What are some FOSS programs that you think are a far better user experience than their counterparts?
What are some FOSS programs that you think are a far better user experience than their counterparts?
I used Plex for my home media for almost a year, then it stopped playing nice for reasons I gave up on diagnosing. While looking at alternatives, I found Jellyfin which is much more responsive, IMO, and the UI is much nicer as well.
It gets relegated to playing Fraggle Rock and Bluey on repeat for my kiddo these days, but I am absolutely in love with the software.
What are some other FOSS gems that are a better experience UX/UI-wise than their proprietary counterparts?
EDIT: Autocorrect turned something into "smaller" instead of what I meant it to be when I wrote this post, and I can't remember what I meant for it to say so it got axed instead.
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From my computing guide https://lemmy.ml/post/511377 :
The following software is shared by both Linux and Windows, which will astound you, because the quality of these is the best in their respective categories. There will be a (*) marking for the better one, and (^) if it is FLOSS.
Category Windows/Linux common Windows only Linux only PDF reader Calibre (* ^ ) SumatraPDF Okular Audio Player Audacious (* ^ ) foobar2000 - Video Player SMPlayer (* ^ )/VLC (* ^ ) MPC-HC - Image Viewer - JPEGView (* ^ )/IrfanView nomacs (* ^ ) File Manager Double Commander Explorer++ (*) Nautilus/Nemo/Dolphin/SpaceFM/Thunar Media Information Tool MediaInfo (* ^ ) - - Torrent Client Deluge (* ^ ) / QBitTorrent uTorrent - Screenshot/Record Tool FlameShot ShareX (* ^ ) Greenshot (*) Image Management XNViewMP (*) - ImageMagick Media Library XNViewMP (*) Shotwell (*) - Video Converter HandBrake (* ^ ) Freemake - Download Manager Xtreme Download Manager (* ^ ) Internet Download Manager - Specialised Downloader JDownloader (* ^ ) - - Compress/Archive Tool PeaZip (* ^ ) 7-Zip (* ^ )/WinRAR - Colour Picking Tool Colorpicker.fr (* ^ ) Instant Eyedropper gPick Search Index Tool - Everything (*) FSearch (* ^ ) Light Photo Editor Pinta (* ^ ) Paint.NET (*) - Advanced Photo Editor Krita (* ^ ) - - Professional Photo Editor GIMP (* ^ ) Adobe Photoshop (*) - Bulk Rename Tool Inviska Rename (* ^ ) Bulk Rename Utility - Bootable ISO Maker balenaEtcher (* ^ )/Ventoy Rufus (*) - FTP Client FileZilla (* ^ ) - - E-Mail Client Thunderbird (* ^ ) - - Office Suite LibreOffice/WPS Office MS Office 2007 (*) - Lightweight Text Editor Gedit (* ^ )/Lite XL - - Advanced IDE/Text Editor Geany (* ^ ) Sublime Text (*) - RSS Reader QuiteRSS (* ^ ) - TinyTinyRSS (* ^ )/Liferea Phone Remote Control KDE Connect (* ^ ) Pushbullet - File Index Creation Tool Filelist Creator (*) Snap2HTML LinuxDir2HTML Data Recovery/Disk Diagnosis R-Studio (* )/Testdisk (* ^ ) - Recuva SMART Disk Monitoring Tool R-Studio (*) CrystalDiskInfo (* ^ ) GSmartControl Disk Partitioning - AOMEI Partition Standard Free (*) GParted (* ^ ) DOS Emulator DOSBox-X (* ^ ) D-Fend Reloaded (*) - As you might have noticed some patterns and anomalies:
- Most of the winners here are FLOSS and cross platform at the same time, consistently.
- I did not mention the best for Linux file managers
- A few of these do not have ^ which means they are not FLOSS
- XNViewMP and Filelist Creator are rarities in that they are not FLOSS, yet are benevolent pieces of adware/spyware-free software available as cross-platform, and also XNView is the winner of 2 types of software, because it is the ultimate tool for anything to do with images. Nothing comes close, and never has.
