Switching operating systems can be a daunting task—you have to figure out which of your favorite apps are supported, and find good alternatives for those that aren’t. Here are the ones I installed immediately after switching to Linux.
7Steam
Steam is the most popular digital game storefront on the internet, and it would be a shame to lose access to your library just because you changed operating systems. Half the fun of having a PC is gaming, after all. Fortunately, Steam itself isavailable for all major Linux distros, and Steam’s compatibility layer (Proton) has made gaming on Linux easier than ever.
Steam also does a great job identifying which games are likely to work on Linux and which won’t, which helps cut down on the amount of time you waste downloading.
Steam can be downloaded from the Software Center (Linux’s version of an app store) on most distros.
6Discord
Discord has become the standard for communication among gamers, and it is increasingly popular as a way to get support from developers, especially if you’re into small open-source projects.
It is my primary means of communication with most of my friends these days, and no computer I use regularly is complete without it.
I’d recommend installing Discord using Snap (which you can find by searching your distro’s Software Center) rather thanthe DEB or RPM packages on Discord’s website, since those both require you to update Discord manually.
5VSCodium
VSCodiumis the telemetry-free fork of Visual Studio Code (VSCode), Microsoft’s popular text editor. VSCodium supports an extraordinary library of extensions for almost any coding language you’re able to think of, which elevates it almost to the level of a full integrated development environment.
I don’t use VSCodium for basic text editing (for that, Vim is good enough), but if I need to sit down and write more elaborate code, VSCodium is the first program I reach for.
You candownload it directly from the GitHub repo, and there is also a snap package available.
4Spotify
I’m devoutly attached to listening to music while I work, as it often helps set the mood and tempo of whatever I’m working on.
You can probably get Spotify on Linux through your distro’s package manager, but you can alsomanually add a repoto download it if necessary.
3VLC
Most Linux distros will come prepackaged with a media player of some kind, and most of them are actually pretty good in my experience.
However, I’m a creature of habit, and I’ve been using VLC player on Windows since it was released. The number ofways you’re able to tweak your video and audio playbackare tough to top, and it supports almost every audio or video format that you’ll encounter on the internet.
It can also convert between media formats in a pinch, which I find myself using way more than I would have expected.
VLC 4.0also features a UI modernization which I quite like. It hasn’t officially been released yet, but I’ve been using it for a few months now without any major issues.
If you’re looking for something more stable, I’d stick tothe official download from VLCor your distro’s repository.
2ONLYOFFICE
Microsoft’s Office Suite isn’t something I use all the time, but it is still important enough that I needed a good replacement when I migrated to Linux.
LibreOffice comes packaged with a ton of Linux distros, and I found that it worked quite well. However, I wanted something that more closely resembled the user interface of Microsoft Office.
After looking around, I settled on ONLYOFFICE, which is pretty close and was easy to get running. Idownloaded it directly from the website, but using the Software Center (or command line) will work too.
1BitWarden
Everything requires a password, passphrase, or passkey. There is just no getting around it. I’ve usedBitWardento store my passwords for a long time on Windows, and luckily it is available for Linux (Kubuntu in my case) as well. I also took the opportunity to get it running on my phone, which was a pretty easy process. It can also store your debit or credit card information as well, if that appeals to you.
The entire thing is secured behinda strong master password.
Above and beyond syncing your passwords, BitWarden can also generate secure passwords or passphrases for you, and check if your current passwords have been leaked on the internet.
Switching operating systems used to be a pain, especially if you were moving from macOS or Windows to Linux. However, things have changed in recent years, and Linux operating systems aren’t the clunky, specialist-only behemoths they once were.
Getting my entire workflow moved to Linux only took about an hour, and that includes the time I spent finding alternatives, downloading and installing everything, and tweaking settings to my liking.
