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ArchLinux - Fast and Light!
By Frank Cheung
Cover Design by Sanjay Purswani
Copyright 2014 Frank Cheung
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This
ebook may not be re-soldor given away to other people. If you would
like to share this book with another person,please purchase an
additional copy for each recipient. If youre reading this book and
didnot purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then
please return to yourfavorite ebook retailer and purchase your own
copy. Thank you for respecting the hardwork of this author.
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1. Introduction1.1 Why ArchLinux?1.2 The Arch Way1.3 Trying out
ArchLinux
2. Appearance2.1 Display/Login Manager2.2 Tiling Window
Managers2.3 Floating Window Managers2.4 Desktop Environments2.5
System Panels/Menus/Trays
3. Tools3.1 Shells3.2 Terminal Emulators3.3 File Managers3.4
Network Managers3.5 Package Managers3.6 Archive Managers3.7 System
Monitors3.8 Security/Backup Utilities
4. Multimedia4.1 CD Burners4.2 CD Rippers4.3 Image Viewers4.4
Image Editors (Raster)4.5 Image Editors (Vector)4.6 Music
Players4.7 Video Players
5. Office5.1 Text Editors5.2 Office Apps (Word Processing)5.3
Office Apps (Spreadsheet/Math)5.4 PDF Readers
6. Communication6.1 Email Clients6.2 IRC Clients6.3 Instant
Messengers
7. Web7.1 Web Browsers7.2 Torrent Clients7.3 RSS Readers7.4 Web
Utilities
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1. Introduction
The Linux landscape is full of diverse applications that contain
different performance/functionality trade-offs. To the beginner it
can often be challenging to find the right applications that
fulfill his/her needs. This guide introduces the reader to the best
lightweight and fast apps that are out there so as to speed up the
search.
The information in this guide is loosely based on a recent poll
of over 500 ArchLinux users that listed their favourite light and
fast applications. For each category we pick the top 1-3 apps and
provide a quick introduction on each.
1.1 Why ArchLinux?
ArchLinux is a lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that
tries to Keep It Simple.
ArchLinux is an independently developed, i686- and
x86_64-optimised Linux distribution targeted at competent Linux
users. It uses 'pacman', its home-grown package manager, to provide
updates to the latest software applications with full dependency
tracking. Operating on a rolling release system, Arch can be
installed from a CD image or via an FTP server. The default install
provides a solid base that enables users to create a custom
installation. In addition, the Arch Build System (ABS) provides a
way to easily build new packages, modify the configuration of stock
packages, and share these packages with other users via the
ArchLinux user repository.
What I personally love about ArchLinux is its rolling release
model and the flexibility that the distribution provides. Whether
you want to stick with one of the mainstream desktop environments
like GNOME or KDE, or want something more lightweight like LXDE or
Xfce, ArchLinux keeps it simple. ArchLinux has one of the best (if
not the best) documentation available via their wiki pages and a
solid support community via the Arch forums
(https://bbs.archlinux.org) or IRC (#archlinux on
irc.freenode.net).
1.2 The Arch Way
The following five core principles comprise what is commonly
referred to as the Arch Way, or the Arch Philosophy, perhaps best
summarized by the acronym KISS for Keep It Simple, Stupid.
SimplicityArchLinux defines simplicity as without unnecessary
additions, modifications, or complications, and provides a
lightweight UNIX-like base structure that allows an individual user
to shape the system according to their own needs. In short: an
elegant, minimalist approach.
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Code-correctness over convenienceSimplicity of implementation,
code-elegance, and minimalism shall always remain the reigning
priorities of Arch development.
User-centricArchLinux targets and accommodates competent
GNU/Linux users by giving them complete control and responsibility
over the system.
OpennessArchLinux uses simple tools, that are selected or built
with openness of the sources and their output in mind.
FreedomBy keeping the system simple, ArchLinux provides the
freedom to make any choice about the system.
