Introduction:
Linux is good for lots of reasons, but one of the main reasons is the amount of apps that are available to install. Lots of them I'm sure the causal PC user wouldn't have any use for, but for me, sometimes they have got me out of sticky situations.
1. htop
I'm sure you all have your own activity viewer to monitor what's really going on, but my personal favorite is htop. It's nice and light and the use of color makes it more visually pleasing (and easier!) to use. It doesn't require any desktop environment to run either; just open up a terminal and type 'htop'
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| The use of color makes it easier to look at and the shortcut prompts at the bottom help |
want to use htop? use sudo apt-get install htop to get it.
2. Nano.
When it comes to text editors, it's somewhat of a preference. I like Nano because it's nice a simple. A little part of me feels guilty for opting for an easy text editor, but it just saves time. Like htop, it comes with a list of commands at the bottom, all of which require the cntrl key, so no closing files by accident. Again like htop, it's doesn't require a desktop environment and it's nice and light, if you're using a Raspberry Pi or the like.
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| Great for a terminal enviroment |
If you're running a fairly mainstream Linux, you can use sudo apt-get install nano
3. Idle
It's hard to come across a Linux distribution that doesn't include Python. It's somewhere quite high in the list of languages used around the world. I often find when copying Python files around you loose the formatting and something an other gets mucked up. Idle, made by Python, allows for easy formatting and proper indentation. Unlike some text editors it also will help point out your error in code and save every time you run it, stopping you from losing all your hard work.
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| Idle also allows conversation mode in python, which allows you to just text snippets of code |
sudo apt-get install idle
4. lm-sensors
If you're worried about the temperature your CPU is running at, this is the answer. lm-sensors has support for lots of sensors, so it's unlikely you're computer won't be supported. To use the application, you just need to let it scan the sensors on first run and then type sudo sensors to view tempreture information.
sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
5. GCC
For the people who use C++, I admit that there are a lot friendlier development environments but I like this again, for when I'm using a Raspbery Pi and I want something from the terminal and is lightweight. It's got lots of libraries included with it, which makes it a handy tool.
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| THIS IS NOT WHAT GCC looks like, but it's just a basic terminal application |
6. GIMP
GIMP is a great application for image editing. It's about a 50Mb download, which keeps it nice and light on the hole. It's feature packed and I've never had to use anything else since. It's a great way to touch up photos and you don't particularly need to be a pro to use it. It's useful in a wide variety of situations and comes with lots of nice fonts.
sudo apt-get install gimp
7. DKMS - is this actually an application?
DKMS is one of those tools that you only use when you actually need it. I'm not going to write too much about it, as most of my original understand actually comes from this link here.
It's great if you need to install a driver outside of your kernel - it actually got me out of a mess recently with Intel Audio. If you don't have to ever use it, thank yourself for having easy hardware support ;)
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