pacman · AUR · Flathub · mise

The software you’d install anyway.

CoreDesktop installs a lot of useful software, mostly for work at Federated Computer, but you may find it useful too. Missing something? Suggest it, or send in a PR.

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Four sources

Where the software comes from.

Each source has its own list in the repository, so you can see exactly what’s installed.

Source	What it installs	Where it's listed
pacman	Arch’s own packages: neovim, tmux, Go, Rust, Docker, Tailscale, Element, LibreOffice and more	packages.conf
AUR	Community packages, built and kept up to date with yay: Helium Browser, Winboat and more	packages.conf
Flathub	48 desktop apps in their own sandboxes	install-flatpaks.sh
mise	Ruby and Rails	install-mise-ruby-rails.sh

Catalog

Everything CoreDesktop installs.

Grouped by what you’d use it for. Open a title for what it does, how CoreDesktop sets it up, and links to its website and source code. The libraries and plumbing behind them are in packages.conf.

Web browsers

Helium by default, and every other browser you test against.

Brave A Chromium-based browser that blocks ads and trackers out of the box. Flathub
Chromium The open-source browser that Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi and Helium are built on. Flathub
Firefox Mozilla’s independent, open-source browser, with its own engine and a deep add-on library. Flathub
Google Chrome Google’s browser, for sites and Google services that expect it. Flathub
Helium A private, fast Chromium-based browser, and CoreDesktop’s default. AUR
Vivaldi A Chromium-based browser you can rearrange to suit you, with mail and calendar built in. Flathub
Zen Browser A calm, Firefox-based browser with vertical tabs, workspaces and split views. Flathub

Messaging and meetings

Chat on Matrix, Signal and the rest, and meet over video.

Discord Voice, video and text chat for communities, gaming groups and friends. Flathub
Element The Matrix chat app, set up to use your Federated Computer Core’s chat server. pacman
FluffyChat A friendly, simple Matrix chat app that feels like a phone messenger. Flathub
Revolt An open-source chat platform with servers and channels, like Discord. Now called Stoat. Flathub
Signal End-to-end encrypted messages and calls, linked to the Signal app on your phone. Flathub
Telegram The official Telegram app, for chats, groups and channels on your desktop. Flathub
Zoom The Zoom app, for joining and hosting video meetings. Flathub

Email and calendar

Mail, contacts and schedules.

Evolution GNOME’s all-in-one email, calendar, contacts and tasks app. Flathub
Thunderbird Mozilla’s open-source email client, with calendars, contacts and feeds built in. Flathub

Office, notes and writing

Documents, spreadsheets, notes and Markdown.

Apostrophe A distraction-free Markdown editor for GNOME, with live preview and export. Flathub
LibreOffice A full office suite: documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and databases. pacman
Logseq An outliner for notes and journals, stored as local Markdown files. Flathub
Obsidian A notes app that keeps your notes as plain Markdown files, linked together. Flathub
Pandoc Converts documents between formats: Markdown, Word, HTML, PDF, EPUB and dozens more. pacman
TeX Live The standard LaTeX distribution, for typesetting papers, books and math. pacman
Whisp A quick scratchpad for passing thoughts: no titles, no files, just start typing. Flathub
Xournal++ Handwritten notes and PDF annotation, made for a pen or stylus. Flathub

Graphics and design

Photos, vector art, page layout, screenshots and fonts.

Embellish Browse, preview and install Nerd Fonts, and copy their icons. Flathub
Flameshot Take a screenshot, mark it up with arrows, boxes and text, then save or copy it. pacman
GIMP The GNU Image Manipulation Program, for photo editing, retouching and image work. pacman
ImageMagick Convert, resize and edit images from the command line, one file or thousands. pacman
Inkscape A vector graphics editor for logos, illustrations, diagrams and SVG. Flathub
Scribus Desktop publishing and page layout for brochures, newsletters, posters and books. Flathub
Sitra Browse, preview and install fonts from Google Fonts. Flathub

Audio and video

Record, edit and play.

Audacity Record and edit audio: podcasts, voiceovers, interviews and music. Flathub
Helvum A patchbay for PipeWire: see and rewire how audio and video flow between apps. Flathub
Kdenlive KDE’s multitrack video editor, for everything from quick cuts to full projects. Flathub
mpv A minimal, keyboard-driven media player that plays almost anything. pacman
OBS Studio Record your screen and camera, or stream live, with scenes you build yourself. Flathub
SoX The command-line Swiss Army knife for converting, editing and recording audio. pacman
VLC The media player that plays almost any video or audio file, disc or stream. pacman

Entertainment

Music, films, TV and games, for when the work is done.

cliamp A retro terminal music player inspired by Winamp, for local files, streams and podcasts. AUR
Jellyfin Desktop The desktop app for Jellyfin, the self-hosted media server for your films, shows and music. Flathub
qBittorrent An open-source BitTorrent client with search, RSS and no ads. Flathub
RetroArch One app for emulating classic consoles and computers, with a controller-friendly menu. Flathub
Sonarr Tracks your TV shows and fetches new episodes automatically, from a web page on your machine. AUR
Spotify The Spotify app, for streaming music and podcasts. Flathub

AI

Coding agents in a sandbox, local models and voice typing.

