Hi everyone! So I’ve recently switched to Linux and I’m having a lot of fun downloading software and replacing my old stuff with it. I’m wondering what you all use?

My switched softwares:

Obsidian -> Logseq - Obsidian is great and all but I think Logseq is also competent in its own way even without plugins. I am currently exploring templates to create my own daily journal/habit tracker like I did in Obsidian.

Word/Notepad -> LibreOffice - Seems to have a lot of options. Currently using the writer software for quick notes.

Canva -> Inkscape - I am aware that Canva is a website/android app, but I decided to switch from it to Inkscape by utilizing open source illustrations such as Undraw for graphics needs. I still need to look up tutorials on how to use it properly, though!

Clip Studio Paint -> Krita - I actually made this switch a month or two ago, but I’m really enjoying Krita a lot more than I ever did Clip Studio Paint. Less things to get distracted by, giving you more chances to learn how to utilize the essentials.

Things I’d like to explore in more detail:

  • Thunderbird as a calendar/email/task software
  • Whether or not I should stick with Calibre for book management
  • Kdenlive as a video creating program. I haven’t created videos before, but it seems fun.

How about you? What do you enjoy?

  • Hellfire103@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    My last experience with Win10 vs now:

    (FOSS in bold)

    • Edge -> LibreWolf, Brave
    • Windows Mail & Calendar -> Thunderbird, Tutanota
    • Windows Explorer -> Thunar, PCManFM
    • Todoist/iCal -> fruux + Thunderbird
    • NCH VideoPad -> Kdenlive
    • iTunes, Spotify -> CDs, Audacious, DeaDBeeF, Bandcamp
    • VLC -> mpv, Parole
    • OneNote -> Obsidian Joplin + Backblaze B2
    • Firefox Lockwise -> Bitwarden
    • WPS Office -> LibreOffice, ONLYOFFICE
    • VSCode -> Micro
    • Visual Studio -> Micro + GCC + Glade
    • Finale -> MuseScore
    • NT -> Linux (obviously)
    • Windows 10 -> Debian, Arch Linux

    And now, the online services:

    • Ecosia -> LibreX
    • YouTube -> CloudTube
    • Twitter -> Mastodon
    • Reddit -> Libreddit, Lemmy
    • Dropbox, Google Drive -> MEGA, Filen, USB sticks
    • Blogger -> Neocities, Flounder (gemini protocol)

    Sorry for the long post. Here are some potatoes:

    Potatoes

  • slothbear@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    CMUS as a music player. Clean interface, lightning fast and plays anything. I use it daily.

  • Fox@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    LibreOffice (and not OpenOffice) is a must.

    I have tried really hard to make the switch to GIMP, but Photoshop is too engraved within me.

    I will probably keep using Photopea instead.

    • persephone@infosec.pubEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Check out PhotoGIMP. Its an extension for GIMP that converts most of the interface and shortcuts to be closer to Photoshop. Its how I made the switch personally.

  • CreativeTensors@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is a list of all the open source software I have come across and use frequently to semi frequently. There will likely be some overlap with stuff everyone has already posted.

    Photography and Image manipulation

    • Darktable → RAW photo processing
    • GIMP→ Photoshop alternative
    • Krita → Digital painting (have only used it a bit, but I hear it’s good)
    • Inkscape → Vector Graphics
    • Automatic1111 → Diffusion model AI toolkit (mostly Stable Diffusion but also has extensions for other diffusion based models like OpenAI’s Shap-E)

    3D modeling and Printing

    • Blender → 3D Modeling, sculpting, 2D animation, compositing all rolled together (simply one of the best examples of FOSS)
    • Meshroom → Photogrammetry
    • PrusaSlicer → 3D printing slicer based on Slic3r

    Video editing and Processing

    • Kdenlive → Genuinely good video editor
    • FFMPEG → Command line media toolkit (very complex but also works on android through Termux)
    • Instant NeRF → Neural Radiance Fields, think photoscan to a 3D representation (not meant to make 3D meshes unfortunately)

