Listed below are recommended audio, video and productivity apps for GNU/Linux complete with a short description.
Many of these apps are, or will be, included on the KXStudio DVD. Those not included are easily installed from the repositories in most cases.
Amarok Feature-packed music player with support for syncing with ipods (up to 4th gen)
Ardour The original Linux DAW
Audacious Uncomplicated music player with good JACK support
Audacity Popular cross-platform sound editor but with poor JACK support
Avidemux Simple video editing and conversion tool ala Virtualdub
Bitwig Proprietary commercial DAW geared towards electronic music production
Blender 3D Powerful 3D modelling, animation, rendering and compositing
Cadence Controls and monitors various Linux sound systems
cadence-jackmeter Cadence-JackMeter is a digital peak meter for JACK
cadence-xycontroller Cadence-XY Controller is a simple XY widget that sends and receives data from Jack MIDI
Carla Audio plugin host (
LADSPA, LV2, VST etc)
Catia Catia is a JACK Patchbay, with some neat features like A2J bridge support and JACK Transport
cinepaint HDR, High bit-depth movie still editor
Claudia Claudia is a LADISH frontend; it's just like Catia, but focused on session management through LADISH
darktable Virtual lighttable and darkroom
DeVeDe Creates DVD video and (S)VCD discs from movie files
DIN (Din Is Noise) Advanced fluid microtonal synthesis with drones and melodic effects, oriented toward Indian classical music
Dolphin The default KDE file manager
Firefox The original and best web browser
FileZilla (s)
FTP client (and server)
GIMP GNU Image Manipulation Program - Photoshop alternative
gnumeric A superior spreadsheet to the one included in LibreOffice or OpenOffice
Guitarix JACK virtual guitar amplifier
gxtuner Instrument tuner
Handbrake Cross-platform DVD ripping and video transcoding
Hydrogen JACK drum machine and sequencer, note: many additional drum-kits are available by installing the package “hydrogen-drumkits”
IDJC Internet DJ Console is for live, web radio production. Features voip integration
Inkscape Leading open source vector graphics editor
JAmin JACK stereo audio mastering tool
k3b CD, DVD and BD burning
Kdenlive KDE video editor, similar to Sony Vegas
ksnapshot Take screenshots of windows or desktops
LibreOffice MS Office-compatible word processor, spreadsheet and presentation suite
LightWorks Professional, high-end video editor used in Hollywood productions (currently beta and 64-bit only)
Lincoder Java/mencoder based batch video conversion tool
Lingot Instrument tuner
LMMS FruityLoops-esque sequencer w/ integrated synths
mhwaveedit Lightweight sound editor with good JACK support
Mixxx DJ mixing software
MusE DAW with good MIDI editing features and some integrated plugins
Musescore Professional quality music notation and scoring
Mypaint Bitmap paint program that can simulate real painting techniques
Okular PDF and document viewer
Paulstretch Ambient sound generation via stretched sound recordings, extreme stretch lenghts and many controls over the sound
QDVDauthor DVD menu authoring
Qsynth Allows use of SoundFont files
Qsampler Allows use of sfz and gigasampler sample sets
Qtractor Fast, lightweight DAW
REAPER Powerful Windows-based DAW, officially supported under Wine
Recorditnow Record your desktop to a video file
Rakarrack JACK Guitar FX processor
Rosegarden MIDI sequencer with integrated notation
samplv1 Simple sampler available as LV2 plugin and JACK app
scribus Professional layout and publishing software
setBfree Great sounding
DSP B3 Hammond organ emulator LV2 plugin
smplayer Excellent audio and video playback app
Soundkonverter batch audio file conversion
Sooperlooper live looping sampler
sunvox Advanced module tracker with integrated synths, samplers and JACK support
Swami SoundFont editor
synfig Powerful 2D vector animation software
TAL-Noisemaker Superb sounding, fully automatable softsynth plugin
Tracktion Commercial DAW with unique interface and free Linux version
Triceratops Triple oscillator LV2 synth
VLC The famous VLC media player
VMPK Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard
Wine Wine allows most
MS Windows software to run under GNU/Linux
XCFA Another sound conversion tool with more options than soundkonverter
XJadeo X JACK video monitor plays video in sync with a external time source (eg Ardour)
Zynaddsubfx JACK synthesizer