Here are some suggested conclusions as to the best software packages to use. The aim is a lightweight Linux (fast, low resource use) which is usable for everyone.
Some are drawn from online discussions, such as the Lightweight Linux Network on Identi.ca - in these cases, add the source url between square brackets after the suggestion. This enables people to check out the context of the discussion.
Where there is any controversy, choices should be discussed on the Lightweight Linux Network, or the talk page here, before being added to the list. These are suggestions, which are made civilly, and there will be more than one suggestion for most applications.
Suggestions
Text editors:
- nano is a great CLI editor, super-light, easy to use as CLI tools go.[1]
- Medit has a nice GUI, tabs, regex (regular expression for search and replace). Less RAM than gedit (and gedit doesn't have regex). (More RAM than Leafpad or Mousepad but more features.)[2]
- High potential for further development: Nedit uses even less RAM than Leafpad, & has tabs, regex. But seems buggy, and GUI is very ugly.<ref>Nedit is designed for Unix (uses Motif) so the GUI displays poorly in LXDE/Openbox, KDE, GNOME.<ref>
Rich text editors:
- To be discussed (Abiword has improved a lot, supports open formats...; for advanced functions, sometimes OpenOffice is the only choice?)
File search:
- Catfish. Light, uses search function already installed in standard Linux system (find, locate, slocate... what about grep?) with a fairly easy interface.[3] More development would be good (less confusing interface, search by date...) but development is stalled.[4]
Window managers:
- To be discussed (Openbox, the one puppy uses...)
Desktop environments:
- To be discussed (LXDE...)
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