After installing my new desktop in the previous article, I wanted to look over the default program that came with the “Desktop” installation. Surprisingly  the installation came with the necessary to be able to actually do some work. On Windows, you would need to install Microsoft Office or one of it’s replacement to even think about being able to write document, do some spreadsheet calculations or some presentations but on Cent OS, Libre Office was included, which I am really happy with.

 

GNU Image Manipulation Program
(Replace application like Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, MSPaint)

GIMP is definitely one of the great imaging program available on Linux (and windows). It is pretty much like Adobe Photoshop for editing images. It will allow you to create and edit all kinds of images, including JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and much more.

 


Mozilla Thunderbird
(Replace application like Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora)

Thunderbird is my favorite mail client. It does work under Linux (and Windows), it is free, there a huge community that back it, with lot of free plugin and an amazing developers support to let you create your own. It is definitely outstanding all client I’ve seen in my opinion. It does provide support for almost all kind of (real) mail server applications and protocols such as POP3, IMAP, SMTP, TLS/SSL, etc.

 

XChat IRC
(Replace application like mIRC, HydraIRC, etc.)

XChat is one of the cute IRC client on Linux (It does exist on Windows but it is not free as far as I can remember). XChat is pretty simple, and work straight forward.
Once you install XChat, I would recommend you run theses commands :

/set irc_hide_version ON
/set gui_usermenu ON

The first commands will hide your version of XChat when people do a CTCP Version to you. Maybe it is just me, but I like to keep my kernel version and such private.

The second command will enable you to see a usermenu, once you restart XChat.

Also, if you can use a Proxy, a BNC, that would also possibly increase your privacy.

 


Google Chrome
(Replace application like Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox)

I do like Firefox, really, but I also like Google Chrome, so to install it under Cent OS, you may follow one of our other article here which show how to accomplish this.

 

TeamViewer
(Replace application like Remote Desktop, VNC, LogMeIn, CrossLoop, etc.)

TeamViewer is one of the best remote control program out there for either remote assistance or remote control, for either personal use (free) and commercial use (at very low cost compared to others solutions out there). Simply go to teamviewer.com and download the CentOS / Redhat RPM and run with the Package Installer with root privileges. After it is installed, you may want to create a shortcut on the desktop so you can remote your linux box or remote control some others PC from your CentOS.

 

VLC Media Player
(Replace application like Windows Media Player, Quicktime, etc.)

VLC is a popular open source media player by Video LAN Organisation. It will play almost anything from MP3 to Movies and such. Have a look at our tutorial on how to install VLC on CentOS 6.*

 

FileZilla FTP Client
(Replace Standard FTP Client application)

FileZilla is really easy to install, using the source package. It is quick, provide lot of functionality and the best of all, it is free.

 


K3B
(Replace Nero Burning Rom, CD Burner XP, Roxio CD Creator, etc.)

K3B is a great user interface application to burn CD and DVD, it is very similar to Nero buand CD Burner XP