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Applications

Mandatory applications

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Then

packages=(
  colordiff
  ffmpeg
  filezilla
  git
  gpart
  gparted
  hexedit
  htop
  iotop
  jq
  meld
  numlockx
  openssh-server
  p7zip-full
  p7zip-rar
  passwordsafe
  redshift-gtk
  shellcheck
  terminator
  testdisk
  tree
  ttf-mscorefonts-installer
  vlc
  webp
  xclip
)
sudo apt install -y "${packages[@]}"

Quick explanation:

  • colordiff - Compare FILES line by line (use diff and display result with colors).
  • ffmpeg - Video manipulation through CLI
  • filezilla - ftp, sftp client.
  • git - The more populate revision control system.
  • gpart and gparted - could be use to recover data. Its better to have this kind of tools already installed on your system.
  • hexedit - View and edit file or device in hexadecimal or ASCII.
  • htop - audit and managed process.
  • iotop - Similar to htopbut for IO.
  • jq - JSON processor.
  • meld - Graphical diff and merge tool.
  • numlockx - Control the state of NumLock.
  • openssh-server - Installing sshd on your machine allows you to control it remotely.
  • p7zip-full - Allow you to manage sevenZip file from CLI.
  • passwordsafe - Allows you to safely and easily create a secured and encrypted user name/password list.
  • shellcheck- Lint tools for shell script (Bash).
  • terminator- Allow to have many terminal on screen.
  • testdisk- Scan and recover files from disk partitions
  • tree- List contents of directories in a tree-like format.
  • ttf-mscorefonts-installer - Microsoft fonts, useful for your shared documents and for some multi-platform application as well (like eclipse).
  • vlc - Video and sound player (no longer installed by default).
  • redshift-gtk - Set color temperature of display according to time of day.
  • webp - Allow to manage webp images. See cwebp and dwebp commands.
  • xclip - Reads from standard IN, or from one or more files, and makes the data available as an X selection for pasting into X applications: hostname | xclip -selection clipboard or date | xclip -se c.

Nice to have

Cool tools to install.

Useless but fun

Some useless but fun tools.

Additional packages I was using

  • lsyncd - A daemon to continuously synchronize directory trees.
  • open-iscsi - Allow to support ISCSI protocol (recommended if you have modern NAS).

No more available on Linux Mint

  • zenmap - GUI frontend for ǹmap a tool for network exploration and security auditing.

Customization

... and productivity tools

Numlock configuration

(Optional but recommended)

From GUI

Open Login Window - administrator privileges are required Goto Settings tab Enable Activate numlock

From CLI

✍ TODOC ✍

Add dock to your desktop

(Optional)

Cairo Dock

Linux-mint version less than 22

A dock to launch your programs easily but could be tricky to configure.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/ppa &&
sudo apt update &&
sudo apt install -y cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

Plank

plank is a dock for Linux, less fun than cairo-dock, but it's simple and works on Linux Mint 22.

sudo apt install -y plank

Disable touchpad when mouse present (Optional)

This is only for laptop computers.

For Linux-Mint 22 and above, use Mouse and Touchpad configuration from menu.

If not present (On Linux-mint version less than 22), try to install Touchpad-Indicator source code

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao &&
sudo apt-get update &&
sudo apt-get install -y touchpad-indicator

Clipboard manager

(Optional)

Diodon is an integrated clipboard manager for the Unity desktop.

First try to install from standard repositories:

sudo apt update &&
sudo apt install diodon -y

If not present then try to install from specific repository.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diodon-team/stable

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install diodon

# and for all Unity users there is also a scope
sudo apt-get insta unity-scope-diodon

Developments tools

(not only for developers)

Optional but useful

Tools to be able to build some packages or some applications

Editors

Edit/Manages documentation or configuration file

sudo apt install -y libxml2-utils # xmllint

Custom drivers

Configuration

Others tools

Other applications

More softwares

You may need Flatpak to have a recent version of certain software:

sudo apt install -y flatpak

Fixes

You may need to apply some fixes.

More informations

Articles to read things to do first in Linux Mint Cinnamon