dmenu - launcher dzen2 - simple (but very configurable) statusbar screen and surfraw w3m - excellent text-based web-browser mpd and ncmpc - for music mutt

dmenu - launcher dzen2 - simple (but very configurable) statusbar screen and surfraw w3m - excellent text-based web-browser mpd and ncmpc - for music mutt - for email (if you don't use emacs) bitlbee - an irc proxy that handles most other instant messaging protocols irssi - irc (or e.g. rcirc in emacs) cowsay and figlet :) xwrits - typing timer rsync - for backups (set it up with cron) git or mercurial (whatever, pick one) good windowmanagers: xmonad, dwm, wmii, blackbox Common theme: non-flashy, shell/keyboard-oriented stuff. If you like several of those, you will probably like most the rest.