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]

It is estimated that within 10 to 15 years, Quantum Computers will break today's common asymmetric public-key cryptography algorithms used for web encryption (https), e-mail encryption (GnuPG...), SSH and other purposes. See Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQCrypto).

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]

Kicksecure only! ^[1]
In Qubes, screenshots only work in dom0 (System Tools → Screenshot) and this applies to the entire platform, including Kicksecure for Qubes.

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]

Undocumented.

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:

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?".
Debian iotop package

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]

Xfce-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]

See Printing and Scanning.

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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[1] Kicksecure means all Kicksecure platforms except Kicksecure ™ inside Qubes. This includes Kicksecure KVM, Kicksecure VirtualBox and Kicksecure.

[2] 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.

[3] ttps://forums.whonix.org/t/use-sudoedit-in-whonix-documentation-and-whonix-software/7599

[4] See also: LibreOffice in Wikipedia.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Software Recommendations

Warning[edit]

Accessibility[edit]

On-Screen Keyboard[edit]

Audio, Image and Video[edit]

Audio Recorder and Editor[edit]

Image and PDF Viewer[edit]

Ristretto[edit]

eog - Eye of GNOME graphics viewer[edit]

Screenshot Creator and Image Editor[edit]

Video Editor[edit]

Video Recorder[edit]

Communications[edit]

E-Mail[edit]

Instant Messengers[edit]

IRC Client[edit]

XMPP/Jabber Client[edit]

Encryption[edit]

OpenPGP (GnuPG Frontend)[edit]

Entertainment[edit]

Media Player[edit]

Miscellaneous[edit]

Calculator[edit]

File Comparison Tools[edit]

meld[edit]

kdiff3[edit]

diff[edit]

File Manager[edit]

Thunar as User[edit]

Thunar with Administrator Rights[edit]

Task Manager[edit]

xfce4-taskmanager[edit]

taskmanager command line utilities[edit]

task killing command line utilities[edit]

plasma-systemmonitor[edit]

iotop - simple top-like I/O monitor[edit]

Terminal[edit]

Unsafe Paste Warning Popup[edit]

Text Editor[edit]

Open File as Regular User[edit]

Open File with Root Rights[edit]

Work on Sensitive Documents[edit]

Office Suite[edit]

Printing and Scanning[edit]

Publishing[edit]

scurl: SSL Command Line Downloader[edit]

Java[edit]

Additional Software[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

License[edit]

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