Below is a list of my favorite desktop software to install on FreeBSD. The list is in no particular order other than as I thought of them and look at my rofi menu to see what was installed.
  • Terminator Terminal Emulator
  • Strawberry Music Player
  • Signal Desktop
  • Telegram Desktop
  • Hexchat IRC client
  • PulseAudio System Tray
  • Prism Launcher
  • Firefox
  • Chromium
  • Thunderbird Mail Client
  • Xfburn
  • Cheese
  • Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)
  • Libre Office Suite
  • VLC
  • Ultimaker Cura
  • Gnome Screenshot
  • OBS Studio
  • Tiger VNC
  • FreeCAD
  • Vim
  • VS Code
  • grip
Below is my thoughts on each of the pieces of software I listed above. Obviously they are all open source free software or I wouldn't use them. Don't mind paying for software at a company and if I was using it in production, or development. But for my home computer system I use all opensource software.

  1. Terminator Terminal Emulator

    Everyone that uses Linux or FreeBSD needs a good terminal emulator. There are a ton out there but someone, and I have no idea who, showed me Terminator, or I read it on some blog or article. Either way, I am totally addicted to Terminator as my terminal emulator. What makes it good? The ability to split your window into multiple terminals all withen the same panel. As it sits now I have two terminals open right now, the one I am typing with vim this article, the other one has my hugo running building the website so I can get immediate feedback on how this looks. Once you get used to splitting the window into different terminals, there is no way I can go back and not use it.

  2. Strawberry Music Player

    Anyone who knows me knows I am a music junkie. I have well over a 1000 cds of music and all of them are ripped onto my computer in flac format. I have used lots of music players over the years, Exaile, Rhythmbox, XMMS, etc. My current favorite is a branch of the Clementine Music Player called Strawberry. It is a modern looking player with radio stations, and all the features you would expect, it's own equalizer, ability to make smart playlists, etc. Even on FreeBSD on my i3 desktop it has a tray icon of a little strawberry that you can hover over it and it will tell you the currently playing song. There are a ton of music players out there, some just terminal programs like mp123, flac123, etc. Give Strawberry a try you might like it.

  3. Signal Desktop

    I use Signal to communicate with several people over a secure channel. Nothing really of any importance being said, but I use signal on my phone and communicate with several people with it. I find the desktop app version for FreeBSD to be great so I can type with a keyboard without touching my phone. Quick and easy.

  4. Telegram Desktop

    We use Telegram for BastilleBSD so I use this to keep up with the channel and any requests or bugs people report there.

  5. Hexchat IRC Client

    OK, so I am a dinosaur. I am good with that. I still use IRC a lot. Great platform for tech support on open source products. I started my IRC usage on windows with mIRC YEARS ago. Hexchat is the latest version of xchat and has all the features you want in an irc client. And it is available on every platform out there including the mac and on windows. Obviously, on all linux distros also.

  6. PulseAudio System Tray

    As I said above, I am a music junkie. I run a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 on my desktop to drive a pair of studio monitors with a bass unit. If you look at all the audio devices my laptop shows to FreeBSD, it is kind of ridiculous. The built in speakers of the laptop with the headphone out. My Scarlett which has two microphone jacks on it, plus 4 outputs. My Thinkpad docking station has an audio device in it. My camera has a microphone in it. My laptop has a microphone in it. ETC. So, if you plug or unplug something, or change programs sometimes the output or input device gets changed. Stepping in to fix this problem is the PulseAudio system tray. A little system tray that allows you to on the fly change the output or input to any application. Handy when you are trying to do conference calls on zoom or teams or whatever. I find it a must have for my setup.

  7. Prism Launcher

    Who says you can't game on FreeBSD??? Not me. Prism Launcher allows you to play minecraft on FreeBSD. It allows you to have multiple clients set up, multiple versions of minecraft etc. So you can set up one icon for every server you play that has the right mods on it. Allows me to play minecraft with my kids on our heavily modded server I run for us to play on.

  8. Firefox

    You need a browser and Firefox is one of the two I always install. As things change sometimes I have found that some things only work well in one browser. I usually use Firefox as my go to browser and only use others if there is an issue.

  9. Chromium

    Not a huge fan of Google as a company, but the Chromium branch of the Chrome Browser helps when something won't authenticate or work right in Firefox. Between Chromium and Firefox I have yet to find something that one or the other won't work with correctly. For example, had a job interview the other day and Teams would not work in firefox and allow the camera to work. Moved over to Chromium and it worked flawlessly.

  10. Thunderbird Mail Client

    A mail client is a must. I find Thunderbird the most useful. It allows me to have multiple email addresses open in their own inbox and I can keep up with emails from all the email addresses I use. I know it sounds weird, but I have 4 email addresses that I monitor. A good mail client in an absolute have to have for me.

  11. Xfburn

    Xfburn is not fancy, not the coolest fanciest interface, not the flashiest, but I find it a tank. It simply works well. Burns images to cd/dvd flawlessly. Not as useful as it once was, but occasionally I want something on a CD or DVD to install to a system that doesn't like thumb drives.

  12. Cheese

    Cheese is simply a camera app that allows you to use your webcam to snap a picture. Clean and simple. No real explanation needed.

  13. Gnu Image Manipulation Program (Gimp)

    Gimp is the pinacle of picture editing software in the open source world. It has features that rival the stuff from Adobe. I can use maybe 2% of its features. But when I need to crop or edit a pic that is my go to.

  14. LibreOffice Suite

    Everyone needs an office suite with a text editor, spreadsheet, presentation app, and all the other bells an whistles that come in all office suites. LibreOffice fits the bill and if you install all of it you get draw and other programs that make it a full featured package.

  15. VLC

    VLC is a video player. It will play most video formats.

  16. Ultimaker Cura

    If you have a 3d printer then Cura from Ultimaker allows you to slice your models and create the files from cad drawings to send to your 3d printer. Cura works well on FreeBSD where some of the others will not work right.

  17. Gnome Screenshot

    Gnome Screenshot simply allows you to either take a shot of your entire screen, an area or one application. Great for capturing pictures for howtos or blogs like this.

  18. OBS Studio

    OBS Studio is a full featured podcasting/recording studio package. Allows you to capture cameras, app windows, anything you can think of it can do. I use it for podcasting and for creating video how tos.

  19. TigerVNC

    If you need to connect to a vm or server using VNC, then TigerVNC is an excellent choice on FreeBSD.

  20. FreeCAD

    If you need to edit or create cad files and need a full featured CAD package, then FreeCAD is the way to go on FreeBSD or Linux.

  21. Vim

    I have blogged enough about Vim (see other posts) but it is a necessity to upgrade the default vi that comes with FreeBSD to Vim.

  22. VS Code

    Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is not just for Windows anymore. They released the souce code and made it an open source product/project now. It has been ported to FreeBSD along with every other O/S out there.

  23. grip

    Another music junkie item is grip. It rips cds into either flac or mp3 or ogg depending on your personal tastes. Rips the entire cd and allows you to set up the naming convention for your files to be any way you want so you end up with an organized folder set of your music.


    So as you see there is a long list of software that I view as necessities for my desktop. Hopefully in all of this you find one that you like and add to your personal list of applications. Happy computing.