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Suggested Applications
This page contains various suggested applications for the Xfce desktop environment. These applications do not require heavy dependencies and/or fit in the Xfce philosophy of being light on memory usage.
There is a secondary page with suggested command line tools, but only for the console-guru inside you.
System Applications
Terminal
- Description: Vte based/gtk+-2 lightweight X-terminal
- Remarks: Xfce project
- drop down is now part of the default terminal
xfce4-xkb-plugin
- Description: Keyboard layout indicator and switcher
HardInfo
- Description: GTK+2 System information and benchmark tool
- Website: http://hardinfo.berlios.de/HomePage
Keyboard Status Monitor (key-mon)
- Description: Utility to show live keyboard and mouse status for teaching and screencasts
- Website: http://code.google.com/p/key-mon/
xfce-polkit
- Description: A minimal policykit authentication agent.
- Website: https://github.com/ncopa/xfce-polkit
LightDM
- Description: A lightweight display manager
- Website: https://launchpad.net/lightdm
- Remarks: not really lightweight on dependencies
Meta Tracker
- Description: Tool designed to extract information and metadata about your personal data so that it can be searched easily and quickly
- Remarks: The daemon does not require Gnome dependencies. To perform the searches, use a tool like catfish. (viewed at: http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2007/03/13-applications-to-install-on-ubuntu.html)
Wicd
- Description: A wired and wireless network manager which aims to provide a simple interface to connect to networks with a wide variety of settings.
- Website: http://wicd.sourceforge.net/
- Remarks: python application
ConnMan
- Description: ConnMan is a daemon for managing Internet connections within embedded device and integrates a vast range of communication features usually split between many daemons such as DHCP, DNS and NTP. The result of this consolidation is low memory consumption with a fast, coherent, synchronized reaction to changing network conditions.
- Website: https://01.org/connman
- ConnMan-UI-gtk: https://github.com/tbursztyka/connman-ui
- connman-ncurses: https://github.com/eurogiciel-oss/connman-json-client
- connman-dmenu: https://github.com/march-linux/connman_dmenu
Ceni
- Description: A Curses user interface for configuring network interfaces with ifupdown.
Wpa_supplicant
- Description: A wired and wireless network manager which provides connections to networks with a wide variety of settings.
- Remarks: Installed as a dependency by most other network managers (e.g., Wicd), however can be used directly in roaming mode and via gui interface using wpa-gui
Font-manager
- Description: GTK+2 font-manager written in python
BUM Boot-Up-Manager
- Description: A GTK+ Runlevel-Editor
- Remarks: Debian-like System
X-tile
- Description: Tile windows in different ways
Office Applications
Xfce4 Dictionary
- Description: A dictionary, spelling checker and speed reader application
- Remarks: Xfce project
Orage
- Description: Modern calendar application
- Remarks: Xfce Project
Abiword
- Description: A full-featured, yet light and fast word processor
- Website: http://www.abisource.com
- Remarks: Can pull *some* gnome dependencies (printing is based on libgnomeprint, for example.) Compile yourself to avoid them
Zathura
- Description: minimalistic document viewer, that mainly focuses on keyboard interaction.
- Website: http://pwmt.org/projects/zathura/
MuPDF
- Description: a lightweight PDF and XPS viewer
- Website: http://www.mupdf.com/
Gnumeric
- Description: Spreadsheet application
- Website: http://www.gnumeric.org
- Remarks: Can pull *some* gnome dependencies (printing is based on libgnomeprint and mandatory, for example.) Compile yourself to avoid them
LyX
- Description: Document Processor, an almost-WYSIWYG frontend to LaTeX
- Website: http://www.lyx.org/
RedNotebook
- Description: Graphical diary and journal helping you keep track of notes and thoughts
- Website: http://rednotebook.sourceforge.net/
Zim
- Description: A desktop wiki and outliner
- Website: http://zim-wiki.org/
- Remarks: Python application
Notecase
- Description: Hierarchical note manager (aka. outliner)
- Website: http://notecase.sourceforge.net/
- Remarks: Notecase discontinued. NotecasePro is not Free Software
Osmo
- Description: Personal organizer that includes calendar, task manager and address book
- Website: http://clayo.org/osmo/
Dayplanner
- Description: Calendar with reminder and scheduled alarms
- Website: http://www.day-planner.org/
- Remarks: Perl application
Sunbird
- Description: Full-featured and easy to use calendar application, built upon Mozilla Toolkit
StickWiki
- Description: Self-contained desktop wiki
- Website: http://stickwiki.sourceforge.net/
- Self-modifying XHTML file
TeXmacs
- Description: A more-featured text/book writer with hypertext features and an integrated browser mode
- Website: http://www.texmacs.org
- Remarks: Although the name suggests it, neither TeX nor Emacs is required to get it compiled and running. TeXmacs is self-contained but needs guile-gtk for the interface. TeXmacs is in the overworks, and much of the internas (switching to cairo, etc.) and interface will change in the near future.
