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Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

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Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#1

Post by dustinkirkland »

We asked the HackerNews community, “What do you want to see in Ubuntu 17.10?”: https://ubu.one/AskHN and a passionate discussion ensued, the results are at: http://ubu.one/thankHN

You can check that link and see our progress. Already in beta for 17.10:

- GNOME replaced Unity

- Bluetooth improvements with a new BlueZ

- Switched to libinput

- 4K/Multimonitor/HiDPI improvements

- Upgraded to Network Manager 1.8

- New Subiquity server installer

- Minimal images (36MB, 18% smaller)

And several others have excellent work in progress, and will be complete by 17.10:

- Autoremove old kernels from /boot

- EXT4 encryption with fscrypt

- Better GPU/CUDA support

Your feedback matters! There are hundreds of engineers working for you to continue making Ubuntu amazing!

We're now reviewing the desktop applications we package and ship in Ubuntu.

We invite you to submit the apps you find most useful in Linux, in the format defined below. You can suggest multiple apps in priority order (e.g. Web Browser: Firefox, Chrome, Chromium). Please note apps that are now you use exclusively on the web (e.g. Email Client: Gmail web, Office Suite: Office360 web). If the software isn’t open source, note that (e.g. Music Player: Spotify non-free). If we missed a category, please add it in the same format. If your apps aren’t packaged yet, please let us know, as we’re creating hundreds of new snap packages for desktop apps.

===

Web Browser: ???

Email Client: ???

Terminal: ???

IDE: ???

File manager: ???

Basic Text Editor: ???

IRC/Messaging Client: ???

PDF Reader: ???

Office Suite: ???

Calendar: ???

Video Player: ???

Music Player: ???

Photo Viewer: ???

Screen recording: ???

===

We’ve cross-posted this thread to Reddit and Slashdot. We very much look forward to another friendly, energetic, collaborative discussion.

Thanks!

twitter.com/@DustinKirkland @Canonical @Ubuntu

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#2

Post by Freak_NL »

For most I would say the current defaults more than suffice.

Web Browser: Firefox. Of the two modern web browsers that are applicable (Chromium being the other), Mozilla and Firefox are more in tune with the free software mentality many users of Ubuntu adhere. It is an excellent browser as well.

Email Client: Thunderbird? Are there mature alternatives that will work for most people that use a standalone mail application?

Terminal: Keep gnome-terminal, it's perfectly fine for most.

IDE: None. Leave this to the user. An IDE need not be present by default, as it depends greatly one the language chosen. For simple scripting Gedit suffices at first, and associating code files with Gedit by default is fine too.

File manager: I take it Gnome Shell still ships with Nautilus?

Basic Text Editor: Nothing wrong with Gedit.

PDF Reader: Evince. Mature and fast.

Office Suite: LibreOffice of course.

Video Player: Something that supports everything you can throw at it.

Music Player: I'm partial to Quod Libet. :)

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#3

Post by brudgers »

What I want is no change unless there is a good reason to change. The internet voting for Browsey McBrowseface etc. is not, in my opinion, a good reason to change.

There are things Canonical does well, I think. Those things are technical. When it comes to trying to be Microsoft/Apple/Google, it misses the mark. In part because it assumes that which PDF reader it ships with matters to users.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#5

Post by FranOntanaya »

Web Browser: Firefox

Email Client: Thunderbird

Terminal: Gnome-Terminal

IDE: None

File manager: Nautilus

Basic Text Editor: Gedit

IRC/Messaging Client: Whatever supports Slack and Discord I guess.

PDF Reader: Current choice is fine.

Office Suite: LibreOffice

Video Player: I prefer SMPlayer to VLC for simple playback

Music Player: Clementine

Photo Viewer: gThumb

Screen recording: Kazam

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#6

Post by Giako »

Web Browser: Chromium, Firefox, Chrome

Email Client: Thunderbird, Web GMail

Terminal: Terminix

IDE: IntelliJ IDEA Community, Eclipse

File manager: Nautilus

Basic Text Editor: GEdit

PDF Reader: evince

Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Drive

Calendar: Thunderbird Lightning, Google Calendar

Video Player: Totem

Music Player: Spotify webapp, Spotify client non-free

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#7

Post by jacek »

Web Browser: Firefox, Opera (non-free)

Email Client: Thunderbird

Terminal: Tilix, gnome-terminal

IDE: Atom, gnome-builder

File manager: Nautilus

Basic Text Editor: gedit

IRC/Messaging Client: telegram-desktop

PDF Reader: Evince

Office Suite: LibreOffice

Calendar: gnome-calendar

Video Player: gnome-mpv, smplayer

Music Player: gnome-music, Spotify (non-free)

Photo Viewer: gnome photo viewer (don't know the name)

Screen recording: don't use

Photo editing: Darktable

Note taking: QOwnNotes

Research source organization: Zotero

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#8

Post by j0ar » 

    Web Browser: Firefox, Opera
    Email Client: Geary, Thunderbird, pantheon-mail (when the new version is ready)
    Terminal: gnome-terminal, pantheon-terminal
    IDE: ???
    File manager: Nautilus, Thunar, pantheon-files
    Basic Text Editor: gedit, scratch-text-editor (from elementaryOS)
    IRC/Messaging Client: Telegram
    PDF Reader: envince
    Office Suite: Libre
    Calendar: gnome-calendar (please please please with Caldav support for posteo)
    Video Player: totem, mpv (gnome-mpv)
    Music Player: audacious
    Photo Viewer: gnome-viewer
    Screen recording: ???

Re: Ask HN: Ubuntu Desktop Default Apps

#10

Post by _R_ »

Web Browser: Chrome, Chromium

Email Client: unity-mail

Terminal: Gnome Terminal

IDE: VIM

File manager: Nautilus

Basic Text Editor: Gedit

IRC/Messaging Client: None

PDF Reader: Evince

Office Suite: LibreOffice, Google Drive

Calendar: Gnome Calendar, Google Calendar

Video Player: VLC, YouTube

Music Player: Audacious

Photo Viewer: Gnome Image Viewer

Screen recording: None

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