First of all, thanks for getting in touch with your users!
Hope you'll be able to extrapolate some useful info from it :)
My basic suggestion would be to keep it simple, so stay with the GNOME apps where you can.
Also it might make sense to make a distinction between what people feel is a good choice of software and which of those should be included in the default install.
IMHO stuff like and IDE, e-mail client, IRC client, messaging client, office suite and screen recording don't have to be included in the default install as long as it's easy enough for everyone to add them later (or customize during install).
Regarding specific items:
- Terminal: gnome-terminal, but if possible look into make the tabs a bit less tall and fix the search dialog so it can be closed by pressing escape
- File manager/photo viewer: nautilus, but look into fixing the preview (spacebar) so that it allows opening the preview window once and then allow navigating through all files in the chosen directory using the arrow keys
- Calendar: gnome-calender, but make sure you use gnome 3.24 or later so it support dark mode
- Screenshots: gnome-screenshot, but please fix it so it's possible to take multiple screenshots in succession. Right one has to close and open it to do so.
- Video player: Technically mpv, maybe with the gnome-mpv GUI. Though mpv might be too difficult to use for some users?
- Music player: Imho none of them is really good enough :( Elementary's noise might be at some point
My basic suggestion would be to keep it simple, so stay with the GNOME apps where you can. Also it might make sense to make a distinction between what people feel is a good choice of software and which of those should be included in the default install.
IMHO stuff like and IDE, e-mail client, IRC client, messaging client, office suite and screen recording don't have to be included in the default install as long as it's easy enough for everyone to add them later (or customize during install).
Regarding specific items: - Terminal: gnome-terminal, but if possible look into make the tabs a bit less tall and fix the search dialog so it can be closed by pressing escape
- File manager/photo viewer: nautilus, but look into fixing the preview (spacebar) so that it allows opening the preview window once and then allow navigating through all files in the chosen directory using the arrow keys
- Calendar: gnome-calender, but make sure you use gnome 3.24 or later so it support dark mode
- Screenshots: gnome-screenshot, but please fix it so it's possible to take multiple screenshots in succession. Right one has to close and open it to do so.
- Video player: Technically mpv, maybe with the gnome-mpv GUI. Though mpv might be too difficult to use for some users?
- Music player: Imho none of them is really good enough :( Elementary's noise might be at some point