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
    11·
    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

  • I'm Hiding 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
    11·
    1 year ago

    Thunderbird is brilliant and I highly recommend it. As someone who maintains an IMAP server used by a dozen or so people, I can attest that the Thunderbird users never seem to call me up and complain that things are breaking. Outlook, on the other hand…

    Similarly, Firefox is a great web browser. I’m not a fan of how they handle money, but just the same I’m not about to go back to a chromium browser.

    Kdenlive takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s very powerful, and once you’ve wrapped your head around it, it becomes quite intuitive. It runs well even on 10 year old hardware. You’ll want to learn ffmpeg while you’re at it, though. That’s a godsend.

    I don’t understand the hate for libre Office. Many complain that it’s good, but not at the level of Microsoft Office. I disagree - I’ve used it exclusively for over three years, and always completed reports, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. to at least the same if not better calibre than my peers.

    • Witch@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Hahaha. Ha. God, I hate Outlook.

      Can I ask what exactly ffmpeg does? I’m actually very, very new to video creation as a whole. I’m one of those folks that last touched a video creator back in the days of Windows Movie Maker. It seems to be a command line script, but is there any GUI for it?

      I wanted a software that lets me write text on a blank paper, and Libre Office does that. Therefore, it’s already a solid replacement. 10/10.

      • I'm Hiding 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Don’t get me started on Outlook!

        ffmpeg is a command line tool. I’m not familiar with any GUI - but a quick Google search will usually find you whatever command you need. It’s an extremely useful tool for all things video. You can extract audio from video, re-encode files with a different codec, access hardware devices such as your webcam, split video, trim video, convert file formats, compress video, resize resolutions, convert a series of images to a video or GIF and vice-versa, add a subtitle stream, etc… It’s very handy to have.

    • Oinks@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      About half the times I’ve used LibreOffice it’s given me problems, from crashing to taking an unreasonable time to start to not starting at all. This is across multiple PCs and installs so I guess I’m just cursed?

      That said I don’t find myself reaching for an offline office suite very often anyway, I find it easier to create documents in LaTeX and for the times I need to collaborate on a uni presentation or something web options like Google Slides are better suited anyway.

      • I'm Hiding 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I hate to say it, but maybe you are cursed.

        I’m running an x230 with Fedora as a daily driver and have never had any such troubles. I’ve written 20+ page reports with formulas and charts and such without fear, and it’s super snappy. Much nicer to use than the bloated Office web app, for example, which I’m occasionally forced to use via the equally bloated Teams app for uni work.

        The only time I’ve had trouble with it was with a core duo machine and 512MB of ram running a hundreds-of-megabytes large file consisting of 50+ pages of primarily images. It crashed every time it attempted to auto save, but I think that’s almost fair enough, too!

        What do you use for LaTeX documents? I’ve been meaning to give it a try.

        • Oinks@feddit.deEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yeah I definitely have no complaints about LibreOffice when it does decide to work, it’s far better than the web version of MS Office.

          For LaTeX I use Visual Studio Code with a LaTeX Workshop plugin which works very well, it can auto compile documents on saving (with an automatically updating PDF view) and it lints the syntax properly. It does require installing a LaTeX distribution though. I’ve heard Overleaf is pretty decent as a starting point as well but I’ve never really used it.

          • I'm Hiding 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            I’ll try to stick with vscodium as opposed to vscode, but otherwise I’ll look into it - thanks! The auto-updating view sounds particularly enticing.

  • ASCIIansi@infosec.pubEnglish
    8·
    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
      7·
      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.

    • moreeni@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Same. This helped me with the Linux transition a lot since I didn’t have to change my workflow completely because of other apps

  • croobat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    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!

  • fwgx@f.fwgx.uk
    6·
    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.

    • xavier666@lemm.ee
      2·
      1 year ago
      • nnn as my file manager. Very tiny and fast
      • MyPaint for taking notes
      • FreeTube for Youtube
      • gPodder for podcasts
      • Zotero for managing my research papers
  • spcies@beehaw.orgEnglish
    6·
    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)
  • bbbhltz@beehaw.orgEnglish
    6·
    1 year 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?

    • rutrum@lm.paradisus.dayEnglish
      2·
      1 year 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
        1·
        1 year 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.

    • Witch@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year 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.

  • mranderson17@infosec.pubEnglish
    5·
    1 year 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@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      1 year 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
    5·
    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 want which is why I think it’s great.

  • rutrum@lm.paradisus.dayEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    I’ve never heard of Logseq. But I use an obsidian alternative called trilium. I’ll give logseq a shot.

    I will say, despite how old and outdated calibre looks, it’s an absolute beast and contains every feature you would need. I use it to tag all my pdfs with the correct book information (which calibre with find for you) and use it to export my books into a specific folder hierarchy for easy browsing using KOReader on my Kobo e-reader (which runs on linux!)

    • Witch@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Surprisingly, I installed Calibre on Linux and for some reason it just looks…better on Linux? Not sure if its because it opened up in default dark mode or what, but it doesn’t look as ugly when I’m using it on Pop_OS. Feels at home, really.

      I will say its definitely a beast. I’ve used it a few times but I never really went in depth with it’s features. I’m definitely liking the bulk tag editing, the shop search (I’ve been looking for a way to search DRM-free books and it has it!), and the default tags. The last one is mainly because I think getting a tag called “mentally ill women” for The Yellow Wallpaper is a little funny.

      • Rentlar@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I love all of GTK+, KDE and Qt theming. Far superior than stock Win 10 or 11’s very limited customization options.

        I have experimented with Blue themes, clear themes, purple themes, grey themes, when Linux apps fit in with the aesthetic it looks so beautiful.