Highly Recommendable Applications

Brief Recommendations

All of these applications can be easily installed by typing apt-get update && apt-get install [package_name] as root. It is possible to write more than one package name this command. A different way of installing these applications is to install them with a graphical user interface resp. with the package management software synaptic. To do so, it might be necessary to install synaptic first (apt-get install synaptic).


Office programs etc.

krename (rename multiple files)
gscan2pdf (scan and save documents)
ding (German-English dictionary)
trans-de-en (the file containing the words for ding)
planner (Project management software)
griffith (organize your DVD collection)
glabels (create and print labels and business cards)
kompozer (graphical html-editor)
gespeaker (reads text for you. install packages mbrola and espeak in addition to gespeaker)

Install all:


Audio & Video:

audacity (edit sound files)
easytag (tag your mp3 files)
kid3 (tag your mp3 files - 2)
lmms (create songs with different soundtracks)
kino (Video editor)
kdenlive (standard video-editor, wide functionality)
movixmaker-2 (Create bootable Movie DVDs - with the burning program k3b)
timidity (outputs Midi-Sounds from a Keyboard/digital piano)
freepats (various sound-types for Midi-Keyboards)
aconnectgui (program to connect timidity, vkeybd and the sound karte. Runn aconnectgui using the script shown here∞ )
vkeybd (tune in the right sound for your keyboard (go to - view - program list). Additional information you can get here∞)
performous (karaoke program like ultrastar deluxe)
streamtuner (Record radio streams from the internet. Also install streamripper to record radio)
ripperx (rip mp3s - backup your purchased audio cds)
pana (successor of amarok 1.4x. Pana was created out of Amarok 2.x criticism. Pana can be downloaded here∞. And installed like described here∞. It is also possible to simply install the ubuntu-deb-package with dpkg -i [paketname].deb for additional features for pana install: apt-get install moodbar gcc-4.0 2.build-essential fftw3 fftw3-dev libgstreamer0.10 libgstreamer0.10-dev)

Install all:


System software:

software-center (beautiful, easy to use installation/Package-Manager. Use in addition to Synaptic)
gdebi-Paket-installer (graphical program to install deb-packages. Execute with gdebi-kde)
prelink (speed up the system)
preload (speed up the system)
readahead (speed up the system)
grsync (simple backup-program for single directories)
kbackup (simple backup-program for multiple directories - Keep in mind not to use this with a FAT-file system because the created backup file can be very big!)
dvdisaster (read broken/scratched DVDs and CDs)
gtk-recordmydesktop (Record screen content as a video)
virtualbox (Install a virtual machene / a different operation system on linux: Installation instructions: simply type !vbox in the Kanotix-IRC and follow the instructions)
isomaster (create and read from Iso files)
tango-icon-theme (Beautiful Icon Theme)
filelight (Analyze file sizes on data mediums)
gnome-disk-utility (benchmark harddiscs. The program to be run is called palimpsest)
hardinfo (Various system benchmarks and full system informations)
kshutdown (Shut down computer in x-minutes)
kteatime (Simple timer for KDE)
gnome-system-monitor (pretty system monitor)
q4wine (nice tool to organize and configure windows programs running with wine)

Install all:


Image Editing:

inkscape (best vector draw- and edit program - opens SVG-files)
gcolor2 (read colors in hex-numbers from the screen)
krita (Drawing and image manipulation program like gimp but in one window)
gwenview (best image viewer. It is recommended to install the kipi-plugins first to get poster-printing, batch conversion etc.)
digicam (complete image sorting and management program)
gimp (refernce image editing program)
scribus-ng (layout programm. To get the older but more stable program, install scribus without -ng at the end)

Install all:


Security software:

rkhunter (finds rootkits/trojan horses: to execute: type: rkhunter -c (as root in the terminal))
chrootkit (finds rootkits/trojan horses: to execute: type: chrootkit (as user in the terminal))
pdfcrack (program to crack pdf files which are secured by a password - bruteforce method, non graphical)

Various software:

amule (p2p client: emule für linux)
kget (nice download manager - best for torrents)
marble (a kind of google earth for linux with openstreetmap-maps)
dosbox (run dos games on linux)
rss-glx (Beautiful screensaver package. To get this running you've got to install this∞ first.
Kcomteten4 (nice screensaver. First download source∞) (then apt-get install xorg-dev libavahi-qt3-dev kdelibs-dev then unpack sourcecode and ./configure then make then su password then make install)
gnome-screensavers (Good additional screensavers)
smaragd (More beautiful window-decorations for KDE4 - based on Emerald. First follow the instructions∞ in the INSTALL File you find in the unpacked archive. Then pick this∞ theme or others to make use of smaragd)

Install all:


Games: (don't install the newest versions of these games via the package management, but get them from the websites and install them manually!)

