There's no doubt there are a great variety of Linux packages in use.
Recently I did a CD install of Debian 12 (Bookworm) desktop with Gnome, which loads a bunch of stuff over the Net. Here are extra packages that I installed manually. The first set is used by and with an automated configuration script that I wrote, so they have to come in to begin with.
| Title | Description | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| info | Gnu info processor | "Config" |
| curl | Command line tool for transferring data with URL syntax | "Config" |
| dbus-x11 | Simple interprocess messaging system (X11 deps) | "Config" |
| emacs | Editor | "Config" |
| gconf2 | GNOME configuration database system (support tools) | "Config" |
| mc | Midnight Commander - a powerful file manager | "Config" |
| python3-iniparse | Access and modify configuration data in INI files | "Config" |
| python-lxml-doc | Python XML documentation | "Config" |
| python3-lxml | Pythonic binding for the libxml2 and libxslt libraries | "Config" |
| sakura | Simple but powerful libvte-based terminal emulator | "Config" |
| Title | Description | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| "apcupsd" | "APC UPS Power Management" | "Monitor" |
| "artha" | "Handy off-line thesaurus based on WordNet" | "Utils" |
| "backintime" | "Simple backup/snapshot system" | "Utils" |
| "brasero" | "CD/DVD burning application for GNOME" | "Utils" |
| "bwm-ng" | "Small and simple console-based bandwidth monitor" | "Monitor" |
| "ccze" | "Robust, modular log coloriser" | "Utils" |
| "certbot" | "Automatically configure HTTPS using Let's Encrypt " | "Utils" |
| "claws-mail-dillo-viewer" | "HTML viewer plugin for Claws Mail using Dillo" | "Mail" |
| "claws-mail-feeds-reader" | "Feeds (RSS/atom) reader plugin for claws mail" | "Mail" |
| "claws-mail-plugins" | "Claws mail" | "Mail" |
| "claws-mail-spam-report" | "Spam reporting plugin for claws mail" | "Mail" |
| "cmake" | "Cross-platform, open-source make system" | "Retroshare" |
| "conky-all" | "Highly configurable system monitor" | "Monitor" |
| "copyq" | "Advanced clipboard manager with editing and scripting features" | "Utils" |
| "cups" | "Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - PPD/driver support, web interface " | "Utils" |
| "dcraw" | "Decode raw digital camera images" | "Photo" |
| "devilspie" | "Automatically resize windows" | "Utils" |
| "dict" | "Dictionary client/server and a selection of dictionaries, too" | "Utils" |
| "dictd" | "Dictionary server" | "Utils" |
| "diction" | "Utilities to help with style and diction" | "Utils" |
| "exiv2" | "EXIF/IPTC photo metadata manipulation tool" | "Photo" |
| "festival" | "General multi-lingual speech synthesis system" | "Utils" |
| "ftp" | "Classical file transfer client" | "Utils" |
| "gedit" | "Popular text editor for the GNOME desktop environment" | "Editor" |
| "gimp" | "GNU Image Manipulation Program" | "Photo" |
| "git" | "Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system" | "Utils" |
| "gnome-audio" | "Audio files for GNOME" | "Utils" |
| "gnome-extra-icons" | "Optional gnome icons" | "Utils" |
| "gnucash" | "Personal bookkeeping and finance" | "App" |
| "golang" | "Go programming language compiler" | "yamn" |
| "hplip" | "HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP)" | "Utils" |
| "hplip-gui" | "HP Linux Printing and Imaging - GUI utilities (Qt-based)" | "Utils" |
| "hugin" | "Panorama photo stitching program" | "Photo" |
| "imagemagick" | "Image manipulation programs" | "Photo" |
| "libbz2-dev" | "High-quality block-sorting file compressor library" | "Retroshare" |
| "libcurl4-openssl-dev" | "Development files and documentation for libcurl (OpenSSL flavour)" | "Retroshare" |
| "libglib2.0-dev" | "Development files for the GLib library" | "Retroshare" |
| "libjpeg-turbo-progs" | "Programs for manipulating JPEG files including loss-less rotation" | "Photo" |
| "libmicrohttpd-dev" | "Library embedding HTTP server functionality" | "Retroshare" |
| "libopencv-dev" | "computer vision core library" | "Retroshare" |
| "libqt5opengl5-dev" | "Qt 5 OpenGL library development files" | "Retroshare" |
| "libqt5multimedia5" | "Qt 5 Multimedia module" | "Retroshare" |
| "libqt5network5" | "Qt 5 network module" | "Retroshare" |
| "libqt5x11extras5-dev" | "Qt 5 X11 extras" | "Retroshare" |
| "libreoffice-base" | "Database component for LibreOffice" | "Utils" |
| "librsvg2-bin" | "Command-line and graphical viewers for SVG files" | "Photo" |
