A little about Ubuntu...

Ubuntu is a Debian-based Linux operating system, with Unity as its default desktop environment. It is based on free software and named after the Southern African philosophy of ubuntu (literally, "human-ness"), which often is translated as "humanity towards others" or "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".

Development of Ubuntu is led by Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. According to Canonical, the Ubuntu project is committed to the principles of open source development; people are encouraged to use free software, study how it works, improve upon it, and distribute it.

Homepage: ubuntu.com

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Recommended links for intro. about application search and installation process in Ubuntu:

• How do I enable the “Universe” and other repositories?




• How to install applications in Ubuntu?

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Here's the list of some default applications (along with some alternatives):

(The applications that are default or have been default in the past are marked with an asterisk (*).)

GUI Program installers

These are some great graphical front ends for package management. Categorized applications list with description, screenshots, ratings, etc. is really helpful to search and install the application that meets your need.

• Ubuntu Software Centre*
  




• Synaptic*
  




• Kyum

Audio

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Audio Player [Alt. to Winamp; Windows Media Player]

• Audacious


• amaroK


• Banshee*


• Rhythmbox*


• VLC

Audio Editor [Alt. to SoundForge; Adobe Audition]

• Audacity


• LMMS


• Ardour

Stream Browser

• last.fm

CD Ripper

• Arson


• Sound Juicer

Video

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Video Player [Alt. to BSplayer; Windows Media Player; VLC]

• KPlayer


• VLC


• Totem*

Video Editor [Alt. to Adobe Premiere]

• LiVES


• Avidemux


• OpenShot Video Editor


• Kdenlive

DVD Ripper

• Handbrake


• Brasero*

Screen Capture

• Xvidcap


• recordMyDesktop

Video/Audio format converter/transcoder

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[Alt. to FormatFactory, Total Video Converter, etc.]

• WinFF


• HandBrake


• Avidemux


• Transmageddon

Graphics & Design

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Image editor [Alt. to Adobe Photoshop]

• GIMP*


• Krita


• Tux Paint

Image Organizer [Alt. to Picasa]

• Shotwell*


• F-Spot


• digiKam

Vectorgraphics editor [Alt. to CorelDraw]

• Inkscape


• Karbon

3D Modeler [Alt. to 3D Max; Maya]

• Blender3D


• Wings 3D


• Equinox-3D

Computer Aided Design [Alt. to AutoCAD; MathCAD]

• BRL-CAD


• FreeCAD

Internet & Network

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Internet Browser [Alt. to Internet Explorer]

• Chromium


• Firefox*


• Opera


• SeaMonkey


• Konqueror


• Links2


• Lynx - Text browser for the World Wide Web

E-mail [Alt. to Outlook Express, Outlook]

• Evolution*


• Thunderbird*


• KMail

Usenet/Newsreader [Alt. to Outlook Express, Forte Agent]

• Pan

RSS Feed Reader

• Liferea

FTP Client [Alt. to FileZilla; WS_FTP]

• gFTP


• FileZilla

Instant messenger [Alt. to AIM; ICQ; MSN; Yahoo!; Jabber; Gadu-gadu]

• Pidgin (Formerly GAIM)


• Kopete


• aMSN


• Kadu

Internet Relay Chat [Alt. to mIRC]

• XChat


• Konversation

Torrents

• Deluge


• BitTornado


• aria2


• Transmission*


• KTorrent


• qBittorrent


• vuze

Download Manager/Accelerator

• uGet


• Axel


• Steadyflow

VoIP [Alt. to Skype]

• Skype


• Ekiga

Graphical User Interface

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Desktop Environment [Alt. to Explorer, Aston, GeoShell]

• Unity


• KDE


• Gnome


• Xfce


• Cinnamon


• Trinity


• Mate
  (This AU page lists some more with great snapshots. Must visist: What different desktop environments and shells are available?)

Development

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Web [Alt. to Dreamweaver]

• Aptana


• Bluefish


• CSSed - CSS Editor


• KompoZer


• Screem

IDE [Alt. to MS Visual studio]

• KDevelop


• NetBeans


• Anjuta - Anjuta is a versatile IDE for C and C++, written for GTK/GNOME


• Eclipse - An extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle


• Eric - Python IDE


• Qt


• Geany

Office

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Office Suite [Alt. to MS Office, Adobe Reader, etc.]

• LibreOffice*


• OpenOffice*


• KingSoft Office


• Scribus


• PDFedit


• evince* - Document viewer for multiple document formats like PDF, Postscript, djvu, tiff, dvi, XPS, etc.

Calendar [Alt. to Ms Outlook]

• Evolution*


• Mozilla Sunbird

Text Editors GUI [Alt. to Notepad]

• gedit*


• Leafpad


• SciTE

System tools

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File managers

[Alt. to Total Commander]

• Krusader

[Alt. to Windows Explorer]

• Konqueror


• Nautilus*

CD Burners [Alt. to Nero]

• Brasero *


• K3B

Partition Managers [Alt. to Partition Magic]

• Gparted*


• QtParted

X Terminal Emulator

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• gnome-terminal*


• xterm


• konsole


• guake


• yakuake

Other Utilities

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Dictionary

• Artha


• Dictionary (gnome-dictionary)*

Cleaning temporary/unwanted/duplicate files [Alt. to CCleaner, etc.]

• FSlint


• BleachBit


• GtkOrphan


• fdupes

System Monitor (gnome-system-monitor)* [Alt. to Task Manager]

Disk Utility (gnome-disk-utility)*

Disk Usage Analyzer (baobab)*

Archive Manager (file-roller)* [Alt. to WinRAR, 7zip, etc.]

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Source of the list: ubuntuguide.org

Also visit: Ubuntu's Application Guide

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More links for suggestions on Windows/MacOS X app alternatives:

• http://www.linuxalt.com/


• http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives


• http://alternativeto.net/

(Courtesy: falconer, wilf, Jason R, Steelsouls, Kunal Sangwan, number5 for suggestions with applications and links.)