Software Recommendations

This wiki page outlines software recommendations by Kicksecure for various tasks, such as encryption, email, IRC, media player, image viewer, screenshot creator, calculator, office suite, and more. It includes a list of pre-installed applications on Kicksecure, recommended software for different user activities, installation instructions, and security advice.
Warning[edit]
Accessibility[edit]
On-Screen Keyboard[edit]
onboard homepage (Debian package
) is an extensible, scalable, virtual (on-screen) keyboard.
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install onboard
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the onboard
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends onboard
D. Done.
The procedure of installing onboard
is complete.
Figure: Onboard Software in Kicksecure
Audio, Image and Video[edit]
Audio Recorder and Editor[edit]
Audacity homepage (Debian package
).
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install audacity
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the audacity
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends audacity
D. Done.
The procedure of installing audacity
is complete.
Figure: Audacity Software in Kicksecure
Image and PDF Viewer[edit]
Ristretto[edit]
Ristretto (Debian package
) and xpdf
(Debian package
) come pre-installed in Kicksecure.
Start menu
→ Graphics
→ Image Viewer
Figure: Ristretto Software in Kicksecure
Figure: xpdf Software in Kicksecure
eog - Eye of GNOME graphics viewer[edit]
Install eog
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the eog
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends eog
D. Done.
The procedure of installing eog
is complete.
Screenshot Creator and Image Editor[edit]
Flameshot homepage (Debian package
).
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install flameshot
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the flameshot
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends flameshot
D. Done.
The procedure of installing flameshot
is complete.
Figure: Flameshot Software in Kicksecure
Video Editor[edit]
Flowblade homepage (Debian package
).
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install flowblade
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the flowblade
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends flowblade
D. Done.
The procedure of installing flowblade
is complete.
Figure: Flowblade Software in Kicksecure
Video Recorder[edit]
vokoscreenNG homepage (Debian package
).
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install vokoscreen-ng
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the vokoscreen-ng
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends vokoscreen-ng
D. Done.
The procedure of installing vokoscreen-ng
is complete.
Figure: vokoscreenNG Software in Kicksecure
Communications[edit]
E-Mail[edit]
See E-Mail.
Instant Messengers[edit]
IRC Client[edit]
HexChat (Debian package) is pre-installed in Kicksecure.
XMPP/Jabber Client[edit]
TODO
Encryption[edit]
OpenPGP (GnuPG Frontend)[edit]
OpenPGP can be used to encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify text.
GPA and GnuPG
come pre-installed in Kicksecure (Debian packages
).
Starting.
- gpg command line interface (CLI): gpg
- gpa graphical user interface (GUI): gpa
Alternative: KGpg
To install KGpg:
Install kgpg
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the kgpg
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends kgpg
D. Done.
The procedure of installing kgpg
is complete.
To start KGpg:
KGpg
Documentation:
- GnuPG documentation
- OpenPGP key distribution strategies
- parcimonie - privacy-friendly helper to refresh a GnuPG keyring
(in Debian
)
Figure: GnuPG Software in Kicksecure
Entertainment[edit]
Media Player[edit]

The VLC Media Player
(Debian package
) is pre-installed in Kicksecure. There are no increased fingerprinting risks because VLC does not run Javascript
. [2]
Start menu
→ Multimedia
→ VLC Media Player
Figure: VLC Software in Kicksecure
Miscellaneous[edit]
Calculator[edit]
galculator homepage (Debian package
).
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install galculator
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the galculator
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends galculator
D. Done.
The procedure of installing galculator
is complete.
Figure: galculator Software in Kicksecure
File Comparison Tools[edit]
A file comparison tool is also often called a diff viewer
.
meld[edit]
Install meld
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the meld
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends meld
D. Done.
The procedure of installing meld
is complete.
Usage example:
meld file1 file2
kdiff3[edit]
Install kdiff3
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the kdiff3
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends kdiff3
D. Done.
The procedure of installing kdiff3
is complete.
Usage example:
kdiff3 file1 file2
diff[edit]
diff
is a pre-installed command line interface (CLI) diff viewer.
Usage example:
diff file1 file2
File Manager[edit]

Thunar
is pre-installed. To launch it:
Thunar as User[edit]
- A) From start menu:
Start menu
→System
→Thunar
- B) From command line: thunar
Figure: Thunar Software in Kicksecure
Thunar with Administrator Rights[edit]
From command line:
lxsudo thunar
Task Manager[edit]
There many choices. Task managers are unspecific to Kicksecure. These should be researched as per Self Support First Policy.
xfce4-taskmanager[edit]
Here is a taskmanager graphical user interface (GUI) example.
Install xfce4-taskmanager
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the xfce4-taskmanager
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends xfce4-taskmanager
D. Done.
The procedure of installing xfce4-taskmanager
is complete.
Run.
xfce4-taskmanager
taskmanager command line utilities[edit]
Popular taskmanager command line utilities include:
top
htop
ps
pstree
pgrep
task killing command line utilities[edit]
Task killing can also be done on the command line.
kill
killall
plasma-systemmonitor[edit]
Install plasma-systemmonitor
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the plasma-systemmonitor
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends plasma-systemmonitor
D. Done.
The procedure of installing plasma-systemmonitor
is complete.
Run.
plasma-systemmonitor
iotop - simple top-like I/O monitor[edit]
iotop does for I/O usage what top(1) does for CPU usage. It watches I/O usage information output by the Linux kernel and displays a table of current I/O usage by processes on the system. It is handy for answering the question "Why is the disk churning so much?".
Install iotop
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the iotop
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends iotop
D. Done.
The procedure of installing iotop
is complete.
Run.
sudo iotop -a
Terminal[edit]

