Trying to discover new/unheard Linux desktop programs (Sorry for the confusion).

Edit: I apologise for confusing a lot of people. I meant Linux desktop “programs” coming from Windows/Mac. I’m used to calling them “apps”.

Edit: 🙌 I’m overwhelmed with the great “programs” people have recommended in the comment section. Thank you guys.

  • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
    51·
    5 months ago

    Logseq.

    What is Logseq?

    It’s a non-linear note taking app that allows smart linking and is made as a second brain.

    It makes use of the Zettelkasten system, where, in theory, you make notes of everything and categorize it. Over time, you offload your brain and make it free for more productive stuff.

    Logseq is often considered as a FOSS alternative to Obsidian.

    • noodlejetski@lemm.ee
      18·
      5 months ago

      I tried it and really wanted to like it, but the Android client’s UI is just unusable for me. as much as I prefer going FOSS whenever I can, I tried Obsidian and stuck with it. it’s electron on desktop and definitely not native UI on mobile, but feels much more polished.

      • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
        5·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, the Android app is horrible. I only use it if I don’t have my PC in arm’s reach.

        It feels sluggish, buggy, is overloaded, I always get sync issues (usually the last words I just typed go missing), and some features (especially the graph overview) don’t work at all sometimes. And the whole app sometimes feels like an alpha version, which is just a no-go…

        I really hope the mobile app gets polished more over the next months. Many people nowadays mostly use mobile devices, and having such an unpolished app really hurts the image. And, PLEASE devs, test your software before shipping it out. Especially the mobile app is broken half the time.

        I still gladly pay the 5$/ month for the optional sync and to support the devs.

        • governorkeagan@lemdro.idEnglish
          3·
          5 months ago

          I have not, I’m using Standard Notes at the moment. I’ll have a look at QOwnNotes though, thanks for the recommendation

        • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          QOwnNotes

          Thank you for recommending this. I started using Joplin about week or two ago, but this one seems even better for me.

      • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
        5·
        5 months ago

        Do it!

        I had some initial problems in the beginning, because I was used to linear note taking apps like OneNote or Joplin, but once I watched a guide on how it works, it clicked and now it’s my second nature. I even began to write my hand written notes in Logseq style!

        TL;DR, if you don’t wanna watch any guides/ read docs:

        • Indentation matters. Logseq works with a parent-child hierarchy
        • You usually don’t open or create new pages, you write everything in your journal and link stuff there.
        • Use links, either with [[Link]] or #Tag, which are the same. They crosslink different topics and reveal connections.
        • Make use of plugins. There are thousands of it. Especially the Graph Analysis plugin should be included by default.
        • governorkeagan@lemdro.idEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          I used Obsidian extensively at a previous job. The linking of notes was super helpful! I don’t think it’ll work as well for my needs at the moment (at work) but I’ll give it a go

          • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
            2·
            5 months ago

            What do you do at your job? As long as you don’t work at an assembly belt in a factory, you will still probably get benefits out of it.

            Examples:

            • Notes about colleagues or customers
            • Project ideas
            • Random thoughts
            • Writing down meetings and mails
            • And much more!
            • governorkeagan@lemdro.idEnglish
              1·
              5 months ago

              Mainly data entry. I’m writing bullet form (pro for Logseq) justifications that the QA uses to understand my ratings (the data entry aspect). I will occasionally work on the same task so I open up the original note and just add to it.

              I know that I could use Logseq to link - [[link]] - the different task projects together (maybe). Something like Project -> individual task.

              My notes look like this currently:

              A: 

- some thoughts

B: 

- more thoughts

C: 

- this is bad

D: 

- this is good

              I would then copy and paste all of that into a text box on our system (per task) where the QA can use that to understand my ratings of the task. My role title is Advanced AI Data Trainer, it sounds more impressive than it is. It’s glorified data entry.

    • Fizz@lemmy.nz
      6·
      5 months ago

      Do you feel like offloading stuff into your notes helps your cognition?

      • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
        10·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, definitely, especially at work.
        It really helped me to switch off my “work brain”, because I know, that everything I did today is written down, and I don’t have to keep things in my mind anymore after work. Doing that was a blessing for my stress level and mental health.

        It also gives me the edge above my colleagues that I “remember” everything I did in the last months, which is nice when my boss wants to know details of a project I did a year ago.

        I basically can’t even remember what I did 5 minutes ago (ADHD says hello), but I know exactly where I can find that knowledge. This frees up my working memory (psychological term, not related to work) immensely. It’s basically like transfering more tasks onto your hard drive instead of keeping it in the RAM.

