By Martin Jansen, Owner of Jansen-PCINFO
There are many ways to install software on Linux, but the simplest method is to download an AppImage to the desktop.
An AppImage is a portable software package format for Linux that allows applications to run on various distributions without installation or root permissions. It contains all the necessary libraries and dependencies, making it easy to use by simply downloading and executing the file.
Some of the best software for Linux is available as an AppImage:
Audacity is the world’s most popular audio editing and recording app.
OpenShot is an easy to use, quick to learn, and surprisingly powerful video editor.
MuseScore is the world’s most popular music notation application.
GIMP is the Free & Open Source Image Editor.
FreeTube is a private YouTube client – advertisement free
XnView MP is a powerful, versatile and free image viewer, photo management, and image resizer software.
MKVToolNix is used to create, split, edit, mux, demux, merge, extract or inspect video files.
All of these applications are very powerful, requiring some learning to understand the basics of the software program. Fortunately there is plenty of online help to get started with tutorials and documentation galore.
After the app is downloaded it can be saved directly to the desktop and made executable in four steps:
- Right click on the app
- Go to the Permissions Tab
- Put a checkmark in Execute: Allow executing file as program.
- Click on the Close button.
I have a video link on how to do it with OpenShot v3.3.0 here. Pretty fast and easy.
I’ve listed seven great software tools for your consideration. Do you know of other AppImages? Please comment if you do.