A clean Linux install doesn’t come with many pre-configured apps, and that can leave new users wondering where to start—unsure of what they actually need for a smooth, functional system. To remove that guesswork, here are five essential Linux apps you should install on day one.
Wine and Bottles: run Windows apps on your Linux PC
If you’re new to Linux and coming from Windows, one of the first things you’ll want to know is how many of your old apps still work. The good news is that many popular Windows apps—like VLC media player, Spotify, Slack, Discord, and Steam—work natively on Linux. However, some important apps, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, don’t. Sure, there are great alternatives to these apps, but you might just want to use what you’re familiar with.
This is where Wine comes in—a compatibility layer that lets you run Windows apps on Linux. It isn’t capable of running every Windows app, especially newer ones, but it works reliably with many older applications. For example, it can run Microsoft Office 2013 and Photoshop CS6 with decent performance. You can check the full compatibility list at WineHQ.
That said, if you plan to use Wine, I highly recommend installing Bottles as well. Bottles is a graphical wrapper for Wine that helps you manage all your Windows apps using a visual interface. It uses isolated Wine prefixes to keep applications organized, which also makes installing and managing these apps much easier.
Now, you can download Wine from your distro’s official repo. For Bottles, I recommend the Flatpak version, as it works better in my experience.
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Heroic Games Launcher: access your non-Steam games library
If you’re a gamer coming to Linux, you probably already know that Steam is natively supported and has great compatibility with thousands of games. However, if your entire game library isn’t on Steam, you’d benefit from installing Heroic Games Launcher. It’s an open-source launcher that acts as a unified front end for Epic Games, GOG, and Amazon Games, letting you access all three stores from a single, intuitive interface.
With Heroic, you can install, update, and manage games, sync cloud saves (though reliability can vary by title), and even download games directly from these stores without leaving the app. The interface is also clean and modern, making it a great fit for a modern Linux gaming system.
Heroic also includes built-in tools like a Wine Manager to download Proton-GE or Wine-GE versions, ProtonDB compatibility checking, and Winetricks support—all designed to make running Windows games on Linux as smooth as possible. That said, you don’t have to manage that complexity yourself. Heroic abstracts most of it away, making Linux gaming feel far less intimidating than many newcomers expect.
You can download Heroic Games Launcher using Flatpak.
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Syncthing: sync your files without the cloud
On Windows, syncing files across devices usually means using a cloud storage provider like OneDrive, Dropbox, or Google Drive. The best Linux equivalent is Nextcloud—but setting up a self-hosted Nextcloud instance can be more complex than what most newcomers want to deal with on day one. This is where Syncthing shines.
It’s a peer-to-peer file syncing tool that works across Linux, Windows, Android, and other platforms. Instead of uploading your files to a central cloud server, it syncs files directly between your devices. Just install Syncthing on the devices you want to sync, pair them, choose a folder (or folders) on the devices, and you’re done. From that point on, any change made in that folder on one device—a file created, edited, or deleted—is automatically synced to the others.
Syncing typically happens over local Wi-Fi, but Syncthing also works over the internet or mobile data if needed. And because it uses your own storage instead of third-party cloud servers, your data remains private and fully under your control.
You can install it from your distro’s official repo or check out Syncthing’s official download page.
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Timeshift: save your system from accidental catastrophe
If you’re new to Linux, experimentation is essential to becoming a more confident user. The problem is that experimentation also comes with a real risk of breaking your system—which is problematic if Linux is your primary work machine. This is where Timeshift comes in.
Timeshift takes snapshots of your system files and settings at regular intervals. If you accidentally break something while configuring or customizing your system, you can roll back to a previously working state. Think of it like Windows System Restore.
It’s worth noting that Timeshift is designed specifically to protect system files. It doesn’t back up your personal data by default, which is actually a good thing—your documents and files remain untouched during the restoration process. Also, since Timeshift is meant to help you recover from serious system failures, it’s highly recommended that you store your snapshots on an external drive for added safety.
You can install Timeshift from your distro’s software repository.
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Déjà Dup: back up your personal files
Déjà Dup is a simple, file-focused backup tool designed for your home directory—documents, photos, videos, and other personal files. It uses an incremental backup system, which means after the first run, only changes to the backed-up files are saved in the following runs. This prevents your backups from ballooning and eating up your system storage.
It comes with an intuitive graphical interface that lets you back up your files, encrypt them, and store them in a destination of your choice. You can configure it to automatically upload backups to an external drive, network storage, or supported cloud storage providers.
Ideally, you’d toggle Timeshift and Déjà Dup together to form a complete safety net. One lets you recover from broken updates or system tweaks. The other ensures your personal data is safe from accidental deletion or disk failure.
It’s generally installed by default on Ubuntu, but on other distros you can install Déjà Dup using Flatpak.
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There you have it—five apps that can help transform a bare Linux installation into a complete, functional system. Install these on day one, and you’ll have Windows app compatibility, multi-platform gaming access, private file syncing, and a robust recovery system for your data and system files.
