In my long journey of OSx86, I stumbled upon Ubuntu and Fedora. When I temporarily used Linux, I wondered what programs existed for p2p, media playing, gaming, word processing, etc. I personally don't use Linux, since it doesn't run well on my computer (I don't get internet support, and I'm too lazy to find a solution). I finally got to installing Kubuntu and got WiFi working. Linux isn't bad at all So list your essential programs here. I can only list one. I can list a few.

Edit: I am now also running Fedora 11 with Gnome on my bro's Inspiron 600m.

Program-----------------Purpose
VLC ---------------- Plays media
Ndiswrapper ----- Installs Windows drivers
Firefox------------------ Web Browsing
Terminal---------------- Everyone knows what this does


Edit: Please don't post repeats!

This is really random. But I use Ubuntu every day soooo

Program List:
Pidgin
Firefox
Evolution
Gnome-Do
Terminal < >
SSH/SCP
VirtualBox CSE
OpenOffice

and those are what i use on a consistent basis

VMware Workstation
Deluge (torrent client)
Firefox
Pidgin
Netbeans

Firefox
Banshee - music player
Evolution Mail - email
Transmission - bittorrent
Totem Media Player - play movies
Microsoft Word 2007 - write papers for school
VMWare Workstation - occasional use of WinXP

My "near daily" list:

Firefox - web browsing
Handbrake - DVD rips (not daily, but "a lot")
Avidemux - video file editing (same frequency as Handbrake)
Transmission - torrent client
VLC - media player
OpenOffice.org - general productivity stuff
PenguinTV - podcasts and such
rxvt - Terminal
emacs/nano - text editors (normally I'll use nano for config files, and emacs when I'm programming)
gcc - compiler

Less frequent but do use:

GIMP - image editing
Brasero - CD/DVD burning

Depending on what I'm tinkering with as far as programming goes, I'll also use MySQL or PgSQL and their associated utilities quite a bit too. Then there's naturally things that get used, but not in a direct manner (such as rsync which I have syncing out certain directories daily to my SAN units).

Inkscape (vector graphic)
Blender (3D graphic)
Gimp (bitmap graphic)
Scribus (presentation/layout)
XMMS (media player)
aterm, aterm, aterm, aterm (terminal)
kate (coding)
firefox (web)
mplayer (movie player)
cinelerra (advanced movie creation)
kino (fast DV movie creation, like iMovie)
avidemux (like virtualdob for windows, fast trimming/croping of video files)
ddd code debugger
gcc/g++ compiler
konversation (irc)

sauerbraten (game)

Do you want to get the same tools by every one again and again (to see which of them are most often used) or should I only list new ones? Because I use most of the already noted tools and could almost copy all the other lists.

AmaroK 1.4 - music player
KDevelop - IDE (I use it only for C++)
OpenLieroX - 2D shooter game

Nobody has mentioned K3B? It is simply the best!

k3b 1.65 (burner)
basket 2 (notetaking/brainstroming)
gnome-do
kate (vim mode)
digikam 10 (photomanagement/editing)
kdenlive (video editing)
yakuake (quake style terminal)
Amarok 2.1
Smplayer
Scribus
ktorrent
Quasel (irc)

Gnome Mplayer - plays media
Gedit - text editor
Nautilus Actions- GUI batch actions
Banshee - music
Gnome Do - dock
Picasa - photo manager

Songbird - Music (from Mozilla, similar to iTunes, but with extensions like Firefox/Thunderbird)
Virtualbox-OSE (Open Source Edition) - WinServer 2003 Enterprise (for school work)
Savage 2 - Free multi-platform MMORPG
Urban Terror - Free multi-platform online FPS
Undvd - Dvd ripping (not included with Ubuntu, http://sourceforge.net/projects/undvd/ can be added with ppa, awesome dvdrip app).

i use gnomad2 to organize my mp3s collection in creative zen
and xnjb for osx

I mostly use the same tools as in OS X (FF, OOo, bash, SSH, VLC, mplayer)

Linux-specific (kind of) apps/tools. Basically stuff that I miss :

Amarok: best media player ever (using it @OS X is not so great, though)
K3b: burning
Shorewall / iptables: firewall. ipfw is nice but it causes my system to freeze. Shorewall is a config file based front-end for iptables.
KTorrent: one of the best torrent clients (second to µTorrent for Windows)
PulseAudio: network-enabled audio server
libflac/libvorbis: support for all codecs without dirty and user-ufriendly hacks like Fluke
VPDAU: Let the GPU render my H.264 1080p
kioslaves: Full Network transparancy in all kde-apps

Iceweasel(Debian branded ver. of FF)
gnomebaker
VLC
Evolution
Terminal
Transmission 1.61(bit torrent)
Virtualbox

bash
vim
less
ssh
mc
gcc
xorg
fvwm
aterm
abiword
gnumeric
homebank
thunar
exaile
firefox
thunderbird
evince
mplayer
tvtime
gimageview
gimp
inkscape
pixel
ufraw
noiseninja
xara lx

I use a customized Linux Mint install. I mainly dabble in these apps:

• Terminal (Duh!)
• Firefox 3.5.3
• Songbird 1.4 Beta (Media player)
• Pidgin 2.6.*
• GVim
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 via Wine (hehe)
• Transmission (Torrents)
• Shutter (Really awesome screenshot tool)

Also some highly recommended tools:

• Desktop Drapes (Switches wallpaper every now and again)
• Dropbox (FTW)