        It’s also great to give me an graphical overview of all I think and work on all day, and unveals connections I never thought of between different topics.

        For private use, it’s also great as a journal, though I gave up on that because I’m too busy for it and it cost too much time in my everyday life. But I still use it daily for normal note taking, e.g. results of some experiments at home, hobbies, thoughts, and much more.

        • fossphi@lemm.eeEnglish
          4·
          5 months ago

          All of this makes sense, but I still can’t wrap my head around the “finding” of information. How do you search for it? Do you remember keywords or the location of the note (this I feel like maybe defeats the purpose of Logseq’s write anywhere idea)

          • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
            5·
            5 months ago

            I use a mix of

            • Search bar, very powerful
            • The graph overview, which allows me to “hunt” for the thing I need
            • Filters
            • And a lot of tags, aliases and crosslinks
        • Fizz@lemmy.nz
          4·
          5 months ago

          Fuck you I’m sold. That sounds so useful if I can stick with it enough.

          • Fliegenpilzgünni@slrpnk.net
            5·
            5 months ago

            That sounds so useful if I can stick with it enough.

            That’s my main issue for private use. At my job, I never had problems sticking with the habit of writing everything down. I work in a science job, and documentation is key there. So, I basically get paid for exactly that.

            But in my free time, the whole concept of task management, knowledge offloading, and more, is a bit harder for me, especially when I come home tired.

            Welcome in the life of someone with ADHD. I need my life to be organized, but have a hard time with exactly that. It’s like needing to find your contact lenses because you dropped them…

      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
        4·
        5 months ago

        I don’t use Logseq, I use Silverbullet, and yes, it helps A LOT. I have lots of random notes on random pages on how to do things at work, or on my personal servers or whatever. You know that feeling of “I’ve already had to deal with this, how the hell did I do it?” It’s completely gone.

        If you use a good organization system with a hierarchy that makes sense and tags you can easily find stuff, so you can turn off your brain from having to remember all of that and it can focus on the thing you need to actually solve now. Don’t know if you’re old enough to remember a time before cellphones, we had to remember our friends number, nowadays this is not a concern, because your phone will remember the number for you, it’s like that but for everything, very liberating.

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
      3·
      5 months ago

      I tried it on desktop but the fact that it’s “paragraph-based” so to say is annoying. I’d like to format text freely and hit return to go to a new line, not create bullet points for everything I write. It seems a bit contrived in this way, but perhaps I just haven’t found how to make it work the way I want yet

    • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
      1·
      5 months ago

      I’m actively looking for a Logseq replacement, since they require CLA signing and can pull the rug at any moment.

      We discovered Trilium and will be trying it out to see if we can migrate.

      • bastion@feddit.nl
        2·
        5 months ago

        Trillium is great. I’ve been scrolling through here to see if anyone mentioned it, and was gonna put it out there if nobody had.

        I haven’t tried it out on android (if that even exists), though.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    47·
    4 months ago

    If you like gaming:

    For the CLI:

  • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
    401·
    5 months ago

    I don’t know about you specifically, but I’m surprised how many people haven’t heard of Krita, a FOSS image editing app with an optional AI Image Generation plugin.

      • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
        13·
        5 months ago

        It uses Stable Diffusion, yes (specifically comfy UI for the backend), but it has a much better in app UI that any stable diffusion web UI I’ve tried.

    • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
      1019·
      5 months ago

      STOP ADDING AI TO EVERYTHING PLEASE

      Am I going to be able to use a computer in any way at all in the future without having freaking world power-sucking, thieving, inaccurate, laughable AI doing stuff for me?

      • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
        262·
        5 months ago

        First of all, I actually find it quite helpful, AI is not bad in itself, just the people who use it for things it’s not designed for are misguided. Secondly, did you miss the part where this AI is optional?

        • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
          31·
          5 months ago

          The fact that it’s optional now is irrelevant. Most people aren’t going to disable AI and will thus use a horrible, broken feature that has never been proven to work reliably. And what is “optional” now becomes the standard later. Best to kill it now before it becomes the complete ruination of the tech industry.

  • muhyb@programming.dev
    4910·
    5 months ago

    Because you asked about “apps”, people are replying with mobile apps. I think you wanted to write “programs” considering the community. Maybe you should edit this

      • muhyb@programming.dev
        201·
        5 months ago

        That makes sense. Maybe I’m just old but they are called as programs since punched cards, as well as on Unix, Linux, Windows (until recently apparently).

        Not exactly sure but I think the term “application >> apps” started with mobile phones. So, to me they are different. At least that evokes this meaning in my mind. It seems not with younger people though.

        • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
          4·
          5 months ago

          Go search Usenet posts from the 80s. We’ve used the short term “app” for “application” for goddamn forever.

      • sfera@beehaw.org
        8·
        5 months ago

        I would assume that “application” (or its short form “app”) implies some kind of GUI.

      • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
        42·
        5 months ago

        I would say apps are software run with a runtime (PortableApps, Android apps, Windows Apps) while software runs by itself.

        Another interpretation could be “little (software) tools”. I assumed with “apps” you wanted some shell tools.

          • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
            1·
            5 months ago

            I mean, i’m a software developer too. I just sometines forget all he context.

            Hmm, thinking about it like that, the whole software stack has a similiar situation to the modern web: historical layers upon layers. Maybe we should sometime start from scratch, if the situation with vulnerabilities, reliability and brittleness becomes bad enough/gets more weigth.

      • eveninghere@beehaw.org
        1·
        5 months ago

        Generally speaking, all runtimes have been traditionally called programs. (On Unix systems runtimes are often synonymous to executables. I guess the term runtime is used more often by devs on the Windows and Java platform, and I think it is specifically an antonym of library, but not sure because I don’t develop on those often) Applications traditionally referred to programs that were exposed to the user through a mouse interaction by intention. On macOS an app has the .app extension and is thus a special type of a program.

        Although, depending on the context, an “application” might just mean programs because even official tech manuals aren’t perfectly rigorous.

        On Linux and Windows it is similar. They don’t have a specific extension (some .exe binaries on Windows are meant to be run through the commandline.)

        Software is the antonym of hardware, as I wrote in another comment.

        Honestly I’m surprised that people here don’t share this. The terminology was rather cleanly separated before iPhone. Unfortunately, due to smartphones the word “app” entered the mass population and it lost meaning as usual.

    • governorkeagan@lemdro.idEnglish
      17·
      5 months ago

      True but isn’t it safe to assume the OP meant desktop (considering the community)? There aren’t that many people using Linux phones.

      I suppose since more than one response is related to mobile apps, it’s not a safe assumption that the OP intended for desktop apps/programs.

      • muhyb@programming.dev
        13·
        5 months ago

        Considering the community, that’s what should happen. However sometimes people don’t realize which community they are in and they just look at the title. If the first person who replied started with mobile apps, others possibly didn’t notice because of them and continued adding up.

        • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          2·
          5 months ago

          However sometimes people don’t realize which community they are in and they just look at the title.

          Guilty as charged. After reading the title it didn’t even cross my mind that it could possibly refer to anything other than mobile apps so I saw no reason whatsoever to look at what community it was posted in as the app I came to think of as a good recommendation is cross platform.

    • swooosh@lemmy.world
      63·
      5 months ago

      People started saying apps to programs on computer as well. No idea who’s fault it is. Apple’s? Only old people call it software or so.

      • muhyb@programming.dev
        41·
        5 months ago

        Not exactly sure whose fault is this but if OP still wants to use the term “app”, they should at least mention it’s “desktop apps”, or just go with “programs” which is the proper term. Because even with “desktop apps” I still understand it is as web apps more likely.

        • j4k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          5 months ago

          Distrobox supports waydroid to use android apps on wayland. There are many small purpose built apps for android than can be useful on desktop.

          No one seems to be mentioning apps in this specific kind of context, and I don’t consider a locked down and stripped orphan kernel to be “Linux” but a lot of this stuff it FOSS and can now run on both.

  • paradox2011@lemmy.ml
    311·
    5 months ago

    EDIT: realized this was for desktop, so removed the original list of mostly android apps. Here’s my go to desktop apps:

    Lollypop - music player
    Invoiceninja - open source invoicing service
    Meld - file/folder comparison
    Librewolf - hardened Firefox
    Joplin - notes
    QEMU/Virt-Manager - virtualization for that one windows app you still need
    KeepassXC - password management
    Element-desktop - Matrix client
    Gparted - no fuss partition management
    Lutris - game launcher that works with epic games (among many others)
    PDFarranger - best PDF management I’ve found on Linux Soundconverter - easy to use file converter
    Restic - backups
    Fdupes - duplicate file finder
    Freetube - privacy respecting YouTube client
    Paperless-ngx - very well built electronic document storage. Must be run as a server.

  • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
    211·
    5 months ago

    Linux, system:

    • KDE Plasma (Dolphin, Kate, Kfind, Merkuro, shell, Spectacle)
    • Librewolf / hardened Firefox (system app because of user namespaces, which Flatpaks cant create)

    Linux, Flatpak:

    • syncthingy
    • thunderbird
    • libreoffice
    • KDE: Okular, Gwenview, maybe soon digiKam
    • Qt: qBittorrent, Keepassxc
    • GNOME/Circle: Celluloid, PDF Arranger, Carburetor, Decoder, G4music, Railway, SimpleScan (or Skanlite), Impression, GIMP
    • GTK: localsend, GPU Screen recorder
    • Electron: Freetube, Signal, Cryptomator, Nextcloud
    • Podman: StirlingPDF

    Android:

    • Fossify Gallery, Calendar
    • Material Files
    • Markor
    • Antennapod
    • Florisboard (or maybe Futo, but I dont need the fancy stuff yet)
    • Shelter
    • localsend
    • Obtainium
    • dict.cc
    • Grayjay
    • k9mail
    • soundbound (spotify), seal (ytdl)
    • öffi, kleine Wettervorschau
    • SaveTo…
    • mjpdf
  • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
    212·
    5 months ago

    Emacs.

    Emacs is an app platform in and of itself, and the vanilla installation comes with dozens of its own apps pre-installed. Like how web apps are all programmed in JavaScript, Emacs apps are all programmed in Lisp. All Emacs apps are scriptable and composable in Lisp. Unlike on the web, Emacs encourages you to script your apps to automate things yourself.

    Emacs apps are all text based, so they all work equally well in both the GUI and the terminal.

    Emacs comes with the following apps pre-installed:

    • a text editor for both prose and computer code
    • note taking and organizer called Org-mode (sort of like Obsidian, or Logseq)
    • a file browser and batch file renamer called Dired
    • a CLI console and terminal emulator
    • a terminal multiplexer (sort-of like “Tmux”)
    • a process manager (sort-of like “Htop”)
    • a simple HTML-only web browser
    • man-page and info page browser
    • a wrapper around the Grep and Find CLI tools
    • a wrapper around SSH called “Tramp”
    • e-mail client
    • IRC client
    • revion control system, including a Git porcelain called “Magit”
    • a “diff” tool
    • ASCII art drawing program
    • keystroke recorder and playback

    Some apps that I install into Emacs include:

    • “Mastodon.el” Mastodon client
    • “Elfeed” RSS feed reader
    • “consult” app launcher (sort-of like “Dmenu”)
    • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
      10·
      5 months ago

      I’ll stick with nano over Esc+Meta+Alt+Ctrl+Shift, thanks. I mean, it’s an interesting operating system, but too bad its default text editor sucks.

      (This from someone who used to use “pull the power plug to exit” vim…)

      • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        Of course people who pull the power plug to exit Vi would be the type of people to confuse app platforms with operating systems.

    • arxdat@lemmy.ml
      6·
      5 months ago

      Was gonna recommend Emacs, myself, but looks like you got it covered! Emacs is an amazing tool and is worth the journey

    • Papamousse@beehaw.org
      5·
      5 months ago

      It comes also with a doctor, you can invoke it with “M-x doctor”. I discovered Emacs in the 80s, used it a lot in uni in the 90s, Emacs is a religion, or an OS, it’s so powerful it’s incredible. Nowadays I’m mostly using code for coding, or simply nano for small scripts/text.

      • CCRhode@lemmy.ml
        2·
        5 months ago

        Doctor, Doctor, my brother thinks he’s a chicken!

        Too much fun! Like many other Comp. Sci. students, I spent way too many hours trying to get Eliza, an automated psychiatrist from MIT, to say something shocking. Weizenbaum, the developer, “was surprised and shocked that individuals, including his secretary, attributed human-like feelings to the computer program.” In this sense AI is nothing new because Eliza passed the Turing Test in 1967.

      • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        Emacs is a religion, or an OS

        Philosophy is a subset of religion, and there is a definitely an Emacs philosophy about making absolutely all software hackable, and controlling the computer using text.

        App platforms are a subset of operating systems. People confuse the two because most app platforms are inseparable from the operating system on which they run. But some software, like the Web, or Java, or to some extent .NET/Mono, are app platforms that run the same apps across multiple operating systems. Emacs is an app platform.

    • yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca
      3·
      5 months ago

      How do you think one should get started with Emacs? Should they start start with regular GNU Emacs or should they install one of the “distros”?

      • arxdat@lemmy.ml
        4·
        5 months ago

        Honestly, just download/install from your package manager and then start using it. One of the best built-in modes is called Org mode. Don’t try anything crazy because it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It took me some periods of stopping and starting before things felt natural and became my daily driver.

      • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        How do you think one should get started with Emacs? Should they start start with regular GNU Emacs or should they install one of the “distros”?

        I always recommend using the default setup for any software. The same goes for learning GIMP, Krita, Blender, FreeCAD, or whatever else, even though you can customize them all to your liking.

        It is usually a good idea to try and learn the workflow that was intended by the people who developed this software, you could learn something from trying to use the computer in the same way that the professionals do. Same for Emacs: professional software developers have used it for almost 50 years, the default keyboard shortcuts are set the way they are partially for random historical reasons, but partially because they often make a lot of sense.

        If you are interested, please check out my blog series on getting started with Emacs, called Emacs for Professionals

  • axzxc1236@lemm.ee
    201·
    5 months ago

    Syncthing and KeepassXC for syncing 2FA between devices. (I use Bitwarden for passwords)

    • Lem453@lemmy.ca
      42·
      5 months ago

      Do you want to have 2fa keys on all your devices? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?

      • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
        10·
        5 months ago

        Everyone needs to make their own choices about this but IMO it’s fine.

        Pretty much everyone saves recovery codes in their password manager anyway, which is the same thing.

      • axzxc1236@lemm.ee
        3·
        5 months ago

        Do you want to have 2fa keys on all your devices?

        Yes

        Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?

        I use different password between KeepassXC and Bitwarden. (On my phone one of them is unlocked by fingerprint because I am lazy but not both)

        And I don’t store KeepassXC password in Bitwarden.

        • axzxc1236@lemm.ee
          2·
          5 months ago

          While my solution isn’t perfect (if someone key logged my computer I am very screwed), I think it’s better than (1) have a much higher chance of losing my 2FA tokens altogether (2) put all hope on Bitwarden being not compromised

  • SimplyTadpole@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    17·
    5 months ago

    I use CoreCtrl to fix my GPU’s atrocious fan curve, which is a necessity since normally it overheats to high hell. With CoreCtrl, I have a nice fan curve that makes my GPU rarely, if ever, run hotter than 70°C.

  • aktenkundig@discuss.tchncs.de
    181·
    5 months ago

    Analogous to the Krita post, I am surprised nobody seems to know KolourPaint. It’s similar to MS paint. I use it, when I need to make a quick sketch, whiteboard style, e.g. when sharing my screen with a coworker.

    Otherwise, I really must have Dolphin and Okular.

    I love dolphin’s split mode (quickly toggled with F3) and its ability to seamlessly navigate all kinds of protocols for my NAS, webdav for nextcloud storage, MTP for the phone…

    Okular has annotations which have been super useful to me. And it’s so easy to switch between viewing single page, two-page and multi-page. Which is great for skimming text documents and presentations. The auto reload ability is great when iterating on a document (e.g. latex doc or matplotlib chart).

    Otherwise, of course firefox and thunderbird, not much to say here Please don’t use chrome. It’s market share makes Google the de-facto owner of www technology. But I guess I’d be preaching to the choir here.

  • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
    12·
    5 months ago

    edir to mass-rename

    fd is more convenient than find

    aria2 makes downloads go brr with parameters -x 10 -k 5M and is integrated with multiple tools like yt-tlp, yay

    Oh, and pass for password-management

    ssu makes root console tools password-less. That and rdo for gui-tools (both a bit over 100 loc) made me uninstall sudo.

  • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
    131·
    5 months ago

    An web browser. 99 percent of my mobile activities are done in Firefox. I have Organic Maps for routing, a local mobile payment app and a local sharing electric sooter app.

    This is pretty much all apps I use.

    • sfera@beehaw.org
      6·
      5 months ago

      I think that the question is primarily about Desktop Apps, since this is the Linux community.

      • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
        32·
        5 months ago

        Mmmh. To me apps are the things installed on a smartphone. The things I install on a computer I call programs.

        But the same applies there for me, too. I basically do everything in the browser.

        • sfera@beehaw.org
          1·
          5 months ago

          I understand your point. “Program” is a more wider term. Javascript executed in your browser could be a program too. App is just a short term for a standalone program with a GUI, IMO.

          It’s just how languages change with time. For example what we simply call “libs” today used to be called by their full name “program libraries”. You don’t often see someone calling them like that anymore. I feel that communication nowadays requires us to constantly check the context in order to avoid misunderstandings. It’s maybe a reason why I don’t write that much online anymore.

  • rodbiren@midwest.socialEnglish
    10·
    5 months ago

    Syncthing, micro, fish, btop, podman

    I distro hop so these are usually the first that get installed.