What do you consider essential software?

Rather than ask about a specific piece of software could I ask what people think is essential software for the AA1, over and above what's installed at time of purchase?

So far I'm pretty happy with the installed apps (the absence of Skype aside) but I'm wondering if I'm missing out on anything really useful - and potentially life-saving! This list can include utilities and applications, anything, in fact, that you think makes the Aspire One and even better PC than it is already (if that's possible).

Thanks.

 

Thunderbird/Sunbird; VLC or an improved mplayer; KeePassX; Bluetooth support; VNC; An ebook reader, eg., FBReader. Beyond that, I guess it depends what you want to do. ufraw is handy for viewing digital camera raw data files, but obviously it won't be a lot of use to many people.

 

*agrees with kevin*

Also truecrypt, to protect my files in case the thing gets stolen. And scummvm is "quite essential"

 

There are only two that I consider essential, both of which probably were intended to be preloaded but dropped for licensing reasons, and are relatively straightforward to install:

Skype...

VLC...

(in principle installing the appropriate codecs for the mplayer software that's preinstalled would have the same result, but VLC works fine so I've not investigated further)

I also install the Microsoft fonts, which in my opinion makes web page display more "correctly".

 

KDE Desktop (kdebase + kdeutils), KSnapshot (extracted from kdegraphics), Gwenview, Amarok, Kaffeine (as xine video frontend), essential development package for kernel compilation. Domino style and nuvoX icons make KDE look better. Kate/KWrite is my favorite text editor. Easy access and a lot configuration possibility made me no need XFCE (or Windows XP) anymore. KDE on AA1 made me so proud!

 

I am a student and the reason of buying AA1 is to use it for home work and communication. so Open Office is the most important one(pre-installed), the messenger software pre-installed is very powerful, but i also installed skype. Installing new software on such "Close" system, it is very easy to break something and it will be dead. So i also installed fwbackups for backup. I will really not use AA1 to watch video so often, so i have not installed VLC, instead i installed Real Player, Real Linux is really bad, it can not play anything except Real Formats. I also installed Dosbox to run some old games and software. Picasa is also essential for me too!

 

I would like new versions.
Firrefox-3 instead of 2
OpenOffice 3 instead of 2

I would like Thunderbird instead of Acer Mail.
More since I have 4 installs of Thunderbird and I'd like to use the same filters.

 

- opera
- smplayer
- vlc
- freemind
- osmo
- tomboy
- i wish there was a stock analysis/trading application for linpus, that would be essential for me.

 

Telnet, i can't seem to find a telnet client

 

Telnet is inherently insecure since it sends everything plain text. SSH is what is generally used today.

On the topic of ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE ... don't forget about an easy way to backup your Linpus computer and to restore it when the need arises. On EVERY computer I own, my first priority is always the ability to be able to have current backups.

Cheers.

 

Every portable computer needs a security suite -- for me, this includes a password program and an encrypted virtual drive.

Something like PGP would be good, too, but less needed if there was an encrypted drive.

How many articles have we all read about a laptop getting stolen with all kinds of credit card numbers or other private data on there? Often from companies or agencies who should know better. An encrypted drive would save that.

It would be fantastic if future versions of Linux were written with security in mind -- encrypted email, encrypted drives, secure browsing -- all transparently and by default. This would be such a gift to the world and a blow to the scammers and (bad) hackers.

 

A bit torrent program may not be absolutely essential but it's getting that way.

More and more legitimate web sites are supplying their files in bit torrent or are encouraging the users to download that way.

 

Many linux versions can do this. Linpus however.. well...
At least Truecrypt works.

 

Well, Firefox is essential but, I suppose we all know that.