TiddlyWiki
- Description: a single html file which has all the characteristics of a wiki
- Website: http://www.tiddlywiki.com/
Xpdf
- Description: A basic PDF viewer for X11
- Website: http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf
Cabaret Stage
- Description: A JAVA/GTK+ PDF-Editor
- Remarks: NON-FREE(only free for non commercial use)
Network Applications
Midori
- Description: A lightweight web browser based on WebKit
- Website: http://www.twotoasts.de
- Remarks: Xfce project
xombrero
- Description: A minimalist web browser with sophisticated security features designed-in
Kazehakase
- Description: A GTK+ web browser based on the Webkit or Gecko engine
- Website: http://kazehakase.sourceforge.jp
Dillo
- Description: web-browser that is only 420 kilobytes in size and is based on GTK1 libraries, it is very fast however provides limited functionality.
- Website: http://www.dillo.org/
Chromium
- Description: lightweight & fast WebKit-based Webbrowser
- Website: http://code.google.com/chromium/
Sylpheed
- Description: Slim but fully featured, GTK+ based Email Client (and News Reader)
- Website: http://sylpheed.sraoss.jp/en
Claws Mail
- Description: Email Client, News Reader, Feed Reader, Calendar …
- Website: http://www.claws-mail.org
- Remarks: Formerly known as Sylpheed Claws, can publish calendar data to Orage.
Balsa
- Description: GTK+-based, written in C. Uses a library version of the Mutt mailer as its “engine”
- Website: http://pawsa.fedorapeople.org/balsa/
- Remarks: depends on gnome-icon-theme, depends on libgtkhtml which needs libgnomeui)
Geary
- Description: A lightweight, easy-to-use, feature-rich email client
Postler
- Description: A lean mail reader with an opinionated interface
- Website: https://bugs.launchpad.net/postler
- Remarks: Discontinued
Liferea
- Description: A lightweight GTK+ RSS feed reader
- Website: http://liferea.sourceforge.net/
Linkage
- Description: Lightweight GTK+ Bittorrent client
- Website: http://code.google.com/p/linkage/
- Remarks: written in C++ using libgtkmm and libtorrent, homepage shows it is not maintained (18 Nov 09)
Deluge
- Description: Full-featured, GTK+ native Bittorrent client
- Website: http://deluge-torrent.org
- Remarks: python application - It uses twise as memory as Transmission and has more dependences. Use Transmission and if it did not satisfy your needs, use this.
Transmission
- Description: fast BitTorrent client with low memory use and lots of features.
- Website: http://www.transmissionbt.com
- Remarks: GTK+ application written in C. The backend can be run as a daemon without a gui.
Uget Download Manager
- Description: download manager written in GTK+, it has many features.
- Website: http://urlget.sourceforge.net/
Pidgin
- Description: An instant messenger client for several protocols
- Website: http://pidgin.im
- Remarks: Formerly known as Gaim
Jitsi
- Description: An audio/video and chat communicator that supports many protocols (SIP, XMPP, etc.)
- Website: http://jitsi.org/
- Remarks: Formerly known as SIP Communicator
HexChat
- Description: A GTK+-2 based IRC client
- Website: https://hexchat.github.io/
Gajim
- Description: Full-supported Jabber Client
- Website: http://www.gajim.org/
- Remarks: Python application
Linphone
- Description: A SIP/VoIP softphone with support for voice, video, and text instant messaging
- Website: http://www.linphone.org/
Pino
- Description: A lightweight Twitter-client written in Vala
- Website: http://pino-app.appspot.com/index
gFTP
- Description: Graphical FTP client
- Website: http://www.gftp.org
Grsync
- Description: A GUI for rsync
- Website: http://www.opbyte.it/grsync/
IcQnD
- Description: GTK+ 2 GUI for the Licq Instant Messenger
- Website: http://icqnd.sourceforge.net
pyNeighborhood
- Description: A smbfs(samba) frontend, a GTK+ 2 rewrite of LinNeighborhood.