1.3 Trying out ArchLinux
To experiment with the applications listed in this guide you may
want to use a Virtual Machine manager such as Oracle VirtualBox
before you install Arch as your main OS.
To download VirtualBox just head to
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads and download the platform
package for your OS. Run the installer after you have completed the
download.
ArchLinux can be downloaded from
https://www.archlinux.org/download/. It is recommended to use
BitTorrent as this is usually the quickest way to download the
install iso.
Fire up VirtualBox and follow the next few steps to create and
configure a new VM:
- Click on the New icon.- Enter a name like archtest and specify
Linux for the Type and Arch Linux (32 bit) for the
Version. When installing Arch as your main OS you would
typically install the 64-bit version of ArchLinux. Click Next.
- Specify a Memory size; the recommended size is 512MB but if
you have a lot of RAM to play with you can increase it to something
like 2048MB. Click Next.
- Ensure the "Create a virtual Hard drive now" is checked and
click Create.- You will be prompted to choose the type of file that
you would like to use for the new
virtual hard drive. Just leave it as VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)
and click Next.- Keep the "Dynamically allocated" option checked
and click Next.- Select the size of the virtual hard drive in
megabytes. The default is 8GB but I would
personally change it to 15-20GB so you have more space to play
with. Click Create.- You should now see your new VM listed in the
Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager. Right-
click on your new VM and select Settings.- Select Storage and
click on the Empty CD icon. Next to CD/DVD Drive you should see
another CD icon. Click on it and select "Choose a virtual CD/DVD
disk file". Navigate to the iso file that you downloaded. Click
OK.
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If all is well you should now be able to double-click on your VM
and VirtualBox should launch ArchLinux in a new window. Select the
first option (Boot ArchLinux) and hit enter. You should be
presented with a shell prompt, automatically logged in as root and
can now start the installation process. Follow the beginners'
installation guide from here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/beginners'_guide#Installation.
This guide assumes you have installed sudo which is a good
practice to only elevate access to root when required.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VirtualBox -
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/beginners'_guide
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2. Appearance
2.1 Display/Login Manager
SLiMSLiM is an acronym for Simple Login Manager. Lightweight and
easily configurable, SLiM requires minimal dependencies, and none
from the GNOME or KDE desktop environments. It therefore
contributes towards a lightweight system for users that also like
to use lightweight desktops such as Xfce, Openbox, and Fluxbox.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S slim
To install themes:- sudo pacman -S slim-themes
archlinux-themes-slim
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SLiM
2.2 Tiling Window Managers
awesomeawesome is a dynamic window manager for the X Window
System developed in the C and Lua programming languages. Lua is
also used for configuring and extending the window manager. Its
development began as a fork of dwm. It aims to be extremely small
and fast, yet extensively customizable and make it possible for the
user to productively manage windows with the use of keyboard.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S awesome
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/awesome
dwmdwm is a dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in
tiled, stacked, and full-screen layouts, as well as many others
with the help of optional patches. Layouts can be applied
dynamically, optimizing the environment for the application in use
and the task performed. dwm is extremely lightweight and fast,
written in C and with a stated design goal of remaining under 2000
source lines of code. It provides multi-head support for xrandr and
Xinerama.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S dwm dmenu
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A preferred way to install is using makepkg and ABS which allows
reconfiguring dwm at a later time without complications. Please see
the wiki link below in Additional Resources.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/dwm
2.3 Floating Window Managers
OpenboxOpenbox is a lightweight, powerful, and highly
configurable stacking window manager with extensive standards
support. It may be built upon and run independently as the basis of
a unique desktop environment, or within other integrated desktop
environments such as KDE and Xfce, as an alternative to the window
managers they provide. The LXDE desktop environment is itself built
around Openbox.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S openbox
Openbox may be run independently as a standalone window manager,
or within other integrated desktop environments such as KDE and
XFCE as an alternative to the window managers they provide. If you
are interested in an out-of-the-box Arch Linux experience with a
pre-configured Openbox desktop suite it's worth checking out
ArchBang Linux.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/openbox -
http://wiki.archbang.org
2.4 Desktop Environments
XfceXfce is a lightweight and modular Desktop environment
currently based upon GTK+ 2 though in the future it may be ported
to GTK+ 3. Xfce contains a suite of applications such as a window
manager, a file manager, and a panel to provide a complete user
experience. Xfce is popular with many users, partly because it is
lightweight but also because a large amount of settings are exposed
in a GUI. This is in sharp contrast to desktops such as GNOME Shell
which hide many settings from the user.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S xfce4
It is recommended that you also install the xfce4-goodies group
as well which includes extra plugins and a number of useful
utilities such as the mousepad editor.
