Apps

A few of the more useful apps are listed here by category ~ internet, office, graphics, photography, and music. Not all of these apps are available on every computer. Tens of thousands of apps are available, so if you can't find something you think would be useful, ask.

Web browsers (internet)

• Apps for surfing the net

There are any number of web browsers available today, many seldom heard of, and most of them free of charge. Some, such as Firefox, Opera, and Chrome can be used across many different operating systems and devices. Others, such as Internet Explorer (IE) are Windows only. Safari is Apple's web browser and is available on all Apple devices such as the iMac or iPhone.

All these web browsers can pretty much do anything one expects from a web browser such as surf the web, watch YouTube videos, or shop online. Each browser has unique advantages and which works best depends on the personality and needs of the user(s).

• Firefox is an open source, free of charge, very popular web browser. Being open source makes it very customizable. There are numerous plugins to add functionality and tailor your web browsing experience to your unique needs. Firefox is a good overall web browser. Not only is it available on many platforms such as Linux, Mac, and Windows and devices such as Android phones and tablets, it can be synchronized across these devices, so bookmarks on one can be made available on any of the others.
• Chromium is available as a Linux alternative to Firefox, as Chrome is available to Mac and Windows.Tech note:  Google Chrome is based on Chromium. Users of both generally find them 99.99% similar. A major difference is not computer technical but legal technical. Chromium, being open source has very different licensing terms. Chromium or Chrome would probably be the browser of choice for those wanting to be very compatible with Google and Google services, or who just like Google and would like to stay in the Google circle.
• Wii users may be familiar with the Opera web browser icon. Opera was designed with a commitment to computer accessibility for users with visual or mobility impairments and comes with a host of useful features. It is designed to run well even on low-end and small computers as well as a variety of other devices. Perhaps because of its Scandinavian roots, Opera enjoys more popularity in Europe than in the USA. It can be installed on request.

Office

• Apps for creating documents
• LibreOffice Writer is a modern, full-featured word processing and desktop publishing tool. It's simple enough for a quick memo, but powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, and more. LibreOffice is highly compatible with Microsoft Word. It easily reads Microsoft Word documents, and you can also save your work in Microsoft Word format, if compatibility with Microsoft Word is required.
• LibreOffice Calc is a spreadsheet program that works similarly to Microsoft's Excel. It is highly compatible with Microsoft Excel so you can open Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and can also save your work in Excel format.
• Leafpad is a very simple text editor/word processor program. One can do basic functions like cut, copy, or paste, and choose font and size. Other than that, it's pretty much the same as a typewriter. When this is all you want or need, Leafpad is the way to go. Great for a quick memo, a no-frills document, or just typing practice.

Graphics and Photography

• Apps for artistic creation and photo editing
• These apps tend to use a lot of (RAM) memory and are not available on all computers.
• GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a high-end, open source, free software graphics application for the editing and creation of original images, photos, icons, graphical elements of web pages and art, with tools for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, resizing, cropping, photo-montages, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks. Animated images can be created using an animation plugin. GIMP has capabilities similar to the well known (proprietary) software program Photoshop and is available on both Linux Workstations and Mac.  More on GIMP
• Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X. Available on both Linux Workstations and Mac.
• digiKam is an open source, advanced digital photo management application for Linux.  More on digiKam
• Mirage is a fast and simple image viewer. Mirage allows cycling through multiple images, supports a thumbnail pane for quick navigation as well as slideshow and full screen modes. Xee is a similar app on Mac.

Multi-media and Music

• Music and Movies
• As typical of open source there are many apps for creating, playing, and managing music. While each app definitely has its strong and weak points, it's often a matter of personality and individual taste as to which of the apps you end up using. Some apps try to do a lot of things, similar to iTunes, while others specialize in one specific task. Though less restrictive or commercial than their proprietary counterparts, the large number of music apps available requires time and a bit of learning before finding the right combination to suit your particular personality and needs.
• Clementine is a music player and library organizer. It is free, open source and cross-platform, available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. You can listen to internet radio from Spotify, Grooveshark, Last.fm, SomaFM, Magnatune, Jamendo, SKY.fm, Digitally Imported, JAZZRADIO.com, Soundcloud, and Icecast and download music from Jamendo. You can copy music to your iPod, iPhone, MTP or mass-storage USB player. To learn all Clementine can do, check out the Clementine website.
• Nightingale is a music player. Similar to Clementine, it's possible to organize a music library and listen to internet radio. It has a beautiful interface, and it's possible to add features with add-ons. Though still young and developing, Nightingale shows promise.
• Gtkpod is a dedicated iPod manager. gtkpod provides a graphical user interface for transferring audio files onto iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, iPod Photo, or iPod Mini music players. Clementine offers this same capability and may be easier to use. As always, if in need of help, ask.
• VLC is a multimedia player that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various kinds of streaming. If you want to watch a movie, this is a good app to use. It is free, open source and cross-platform.

Other

• Miscellaneous apps
• Dropbox is a file hosting service that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and client software. It is a free service up to 2G of data. Dropbox allows users to create a special folder on each of their computers, which Dropbox then synchronizes so that it appears to be the same folder (with the same contents) regardless of which computer is used to view it. This means files placed in this folder will also be accessible by way of a web browser such as Firefox at the dropbox website and via mobile phone applications.
• What this means practically is you could take a picture, say with your iPhone, and Dropbox can arrange it so that picture is already waiting for you at a Library computer. It also saves you from carrying files around in, say, a USB flash drive. An internet connection is required.