    Misc

    • Calibre → E-book management
    • Serge → Self hosted Local LLM’s made a bit easier to deal with
    • Firefox → Web browser

    FOSS I’m excited for

    • DragGAN → Manipulate images by intuitively dragging, more on this here and here (official code being released this month but there are already projects based on the paper with working examples)
    • CoDi → “Composable Diffusion” Any2Any conversion Txt2Vid, Vid2Audio, Audio+Txt2Img, whatever
    • Neuralangelo → Promises to be NeRF’s for 3D models (don’t know if it will be FOSS but I’m hopeful)
  • klangcola@reddthat.comEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Check out KDE Connect / gsConnect for integration your phone to your computer. It can sync notifications, messages, share clipboard, media playback controls, use either device as mouse/keyboard for the other. Its really good on Android. For iOS the app is much newer and with limited features due to iOS limitations

    If you’re on KDE, something as ‘basic’ as the file manager Dolphin feels decades ahead of the Windows File Explorer

    Zim Desktop wiki is really good for creating a personal wiki. Think building a personal knowledge base or notebook with interlinked articles

  • Chronoshift@fosstodon.org
    1·
    1 year ago

    @Witch
    A helpful browser extension tool is Privacy Redirect. It allows automatic link redirects from:

    Reddit -> Libreddit
    Youtube -> Invidious
    Google -> Startpage (or other)
    Maps -> OpenStreetMap

    … and a few others.
    It is very customizable for what instances or sites you need which is why I think it’s great.

  • fwgx@f.fwgx.uk
    1·
    1 year ago

    Whenever I use Windows I can’t get over how utterly terrible the basic file explorer is. I swear that it was better back in the XP days. On linux I use Dolphin and have found it to be excellent. Tabs, Split screens, everything is so usable.

    I’ve used Thunderbird since it was released almost 20 years ago. It has some annoying bugs around setting up accounts (get your password right or it clears the whole form), but you do it once and it works wonderfully.

  • sturgax@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    For 3D/2D -> Blender

    Office stuff: LibreOffice

    For programming -> Neovim, Insomnia (for testing out REST api’s and whatnot)

    Virtual Machines -> KVM/Qemu (Virtmanager, Boxes, etc) This one was a huge improvement for me

    I use VLC for most of my multimedia needs

    For game development (related somewhat to 3D/2D) -> Bevy and Godot

    Plus a tonne of others I’m leaving out. It’s really a nice feeling.

  • spcies@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Calibre is great for book management. I use Thunderbird for my email/calendar since I’m on Linux and have never even though of changing. Works like a charm and it does everything I need it to.

    Other software I use and recommend are:

    • Web browser: Firefox
    • Image and drawing: GIMP and Inkscapr
    • Plain text editing and programming: Neovim
    • PDF reader: Okular
    • Media player: VLC
    • Terminal: Alacritty (main terminal) and Yakuake (to have a terminal that I can easily access and then hide)
  • ASCIIansi@infosec.pubEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I think most of them I’d be using on windows as well. Like blender, gimp, krita, librewolf, libreoffice, thunderbird, virtualbox, etc… etc… etc… Although it was 15 years ago I had switched to mostly open source applications in the years prior to eventually switching to linux entirely.

    • pbjamm@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Krita is pretty amazing. I got both of my daughters started with it when they expressed interest in doing art. Both of them have used it almost exclusively for years (both in HS now) and produce some great work. They try other tools recommended by friends but keep going back to Krita because it has all the tools they need.

  • croobat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Not a replacement per se, but I am just amazed by how much better some common FOSS apps feel in Linux compared to Windows. Apps like VLC, Calibre, FreeCAD, Libreoffice, hell even Firefox are so much smoother in a UNIX system, almost like THIS is their real home!