Applications I might need on any Gentoo installation.

gentoolkit			Gentoo portage tools.
irssi				Text IRC client.
screen				Ability to detach from running processes.
bmon				Test bandwidth monitor.
sudo				Run commands as root.
samba				Windows filesharing for *nix.
netkit-telnetd		Telnet client.

Handy appplications for a (GNOME) desktop:

tango-icon-theme	Tango icons.
jimmac-xcursors     Nice set of cursors.
corefonts			MS fonts commonly used on websites.
urw-fonts			More fonts.
gnome-audio			Gnome sound effects.
gnome-themes-extras	Extra gnome themes.
gtk2-ssh-askpass    ssh-add front-end that fits in better with Gnome.
nvidia-settings     Configuration tool for the nvidia driver.
gnome-screensaver	Screensaver for Gnome.
smeg				Menu editor for Gnome (aka Alacarte, formerly known as SMEG).
unrar				File-roller needs this to unpack rar archives.
par2cmdline			PAR2 Utility.
gvim				Vim for Gnome.
sshfs-fuse          Mounting remote filesystems over ssh (remove fuse from
                    kernel first).
transmission		Gtk bittorrent client.
gaim				MSN/AIM/ICQ client.
xchat				Gtk IRC client.
nicotine+			Soulseek client.
mplayer				Multimedia player.
vlc					Multimedia player.
pan					Newsreader with decent support for binaries.
gimp				Image manipulation application.
firefox				Mozilla's standalone webbrowser.
mplayerplug-in		Movie player plugin for Firefox (Gecko?) browser.
netscape-flash		Macromedia Flash player.
thunderbird			Mail and usenet client.
inkscape			SVG image creator.
openoffice-bin		Office package.


Entertainment:

celestia			Space sim (not a game).