Canonical list of software

An ever-growing list of software; useful for comparing alternatives. Each section is ordered by personal preference, from the best software at the top, to the worst software at the bottom (of each section). Untested software is listed at the bottom, separately, in alphabetical order.

Build systems

Character encodings

File formats

Mail clients

Operating systems

Programming languages

Untested:

Terminal emulators

Text editors

Window managers

Window systems

Web browsers