Hedgewars (Very nice Worms Clone in vektor graphics. Can be installed via paket management)
nexuiz (3d-shooter high graphics quality)
warsow (fast comic-shooter)
urban terror (great shooter - counter strike clone)
sauerbraten (super fast shooter)


Various addons for KDE: (recommended to have a more comfortable, easy to use system and to get additional functionalities)

apt-get install kdepim-kfile-plugins kdemultimedia kdeaddons system-config-gtk-kde qtcurve gtk-qt-engine kipi-plugins mplayerthumbs gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-cleanice rkhunter chkrootkit tesseract-ocr tesseract-ocr-deu tesseract-ocr-eng pdftk gksu pdftk pdfjam poppler-utils ghostscript kipi-plugins samba kdenetwork-filesharing


Non-graphical programs for the text console:

midnight commander (very good file manager - like norton commander - still works when the x doesn't run. Start with the command mc)
shred (Program which securely deletes hard discs or Flash-Devices. Execute as root: shred /dev/devicename -v . To find out about the device name, start gparted and look under the medium's properties)


Other Programs: (not part of the debian/kanotix-repository)

sepiola (online Backup)
skype (chat program)
jalbum (create photo galleries)
truecrypt (safe platform independent program to cipher USB-sticks, container files or full partitions. Get the installation file here∞ , install and then follow these∞ instructions)


Recommendable windows-programs to run with wine

Foxit Reader (Foxit Reader for Windows is a fast and good PDF-viewer, which runs under wine perfectly. Foxitreader allows to mark text and add text boxes which can be saved in the pdf file. No free program for linux can do this up to now. Foxitreader can be downloaded here∞.)
Word Viewer (Check if word-documents that are created or edited with OpenOffice/Libreoffice look okay under M$ Office. Download here∞)
GMX-SMS-Manager (Write Text messages to mobile phones with your computer keyboard. In Germany you get 50 text messages free if you have GMX-Pro-Mail)
Terragen (create virtual landscapes. Download e.g. here∞)

Important extensions for OpenOffice/LibreOffice:

Language Tool (better dictionary for spell checking)
Professional Template Pack (better document templates)
Read Text (Read text as audio)
sund presenter console (very good for presentations)
sun pdf import extension (edit PDF-documents)


Important extensions for Gimp:

G'mic (many, many effect filters. Download here∞)


Important addons for Thunderbird (or Icedove)

Reminderfox (very nice, well integraded calendar for Thunderbird and Firefox - with synchronisation of to-do-lists and dates)
Enigmail (cipher or sign emails with PGP)
Shrunk Image Resizer (Resize draged&dropped images in Emails. Very useful!)
ThunderBrowse (Browse websites within thunderbird. Also useful to assign a browser to links opening from thunderbird)
Display Mail User Agent (Nice addon that displays from which email clients and operation systems emails are sent from)


Important addons for Firefox (or Iceweasel/Namoroka)

Autofill Forms (Automatically fill forms on web pages)
DownloadHelper (Download videsos from thousands of video-websites)
DownloadThemAll (conveniently download many files)
Firebug (Helps analysing websites and codes. Very helpful while creating PHP-Websites or working with CMS)
FireFTP (Very nice FTP-Client for the browser)
Flash Killer (hides all flash animations/movies if activated. Click on flash-element to play just this one. Highly recommendable on weak computers)
ImageHost Grabber (download all images in a photo gallery based on PHP)
Reload Every (reload a website in a certain interval)

To get Multimedia-program recommendations, also for programs which cannot be listed here for legal reasons please contact me directly∞-


Install all recommended programs:



NOT recommendable programs (programs which aren't working very well)

pdfedit (horrible usibility, incomplete application. To mark Text or put postits into PDF documents run the windows-Version of foxitreader under wine)
strigi/nepomuk (integrated desktop search for KDE4. At the present not yet working very well)
photoprint (Print images as posters. Crashes when print jobs are sent, or doesn't print. Alternatively use the extended print functionalities of gwenview)