There's no doubt there are a great variety of Linux packages in use.
Recently I did a CD install of Debian 12 (Bookworm) desktop with
Gnome, which loads a bunch of stuff over the Net. Here are extra
packages that I installed manually. The first set is used by and with
an automated configuration script that I wrote, so they have to come
in to begin with.
Title
Description
Purpose
info
Gnu info processor
"Config"
curl
Command line tool for transferring data with URL syntax
"Config"
dbus-x11
Simple interprocess messaging system (X11 deps)
"Config"
emacs
Editor
"Config"
gconf2
GNOME configuration database system (support tools)
"Config"
mc
Midnight Commander - a powerful file manager
"Config"
python3-iniparse
Access and modify configuration data in INI files
"Config"
python-lxml-doc
Python XML documentation
"Config"
python3-lxml
Pythonic binding for the libxml2 and libxslt libraries
"Config"
sakura
Simple but powerful libvte-based terminal emulator
"Config"
Title
Description
Purpose
"apcupsd"
"APC UPS Power Management"
"Monitor"
"artha"
"Handy off-line thesaurus based on WordNet"
"Utils"
"backintime"
"Simple backup/snapshot system"
"Utils"
"brasero"
"CD/DVD burning application for GNOME"
"Utils"
"bwm-ng"
"Small and simple console-based bandwidth monitor"
"Monitor"
"ccze"
"Robust, modular log coloriser"
"Utils"
"certbot"
"Automatically configure HTTPS using Let's Encrypt "
"Utils"
"claws-mail-dillo-viewer"
"HTML viewer plugin for Claws Mail using Dillo"
"Mail"
"claws-mail-feeds-reader"
"Feeds (RSS/atom) reader plugin for claws mail"
"Mail"
"claws-mail-plugins"
"Claws mail"
"Mail"
"claws-mail-spam-report"
"Spam reporting plugin for claws mail"
"Mail"
"cmake"
"Cross-platform, open-source make system"
"Retroshare"
"conky-all"
"Highly configurable system monitor"
"Monitor"
"copyq"
"Advanced clipboard manager with editing and scripting features"
"Utils"
"cups"
"Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - PPD/driver support, web interface "
"Utils"
"dcraw"
"Decode raw digital camera images"
"Photo"
"devilspie"
"Automatically resize windows"
"Utils"
"dict"
"Dictionary client/server and a selection of dictionaries, too"
"Utils"
"dictd"
"Dictionary server"
"Utils"
"diction"
"Utilities to help with style and diction"
"Utils"
"exiv2"
"EXIF/IPTC photo metadata manipulation tool"
"Photo"
"festival"
"General multi-lingual speech synthesis system"
"Utils"
"ftp"
"Classical file transfer client"
"Utils"
"gedit"
"Popular text editor for the GNOME desktop environment"
"Editor"
"gimp"
"GNU Image Manipulation Program"
"Photo"
"git"
"Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system"
"Utils"
"gnome-audio"
"Audio files for GNOME"
"Utils"
"gnome-extra-icons"
"Optional gnome icons"
"Utils"
"gnucash"
"Personal bookkeeping and finance"
"App"
"golang"
"Go programming language compiler"
"yamn"
"hplip"
"HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP)"
"Utils"
"hplip-gui"
"HP Linux Printing and Imaging - GUI utilities (Qt-based)"
"Graphical frontend for Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE)"
"Photo"
"zbar-tools"
"Bar Code Scanner and Decoder"
"Photo"
"zip"
"Archiver for .zip files"
"Utils"
Here are third-party packages I admire. These are not available in
Debian repositories although some provide Debian-compatible
repositories of their own.
Tor Browser Bundle: Anonymizing Network Browser
This is available from https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/ as a tarball. This should be unpacked and the whole tor-browser_en-US directory moved to the ~user folder. This is so that the browser can auto-update at user authority as the need arises.
RetroShare: Secure Communications with Friends
This has its own Debian-compatible repository.
metar: A Package to Parse METAR Coded Weather Reports
weeWX: Open source software for backyard weather stations.
From http://weewx.com/docs/debian.htm. Although a Debian package exists, doing any development practically requires that all the code be in user-space, so don't install the package. Download it instead.