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Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xfce
LXDEThe "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment" is an extremely
fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment. Maintained
by an international community of developers, it comes with a
beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard
short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. LXDE
uses less CPU and less RAM than other environments. It is
especially designed for cloud computers with low hardware
specifications, such as, netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or
older computers.
Installation (group):- sudo pacman -S lxde
LXDE is considered modular, meaning that you have considerable
choice over which packages you need to install. The minimum
required packages which you have to install to run LXDE are
lxde-common and openbox (or another window manager). For more info
please see the wiki link below as part of Additional Resources.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE
2.5 System Panels/Menus/Trays
dmenudmenu is a fast and lightweight dynamic menu for X. It
reads arbitrary text from stdin, and creates a menu with one item
for each line. The user can then select an item, through the arrow
keys or typing a part of the name, and the line is printed to
stdout. dmenu_run is a wrapper that ships with the dmenu
distribution that allows its use as an application launcher.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S dmenu
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/dmenu
tint2tint2 is a system panel for linux. It is described by its
developers as "simple panel/taskbar unobtrusive and light". It can
be configured to include (or not include) among other things a
system tray, a task list, a battery monitor and a clock. Its look
can also be configured a great deal, and it does not have many
dependencies. This makes it ideal for window manager users who want
a panel but do not have one by default, like Openbox users.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S tint2
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Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/tint2
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3. Tools
3.1 Shells
bashBash (Bourne-again Shell) is a shell/programming language by
the GNU Project. Its name is a homage reference to its predecessor:
the long-deprecated Bourne shell. Bash can be run on most UNIX-like
operating systems, including GNU/Linux. As with most Linux
distributions, bash is installed by default.
Additional Resources:- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/bash
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http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/introduction-bash-shell-linux-
mac-os-
http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/bash-shell-scripting
ZshZsh is a powerful shell that operates as both an interactive
shell and as a scripting language interpreter. While being
compatible with Bash (not by default, only if issuing "emulate
sh"), it offers many advantages such as:- Speed- Improved tab
completion- Improved globbing- Improved array handling- Fully
customisable
Installation:- sudo pacman -S zsh
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/zsh
3.2 Terminal Emulators
rxvt-unicode rxvt-unicode is a highly customizable terminal
emulator forked from rxvt. Commonly known as urxvt, rxvt-unicode
can be daemonized to run clients within a single process in order
to minimize the use of system resources. Developed by Marc Lehmann,
some of the more outstanding features of rxvt-unicode include
international language support through Unicode, the ability to
display multiple font types and support for Perl extensions.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S rxvt-unicode
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Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/rxvt-unicode
Xtermxterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window
System. It is highly configurable and has many useful and some
unusual features.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xterm
TerminatorTerminator is a terminal emulator supporting tabs and
multiple resizable terminal panels in one window native based on
GNOME Terminal. Although not quite in the top 3 light and fast
emulators, it is my personal favourite; none of the other emulators
support multiple resizable terminal panels.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S terminator
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Terminator
3.3 File Managers
ThunarThunar is a new modern file manager for the Xfce Desktop
Environment. Thunar has been designed from the ground up to be fast
and easy-to-use. Its user interface is clean and intuitive, and
does not include any confusing or useless options by default.
