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·
    2 years 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

  • CreativeTensors@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 years 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)
  • bbbhltz@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago
    • Inkscape as well for all of the Adobe stuff
    • Pandoc and Pympress for all my presentations
    • Claws Email
    • Khard + Khal + todoman + vdirsyncer for the rest of the PIM stuff
    • Zathura is my PDF reader
    • Syncthing replaced GDrive more or less
    • qutebrowser

    I switched to Linux in 2006.

    Calibre is excellent for ebook management. If you are just using it to sync with your ereader you might be able to do without. I have a Kobo and use Calibre but will likely stop doing that because there are now tools that are a lot lighter to convert epub to kepub and add covers, etc.

    I keep a list of software I like to use, I need to update it.

    What distro did you choose?

    • Witch@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I ended up switching to Pop OS! It’s cute and I like it and its probably the one I’m most familiar with as I tried it out a few times.

      I was thinking of switching from Calibre because of the outdated design, but In another comment @hayden just informed me about Calibre-web which looks…a lot better than the actual Calibre software, so I guess I’ll just stick with that!

      I’ll install Zathura right now and see what the experience is like.

    • rutrum@lm.paradisus.dayEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Hey I’ve got a kobo too! Do you use KOreader?

      I’ve been meaning to get syncthing installed somehow, so I can sync new books without having to think about it, but I havent ever tried to get that working.

      • bbbhltz@beehaw.orgEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        I did use KOreader for a bit. It is better for PDF files, but despite a few little quirks I prefer the regular Nickel. KOreader is still on the device so I can launch it when I want. I didn’t use Syncthing for automatic syncing though. I think you can serve books from Calibre to a Kobo with KOreader. I don’t remember.

  • fwgx@f.fwgx.uk
    0·
    2 years 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.

    • xavier666@lemm.ee
      0·
      2 years ago
      • nnn as my file manager. Very tiny and fast
      • MyPaint for taking notes
      • FreeTube for Youtube
      • gPodder for podcasts
      • LaTeX for writing papers and creating presentations
      • Zotero for managing my research papers
  • WastedJobe@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’ve started using Xournal++ in PopOS on my Surface (you need a custom kernel for linux to work) instead of OneNote, so much more stable, crazy amount of options, would be perfect if it picked up pen input a little better, but it’s good enough to replace OneNote for me.

  • Ananace@lemmy.ananace.devEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I think Microsoft tried creating something like it on Windows, so I guess it can technically count as a replacement; KDE Connect

  • iTaiko@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’ve replaced Windows totally with NixOS(Using the ZFS filesystem as well so I can take /home snapshots and backup easier!). Been a long time Linux user, starting with OpenSuSE.

    Anyways, when I did use Windows, my most often used software was LibreOffice for school, VLC for movies, QBittorrent for, well, torrenting, Thunderbird for email and Firefox for browsing(With lots of extensions). I also used Emacs a lot, and still do, here and there.

    Overall, I don’t really need to use much proprietary software, except for games, of course.

  • mranderson17@infosec.pubEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’ve been using thunderbird for so long now I can’t remember not using it. I’m very comfortable with how it is, but look forward to the upcoming changes.

    (EDIT: Re: Kdenlive) I do a small amount of video editing, usually quick stuff to censor/cut a screen capture for posting to github or something, and every time I’m amazed at how well it works and easy it is to use. I’m sure it has it’s limits if you have a complex task, but I’m not sure even an intermediate user would run into any of them.

    My favorite is FreeCAD though. I know the windows equivalents are probably “better” but I like the project’s persistence and the constant improvements they are making. Now that I’ve put the time into learning it I like it a lot.

    As a side note, in my opinion ffmpeg is a massively impressive piece of software and what kdenlive and many others use in the background for a lot of tasks.

    EDIT: Hit post too early.

    • Evkob (they/them)@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Your post doesn’t mention any video editing software, it sounds like a cool program so I’d love the name! I’ve been looking for a basic, open source video editor for a while.

  • Chronoshift@fosstodon.org
    0·
    2 years 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.

  • PhantomPhanatic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I love Notepad++. I use notepad apps way more than I should, but I really prefer the lightweight, no formatting text editing experience. It’s lightweight and can be installed as a portable version and supports all kinds of languages and plugins.

    • EddyBot@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Kate might be up your alley which works on all operating systems while providing a simple no bullshit editor with potential IDE features
      (also no Electron)

      • PhantomPhanatic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Ah, yes I have used Notepad before and the experience was quite similar. Thanks! I’d almost completely forgotten.