- Remarks: python application
SpiderOak
- Description: A secure and free cross-platform online backup, sync and storage solution
- Website: https://spideroak.com/
Yarssr
- Description: Yet Another RSS Reader that displays its results in the notification area
- Website: http://yarssr.sourceforge.net/
- Remark: PERL application
Multimedia: Playback (GStreamer)
GStreamer
- Description: multimedia framework
- Website: http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/
- Remarks: many frontends, codecs come in packages they can not be installed independent
Parole
- Description: Media player based on GStreamer
- Remarks: Xfce Project
Pragha
- Description: lightweight GTK+ music manager/player
- Website: http://pragha.wikispaces.com/
Snappy
- Description: Video player based on clutter and GStreamer
- Website: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Snappy
Foobnix
- Description: Media player based on GStreamer
- Website: http://foobnix.appspot.com/news/eng
- Remarks: python application
Exaile
- Description: GTK+ media player aiming to be similar to KDE's Amarok
- Website: http://www.exaile.org
- Remarks: python application
Mesk
- Description: Audio player based on GStreamer
- Website: http://mesk.nicfit.net
- Remarks: python application
XNOISE
- Description: XNOISE is a media player for Gtk+ with a slick GUI, great speed and lots of features.
- Website: http://code.google.com/p/xnoise/
Quod Libet
- Description: GTK+ audio only player
- Website: http://code.google.com/p/quodlibet
- Remarks: python application
Multimedia: Playback (Xine)
xine
- Description: multimedia playback engine
- Website: http://www.xine-project.org
- Remarks: comes with a frontend(xine-ui)
Xfmedia
- Description: The Xfce media player
- Remarks: Xfce project obsolete
Goggles Music Manager
- Description: Light weight music manager and player.
- Website: http://code.google.com/p/gogglesmm/
- Remarks: Based on the FOX toolkit, xine for audio and sqlite3 as the database backend.
gxine
- Description: GTK+ media player
- Website: http://www.xine-project.org
Multimedia: Playback (MPlayer)
MPlayer
- Description: media player
- Website: http://www.mplayerhq.hu
- Remarks: comes with a GTK+ frontend(gmplayer)
Gnome-MPlayer
- Description: Gnome MPlayer is a simple GUI for MPlayer. It is intended to be a nice tight player and provide a simple and clean interface to MPlayer.
- Dependencies: The main dependency is on GTK2, GLIB2 and DBUS.
Multimedia: Playback (MPD)
MPD
- Description: runs in the background playing music from its playlist.
- Website: http://mpd.wikia.com
- Remarks: Has many front ends
Xfmpc
- Description: Graphical GTK+ MPD client (Music Player Daemon)
- Remarks: Xfce project
Ario
- Description: A GTK client for MPD inspired by Rhythmbox but much lighter and faster.
- Website: http://ario-player.sourceforge.net/
Gimmix
- Description: GTK+ MPD client
- Website: http://gimmix.berlios.de
Sonata
- Description: Elegant GTK+ MPD client
- Website: http://sonata.berlios.de
- Remarks: python application
Multimedia: Playback (XMMS 2)
XMMS 2
- Description: runs in the background playing music from its playlist.
- Website: http://xmms2.org
- Remarks: Has many front ends
Abraca
- Description: GTK+ XMMS2 client
- Website: http://abraca.xmms.se/
Multimedia: Playback
Audacious
- Description: A fork and rewrite of Beep Media Player
- Website: http://audacious-media-player.org
- Remarks: comes with a GTK+, Qt, Winamp 2.x skin support
Aqualung
- Description: Cross-platform music player with gapless playback & LADSPA plugins
- Website: http://aqualung.factorial.hu/
cmus
- Description: Super powerful, super easy, super light-weight music player
- Website: https://cmus.github.io/
- Remarks: It's a cli music-player but easier than any gui one I've ever worked with. Spend 5 minutes reading this tutorial and you'll never use other music-player.
DeaDBeeF
- Description: A very lightweight plugin based GTK2 or GTK3 music player
- Website: http://deadbeef.sourceforge.net/
- Remark: Fully customizable interface, massive file format support even without big frameworks like GStreamer
Potamus
- Description: Lightweight audio player with a simple interface and an emphasis on high audio quality
- Website: http://offog.org/code/potamus.html
VLC media player
- Description: A media player supporting a large number of multimedia formats
- Website: http://www.videolan.org
- Remarks: Qt
mpv
- Description: mpv is a fork of mplayer2 and MPlayer. It shares some features with the former projects while introducing many more.
- Website: http://mpv.io
- Remarks: Qt
bomi
- Description: bomi is a graphical user interface(GUI) player based on mpv.
