I frequently start a fresh install with the minimal distribution. This makes for a lean, space-efficient virtual machine but leaves a number of tools missing. This page serves as a (living/in progress) quick list of all the software I like to install as soon as a new environment is running so I don't have to reach for it later, in an emergency.

In a similar vein, check out my vastly longer and more detailed Favourite Windows Software page to outfit your fresh Windows installations.

If you choose a different preconfiguration of packages (i.e. Server instead of Minimal) some of these tools will already be available, but it doesn't hurt to bundle them all on the same command line.

Some of these packages will require enabling the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux repos and you will probably end up needing them anyway:

dnf install epel-release

To install epel-release plus the repository for packages coming in the next minor version you can run:
dnf install \ https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm \ https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-next-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

Basic Tools (Headless)

With trailing backslashes so the entire list can be selected, copied and pasted into a terminal:

• dnf install \
• nano \
• htop \
• tar xz zip unzip bzip2 \
• iftop \
• lsof \
• net-tools \
• psmisc \
• bind-utils \
• whois \
• wget \
• nmap \
• tcpdump \
• screen \
• mlocate \
• bash-completion \
• net-snmp net-snmp-utils

Notes

• As of CentOS 8 finger has been deprecated with no replacement.
• As of CentOS Stream 9 the package containing ifconfig, route, etc. that was formerly named net-misc is now known as net-tools
• btop is an even prettier enhanced top replacement than htop, however it may pull in innumerable otherwise needless graphical sang GUI dependencies particularly on a headless system where they would otherwise not already be called upon by a full GUI/DE installation.

Graphical Desktop (GUI)

Colour me bloaty, but I like KDE on workstations. Ancillary machines can putter along with xfce or whatever, if they absolutely have to have a desktop environment at all. Which, clearly, I have a strong aversion to. You probably should too.

dnf --enablerepo=epel,epel-next,crb group -y install "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

• dnf install \
• tigervnc \
• remmina \
• camorana \
• k3b \
• amarok \
• wireshark \
• audacity \
• deluge \
• kleopatra

Personal Indulgences

• youtube-dl should be installed from Github to ensure proper operation with YouTube's latest DOM:
  

  To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
  sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

  If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
  sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

  You can also use pip:
  sudo pip install --upgrade youtube_dl

Text-based browsers elinks, links and lynx now require enabling the PowerTools repository:
dnf --enablerepo=PowerTools install elinks links lynx
NOTE as of RHEL 8 the repo is now called powertools with no capitalization. It has been removed as of CentOS Stream 9.