Alpaca A GNOME app for chatting with AI models, including ones that run entirely on your computer. Flathub
Claude Code Anthropic’s coding agent for the terminal, with its built-in sandbox turned on for every command it runs. installer
Cline Desktop The Cline coding agent as a desktop app, sandboxed to your projects in ~/Projects. AUR
herdr A terminal workspace for running several AI coding agents at once, and coming back to them later. AUR
Hermes Agent Nous Research’s self-improving agent, in your terminal and over Matrix, running in CoreDesktop’s sandbox. installer
LM Studio Find, download and run open AI models on your own computer, with a chat window and a local API. Flathub
opencode An open-source coding agent for the terminal that works with almost any AI provider. pacman
Voxtype Push-to-talk dictation: hold a key, speak, and the text appears at your cursor, transcribed locally. AUR

Code editors

From vi to VS Code.

Neovim The modern Vim, set up with kickstart.nvim so it’s useful from the first launch. pacman
Vim The classic modal text editor, installed alongside the original vi. pacman
Visual Studio Code Microsoft’s popular code editor, with a huge library of extensions. Flathub
VSCodium Visual Studio Code built from its open-source code, without Microsoft’s telemetry. Flathub

Languages and runtimes

Compilers, interpreters, package managers and site builders.

asdf A plugin-based version manager for languages and tools, driven by .tool-versions files. AUR
Bun A JavaScript runtime, package manager, bundler and test runner in one fast tool. pacman
Clang The LLVM compiler for C, C++ and Objective-C, alongside Arch’s standard build tools. pacman
CMake The cross-platform build system generator most C and C++ projects use. pacman
Dart Sass The reference Sass compiler, for writing CSS with variables, nesting and mixins. pacman
Go Google’s simple, fast compiled language, popular for servers and command-line tools. pacman
Hugo A fast static site generator that turns Markdown into a complete website. pacman
mise Installs and switches versions of Ruby, Node, Python and other tools, per project. installer
Node.js and npm JavaScript outside the browser, with npm for the world’s largest package registry. pacman
pipx Installs Python command-line apps, each in its own isolated environment. pacman
Python The general-purpose scripting language, with pip and a set of common libraries. pacman
Ruby and Rails The Ruby language and the Rails web framework, installed with mise and kept up to date. mise
Rust A fast, memory-safe systems language, with Cargo for building and packages. pacman
uv A fast Python package and project manager that can stand in for pip, venv and pipx. pacman

Developer tools

Version control, containers, APIs and databases.

Beekeeper Studio A clean, easy SQL editor and database manager for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and more. Flathub
Codd A lightweight, native PostgreSQL client for GNOME. Flathub
DBeaver Community A free database tool that connects to PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and dozens more. Flathub
difftastic A diff tool that understands code syntax, so it shows what really changed. pacman
Docker Run apps and services in containers, with Docker Compose, a working firewall and no sudo. pacman
Git The version control system almost every software project uses, with CoreDesktop’s shortcuts. pacman
hyperfine Benchmark shell commands and compare how fast they run, with statistics. pacman
just A command runner: save a project’s commands in a justfile and run them by name. pacman
lazydocker A terminal interface for Docker and Compose: containers, logs and stats in one view. pacman
lazygit A terminal interface for Git: stage, commit, branch and rebase with a few keystrokes. pacman
Postman Build, send and test API requests, and keep them organized in shareable collections. Flathub
Tally for Plausible A desktop app for your Plausible Analytics dashboard. Flathub

Terminal and shell

Terminals, multiplexers, the prompt and the commands you run all day.