Thunar is fast and responsive with a good start up time and folder
load time.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S thunar
Thunar is part of the xfce4 group, so if you are running Xfce4,
you probably already have Thunar installed.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/thunar
coreutilsA large proportion of power users prefer the
flexibility and speed provided by the coreutils utilities on the
command-line.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Core_utilities
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http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/meet-command-line
PCManFMPCMan File Manager (PCManFM) is a file manager
application developed by Hong Jen Yee from Taiwan which is meant to
be a replacement for Nautilus, Konqueror and Thunar. Released under
the GNU General Public License, PCManFM is free software. PCManFM
is the standard file manager in LXDE, which is also developed by
the same author in conjunction with other developers.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S pcmanfm
It is recommended to install gvfs for trash support, mounting
with udisk and remote filesystems.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCManFM
3.4 Network Managers
WicdWicd is a network connection manager that can manage
wireless and wired interfaces, similar and an alternative to
NetworkManager. Wicd is written in Python and GTK+. Alternatively,
a version of Wicd for KDE, written in Qt, is available from the
AUR. Wicd can also run from the terminal in a curses interface,
requiring no X server session or task panel.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S wicd
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/wicd
netctlnetctl is a CLI-based tool used to configure and manage
network connections via profiles. It is a native ArchLinux project
that replaces the old netcfg utility.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S netctl
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/netctl
NetworkManager NetworkManager is a program for providing
detection and configuration for systems to automatically connect to
network. NetworkManager's functionality can be useful for both
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wireless and wired networks. For wireless networks,
NetworkManager prefers known wireless networks and has the ability
to switch to the most reliable network. NetworkManager-aware
applications can switch from online and offline mode.
NetworkManager also prefers wired connections over wireless ones,
has support for modem connections and certain types of VPN.
NetworkManager was originally developed by Red Hat and now is
hosted by the GNOME project.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S networkmanager
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NetworkManager
3.5 Package Managers
pacmanThe pacman package manager is one of the major
distinguishing features of ArchLinux. It combines a simple binary
package format with an easy-to-use build system. The goal of pacman
is to make it possible to easily manage packages, whether they are
from the official repositories or the user's own builds.
Pacman keeps the system up to date by synchronizing package
lists with the master server. This server/client model also allows
the user to download/install packages with a simple command,
complete with all required dependencies.
Some common pacman commands:- System update: pacman -Syu- Search
package database: pacman -Ss keyword- Install package: pacman -S
package_name- Remove package: pacman -R package_name- Install from
package file: pacman -U package.pkg.tar.xz- install with PKGBUILD:
makepkg -i
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/pacman
YaourtYaourt (Yet AnOther User Repository Tool; French for
'Yogurt') is a community-contributed wrapper for pacman which adds
seamless access to the AUR, allowing and automating package
compilation and installation from your choice of the thousands of
PKGBUILDs in the AUR, in addition to the many thousands of
available ArchLinux binary packages. Yaourt uses the same exact
syntax as pacman, which saves you from relearning an entirely new
method of system maintenance but also adds new options. Yaourt
expands the power and simplicity of pacman by adding even more
useful features and provides pleasing, colorized output,
interactive search mode, and much more.
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Warning: Yaourt is an unofficial, third-party script that is not
supported by the ArchLinux developers.
The easiest way to install yaourt is to add the archlinuxfr
repository as described on the yaourt homepage:
http://archlinux.fr/yaourt-en.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/yaourt
3.6 Archive Managers
TarThe Tar program provides the ability to create tar archives,
as well as various other kinds of manipulation. For example, you
can use Tar on previously created archives to extract files, to
store additional files, or to update or list files which were
already stored.
