everyday linux apps

I am quite fond of Xubuntu.  I use it on most of my computers.  The reason being that KDE is way too `pretty’ and I’m not too happy with Gnome.  The XFCE desktop gets the job done well and doesn’t use too much in the way of resources.  With the exception of a hiding taskbar that sometimes refuses to hide, I’m quite satisfied with it.

XFCE’s small text app, Mousepad, does a great job for me.  I use it most of the time unless I need an editor that will keep more than one document open.  Nedit works for this.  I like gedit too but it requires a lot of other programs to make it work.  I like Opera for its speed but use Firefox a lot because of its extensions.  Occasionally I’ll use Epiphany or Galeon, or heaven forbid, IE via ies4linux.

Sound is very important to me and I use vlc for all audio and video.  I’d like to be able to speed up the audio but that’s the only thing it doesn’t seem to do.  SMplayer lets you play with the pitch and speed, as does XMMS, which requires too much command line mucking about.  Totem came with XFCE but I’d prefer it just went away quietly.

There’s a decent program called stjerm which will bring up a terminal which can be hidden with a key combination.  This is like tilda and guake. (I did a full writeup under Uakes).

FTP is handled with Filezilla (a lot of my choices are cross-platform because I have to use Windows every now and then).  Ssh is done at the command line.    From the KDE side, a real sleeper is Konqueror.  It’s an internet browser, a file browser, a dual pane file manager, and you can install all sorts of utilities via the service menus.  A good stand-alone file browser is Xfe.

For email there’s nothing like Thunderbird (until it’s confirmed that it phones home).  I like the plugins here too.   Burning is flawless with Brasero and when it gets complicated I use K3b.  Video editing is done, cross-platform, with Avidemux.  RSS comes courtesy of Akregator.  Utorrent works just fine under Wine, Deluge otherwise.  Notecase is a good notes/organizer app.

I use TWclock when I need to display UTC onscreen.  VMplayer runs all virtual machines.

So tell me - what are your hidden gems?  What makes life easier for you?  Have you found anything out of the norm you’d like to share?  Spill!