Setting up a new Linux machine? Here’s a handpicked collection of the best free GUI apps that work on any distribution via Flatpak or your package manager.

Web Browser — Firefox

Firefox is the independent browser that respects your privacy. Enhanced Tracking Protection blocks trackers by default, containers isolate your online identities, and it’s the only major browser not built on Chromium.

Office Suite — LibreOffice

LibreOffice handles word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. It opens and saves Microsoft Office formats with high fidelity. For occasional office work without a subscription, it’s the obvious choice.

Notes & Knowledge — Obsidian

Your second brain, stored in plain Markdown files you own forever. Backlinks, graph view, and 1,000+ community plugins. Perfect for notes, documentation, and personal knowledge management.

Media Player — VLC

VLC plays everything. Every video and audio format, network streams, damaged files — it handles them all. Zero ads, zero tracking, runs on everything.

Code Editor — VS Code

The editor that ate the world. Extensions for every language, integrated Git, terminal, debugger, and remote development. It’s the default choice for most developers today.

Package Managers

On Linux, you have options. Flatpak gives you sandboxed, distro-agnostic packages. Snap offers automatic updates. And your distro’s native package manager (apt, dnf, pacman) covers the basics.

# Flatpak
flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox

# Snap
sudo snap install firefox