As an early Unix compression format, tar files (known as
tarballs) are widely used for packaging in Unix-like operating
systems. Both pacman and AUR packages are tarballs, and Arch uses
GNU's Tar program by default.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/tar
p7zip p7zip is command line port of 7-Zip for POSIX systems,
including Linux.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S p7zip
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/p7zip
3.7 System Monitors
htophtop is an interactive process viewer that can be run from a
command line. It replaces top as a more visually informative system
monitor. Processes can be identified and killed within htop.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S htop
Additional Resources:- http://hisham.hm/htop/
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conkyConky is a system monitor software for the X Window System.
It is available for GNU/Linux and FreeBSD. It is free software
released under the terms of the GPL license. Conky is able to
monitor many system variables including CPU, memory, swap, disk
space, temperature, top, upload, download, system messages, and
much more. It is extremely configurable, however, the configuration
can be a little hard to understand. Conky is a fork of torsmo.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S conky
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/conky
3.8 Security/Backup Utilities
rsyncrsync is an open source utility that provides fast
incremental file transfer.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S rsync
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/rsync
lftpLFTP is a sophisticated ftp/http client, and a file transfer
program supporting a number of network protocols. Like BASH, it has
job control and uses the readline library for input. It has
bookmarks, a built-in mirror command, and can transfer several
files in parallel. It was designed with reliability in mind
lftp is one of the lesser known utilities that can also be used
as a backup utility. See the man page for more information about
its mirror parameter option.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S lftp
Additional Resources:- http://lftp.yar.ru/
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4. Multimedia
4.1 CD Burners
xfburnXfburn is a simple CD/DVD burning tool based on libburnia
libraries. It can blank CD/DVD(-RW)s, burn and create iso images,
audio CDs, as well as burn personal compositions of data to either
CD or DVD. It Is stable, and under ongoing development.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S xfburn
Additional Resources:-
http://git.xfce.org/apps/xfburn/tree/README?id=xfburn-0.5.0
braseroBrasero is an application to burn CD/DVD for the Gnome
Desktop. It is designed to be as simple as possible and has some
unique features to enable users to create their discs easily and
quickly.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S brasero
Additional Resources:- https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Brasero
k3bK3b was created to be a feature-rich and easy to handle CD
burning application.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S k3b
Additional Resources:- http://www.k3b.org/
4.2 CD Rippers
ddThe dd command is a simple, yet versatile and powerful tool.
It can be used to copy from source to destination, block-by-block,
regardless of their filesystem types or operating systems.
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abcdeabcde stands for "A Better CD Encoder" and is a command
line (CLI) CD encoder. It will read your CD, contact a CDDB
provider, download the track information, rip your CD and store all
the encoded tracks in the tree layout you define.
It supports multiple encoders for several formats, such as FLAC,
Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, etc. and will use one single rip to create as many
output formats as you want.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S abcde
Additional Resources:- https://code.google.com/p/abcde/
4.3 Image Viewers
fehfeh is a lightweight and powerful image viewer that can also
be used to manage the desktop wallpaper for standalone window
managers lacking such features.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S feh
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/feh
mirageMirage is a fast and simple GTK+ image viewer. Because it
depends only on PyGTK, Mirage is ideal for users who wish to keep
their computers lean while still having a clean image viewer.
