubuntu would bundle or package them, I'm not sure but give the option of adding an entry to sources.list. I mainly use Chrome for websites requiring flash support and letting Google manage that rather than the FOSS Chromium is simpler. Basic Text Editor: Geany. Decent feature set and it has support in Windows and I prefer cross platform tools. Video Player, Music Player: VLC. Again it works on multiple operating systems and with few dramas. Office Suite: Libreoffice, again it's cross platform. I have written a couple of things in Lyx but it's niche. PDF Reader: NOT Okular - it's very versatile but chokes when rendering image-heavy 40 page film festival brochures. Atril or whatever the Gnome version is called are snappier. Email Client: On linux, I use webmail. Too many hoops to jump through in getting Office365 and Gmail working seamlessly without typing in a bunch of IMAP/SMTP settings voodoo - lack in patience and too lazy in 2017 for that! Would revisit if something worked out of the box. The rest? Well you've committed to Gnome and the default apps would suffice.

bsharitt 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: I'm pretty much all web apps, and would actually like not having evolution or thunderbird installed by default. I think email clients are something to leave up to the users to specifically install Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Visual Studio Code. I don't care if it's installed by default, but the ability to install out of the box without a web visit and .deb download would be great. File manager: I guess I use Nautilus by default, but don't take that as an endorsement Basic Text Editor: I use vim, but Gedit suffices. IRC/Messaging Client: Like email, I think this should be left out of a base install these days. PDF Reader: Evnince it fine, but ePub support in it, or what ever PDF/document viewer is default would be wonderful(bonuse points for mobi too) Office Suite: Libre Office seems to be the only real option and it's fine Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: I used to install VLC day, one, but actually have kept Totem lately Music Player: I don't think there's any good options, Rhythmbox is still much better than Gnome Music if you're tempted to go all Gnome with the default DE switch Photo Viewer: EOG is fine, just don't make a big heavy gallery app the default opener even if one is installed by default.

zumu 9y ago

Is there an option to have none of that installed? First thing I do on any distro is uninstall that stuff

luis3380 9y ago

Web Browser: chrome Email Client: thunderbird Terminal: IDE: codeblocks File manager: nautilus Basic Text Editor: gedit IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: evince Video Player: vlc Office Suite: libreoffice (last version) Music Player: clementine

riffic 9y ago

Give more love to Ubuntu server. Remove this update notification from the MOTD (this message encourages newbs to break their box): https://imgur.com/a/6SD97 https://imgur.com/a/6SD97 further elaboration provided here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14006747 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14006747

ajitid 9y ago

Most of them are preferring VS Code as their IDE, Firefox as their web browser and VLC for playing media

PleaseHelpMe 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox/ Chrome Email Client: No Email Client. Terminal: Terminator IDE: No IDE. File manager: Nautilus/ Thunar. (I was looking for something with dual panel view but no good solution seems to exist right now) Basic Text Editor: Gedit/ Sublime. IRC/Messaging Client: No IRC/MEssaging client or Hexchat. PDF Reader: Evince/ qPdfViewer Office Suite: Libreoffice (But do we have an alternative?) Calendar: Gnome Calendar seems fine. Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: gThumb Screen recording: OBS/ Kazam.

rvern 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, not Chromium, Epiphany or anything else. Email Client: Evolution, Thunderbird if you really don't want to pick Evolution. Do install one by default. Terminal: GNOME Terminal. IDE: none. File manager: Nautilus. Basic Text Editor: gedit. IRC/Messaging Client: none, Pidgin, Polari, HexChat. PDF Reader: Evince. Office Suite: LibreOffice; LibreOffice Base should be excluded. Calendar: GNOME Calendar. Video Player: Totem, not VLC. Music Player: Rhythmbox, perhaps GNOME Music in a future release. Photo Viewer: Eye of GNOME, maybe include Shotwell too. Screen recording: GNOME Shell's built-in recording. Also include file-roller, gnome-calculator, gnome-characters (not gucharmap), gnome-clocks, gnome-disks, baobab, gnome-documents, gnome-font-viewer, gnome-system-monitor, yelp, gnome-logs, bijiben, seahorse, gnome-screenshot, gnome-software, and gnome-weather, and consider including gnome-boxes, devhelp, gnome-dictionary, gitg, gimp, gnome-maps, gnome-tweak-tool, and deja-dup. This is almost exactly identical to Fedora Workstation's default apps. In general, I have a strong preference for embracing the GNOME apps and GTK+ 3. The only exceptions are Firefox instead of Epiphany and LibreOffice instead of AbiWord and Gnumeric.