| "libsqlcipher-dev" | "Sqlcipher shared library" | "Retroshare" |
| "libssl-dev" | "Secure Sockets Layer toolkit - development files" | "Retroshare" |
| "libspeex-dev" | "The Speex codec library" | "Retroshare" |
| "libspeexdsp-dev" | "The Speex extended library" | "Retroshare" |
| "libupnp-dev" | "Portable SDK for UPnP devices" | "Retroshare" |
| "libxslt1-dev" | "XSLT 1.0 processing library" | "Retroshare" |
| "libxss-dev" | "X11 Screen Saver extension library (development headers)" | "Retroshare" |
| "lm-sensors" | "Utilities to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors" | "Monitor" |
| "mosquitto" | "MQTT version 5.0/3.1.1/3.1 compatible message broker" | "Home Automation" |
| "mosquitto-clients" | "Mosquitto command line MQTT clients" | "Home Automation" |
| "net-tools" | "NET-3 networking toolkit" | "Utils" |
| "numlockx" | "Enable numlock in X11 sessions" | "Unknown" |
| "openhab-addons" | "OpenHAB Home Automation" | "Home Automation" |
| "otpclient" | "Simple GTK+ software to generate OTPs (TOTP and HOTP)" | "Utils" |
| "pandoc" | "General markup converter" | "Utils" |
| "pcmanfm" | "Extremely fast and lightweight file manager" | "Utils" |
| "python-is-python3" | "Symlinks /usr/bin/python to python3" | "Devel" |
| "python3-babel" | "Tools for internationalizing Python applications - Python 3.x" | "Devel" |
| "python3-calmjs" | "Node.js Python framework for building toolchains and utilities" | "Devel" |
| "python3-cheetah" | "Text-based template engine and Python code generator (Python 3)" | "WeeWX" |
| "python3-configobj" | "Simple but powerful config file reader and writer for Python 3" | "WeeWX" |
| "python3-dateparser" | "Python parser for human readable dates" | "Devel" |
| "python3-doc" | "Python documentation" | "Devel" |
| "python3-ephem" | "Compute positions of the planets and stars with Python 3" | "WeeWX" |
| "python3-nltk" | "Natural language processing" | "Utils" |
| "python3-pycryptodome" | "Cryptographic Python library" | "eoas" |
| "python3-pyqt5" | "Python 3 bindings for Qt5" | "Devel" |
| "python3-pyqt5.qtmultimedia" | "Python 3 bindings for Qt5's Multimedia module" | "Devel" |
| "python3-serial" | "pyserial - module encapsulating access for the serial port " | "WeeWX" |
| "python3-setuptools" | "Python distutils enhancements (setuptools compatibility)" | "Devel" |
| "python3-tz" | "The Olson timezone database" | "Utils" |
| "python3-usb" | "USB interface for Python (Python3)" | "WeeWX" |
| "python3-venv" | "Venv module for python3" | "WeeWX" |
| "python3-vobject" | "Parse iCalendar and VCards in python" | "Android" |
| "python3-xdg" | "Freedesktop.org standards" | "Tonto2" |
| "qgit" | "Qt application for viewing GIT trees" | "Utils" |
| "qrencode" | "QR code encoder into PNG image" | "Photo" |
| "qtcreator" | "Integrated development environment (IDE) for Qt" | "Retroshare" |
| "qtmultimedia5-dev" | "APIs for multimedia functionality" | "RetroShare" |
| "qtox" | "Tox client" | "Retroshare" |
| "qttools5-dev" | "Qt 5 tools development files" | "Retroshare" |
| "rapidjson-dev" | "Fast JSON parser/generator for C++ with SAX/DOM style API" | "Retroshare" |
| "rblcheck" | "Query real-time black list (RBL) servers" | "Mail" |
| "retroshare-gui" | "Secure communication with friends" | "Retroshare" |
| "rsync" | "Fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool" | "Utils" |
| "sane" | "Scanner graphical frontends" | "Photo" |
| "sqlite3" | "Command line interface for SQLite 3" | "Firefox Devel" |
| "sqlitebrowser" | "GUI editor for sqlite databases" | "Unknown" |
| "ssh" | "Secure shell client and server (metapackage)" | "Utils" |
| "tcl8.6-dev" | "Tcl (the Tool Command Language) v8.6" | "Retroshare" |
| "tesseract-ocr" | "Command line OCR tool" | "Unknown" |
| "timeshift" | "System restore utility" | "Utils" |
| "torsocks" | "Use socks-friendly applications with Tor" | "QTox" |
| "trash-cli" | "Freedesktop.org trash implementation" | "Utils" |
| "tree" | "Displays an indented directory tree, in color" | "Utils" |
| "ttf-bitstream-vera" | "Bitstream Vera family of free Truetype fonts" | "Utils" |
| "whois" | "Intelligent WHOIS client" | "is_tout.py" |
| "xsane" | "Graphical frontend for Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE)" | "Photo" |
| "zbar-tools" | "Bar Code Scanner and Decoder" | "Photo" |
| "zip" | "Archiver for .zip files" | "Utils" |
Here are third-party packages I admire. These are not available in Debian repositories although some provide Debian-compatible repositories of their own.
