Linux Applications

Most of the application can be started directly from the command line. Just type in the command and press return. Some applications can also be found in the KDE menu. Some applications can be (or have to be) loaded by the module command EnvironmentModules.

Email

• thunderbird - email and news client, supports IMAP, can be extended by many add-ons
• evolution - email, contacts, calender client, supports IMAP and exchange connections
• kmail - email client from KDE, supports IMAP
• claws-mail - an other email client, supports IMAP
• geary - a new email reader, supports IMAP
• mutt - text-based email client, supports IMAP
• pine - an other text-based email client, supports IMAP

Web Browser

• firefox - mozilla based web browser, can be extended by many add-ons
• chromium - Chrome the Google web browser - the only Linux browser with the latest Pepper Flash Player!
• opera - fast and user-friendly web browser
• seamonkey - mozilla based web browser and email client
• epiphany - GNOME web browser
• konqueror - file and (old) web browser of KDE
• lynx - text based web browser, run for example lynx-color http://www.iac.ethz.ch

(S)FTP Client

• gftp - graphical FTP client
• mc - Midnight Commander: for example just type mc ftp://iacftp.ethz.ch
• filezilla - graphical FTP/SFTP client

Office

• oowriter - openoffice writer (Word equivalent)
• oocalc - openoffice calculator (Excel equivalent)
• ooimpress - openoffice presentation (Powerpoint equivalent)
• oodraw - openoffice drawing
• scribus - page layout program
• abiword - word processor, can read and write all sorts of files
• gnumeric - Gnome spreadsheet application

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is not running on Linux. You can instead use Microsoft office on

• the web
  • https://www.office.com/ -> Sign in, use username@ethz.ch
  • you may have to register first, see https://wiki.iac.ethz.ch/IT/MicrosoftCloud
• from the terminal server "Luzern", see LinuxAccessWindows

Editor

• emacs, emacs-gtk - powerful editor
• xemacs - an other emacs version
• kwrite - simple KDE editor
• kedit - simple KDE editor
• kate - advanced KDE editor
• gedit - Gnome editor with nice plugins
• leafpad - similar to "notepad"
• kdevelop - programing languages editor
• vim - a unix editor
• codeblocks - C, C++ and Fortran programing languages editor
• nedit - an old style editor
• masterpdfeditor - PDF editor for Linux - https://code-industry.net/free-pdf-editor/
• atom - A text editor for the 21st Century - https://atom.io/

Images/Photos Editor

• gimp - image manipulating program
• pinta - a simple painting and image program
• digikam - digital photo management application
• gthumb - simple editing is possible

Image Viewer

• display
• xv
• gwenview
• eog
• gthumb
• ristretto
• feh
• gpicview

Drawing

• kolourpaint - simple paint application
• pinta - a simple painting and image program
• oodraw - openoffice drawing
• dia - draw flowchart
• scribus - page layout program
• inkscape - vector illustration program
• xfig - "old fashion" draw program
• xournal - draw your notes on PDFs

Document Viewer

• okular - view pdf, ps, eps, dvi, ... ,jpg, gif, ... , tiff, ...
• evince - view pdf, ps, eps, dvi, ...
• qpdfview - view pdf, ps, eps
• gv - view ps
• ghostview - view ps, eps
• firefox - view pdf

Screenshot

• spectacle
• gnome-screenshot

Files and Folders

• dolphin - KDE file manager
• krusader - KDE file manager
• nautilus - Gnome file manager
• thunar - XFCE file manager
• kfind - find files and folders
• mc - Midnight Commander file manager
• tkdiff, kompare - compare two files
• unison - file synchronization tool

Converting

• convert - a part of the ImageMagick suite of tools that converts between image formats with a lot of options and filters
• ps2ps, ps2ps2 - convert to a simpler and faster postscript file
• ps2eps - convert ps to eps
• ps2pdf - convert ps to PDF
• pdftops - converts PDF to postscript
• pdf2ps - convert PDF to postscript (with pdftops your get normally better results)
• epstopdf - convert eps to PDF
• ps2ascii - extract ASCI text from a postscript file
• pdftotext - extract ASCI text from a PDF file
• dos2unix, unix2dos - convert dos/windows text files to linux text files and vice versa
• pdfimages - extract images from a PDF document
• pdfjoin - concatenate separate PDF documents
• pstoedit - convert ps/eps files to various other file formats

For further information and examples see LinuxConvertFiles

Terminal

• konsole - KDE terminal
• gnome-terminal - Gnome terminal
• xterm - X-windows terminal
• xfce4-terminal - XFCE terminal
• terminator - powerful terminal
• lxterminal - LXDE terminal
• urxvt - lightweight terminal

LaTeX

• kile - KDE LaTeX editor
• texmaker - LaTeX editor
• texstudio - LaTeX editor
• gummi - Gnome LaTeX editor, with real time preview
• lyx - LaTeX editor
• jabref - Java GUI frontend for managing BibTeX

Media Player

• vlc - music and video player
• mplayer, gmplayer - music and video player
• kaffeine - music and video player
• totem - music and video player
• amarok - music player
• xanim - plays animations
• spotify - client for https://www.spotify.com

Video Conference

• skype - https://www.skype.com
• zoom - https://zoom.us

Science

• gnuplot - plotting utility
• engauge, g3data - convert graphs and maps into numbers
• R - statistic suite - see LinuxUseR
• rstudio - a powerful IDE for R
• matlab - powerful math suite - see LinuxMatlabFirstSteps
• ncl - NCAR command language
• python - interpreted programming language with lots of science packages - see Python FAQ
• nco - manipulate netcdf files
• cdo - manipulate many kinds of binary climate data
• ncview - plot netcdf files
• panoply - plot netcdf files
• ferret - plot netcdf file
• hdfview - explore hdf files
• grads - manipulation and visualization of earth science data
• pgf90, ifort, gfortran - see LinuxCompilers
• pgcc, ifc, gcc - see LinuxCompilers
• kcalc - a simple calculator
• units - unit conversion program

Reference Manager

• mendeleydesktop - generate citations and bibliographies in Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and LaTeX. How to upgrade to premium account
• kbibtex - a BibTeX editor for KDE

Printing

• lp - command line tool to print files
• For more information about printing see also LinuxPrinting

Configuration

• systemsettings5 - KDE configuration tool

Utilities

• keepassx - password manager
• k3b - CD and DVD burning application
• xfreerdp - client to connect to a Windows system, supports "network level authentication" LinuxAccessWindows
• rdesktop - client to connect to a Windows system
• kmix - sound mixer
• khelpcenter - KDE help