xfce4-terminal-emulator
iconXfce-Terminal homepage (Debian package
).
Xfce-Terminal is pre-installed in Kicksecure.
To start it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Figure: Xfce Terminal in Kicksecure
Unsafe Paste Warning Popup[edit]
This is a demonstration of the Warning: Unsafe Paste
feature of the Xfce Terminal Emulator. Other graphical terminal emulators might have similar features.
Figure: Warning: Unsafe Paste
feature
First a text editor is opened, then several arbitrary lines of text written, copied to clipboard and pasted into the terminal emulator.
1. Open a text editor.
Open file some-file-name
in a text editor of your choice as a regular, non-root user.
If you are using a graphical environment, run. mousepad some-file-name
If you are using a terminal, run. nano some-file-name
2. Write several lines of text.
Should be long lines. Should be multiple lines. The text is not important. Can be anything.
For example:
111111111111111111111111 222222222222222222222222
3. Copy to clipboard.
Select all of the lines of text and right click, copy to clipboard.
4. Open a terminal.
Open a terminal.
If you are using Kicksecure ™ inside Qubes, complete the following steps.
Qubes App Launcher (blue/grey "Q")
→ Kicksecure App Qube (commonly named kicksecure)
→ Xfce Terminal
If you are using a graphical Kicksecure with Xfce, run.
Start Menu
→ Xfce Terminal
5. Paste the text into the terminal.
6. The warning popup will appear.
Warning: Unsafe Paste
7. Done.
The demonstration of the Warning: Unsafe Paste
feature has been completed.
If the user does not understand the contents of the pasted text, the user should abort. Otherwise, the user might be compromised by running commands not understood by the user.
Related security risk: Invisible Malicious Unicode
Text Editor[edit]
Open File as Regular User[edit]
mousepad
is installed by default.
Replace /path/to/file
with the actual file name.
mousepad /path/to/file
Open File with Root Rights[edit]
Prefer sudoedit
for better security. [3]
Note: Replace /path/to/file
with the actual file name.
sudoedit /path/to/file
To use a different editor, replace mousepad
with the name of the editor you wish to use.
SUDO_EDITOR=mousepad sudoedit /path/to/file
Work on Sensitive Documents[edit]
Office Suite[edit]
LibreOffice homepage (Debian package
) [4] is recommended. It is a fully-featured office productivity suite that provides a near drop-in replacement for Microsoft (R) Office. A word processor is included, along with spreadsheet and presentation applications.
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install libreoffice
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the libreoffice
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends libreoffice
D. Done.
The procedure of installing libreoffice
is complete.
To launch these applications: Start menu
→ Office
Figure: LibreOffice Software in Kicksecure
Printing and Scanning[edit]
Publishing[edit]
Scribus homepage (Debian package
) is an open source desktop page layout accessible from the desktop menu (
Applications
→ Graphics
). It can be used for many tasks; from booklets design to newspapers, magazines, newsletters and posters to technical documentation.
Scribus has sophisticated page layout features like precision placing and rotating of text and/or images on a page, manual kerning of type, bezier curves polygons, precision placement of objects, layering with RGB and CMYK custom colors. The Scribus document file format is XML-based. Unlike proprietary binary file formats, even damaged documents can be recovered with a simple text editor.
To install it: Start menu
→ System
→ Xfce Terminal
Install scribus
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the scribus
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends scribus
D. Done.
The procedure of installing scribus
is complete.
Figure: Scribus Software in Kicksecure
scurl: SSL Command Line Downloader[edit]
To securely download files or webpages from the Internet on the command line, scurl is pre-installed in Kicksecure. scurl should be preferred over wget, since the former enforces strong encryption and is less buggy. See also Secure Downloads.
To invoke scurl to download a file, use the following syntax and replace the example URL with the file's location.
scurl https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/9.5/tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz
This will download tor-browser-linux64-9.5_en-US.tar.xz
to the current working directory.
Refer to the scurl entry for further examples and a complete description of this tool.
Figure: scurl Command in Kicksecure
Java[edit]
Install default-jre
. To accomplish that, the following steps A. to D. need to be done.
A. Update the package lists.
sudo apt update
B. Upgrade the system.
sudo apt full-upgrade
C. Install the default-jre
package.
Using apt
command line parameter --no-install-recommends
is in most cases optional.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends default-jre
D. Done.
The procedure of installing default-jre
is complete.
Additional Software[edit]
If the recommendations in this section are unsatisfactory, additional applications can be easily installed in a few steps; see Install Software.
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ Kicksecure means all Kicksecure platforms except Kicksecure ™ inside Qubes. This includes Kicksecure KVM, Kicksecure VirtualBox and Kicksecure.
- ↑ However, unrestricted access to the large number of codecs, along with the gstreamer and ffmpeg frameworks can expose the system to remote attacks. The risk is greater than with Tor Browser because the latter attempts to restrict codecs to a particular subset. No cookies are stored by VLC and no information is collected and sent to third parties
; see the Original Whonix forum thread
.
- ↑
https://forums.whonix.org/t/use-sudoedit-in-whonix-documentation-and-whonix-software/7599
- ↑ See also: LibreOffice in Wikipedia
.
License[edit]
Kicksecure Software wiki page Copyright (C) Amnesia <amnesia at boum dot org>
Kicksecure Software wiki page Copyright (C) 2012 - 2023 ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LP <adrelanos(at)kicksecure.com
(Replace(at)
with@
.)Please DO NOT use e-mail for one of the following reasons: Private Contact: Please avoid e-mail whenever possible. (Private Communications Policy) Leaks Submissions: No. (No Leaks Policy) Sponsored posts: No. Paid links: No. SEO reviews: No. >This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the wiki source code.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; see the wiki source code for details.
Unfinished: This wiki is a work in progress. Please do not report broken links until this notice is removed, use Search Engines First and contribute improving this wiki.

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