Tor Browser Bundle: Anonymizing Network Browser
This is available from https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/ as a tarball. This should be unpacked and the whole tor-browser_en-US directory moved to the ~user folder. This is so that the browser can auto-update at user authority as the need arises.
RetroShare: Secure Communications with Friends
This has its own Debian-compatible repository.
metar: A Package to Parse METAR Coded Weather Reports
~/lab_pip/bin/activate
pip install metar --upgrade
weeWX: Open source software for backyard weather stations.
From http://weewx.com/docs/debian.htm. Although a Debian package exists, doing any development practically requires that all the code be in user-space, so don't install the package. Download it instead.
OpenHAB: Home Automation
This has its own Debian-compatible repository.
Ant: GTK3/4 Themes by eliverlara
From https://www.gnome-look.org/browse?cat=135&ord=latest.
This is for claws-mail. It provides better contrast.
Doctor, Doctor, my brother thinks he's a chicken!
Too much fun! Like many other Comp. Sci. students, I spent way too many hours trying to get Eliza, an automated psychiatrist from MIT, to say something shocking. Weizenbaum, the developer, "was surprised and shocked that individuals, including his secretary, attributed human-like feelings to the computer program." In this sense AI is nothing new because Eliza passed the Turing Test in 1967.
I can do better than that by using *.csv files on a desktop machine, and I'm squeamish about taking them mobile. so I don't have to deal with sync'ing them.
I'm mystified that poppler-utils is not a viable option. Of course the *.pdf file would have to include the text itself, but many do.
Continue following best practices to mitigate surveillance.
The slimy part of FISA has always been that the data it collects about overseas communications never sunsets. Moreover, Federal law enforcement officials used to be able to troll through the data without a lot of oversight. In 2020 and 2021, there were 270 thousand questionable uses of the data by the FBI looking for dirt — not on foreigners (who are fair game apparently) — but on citizens. The furor over that is what fueled the failed opposition to re-authorization, which succeeded primarily because the FBI insists that the data provides early-warning of terrorists plots and that [the FBI] promises to play fair in the future by digging for dirt only on terrorists here and abroad.
I can kind of understand VPN and TOR blocking when those are often used by people wanting to post illegal content or engage in illegal activity that could also be harmful to the service that ends up blocking them.
I can't understand that at all. If they are able to identify a real threat, they understand more about their users than their IP address. Blocking IPs is a brutal and lazy way to deal with an imaginary threat. I they are truly that paranoid, they should do what Reddit does: Ban everybody.
I'm agnostic about password managers, and I'm agnostic about sync'ing password repositories between devices. I believe there would be grave risks of losing access to my own repositories by misplacing their pass-phrases or bungling other kinds of authentication. I try not to put anything on portable devices that is super confidential. On the other hand, I restrict physical access to my desktop computer. I back it up continually, power it from an uninterruptible power supply, and run only a handful of server-side processes there. ... so I feel safe ... sort of.
I suppose it may seem heretical to members of this community, but I put all my passwords in a plain-text *.csv file on my desktop machine that I maintain with my own python script.
I may have to build [journal software] myself, with my rudimentary knowledge of qt.
Don't do that! Take a look at Tonto2.
sakura terminal emulator for me 'cause I can edit color sets in its .config file and then switch between them under the right-click menus.
I used to use [a Windows 3.1 shrink-wrapped software package] that offered notepads and appointment calendars. Then I switched to Linux. That was 16 years ago. To take the place of the Windows application, I had to write my own list-maker from scratch. Today, there's a new python3-pyqt5 version (under GNU General Public License) of my script for Linux and Windows desktops to help maintain the equivalent of index-card files. Obviously this is not something you'd use just to be like everybody else. I use it because I don't really know how others handle their everyday lists and I can't think of an easier way. If you, too, suspect it ought to be easier than it is, it may be. Please look at Tonto2. Thanks.
