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What is a good graphical Calculator Application for Linux?

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  • 1
    Possible duplicate of What simple FLOSS software can I use to produce nice data visualization?, also see this: askubuntu.com/questions/399852/…
    – pomsky
    Sep 26, 2018 at 11:07
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    Software Recommendations is the place to ask questions like this.
    – Barmar
    Sep 26, 2018 at 16:31
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    @DoritoStyle Software recommendations are on-topic here. This is however a very bad one that should not have amassed such a large number of upvotes but rather closed as unclear - it lacks every information necessary to answer.
    – pipe
    Sep 26, 2018 at 23:23
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    On the basis of my previous comment I've flagged this for closure until OPs definition of "good" is added, otherwise it will just be a list of every calculator software. Maybe fine 10 years ago, but not these days.
    – pipe
    Sep 26, 2018 at 23:25
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    @pipe My way of interpreting "good" is "useful" according to two criteria. 1. It works like a calculator works, not like an IDE. 2. It works in an intuitive way that doesn't require any knowledge of programming. That's a reasonable definition of good for a question like this, not very fuzzy in the context of a question about a graphical calculator application, and I also don't like setting impossible standards of refinement for formulating questions or else we could close almost anything.
    – karel
    Sep 28, 2018 at 12:36

3 Answers 3

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Most famous ones are:

  • Gnome Calculator
  • galculator
  • xcalc
  • kcalc

They all have basic and scientific modes.

By default Ubuntu comes with "Gnome calculator" unless you are using a specific flavor of Ubuntu.

Gnome Calculator:

enter image description here

For example in "Kubuntu" you should have "kcalc".

Kcalc:

enter image description here

galculator

There are other options available too like "xcalc", I use galculator myself, install it using:

sudo apt install galculator

It's lightweight and really fast, doesn't have much dependencies, easy to use and has nice features.

Paper Mode:

enter image description here

Scientific view:

enter image description here

Extcalc

If you are looking for something with more features then I guess you are looking for "Extcalc".

enter image description here

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    I like galculator a lot -- it came default with 16.04 MATE, and toggles between algebraic and RPN as well as turning on-off scientific functions and some other stuff I never use. I may have to give extcalc a try, too.
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Sep 26, 2018 at 13:49
  • I like kcalc a lot because all I need is a simple adding machine. Now, if it only had a "tape"/history feature! The only calculators I found that have it are way too complicated for my needs.
    – Joe
    Sep 27, 2018 at 7:07
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If your calculations involve units, such as with physics or electronics equations, I would recommend Qalculate.

It supports using units in expressions, so you do not have to worry about unit conversions manually. It is also a good check for whether you have typed the correct equation (this is called Dimensional analysis).

enter image description here

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  • I love qalculate. It works fine under Windows too.
    – Eric Duminil
    Sep 26, 2018 at 20:05
  • Nice listing indeed.
    – Andyc
    Feb 9, 2021 at 21:31
  • Pretty cool handling of units indeed, eg 19h32min−16h45min = 2 h + 47 min
    – MoonCactus
    Mar 10, 2022 at 18:30
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I am personally a fan of speedcrunch, because it has a decent list of common physical and chemical constants and remembers your history across sessions:

enter image description here

As noted in the comments by @Michael:

[It is also] easy to mix/convert hex, bin and decimal representations of numbers. With mask() and unmask() it’s also possible to reduce/extend numbers to certain bit widths.

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    As a digital design engineer I also love it because it’s so easy to mix/convert hex, bin and decimal representations of numbers. With mask() and unmask() it’s also possible to reduce/extend numbers to certain bit widths.
    – Michael
    Sep 27, 2018 at 9:18
  • @Michael I have never used it for this, but this sounds like I might in the future, instead of doing it in Python.
    – Graipher
    Sep 27, 2018 at 9:20
  • Does anyone know how I can convert a result like 1333333333,33333 in scientific form quickly with Speedcrunch?
    – Andyc
    Feb 9, 2021 at 21:32
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    very good calc.
    – alexzander
    Jan 23, 2022 at 14:39
  • I am using it everyday as well, but I just saw it might be heavy. It just brought QT to my otherwise freshly reinstalled box : libmd4c0 libpcre2-16-0 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 libqt5gui5 libqt5help5 libqt5network5 libqt5sql5 libqt5sql5-sqlite libqt5svg5 libqt5widgets5 libxcb-icccm4 libxcb-image0 libxcb-keysyms1 libxcb-render-util0 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-xinput0 libxcb-xkb1 libxkbcommon-x11-0 qt5-gtk-platformtheme qttranslations5-l10n speedcrunch Need to get 12.1 MB of archives / After this operation, 49.4 MB of additional disk space will be used.
    – MoonCactus
    Mar 10, 2022 at 18:24

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