bat cat with syntax highlighting, line numbers and Git changes. pacman
eza A modern ls with colors, icons, Git status and tree views. CoreDesktop’s ls. pacman
fastfetch Show your system’s details next to a distro logo in the terminal. pacman
fd A simpler, faster way to find files by name. pacman
fzf A fuzzy finder for files, command history and anything else you can list. pacman
Ghostty A fast, native terminal emulator with GPU rendering, tabs and splits. pacman
GNU Screen The classic terminal multiplexer: detachable sessions that keep running. pacman
GNU Stow Manage your dotfiles as symlinks from one folder you keep in Git. pacman
jq Read, filter and reshape JSON on the command line. pacman
kitty A GPU-based terminal emulator you can script and extend. pacman
lsd Another modern ls, with colors, icons and a tree view. pacman
Midnight Commander A two-pane terminal file manager in the style of Norton Commander. pacman
NerdFetch A small system info script that uses Nerd Font icons. AUR
ripgrep Search file contents fast, skipping what your .gitignore ignores. pacman
Starship A fast, configurable shell prompt that shows your Git branch and status. pacman
terrahour A world clock and meeting planner for the terminal, with a day and night map. pipx
tmux Split one terminal into many, and keep sessions running after you disconnect. pacman
tree Show a directory and everything under it as an indented tree. pacman
Yazi A fast terminal file manager with previews for text, images and more. pacman
zoxide Jump to directories you use often by typing part of their name. pacman
Zsh An interactive shell with strong completion and a large plugin ecosystem. pacman

Networking and remote access

Private networks, remote desktops and network diagnostics.

curl Transfer data to and from URLs: download files, call APIs, test web servers. pacman
impala A terminal interface for managing Wi-Fi with iwd. pacman
LocalSend Send files to nearby phones and computers over your local network. Flathub
mdns-tui-browser Browse the services that devices on your LAN announce over mDNS. AUR
mtr traceroute and ping combined, updating live for every hop. pacman
NetworkManager Manages your wired, Wi-Fi and VPN connections behind GNOME’s network settings. pacman
Nmap Discover devices on a network and see which ports and services they expose. pacman
OpenSSH Log in to other machines securely, and let them log in to this one. pacman
Remmina A remote desktop client for RDP, VNC, SSH and SPICE connections. Flathub
RustDesk Open-source remote desktop for helping others or reaching your own machines. Flathub
Sniffnet See your network traffic as it happens: who you’re talking to and how much. pacman
socat Connect any two data streams: sockets, ports, files or pipes. pacman
Tailscale A private network between your devices, joined to your Core’s own Tailscale server. pacman
traceroute Show the routers your packets pass through on the way to a host. pacman
Trayscale A desktop app for Tailscale: see your devices, switch it on and off, and pick exit nodes. Flathub
whois Look up who owns a domain name or IP address. pacman

Backup, files and security

Passwords, encryption, backups, cloud storage and the firewall.

age Simple, modern file encryption with small keys and no configuration. pacman
Bitwarden An open-source password manager that syncs across your devices and doubles as your SSH agent. pacman
BorgBackup Deduplicating, compressed, encrypted backups to a disk or a server over SSH. pacman
Bubblewrap The unprivileged sandboxing tool that keeps AI agents and Flatpak apps in their own box. pacman
davfs2 Mounts a WebDAV share, such as your Nextcloud files, as an ordinary folder. pacman
rclone Copy, sync and mount files on dozens of cloud storage services from the command line. pacman
restic Fast, encrypted, deduplicated backups, and the engine behind CoreDesktop’s daily backups. pacman
ufw The Uncomplicated Firewall, turned on, with ufw-docker so containers can’t get around it. pacman

Desktop and system

GNOME and the tools that keep the machine itself in shape.

BlueZ The Linux Bluetooth stack, turned on, so headphones, mice and keyboards just pair. pacman
btop A colorful terminal monitor for CPU, memory, disks, network and processes. pacman
CUPS The printing system for Linux, turned on, with a PDF printer included. pacman
Extension Manager Browse, install and configure GNOME Shell extensions without a web browser. Flathub
fwupd Firmware updates for your laptop, drives and peripherals, from the vendors themselves. pacman
GNOME The desktop itself: clean, keyboard-friendly, and set up here for tiling. pacman
GNOME Boxes Run other operating systems in virtual machines, set up in a few clicks. Flathub
GNOME Disks Format, partition, check and image your drives from one window. pacman
GNOME Keyring Keeps your passwords and secrets encrypted, and unlocks them when you log in. pacman
GNOME Tweaks The GNOME settings that aren’t in Settings: fonts, title bar buttons, keyboard and mouse options. pacman
htop The classic interactive process viewer for the terminal. pacman
Impression Write a disk image to a USB drive to make a bootable installer. Flathub
Noto fonts Fonts for nearly every language, color emoji, and the icon glyphs your terminal uses. pacman
pacman-contrib Extra pacman tools: cache cleaning, update checks, dependency trees and more. pacman
Tiling Shell The GNOME extension behind CoreDesktop’s flexible tiling, driven from the keyboard. extension
Warehouse See and manage every Flatpak on your machine, their data and their versions. Flathub
WinBoat Run Windows apps on Linux as ordinary windows, with Windows tucked away in a container. AUR