larkery 9y ago

Web Browser: conkeror Email Client: emacs Terminal: urxvt IDE: emacs File manager: emacs Basic Text Editor: emacs IRC/Messaging Client: emacs PDF Reader: emacs + epdftools Office Suite: n/a Calendar: emacs Video Player: n/a Music Player: emacs Photo Viewer: feh Screen recording: n/a

linopolus 9y ago
There you have a great operating system – it lacks a good editor, though.

c8g 9y ago

Terminal: Tilix Video Player: vlc

zhte415 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: <web> Terminal: GNOME Terminal IDE: none File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: GEdit or Sublime Text IRC/Messaging Client: none PDF Reader: Firefox Office Suite: LibreOffice, but in a work environment use MS Office, and even MS Office 2007 (at work) is light-years ahead of LibreOffice in terms of how I use Office. I do like the pop-out right column for editing, but find I have to go through menu after menu for simple things like formatting a text box in Impress. Calc table functions lack MS Office in all aspects. Calendar: none Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Whatever the default is. Is good enough to not notice what it is. Screen recording: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+r. Mainly record screen at work (Windows) where ShareX produces nice quality and file sizes.

pratikborsadiya 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Terminal: Gnome-terminal IDE: Sublime text File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: nano Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC

gurkendoktor 9y ago

I don't really care as long as the Software app is in good shape. It should find common software and maybe even have a link to software that it doesn't find (search for Spotify->show link with PPA installation instructions). My only wish is OpenVPN (+GUI integration).

type0 9y ago

Gdebi Meld KeepassXC mpv player and SMPlayer Audacious Geeqie image viewer Caffeine (to turn the screensaver off) Devhelp IDE: GNOME builder would be great to add those to the repos for Ubuntu server / command line: micro editor terminal_velocity

nandop 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Evolution Terminal: Gnome Teminal IDE: Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: Document Viewer Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: Totem Music Player: Audacious Photo Viewer: Image Viewer Screen recording: ???

simonvdv 9y ago

First of all, thanks for getting in touch with your users! Hope you'll be able to extrapolate some useful info from it :) My basic suggestion would be to keep it simple, so stay with the GNOME apps where you can. Also it might make sense to make a distinction between what people feel is a good choice of software and which of those should be included in the default install. IMHO stuff like and IDE, e-mail client, IRC client, messaging client, office suite and screen recording don't have to be included in the default install as long as it's easy enough for everyone to add them later (or customize during install). Regarding specific items: - Terminal: gnome-terminal, but if possible look into make the tabs a bit less tall and fix the search dialog so it can be closed by pressing escape - File manager/photo viewer: nautilus, but look into fixing the preview (spacebar) so that it allows opening the preview window once and then allow navigating through all files in the chosen directory using the arrow keys - Calendar: gnome-calender, but make sure you use gnome 3.24 or later so it support dark mode - Screenshots: gnome-screenshot, but please fix it so it's possible to take multiple screenshots in succession. Right one has to close and open it to do so. - Video player: Technically mpv, maybe with the gnome-mpv GUI. Though mpv might be too difficult to use for some users? - Music player: Imho none of them is really good enough :( Elementary's noise might be at some point

nahtnam 9y ago

I just want to say that the web browser should be Firefox for the sole reason that most people will install chrome and having both chrome and chromium would be confusing.

sunseb 9y ago

Init: Alternative to systemd please. :)

rosco18 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome Email Client: Geary Terminal: Gnome Terminal IDE: Eclipse File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Messenger for desktop PDF Reader: Default on old version Office Suite: WPS office Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: TOTEM Music Player: Evince Photo Viewer: ??? Music Player: Rhythmbox Photo Viewer: shotwell Screen recording: default on old version

chavlu 9y ago

Ubuntu y Google deberían de aliarse ambos son open source, el nuevo ubuntu debería de utilizar las aplicaciones de Google y tener ciertas funciones geniales que un dispositivo Android tiene.

chavlu 9y ago

Ubuntu and Google they should play as a team, Google has many tools and ubuntu many knowledge, people like both. Ubuntu should start using Google apps, and ubuntu should be easier to get in stores.