It's features include:- Supports png, jpg, svg, xpm, gif, bmp,
tiff, and others- Cycling through multiple images (with
preloading)- Thumbnail pane for quick navigation- Slideshow and
fullscreen modes- Rotating, zooming, flipping, resizing, cropping-
Saving, deleting, renaming- Custom actions- Command-line access-
Configurable interface- Available in many languages
Installation:- sudo pacman -S mirage
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Additional Resources:- http://mirageiv.berlios.de/
4.4 Image Editors (Raster)
GIMPGIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a raster graphics
editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing,
resizing, cropping, photo-montages, converting between different
image formats, and more specialized tasks.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S gimp
Additional Resources:- http://www.gimp.org/
ImageMagickImageMagick is a software suite to create, edit,
compose, or convert bitmap images. It can read and write images in
a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG,
JPEG-2000, PDF, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to
resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images,
adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text,
lines, polygons, ellipses and Bzier curves.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S imagemagick
Additional Resources:- http://www.imagemagick.org/
4.5 Image Editors (Vector)
InkscapeInkscape is a vector graphics editor application. It is
distributed under a free software license, the GNU GPL. Its stated
goal is to become a powerful graphics tool while being fully
compliant with the XML, SVG, and CSS standards.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S inkscape
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Inkscape
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4.6 Music Players
MPDMPD (music player daemon) is an audio player that has a
server-client architecture. It plays audio files, organizes
playlists and maintains a music database all while using very few
resources. In order to interface with it, a separate client is
needed.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S mpd
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Music_Player_Daemon
MPlayerMPlayer is a popular movie player for GNU/Linux. It has
support for pretty much every video and audio format out there and
is hence very versatile, even though most people use it for viewing
videos.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S mplayer
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MPlayer
VLCVLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia
player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as
DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S vlc
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VLC_media_player
4.7 Video Players
The two most popular audio players are also the most popular
video players, namely MPlayer and VLC.
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5. Office
5.1 Text Editors
vimVim is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the
power of the de-facto UNIX editor vi, with a more complete feature
set. Vim focuses on keyboard usage, and offers useful features such
as syntax highlighting and scripting capabilities. Vim is not a
simple text editor, like nano or pico. It does require some time to
learn, and a great amount of time to master.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S vim
Additional Resources:- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/vim
- Run vimtutor, a built-in training tool that comes with vim.-
http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/smash-into-vim
nanoGNU nano (or nano) is a text editor which aims to introduce
a simple interface and intuitive command options to console based
text editing. nano is the default console editor in distributions
such as Ubuntu and supports features including colorized syntax
highlighting, DOS/Mac file type conversions, spellchecking and
UTF-8 encoding. nano opened with an empty buffer typically occupies
under 1.5 MB of resident memory.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S nano
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/nano
5.2 Office Apps (Word Processing)
LibreOfficeLibreOffice is the free power-packed Open Source
personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and Linux, that
gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document
production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw,
Math and Base.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S libreoffice
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LibreOffice
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LaTeXLaTeX is a popular markup language and document preparation
system, often used in the sciences.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S texlive-most
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LaTeX -
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TeX_Live
5.3 Office Apps (Spreadsheet/Math)
GnumericGnumeric is a powerful spreadsheet application which can
import and export in various formats including csv, HTML, LaTeX,
Lotus 1-2-3, OpenDocument Spreadsheet and Microsoft Excel.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S gnumeric
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gnumeric
5.4 PDF Readers
evinceEvince is a document viewer for multiple document formats.
The goal of evince is to replace the multiple document viewers that
exist on the GNOME Desktop with a single simple application.
Evince is specifically designed to support the file following
formats: PDF, Postscript, djvu, tiff, dvi, XPS, SyncTex support
with gedit, comics books (cbr,cbz,cb7 and cbt).
Installation:- sudo pacman -S evince
Additional Resources:- https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince
zathurazathura is a highly customizable and functional document
viewer. It provides a minimalistic and space saving interface as
well as an easy usage that mainly focuses on keyboard
interaction.
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Installation:- sudo pacman -S zathura
Additional Resources:- http://pwmt.org/projects/zathura/
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6. Communication
6.1 Email Clients
MuttMutt is a text-based mail client renowned for its powerful
features. Though over a decade old, Mutt remains the mail client of
choice for a great number of power-users.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S mutt
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/mutt
ThunderbirdMozilla Thunderbird is an email, newsgroup, and news
feed client designed around simplicity and full-featuredness, while
avoiding bloat. It supports POP, IMAP, SMTP, S/MIME, and OpenPGP
encryption (through the Enigmail extension). Similarly to Firefox,
it has a wide variety of extension and addons available for
download that add more features.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S thunderbird
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/thunderbird
6.2 IRC Clients
irssiirssi is a modular, ncurses based IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
client for UNIX systems. It also supports SILC and ICB protocols
via plugins.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S irssi
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/irssi
WeeChatWeeChat is a highly extendable and feature rich IRC
Client currently under heavy development.
