I'm looking for specific types of software available in Debian repositories.
I don't want Flatpaks, App images, or to grab .deb files from any old website.
I plan on enabling a Debian 12 Bookworm environment on my HP Chromebook 14 and then getting some Linux apps only via things like Apt (or Synaptic).

Here's what I'm looking for:

1. A browser... other than Chromium or Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release)... unless those are some of the best options.
2. A calendar (with search)
3. An IDE
4. A markdown editor (I know I can edit markdown files in an IDE, but I'd like to be able to see the output.)

The most important item is the browser. I'm writing this in the Android version of Firefox on chromeOS which isn't very fun for me to use.

I highly recommend the Vivaldi browser which I have used with Debian for years. I put the Vivaldi repository in the Synaptic repository list and apply all Vivaldi updates as they come.

The repository is: https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/dists/stable/main/

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You can use the Mozilla Firefox repo to get Firefox, Beta, or Nightly.
Vivaldi and Brave have repos.

Calendar; most Desktops have a calendar.

Eclipse, Pycharm, VisualCode, etc can all be installed but they aren't in the Debian repos.

There are several Markdown editors in the repos.

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jailbait:
I appreciate this. I've used Vivaldi in the past and liked it.
I'm a little confused. Are you suggesting I go to Vivaldi's site and download and install the .deb?
Or what do you mean "put the Vivaldi repository in the synaptic repository list"?
I ask because of the warning on this wiki page.

craigevil
Thanks.
Enabling Linux within ChromeOS gives me a Debian virtual environment with a terminal, SSH, and a way to install .debs. It does not come with a calendar. Would you recommend GNOME Calendar?

I'm still confused. (1.) Is there just one Debian repository? (2.) Is adding a repo to my sources list or whatever you call it different from installing software I find on "random" websites?

The DontBreakDebian page on the Debian wiki says:
"If you're coming to Debian from another operating system, you might be used to installing software that you find on random websites. On Debian installing software from random websites is a bad habit. It's always better to use software from the official Debian repositories if at all possible. The packages in the Debian repositories are known to work well and install properly."

I know I can get Firefox ESR by just entering apt install firefox-esr (or something). (3.) If I ... is that essentially the same or am I not following the warning above?

I would suggest that you open Synaptic (the GUI package manager) and use the search function. I do know, from a recent search I needed to do, that there are several calendar packages available, some of them with the sort of features you mentioned. The Debian repos are reputed to offer the largest collection of packages of any distro.

I would second the suggestion that, if you can, you install packages from Debian's repos. I have from time to time installed a third-party *.deb, but, if you install from the repos, the package will be on the list to get updated automatically when you run an update.

As for a browser, my day-to-day go-to is Firefox ESR. Part of that is because I support Mozilla's efforts to keep the web healthy and safe and part of that is because it does what I need a browser to do.

Just a few thought.

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Put Vivaldi in the synaptic repository list. Then install Vivaldi using Synaptic. Synaptic will keep Vivaldi in sync with all of the other packages in the various repositories in the Synaptic repository list. If I remember correctly the very first time I put the Vivaldi repository in the Synaptic repository list I had to add the Vivaldi signing key to apt. The root command to do so was:

wget -q0- https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

Thank you.
I hope the following belongs in this thread. I'm having some other issues.
Yesterday, I installed Synaptic and PCManFM. So many packages were installed with them and I can't launch Synaptic by just issuing Synaptic in the terminal (I get: -bash: synaptic: command not found). I also can't find it in the Applications menu on ChromeOS. I somehow got it to open via PCManFM.

I'm still deciding between Firefox and Vivaldi.

Just now I looked into getting GNOME Calendar and ran this command:
And I saw this:
0 upgraded, 220 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Is that number of newly installed packages normal or am I compromised?
Thanks in advance.

frank,
What do you say about Firefox ESR behind several versions behind regular Firefox?
That's what Jay the Linux Guy from Learn Linux TV said here.
I just looked into it and it looks like it's about 10 versions behind.

Status update:
As long as I'm not compromised, I'm going to:
- install GNOME Calendar
- get one of the browsers written about in this thread
- install Geany (IDE)
- get a well regarded Markdown editor or use Simplenote online

I just use apt search command to do a look see.

You will get longer readouts for words like terminal.
But in my terminal

Tells me I should do a look see inside package manager under browsers next. Since I run systemd free. Can't say what chromeos will tell ya since I run full blown linux on my Chromebook.

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My search put this out:
No offense but you spelled vivaldi wrong.
Thanks for the idea to search for it using APT. I hadn't even thought of that.

Okay, I'm not sure where this thread is going.
I found this on the Vivaldi website:
Manual setup of the Vivaldi Linux repositories
"You do not need to do this. After downloading a Linux package and installing it our Linux update repositories will be configured automatically for you to receive updates."

Since this sounds like downloading a program from a "random" website like the Debian wiki warned about, I guess I'll get Firefox ESR from the Debian repositories instead.

Thank you all for your time and stay safe.

I uninstalled Synaptic because I had trouble with it and couldn't find it in my applications menu. I just downloaded and installed Firefox ESR. It was ~350 MB. Can anyone tell me if it's normally that big? I noticed the Mozilla website mentioned the system requirements being 200 MB of hard disk space.

Sounds about the right size for initial install. Lots of translations pulled in.

Later on it will drop down to 105MB. Heck. Google Chrome weighs in at 1.2 gig.

You can try

IF concerned about used drive space being wasted.