For all Debian-Users go to debian multimedia repository(www.debian-multimedia.org) http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ Multimedia authoring tools : Cinnelera - best but too advance and technical. Avidemux - Virtualdub alternative for linux. KmPg2 - http://kmpg2.sourceforge.net/ - convert anything to MPEG-2 for DVD use. DVDAuthor Wizard - http://dvdauthorwizard.sourceforge.net/ - make DVD from MPEG-2 clips, with menus etc. Q-DVDAuthor Devede tovid transcode dvdrip (Perl frontend to transcode) mencoder (must have) subtitleripper xine (must have) ffmpeg (must have) Video players: mplayer - kmplayer, smplayer. (must have) vlc media player (must have) Kaffeine realplayer (must have) These four will mostly cover all of the video needs of an average Linux user. Music players: amarok (must have) audacious beep media player xmms2 - xmms is now only a backend. (must have) esperanza - frontend to xmms2.