Not only the Linux distros are open-source but the apps for Linux are also free. Though some business apps come with a cost, most of the apps created for individuals don’t have any charges.

Want to know about some of the cool apps to download on your Linux machine?

This article walks you through 7 apps to download on Linux to make your life easier. Head over to the next section!  

Ulauncher

Before downloading any other application on Linux, we recommend getting Ulauncher. That’s because you can launch any application via Ulauncher just by using the keyboard.

Try adding Ulaucher extensions to get the most of this app inspired by Alfred for Mac. You can extend capabilities with the extensions, such as looking up dictionary definitions, launching web searches, finding and copying emojis to a clipboard, and lots more.

Ulaucher runs smoothly and allows searching files and apps using hotkeys. Ulaucher features include built-in themes, customizable shortcuts, Fuzzy search, a wide variety of plugins, searching on Google, Stack Overflow, and Wikipedia.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird by Mozilla is an open-source email client. Some Linux distros offer Thunderbird installed. If it’s not, hop onto your App Center or Software Center and get it installed. You can download the app from their website as well.

The setup wizard guides you through the process of creating your own email address. Thunderbird provides email settings for most of the common email application providers. So, an existing email account can be added too. Attach multiple email accounts as per your needs.

Want to make Thunderbird look cool? Add-ons, such as themes, Lightning extension, sorting out Mail folders, are some of the features to try out.

Steam

Looking for gaming clients on Linux? Use Steam from Valve. Steam is, admittedly, the best games distribution store for top OSs like Linux.

From Shadow of the Tomb Raider to DiRT 4, and from DOTA 2 to Warhammer – Steam boasts many thousands of indie hits, retro-flavored, and AAA titled games for Linux. 

The best part is that once you purchase a game from Steam, you can always access its versions on various platforms. So, if you have a cool collection of Windows games you can play any Linux port.

VLC Media Player

VLC is the best-known media player of all time. It’s a versatile cross-platform and free to use. You can run any media format on VLC, be it video, audio, or everything in between. Along with playing DVDs, VLC can access online streams and DLNA shares, and can even transcode media from one format to the other.

Although there’s a solid range of Linux video players; SMPlayer, Gnome Videos, and Banshee, to name a few; I recommend VLC over all others. Because VLC media player is reliable, has a huge set of features, and broad support.

Tilix Terminal Emulator

If you’re searching for an advanced terminal emulator, Tilix is a must-try. In Ubuntu Linux, you get a decent terminal emulator in-built. But Tilix helps tile multiple terminal sessions within a single window. Users can layout terminals by splitting them horizontally or vertically.

You can rearrange or detach terminals using its drag and drop feature. Other features you get to use are custom links, custom titles, custom backgrounds with beautiful images, and many more.

Tilix, previously Terminix, has been developed using GTK 3 and tested on GNOME and other Linux desktop environments. So, this tiling emulator would be a wise choice for all Linux users.

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a nice alternative to Microsoft Office. It provides a full-fledged software suite. Use LibreOffice with online Google Suites to experience the best.

With a first look, you may think LibreOffice to be rather basic. But LibreOffice has extremely useful advanced features. Its word processor LibreOffice Writer, presentation app Impress, and spreadsheet software LibreOffice Calc are preinstalled in the popular Linux distros like Ubuntu. 

LibreOffice suite includes three lesser-known apps, such as Base, Draw, and Math, which are used for managing databases, editing vector images, and composing mathematical formulae respectively.

ClamAV

Linux systems remain by viruses created to target Windows. However, files forwarded from your machine might accidentally carry harmful elements. Also, these days a Lemon Duck or FreakOut can be a cause to worry. So we recommend keeping an antivirus like ClamAV handy to have a smooth run of daily work. 

Antivirus scanner ClamAV can detect various types of malware. ClamAV runs happily both on mail servers and desktop systems.

By default, it can be operated through the Linux command line, but you can install ‘clamtk’ and ‘nautilus’ using Synaptic also.

More Apps to Download 

And that’s not the end!

There are more cool apps to download on Linux. Some of them worthy of recommendation are Caffeine screen locker, VirtualBox VM app, Cawbird Twitter client, Foliate eBook reader, and VSCode code editor. And if editing media files is a part of your job, you can try Audacity, GIMP, etc.