Hopefully at least one of the listed tools can be of use for your linux installation. The following application normally do not need a lot of configuration:

• opera – the most innovative browser
• kate – the best graphical editor. Even with block selection (enable/disable via CTRL+SHIFT+B)
• kdirstat – get an overview of your hard disc usage
• liferea –  a better blogbridge?
• kpowersave – worked for my Dell E6400 (save to disk and save to ram)
• gnome-power-manager – can show the enery usage and battery state over time! really useful!
• VirtualBox – hosts windows xp like a charm
• amarok – mp3, podcasts, internetradio, …
• totem – watch videos and search youtube videos with this application
• gimp and inkscape for your graphics
• k3b, grip and k9copy for your cd/dvd burnings
• openoffice and latex (with kile) for your documents
• and last but not least: TimeFinder 😉 an open source timetable optimizer for universities and schools

Now I list some apps where you can tweak a little bit:

• WindowMaker – my favourite window manager. Some things should be enhanced to be usable by a wider audience.
  • you will need to configure a shortcut for hiding all windows
  • you have to tweak a lot of things… maybe I should put this into a separate post 😉
• konqueror
  • I changed the view to details and saved this for all folders
  • To change that konqueror selects a folder on the first click (double click to  open it) you can change it in the following dialog even under gnome: kcmshell4 mouse
  • if you type fish://user@123.123.123.123 you can use it as a graphical scp client

• thunderbird
  • you should install enigmail and lightning. The latter one you can install via sudo apt-get install lightning-extension
  • import/export mails
  • open urls with opera via adding or changing the following lines in a file ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/<profile>/prefs.js user_pref(“network.protocol-handler.app.http”,”/usr/bin/opera”);
    user_pref(“network.protocol-handler.app.https”,”/usr/bin/opera”);

• firefox download some plugins: all-in-one-sidebar, scrapbook, firebug, live http headers, FoxyProxy

Here are some applications for development

• kdesvn – the best subversion client I ever used. Works even for large repositories (>2GB) … unlike Tortoise for win.
• netbeans – the best IDE, install java before
• squirrel-sql – the best database editor
• konsole – the best command line
• joe – the best command line editor (but not on every linux box available unlike vi)

BTW: ‘best’ does not mean that there are other good tools. Feel free to post your application stack as a comment or you can create your stack here.