- Website: https://bomi-player.github.io
- Remarks: Qt
Qmmp
- Description: A lightweight audioplayer but it can also play videos via mplayer
- Website: http://qmmp.ylsoftware.com
- Remarks: Qt, Winamp Classic Skins
KISS Player
- Description: A simple, cross-platform and lightweight music player
- Website: http://sf.net/p/kissplayer/
- Remarks: FLTK and FMOD
Yarock
- Description: Yarock is Modern Music Player designed to provide an easy and pretty music collection browser based on cover art
- Website: https://launchpad.net/yarock
- Remarks: Qt
Multimedia: Ripping Tools
Asunder
- Description: A simple GTK+-2 CD ripper and encoder
- Website: http://littlesvr.ca/asunder/
xfburn
- Description: An easy to use CD/DVD burning program. Supports images and data discs so far.
- Remarks: Xfce project
Bombono DVD
- Description: DVD authoring program
EasyTAG
- Description: GTK+ utility for editing MP2, MP3, MP4, FLAC, Ogg and other media tags
- Website: http://easytag.sourceforge.net
Gaupol
- Description: Editor for text-based subtitle files
- Website: http://home.gna.org/gaupol/
Gpodder
- Description: Podcast manager that syncs with portable audio devices
- Website: http://gpodder.berlios.de
- Remarks: python application
Graveman!
- Description: Graveman! is a GTK+ frontend for cdrecord, mkisofs, readcd, sox, flac, dvd+rw-format/dvd+rw-tools and cdrdao
- Website: http://graveman.tuxfamily.org
Tagtool
- Description: A program to edit ID3 tags
- Website:
http://pwp.netcabo.pt/paol/tagtool/Invalid Link
HandBrake
- Description: Multithreaded video transcoder
- Website: http://handbrake.fr/
Thoggen
- Description: Simple and beautiful DVD ripping based on GStreamer and GTK+
- Website: http://thoggen.net/
Transcoder
- Description: Simple video converter based on ffmpeg
- Website: http://transcoder84.sourceforge.net/
Transcoder Audio Edition
- Description: Simple audio converter based on ffmpeg
mhWaveEdit
- Description: Program for playing, editing, and recording sound files
- Website: http://gna.org/projects/mhwaveedit
Multimedia: Misc
Imagination
- Description: A lightweight and simple DVD and video slide-show maker
- Website: http://imagination.sourceforge.net/
Graphic/Photo Applications
Ristretto
- Description: Image viewer
- Remarks: Xfce project
Viewnior
- Description: a fast and simple image viewer similar to Ristretto
- Website: http://xsisqox.github.com/Viewnior/
Comix
- Description: (archived) Image viewer
- Remarks: Discontinued, see MComix below
MComix
- Description: (archived) Image viewer
- Website: http://mcomix.sourceforge.net/
Dia
- Description: A diagramming tool
- Website: http://live.gnome.org/Dia
GImageView
- Description: Minimal ACDSee-like image viewer
- Website: http://gtkmmviewer.sourceforge.net/
Gcolor2
- Description: GTK+2 Color Selector
- Website: http://gcolor2.sourceforge.net/
Geeqie
- Description: Lightweight image viewer. It was forked from GQview.
- Website: http://geeqie.sourceforge.net/
gtkam
- Description: gtkam is the official GTK2 GUI for libgphoto2. Browse you photos from your camera.
Gimmage
- Description: Minimalistic image viewer
- Website: http://gimmage.berlios.de
Gimp
- Description: GNU Image Manipulation Program
- Website: http://www.gimp.org
- Remarks: heavie dependencies
Pinta
- Description: easy to use drawing/editing program.
