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 add

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.