Recommended software

This article needs improvement.

Linux

Video Players

• Recommended

CMPlayer

VLC

SMPlayer2

SMPlayer

xt7-Player

• Minimalistic

mpv

mplayer2

mplayer

Audio Players

• Recommended : Guayadeque, gmusicbrowser, Banshee, Rhythmbox, Quod Libet, Clementine
• Minimalistic: DeaDBeeF, mpDris2
• Terminal  : mpd+ncmpcpp, cmus, VLC, moc

Torrent Clients

• Recommended : Deluge, KTorrent, qBittorrent, Tixati
• Minimalistic: Transmission-gtk, ruTorrent
• Terminal  : rTorrent, Deluge-Console, Transmission-CLI

Web Browsers

• Recommended : Firefox, Chromium, Iceweasel, Opera
• Minimalistic: Midori
• Terminal  : ELinks, Lynx, w3m

Email Clients

• Recommended : Thunderbird, Evolution, Claws Mail
• Terminal  : Mutt

Programming Text Editors

• Recommended : gVim, Emacs, gedit, Kate, Acme
• Terminal  : Vim, Emacs, nano, ed

File Managers

• Recommended : Dolphin, Nemo, Nautilus
• Minimalistic: SpaceFM, PCManFM, Thunar
• Terminal  : Ranger, Midnight Commander, Vifm

Terminal Emulators

• Recommended  : Konsole, Terminology, Guake, Yakuake, Terminator, GNOME-Terminal
• Minimalistic  : termite, Sakura, urxvt, evilvte, LXTerminal, xfce4-terminal, xterm
• Terminal (multiplexer): tmux

Image Viewers

• Recommended : Gwenview, XnView MP, Picasa, gThumb, Viewnior
• Minimalistic: Geeqie, feh
• Framebuffer : fbv, fim, jfbview

Art/Creation

• Image : GIMP, Inkscape, Krita, KolourPaint
• 3D  : Maya, Blender
• Audio : LMMS, Ardour, Audacity
• Video : Kdenlive

IRC Clients

• Recommended: HexChat
• Terminal: Irssi, WeeChat

VOIP

• Recommended : Mumble, Teamspeak(non-free)

Game Console Emulators

     Atari - Hatari, Stella, Atari++, atari800
    
     NES           - Higan, Nestopia, FCEUX, TuxNES, Termboy (terminal), Mednafen
     SNES          - Higan, Snes9x, ZSNES, Mednafen
     N64           - Mupen64Plus, CuteMupen, CEN64
     Gamecube      - Dolphin
     Wii           - Dolphin
     Virtual Boy   - Reality Boy
     Game Boy      - Higan, Gambatte, Mednafen
     Game Boy Color- VBA-M, Higan, Gambatte, Mednafen
     GBA           - VBA-M, Higano, Mednafen
     DS            - DeSmuME
    
     Playstation - PCSXR, ePSXe, psx, Mednafen
     PS2         - PCSX2
     PSP         - PPSSPP
    
     Sega Master System - Kega-Fusion, Osmose, Dega
     Sega Mega Drive    - Kega-Fusion, Regen, Generator, DGen, Mednafen
     Sega Genesis       - Kega-Fusion, Gens/GS, Gens, Regen, Generator, DGen, Mednafen
     Sega CD            - Kega-Fusion, Gens/GS, Gens
     Sega Saturn        - Yabause
     Sega Dreamcast     - lxdream
     Sega Game Gear     - Kega-Fusion, Osmose, Dega, Mednafen
    
     DOS - DOSBox

More Games

• Steam Major - Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, Half Life, Half Life 2, Counterstrike, Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod, Dota 2, Metro 2033, Metro Last Light
• Steam Other - Kerbal Space Program, Starbound, Pixel Piracy, Rogue Legacy, Prison Architect, Rust, Beat Hazard, Faster Than Light, Dungeons of Dredmore
• FOSS - Red Eclipse, Stepmania, Tales of Maj'Eyal, Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, Cube 2, 0AD, Planeshift, Xonotic
• Wine - Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Starcraft 2
• Other - Dwarf Fortress

Windows

Video Players

• MPC-HC - open-source;

Audio Players

• foobar2000 - freeware; lightweight and customizable
• MusicBee - freeware; customizable and powerful

PDF Readers

• SumatraPDF - free and open source document reader