Here's a quick list of recommended/neat Linux software:

applications

• Doom Emacs - text editor
  • personal preference, uses vi keybinds
• Firefox - browser
• LibreOffice - office suite
• Ranger - console file viewer
• Thunderbird - emails
• Trackma - anime list manager
  • haven't actually used in a while
• feh - basic image viewer
• mpv - videos

tools/utilities/cli

• BorgBackup - deduplicating backup tool
• borgmatic - wrapper for BorgBackup
• coreutils - core utilities
• curl - network requests
• jq - json processor
• ncdu - disk usage analyzer
• restic - more modern deduplicating backup tool
  • would recommend over borg nowadays
• rsync - fast incremental file transfer
• scrot - screenshots
• sed - filter text
• wget - file download
• xargs - build + execute commands from stdin
• xdotool - auto clicking and shit

The categories are a bit arbitrary. I didn't want to list every CLI command ever either, so just included some of the more neat ones.

Let me know if there are any areas I missed, or suggestions where my recommendations are shit, etc.