• Common applications (such as the Firefox web browser and LibreOffice office suite)
• Developer tools (like the vi and emacs text editors)
• Popular services, (such as the Apache web server tools or MySQL database)
• Desktop (such as GNOME or KDE)
• All installers set up some initial security features on the new system. One basic step consists of setting the password for the superuser (root) and setting up an initial user. In some cases (such as Ubuntu), only an initial user is set up; direct root login is not configured and root access requires logging in first as a normal user and then using sudo.
• Some distributions will also install more advanced security frameworks, such as SELinux or AppArmor. For example, all Red Hat-based systems including Fedora and CentOS always use SELinux by default, and Ubuntu comes with AppArmor up and running.

Browsers and Network

• Graphical: Firefox, Google Chrome, Chromium, Epiphany (renamed web), Konqueror, Opera
• Text: linx, lynx, w3m
• Others:
  • Graphical FTP client: FileZilla
  • To access Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks: Pidgin, Hexchat
  • To connect to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks: Ekiga

Email

• Graphical: Thunderbird, Evolution, and Claws Mail
• Text: Mutt and mail
• All web browser-based clients, such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Office 365.

Office Applications

• LibreOffice:
  • Writer: Word Processing
  • Calc: Spreadsheets
  • Impress: Presentations
  • Draw: Create and edit graphics and diagrams.
• Internet-based office suites such as Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365.

Development Applications

On other operating systems, these tools have to be obtained and installed separately, often at a high cost, while on Linux they are all available at no cost through standard package installation systems.

• Advanced editors: vi, emacs