-
Installation:- sudo pacman -S weechat
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/WeeChat
XChatXChat is a multi-platform IRC chat program.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S xchat
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XChat
6.3 Instant Messengers
PidginPidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by
millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at
once.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S pidgin
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/pidgin
SkypeSkype is a freemium voice-over-IP service and instant
messaging client, currently developed by the Microsoft Skype
Division. The name was derived from "sky" and "peer".
Installation:- sudo pacman -S skype
If you have a 64-bit system, enable the multilib repository
first as Skype is 32-bit only.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/skype
-
7. Web
7.1 Web Browsers
FirefoxFirefox is a popular open-source graphical web browser
from Mozilla.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S firefox
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/firefox
chromiumChromium is an open-source graphical web browser from
Google, based on the Blink rendering engine.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S chromium
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/chromium
7.2 Torrent Clients
TransmissionTransmission is a light-weight and cross-platform
BitTorrent client. It is the default BitTorrent client in many
Linux distributions.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S transmission
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Transmission
rTorrentrTorrent is a quick and efficient BitTorrent client that
uses the libtorrent library. It is written in C++ and uses the
ncurses programming library, which means it uses a text user
interface. When combined with GNU Screen and Secure Shell, it
becomes a convenient remote BitTorrent client.
-
Installation:- sudo pacman -S rtorrent
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/RTorrent
DelugeDeluge is a lightweight but full-featured BitTorrent
application written in Python 2. It has a variety of features,
including but not limited to: a client/server model, DHT support,
magnet links, a plugin system, UPnP support, full-stream
encryption, proxy support, and three different client applications.
When the server daemon is running, users can connect to it via a
console client, a GTK+-based GUI, or a Web-based UI
Installation:- sudo pacman -S deluge
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/deluge
7.3 RSS Readers
Newsbeuter is an open-source RSS/Atom feed reader for text
terminals. It runs on Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and other Unix-like
operating systems. Newsbeuter's great configurability and vast
number of features make it a perfect choice for people that need a
slick and fast feed reader that can be completely controlled via
keyboard.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S newsbeuter
Additional Resources:- http://www.newsbeuter.org/
7.4 Web Utilities
opensshSecure Shell (SSH) is a network protocol that allows data
to be exchanged over a secure channel between two computers.
Encryption provides confidentiality and integrity of data. SSH uses
public-key cryptography to authenticate the remote computer and
allow the remote computer to authenticate the user, if
necessary.SSH is typically used to log into a remote machine and
execute commands, but it also supports tunneling, forwarding
arbitrary TCP ports and X11 connections; file transfer can be
accomplished using the associated SFTP or SCP protocols.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S openssh
-
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Secure_Shell
GitGit is the version control system (VCS) coded by Linus
Torvalds (the creator of the Linux kernel) after being criticized
for using the proprietary BitKeeper with the Linux kernel. Git is
now used to maintain sources for the Linux kernel as well as
thousands of other projects, including a number of Arch Linux
projects.
Installation:- sudo pacman -S git
Additional Resources:- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/git
- http://git-scm.com/documentation -
http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/git-fundamentals
DropboxDropbox is a file sharing system that recently introduced
a GNU/Linux client. Use it to transparently sync files across
computers and architectures.
Dropbox can be installed from the AUR. Alternatively,
dropbox-experimental (an experimental build) is also available.
Additional Resources:-
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/dropbox
###
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please take a moment to leave me a review at your favourite
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Thanks!
Frank Cheung
-
About the Author:
Frank Cheung is a freelance software developer with 15+ years of
commercial experience. He currently resides in Kenilworth,
Warwickshire with his lovely wife and 2 children.
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