- Website: http://pinta-project.com/
- Remarks: Mono Application
gpicview
- Description: A Simple and Fast GTK+ Image Viewer
- Website: http://lxde.sourceforge.net/gpicview
mtPaint
- Description: Lightweight GtK+2 image manipulation program
- Website: http://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/
GQview
- Description: An image browser for X
- Website: http://gqview.sourceforge.net
- Remarks: Does not currently appear to be under active development
Inkscape
- Description: Full featured open source SVG editor
- Website: http://www.inkscape.org
- Remarks: Can pull *some* gnome dependencies Compile yourself to avoid them
Mirage
- Description: Image viewer and editor
- Website: http://mirageiv.berlios.de/
- Remarks: python application
Development Applications
Diffuse
- Description: Graphical tool for merging and comparing text files
- Website: http://diffuse.sourceforge.net/
Geany
- Description: Fast and lightweight IDE
- Website: http://www.geany.org/
MadEdit
- Description: An Open-Source and Cross-Platform Text/Hex Editor written in C++ and wxWidgets
- Website: http://madedit.sourceforge.net/
Heraia
- Description: Lightweight HEX-Editor
- Website: http://heraia.tuxfamily.org/
Medit
- Description: Programming text editor
- Website: http://mooedit.sourceforge.net
Meld
- Description: Graphical diff and merge tool
- Website: http://meld.sourceforge.net/
- Remark: written in Python (PyGTK)
Oxalis
- Description: Quick HTML pages creation with templates
- Website: http://sergejx.mysteria.cz/oxalis/
PIDA
- Description: An IDE that uses the tools already available rather than attempting to reinvent each one (embedding vim, using any version control system)
- Website: http://pida.co.uk/
- Remark: written in Python
SciTE
- Description: A free GTK+-based source code editor
- Website: http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
vim/gvim
- Description: Versatile editor/IDE
- Website: http://vim.sf.net
Accessories
Mousepad
- Description: Lighweight text editor for Xfce
- Remarks: Xfce project
Squeeze
- Description: An archive manager for Xfce
- Website: http://squeeze.xfce.org/
- Remarks: Xfce project
Leafpad
- Description : Lightweight editor
- Website: http://tarot.freeshell.org/leafpad/
- Remarks: An alternative editor for Mousepad
Xarchiver
- Description: Simple archive manager
- Website: http://xarchiver.sourceforge.net/
File-Roller
- Description: Full featured archive manager
- Website: http://fileroller.sourceforge.net/
- Remarks:
Has no dependencies on Gnome librariesNow depends on Nautilus
Cairo-Dock
- Description: A light, eye-candy, fully themable, MacOSX-like animated dock for any Linux desktop
- Remarks: Some plugins have many dependencies, needs composite extension
Catfish
- Description: GTK+ desktop search frontend
- Remarks: python application
Deducer
- Description: An intuitive, cross-platform graphical data analysis system
- Website: http://www.deducer.org/manual.html
- Remarks: A free easy to use alternative to proprietary software such as SPSS, JMP, and Minitab. It is based on JGR and should, generally, to be installed from with-in R
Ding
- Description: An Tk-based offline/desktop dictionary lookup program for X11/Linux, Unix, which contains a German-English dictionary and works with multiple databases/text files
Galculator
- Description: GTK+ based calculator
- Website: http://galculator.sourceforge.net
Google Gadgets
- Description: GTK+ or Qt4 based Widget-Engine
GPA
- Description: GNU Privacy Assistant is a graphical frontend for the GNU Privacy Guard (gpg)
- Website: http://www.gnupg.org
GPeriodic
- Description: Comprehensive periodic table of elements
- Website: http://gperiodic.seul.org/
GtkHash
- Description: Utility for computing message digests or checksums
- Website: http://gtkhash.sourceforge.net/
JGR
- Description: A unified GUI for the R programming language, based on Java
gfa
- Description: Small and fast address book
- Website: http://gfa.sourceforge.net
Figaro's Password Manager 2 (fpm2)
- Description: GTK+2 password manager tool
- Website: http://als.regnet.cz/fpm2/
OpenDict
- Description: Computer dictionary for several dictionary formats
- Website: http://opendict.idiles.com
- Remarks: wxPython application
Qalculate!
- Description: Multi-purpose desktop calculator
- Website: http://qalculate.sourceforge.net/
PasswordMaker Java Edition
- Description: A Java-based cross-platform solution to create unique, secure passwords compatible with PasswordMaker.org
R Commander
- Description: A basic-statistics GUI for the R programming language, based on the tcltk toolkit
- Remarks: Needs to be installed from within R
RStudio
- Description: An intuitive and powerful integrated development environment (IDE) for R
- Website: http://www.rstudio.org/
Recordmydesktop
- Description: Very lightweight utility to record your desktop in OGV format
Skippy-XD
- Description: Standalone composited Exposé-like window picker for X11
- Website: http://code.google.com/p/skippy-xd/
Tasks
- Description: simple To Do list application
File Managers
xfe
- Description: Super fast, highly configurable dual-panel file manager
- Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/xfe/
- Remarks: To make it dual-panel select: view/two panels
Tux Commander
- Description: Tux Commander is a windowed file manager with 2 panels side by side similar to popular Total Commander or Midnight Commander file managers.
- Website: http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/
Rodent
- Description: Advanced file manager
- Website: http://xffm.org/
- Remarks: Formerly Xffm and part of Xfce
Thunar
- Description: Modern, fast and intuitive file manager
- Website: http://www.xfce.org/projects/thunar/
- Remarks: Xfce project
emelFM2
- Description: An “orthodox” two-pane file manager
- Website: http://emelfm2.net/