I think most people (including myself) prefer a minimal desktop by default, and then proceed to install only the software they need. Nevertheless, it always surprises me when I log in to a system that doesn't have vim.

less, I don't remember what distro it was, but there wasn't less. There was more though.

git not installed in ubuntu based distro was the shock for me.

Git. I feel like that is a pretty important part of any linux os nowadays

htop

KDE Connect on KDE distros, just feels part of the KDE experience

git really should be installed by default these days

A Doom-clone. I mean, come on.

Seriously tho, Gparted for how useful it is.

git isn't in Arch's base-devel

Nano (or pico). I had to use vi one time 😭

tmux, htop, vim

Traceroute.

I am surprised that vi is often available, but not vim. It's really annoying on many RHEL based distros, because I am so used to typing vim. Otherwise there is just git I deem essential.

netstat curl and git

git rsync htop `

IMO nothing. As long as it can detect network I can install whatever tools I need.

Definitely git

useradd - I just wanted to give a friend my notebook for a python lecture and thought I could just add him as a new user. Apparently not by default.

openssh-server, how can you connect to your PC from elsewhere without sshd ?!?

vim

• Multimedia/ h264 codecs ??
• KDE/GSconnect
• Something like Arch's downgrade package + an archive of package versions
• Hardware video acceleration support is sorely lacking
• Picture-in-picture in Gnome's Wayland (bug that a gnome-shell extension fixes!)

ncdu for analyzing disk space usage in TUI.

First installs for me are always vim and tmux.

I'm always shocked that other distros haven't made their own version of Yast from opensuse

Debian, sudo, at least when ever I install it without a desktop.

edit: I'm dumb af, it tells you right in the installer, I just never read it

htop, distrobox and in some cases Flatpak!

Edit: after reading the comments I want to add curl and git, seriously, why aren't those a default?!

Let's try the other way around: what default apps are pre installed that really don't need or should not be?

I get that most distros try to give a good out of the box desktop for the average user, while also saving time for who is (trying to) providing services or building machines to sell but it can get annoying booting into a fresh install, take a look at the defaults and go "nah, that's going away, and that, that and the other".

I'm not advocating for LFS but sometimes I wish we could get an option to install just what is necessary to make the hardware run and a chosen desktop or window manager and from there install whatever we may need.