frik 9y ago

Consider giving Ubuntu MATE even more love. It's the Ubuntu as it should be with a proper shell, not this Gnome3 UI-mess but with great Gnome2 alike UI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_MATE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_MATE

alok-g 9y ago

Please make sure to honor accessibility features and select applications that do. I need dark themes because my eyes become red without. It is painful to use apps that do not honor theme colors and do not provide their own means to change colors either.

flurdy 9y ago

Web Browser: Brave, Firefox Email Client: Gmail web Terminal: Terminator IDE: IntelliJ, Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Atom, VIM IRC/Messaging Client: Gitter, Slack non-free Office Suite: Google Docs web Calendar: Google Calendar web Video Player: VLC Music Player: Spotify non-free Screen recording: Google Hangout non-free, Floobits non-free Games platform: Steam non-free Source control GUI: GitKraken

fsantucci 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox Email Client: YahooMail, Gmail Terminal: Tilix IDE: Visual Studio Code, Atom File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Vim, Gedit IRC/Messaging Client: Telegram PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice, WPS Office Calendar: Gnome Calendar Video Player: VLC, MediaInfo Music Player: Lollypop, Spotify, EasyTAG Photo Viewer: Shotwell Screen recording: Simple Screen Recorder Shell: zsh Bitmap Image Editor: GIMP 2D Vetorial Image Editor: Inkscape

akerro 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox with µblock Origin and https everywhere installed system-wide

sigi21 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: ??? IDE: ??? File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: ??? IRC/Messaging Client: ??? PDF Reader: ??? Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: ???

sigi21 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird File manager: Nautilus Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC

Nala_Alan 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Gmail (web), Protonmail (web) Terminal: gnome-terminal IDE: Sublime Text 3 (non-free), Visual Studio Code File manager: default Basic Text Editor: nano IRC/Messaging Client: HexChat PDF Reader: default Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: none Video Player: mpv Music Player: unsure, i would go with DeaDBeeF and Spotify (non-free) Photo Viewer: ??? Screen recording: none Extra: KeePass, git, gpg

ubu4 9y ago

Office Suite: libreoffice Video Player: VLC E-Mail Client: Thunderbird Webbrowser: Firefox and Chromium

someone666a 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox/Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Whatever IDE: No! File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gnote IRC/Messaging Client: No! PDF Reader: Whatever Office Suite: No!/Libreoffice Calendar: Whatever/No! Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Whatever Screen recording: No!

yAnonymous 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox IDE: Visual Studio Code PDF Reader: Firefox Video Player: VLC Music Player: Clementine

holgerrlp 9y ago

Web Browser: Chromium Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome-Terminal IDE: Geany File manager: Nemo Basic Text Editor: Pluma PDF Reader: Atril Office Suite: Libreoffice Calendar: Orage Video Player: VLC Music Player: VLC Photo Viewer: Eye of Gnome Screen recording: Simple-Screen-Recorder

HuangYuSan 9y ago

Web Browser: Chrome non-free, Firefox Email Client: Inbox web, Mutt Terminal: GNOME Terminal File manager: Nautilus, Nemo Basic Text Editor: Atom, Gedit PDF Reader: Evince, Chrome Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Docs web, Office 2016 with VMWare Player non-free Calendar: Google Calendar web Video Player: Totem Movie Player Music Player: Google Play Music web Photo Viewer: GNOME image viewer

arbeluga 9y ago

Web Browser: Firefox, Epiphany Email Client: Thunderbird Terminal: Gnome Terminal File manager: Nautilus Basic Text Editor: Gedit PDF Reader: Evince Office Suite: LibreOffice Calendar: Thunderbird (Lightning) Video Player: VLC, Totem Music Player: Clementine Photo Viewer: EyeOfGnome Screen recording: "Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R" in Gnome

saikatsg 9y ago

- Web Browser: Chromium/GNOME Web - Email Client: Gmail-web - Terminal: Guake/GNOME Terminal - IDE: Visual Studio Code - File manager: Nautilus/Files - Basic Text Editor: Leafpad/Bluefish - IRC/Messaging Client: Hexchat/Polari - PDF Reader: Evince - Office Suite: LibreOffice - Calendar: GNOME Calendar - Video Player: VLC/SMPlayer/GNOME Videos - Music Player: GNOME Music/Audacious - Photo Viewer: gThumb/GNOME Photos - Screen recording: Peek/Kazam