Overview of Linux based Tools

list of tools, by alphabetic order

1. Anonymizers
2. Backup
3. Browsers
4. Chat
5. Converters
6. Emulators
7. Live CD/DVDs
8. Media manipulation
1. Encoders
9. Media Players
10. Partitioning
11. Rescue
12. Security tools
1. Anti-rootkits
2. Firewalls
3. Intrusion prevention
4. Malware control

List of tools, by alphabetic order

Anonymizers is a tool that attempts to make activity on the Internet untraceable. It is a proxy server computer that acts as an intermediary and privacy shield between a client computer and the rest of the Internet.

Vidalia

Vidalia is a cross-platform GUI controller for Tor anonymizing proxy.

Backup

Simple Backup Solution.This tool is intended for backup of files, using a desktop GUI.

Partimage

Partimage is a Linux partition backup utility. It allows you to save partitions in many files formats to image files, compress the image files, split image files for burning, and even save them across network. NTFS support is under development.

Browsers

Konqueror

Konqueror is a combined browser and file manager for KDE.

Chat

XChat

XChat is a popular multi-platform chat client. It supports multiple channels and file transfers. As said, it is also available for Windows.

Converters

alien

alien is a program that converts between Redhat rpm, Debian deb, Stampede slp, Slackware tgz, and Solaris pkg file formats.

AODC

AODC stands for An OpenDocument Converter. This small tool is intended to convert Open Office documents into html files on machines that do not have Open Office installed. This means you can open your documents on any computer. Now, AODC will run on Windows - but it is a tool well suited for Linux users.

Emulators

Wine

Wine is an open-source implementation of Windows API on top of X and Unix. In other words, it allows you run Windows applications on a Linux machine by creating a simulated environment. Wine is nicely complemented with VMware products, which are also available for Windows.

Live CD/DVDs

Anonym.OS

Damn Small Linux

Damn Small Linux is a versatile 50MB desktop-oriented Debian-based distribution. You can boot with it from CD, USB drive or even run it inside Windows. .

Elive

Elive is a live CD running Enlightenment Windows manager, which is an amazing visual experience while being very low on requirements.

Feather Linux

Gentoo

Helix

Knoppix

Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux is another small desktop-oriented live CD. Puppy Linux comes in a wide range of flavors, including the static live CD but also the multi-session CD/DVD, which allows you to save your live sessions to hard media every time you use Puppy and reload them on the next use, virtually eliminating the need for running an operating system from a hard drive.

SUSE 

Ubuntu 6.06

Ubuntu is a combined live and installation CD. Ubuntu runs with Gnome desktop. 

Media manipulation

Encoders

MP3FS

MP3FS is a read-only FUSE file system which transcodes audio formats to MP3 on the fly when opened and read.

Media Players

MPlayer

MPlayer is a highly versatile media player for Linux, with a very good support of audio and video formats. It will play most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, and PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5, and even WMV movies.

xine

xine is a lightweight, powerful media player, capable of playing AVI, MOV, WAV, and MP3 formats. The player has many guises and is constantly being developed.

XMMS

XMMS is a multimedia player (mainly audio) for UNIX-based systems. It supports MP3, MOD, WAV, and other formats. A variety of plugins is available. XMMS is included on Elive and Knoppix live CDs.

Partitioning

QTParted

QTParted is a clone of Partition Magic. It is capable of handling NTFS partitions.

Rescue

Super Grub Disk

Super Grub Disk is intended to run from a floppy disk or CD and is used for system rescue. Most importantly, it can be used to restore boot loaders, including GRUB, LILO and even Windows boot loader.

TestDisk

TestDisk is a utility specially designed to recover lost partitions and make non-booting disks bootable again. This highly useful tool can be found on a number of live CDs, including Knoppix and GParted. It supports NTFS partitions and also comes in Windows flavor.

Security tools

Anti-rootkits

chkrootkit

This tool allows you to look for unwanted spies on your machine.

rkhunter

rkhunter is another tool for uprooting undesired self-hiding toolkits.

Firewalls

FREESCO

FREESCO is a lightweight, powerful firewall based on CISCO. It supports up to 10 network cards, 10 modems, 5 printers, NAT, a whole lot more, and will run from a single 1.44MB floppy. You can use an antique 386 machine to run it.

SmoothWall

SmoothWall is a powerful firewall with a self-contained operating system and a web-based GUI. It can be installed on a machine as lowly as a 486.

Intrusion prevention

AppArmor

AppArmor is an application security framework, most easily described as heuristically-inclined HIPS. It will run on Linux distributions based on Red Hat. Mastering AppArmor takes knowledge and patience.

Snort

Snort is a very popular open-source network intrusion detection and prevention software. It is intended for experienced users.

Malware control

Truman

Truman is a sandbox-like malware analysis tool, running on native hardware. It is NOT recommended for people who do NOT understand the full implications of using this tool.