Common Installation Tasks
Tools and applications that are useful across all platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows). I use or have used and enjoyed all these tools at some point, and they are generally available on all major platforms. Some may have platform-specific installation instructions, but they are worth the effort for the functionality they provide.
Development Tools
Version Control
- Git - Essential for version control
- GitHub CLI - Command-line interface for GitHub
Code Editors
- Visual Studio Code - Popular cross-platform editor
- Vim / Neovim - Terminal-based editors
- Sublime Text - Lightweight GUI editor
Terminals
- Alacritty - Fast, cross-platform terminal emulator
- Kitty - GPU-accelerated terminal
- WezTerm - GPU-accelerated, cross-platform terminal
Programming Languages
Runtime Environments
- Node.js - JavaScript runtime (use LTS version)
- Python 3 - General-purpose programming
- Go - Systems programming language
- Rust - Systems programming with memory safety
Version Managers
CLI Utilities
Modern Alternatives
- ripgrep (
rg) - Fast grep alternative - fd - Fast find alternative
- bat - Cat with syntax highlighting
- exa / eza - Modern ls replacement
- zoxide - Smarter cd command
- fzf - Fuzzy finder
- NerdFetch - System info tool
For more CLI tools, see CLI Tools New.
Productivity Tools
Note-Taking
- Obsidian - Markdown-based knowledge base
- Notion - All-in-one workspace
- Joplin - Open-source note-taking app
- Logseq - Local-first knowledge graph
Task Management
- super-productivity - Task manager with Pomodoro timer
- OpenProject - Project management software
Communication
- Slack - Team communication
- Discord - Community and team chat
- Zoom - Video conferencing
- Element - Matrix-based chat client
- Signal - Encrypted messaging app
- Keybase - Encrypted messaging and file sharing
Browsers
- Firefox - Privacy-focused browser
- Chrome / Chromium - Google's browser
- Vivaldi - Highly customizable Chromium-based browser
- Brave - Privacy-focused Chromium-based browser
Container & Virtualization
- Docker - Containerization platform (now using podman)
- Podman - Docker alternative without daemon
- VirtualBox - VM software (free)
- VMware - VM software (commercial)
