Recommended software

Linux

Video Players

     Recommended : CMPlayer, VLC, SMPlayer2, SMPlayer, xt7-Player
     Minimalistic: mpv, mplayer2, mplayer
    

Music 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, ruTorrent
     Terminal    : rTorrent, Deluge-Console, Transmission-CLI
    

Web Browsers

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

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          : Sakura, urxvt, evilvte, LXTerminal, xfce4-terminal, xterm
     Terminal (multiplexer): tmux
    

Image Viewers

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

Content Creation

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

Game Console Emulators

     Atari - Hatari, Stella, Atari++, atari800
    
     NES           - Higan, Nestopia, FCEUX, TuxNES, Termboy (terminal)
     SNES          - Higan, Snes9x, ZSNES
     N64           - Mupen64Plus, CuteMupen, CEN64
     Gamecube      - Dolphin
     Wii           - Dolphin
     Virtual Boy   - Reality Boy
     Game Boy      - Higan, Gambatte
     Game Boy Color- VBA-M, Higan, Gambatte
     GBA           - VBA-M, Higan
     DS            - DeSmuME
    
     Playstation - PCSXR, ePSXe, psx
     PS2         - PCSX2
     PSP         - PPSSPP
    
     Sega Master System - Kega-Fusion, Osmose, Dega
     Sega Mega Drive    - Kega-Fusion, Regen, Generator, DGen
     Sega Genesis       - Kega-Fusion, Gens/GS, Gens, Regen, Generator, DGen
     Sega CD            - Kega-Fusion, Gens/GS, Gens
     Sega Saturn        - Yabause
     Sega Dreamcast     - lxdream
     Sega Game Gear     - Kega-Fusion, Osmose, Dega
    
     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
     Steam Other - Kerbal Space Program, Starbound, Pixel Piracy, Rogue Legacy, Prison Architect, Rust, Beat Hazard, Faster Than Light, Dungeons of Dredmore
     FOSS - Stepmania, Tales of Maj'Eyal, Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, Cube 2, 0AD, Planeshift, Xonotic
     PlayOnLinux - Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Starcraft 2
     Other - Dwarf Fortress

Windows

Media

• Foobar2000 - freeware; lightweight and customizable music player (unsure if botnet)
• MPC-HC - open-source multimedia player