- SMART HDD/SSD monitoring tool is an issue on Linux, because free tools cannot do external HDDs for some reason, even though on Windows this is possible. (https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/SAT-with-UAS-Linux) R-Studio can, but it is extremely expensive and nothing else works from my experience.
- MS Office is the superior tool for office and document work. This is a truth we have to live with.
Wait, is 7zip not available on Linux? Then what have I been using??
xzcomes with most linux distros nowadays and uses the same compression algos as 7zip, and works very similar togzipMost likely 7-Zip via WINE, or p7zip (which is stuck at 16.04 version, current is 23.01). I use 7-Zip and WinRAR via WINE.
I stick to 22.01 for best compatibility, since 23.01 brought a minor change with ARM64 executable compression non-standard with previous 7-Zip versions.
p7zip. TIL it is not official! Damn.
In general I like your list, but you should not recommend uTorrent to anybody for several reasons, they have pulled a lot of bullshit before, they have ads, and they possibly might be giving feds a back door, but I can't prove that by any means.
My purpose to put it there is that it still is the most recognised torrent client in computing history, and since it does not have a * mark, nobody should pick it over QBitTorrent or Deluge (FOSS and superior). It is only a way for new, less literate computing users (who this guide covers) to recognise what is a torrent client with a familiar name.
Fair enough, but considering the possibilities and the shitty things they've verifiably done, knowing that QB is available on both, it just seems like a bad idea to recommend uTorrent.
Best I can do as balanced approach is to add another bullet point in notes below the table or within the table entry (not to use uTorrent), when I update the guide to a new .1 release. The guide was meant to be future proof, and atleast I am glad that it does not have many flaws to make it ideal and prune away issues.
Do you have any other serious criticisms or flaws in the guide, that I linked on top of the table?
No, and I appreciate your efforts, it's a good list but that one entry caught me off guard.
Isn't R-Studio an IDE for the R programming language?
That is RStudio. R-Studio is by far the world's best forensics tier tool for disk diagnostics, imaging and recovery across all big OSes, to the point their tool is insanely expensive.
Bookmarked, thank you for your work here.
I have Greenshot on my Windows work machine, or should not be listed as Linux only.
There are a few others that I definitely will be looking into, so thanks again. Unfortunately my work is going to change to a Mac so I may have to find an entirely new list soon.
Yes I realised I made that mistake last year. I am in the process of giving the guide that .1 version update. Also, a lot of the software here is available on MacOS, so you will not have to hunt for too many alternatives.
This is a fantastic list, thanks so much ♥
Grateful, you can read the full linked guide at the start of comment. If you go to the sublemmy/community, you can also see my very famous nonroot smartphone privacy guide. These will help you a lot!
In exchange, I demand cute emojis as donations.
thnx, very usefull! Small remark: Okular has a Windows package.
Nobody will use Okular over Sumatra or Calibre on Windows, so I think its a moot point.
Guess I'm nobody
What is better about Okular on Windows, than the other two? I am now curious. Calibre is most complete featured, while Sumatra is the snappiest, so what gives?
Dont know, didnt compare them much. I ignored Calibre untill now because it seemed primarly for e-books which I dont have. Sumatra seems not available for Linux. And I am on dual boot but prefer the same apps for both Win11 as Deb12
Me on Win10 AME and Debian 12. I use Calibre on both, because of its flow mode for ebooks. Calibre is both for eBook viewing and library management, and is best for both purposes, besides a minor speed advantage for standalone readers like Sumatra, muPDF and Okular.
Your File Manager list is sorely missing Krusader and Total Commander. ;)
EDIT: and Sublime Text runs native on Linux (and I do believe there is a Mac version)The problem with Krusader (and KDE programs) is that they pull hundreds of KDE dependencies. KDE Connect is the only exception because of no alternative, and that GNOME has its own tooling around it that replaces KDE dependencies.
Everything that Total Commander does, Double Commander can do, including supporting TC plugins, while being FOSS. I see no reason to put TC there, because the 2 panel file managing exists. If one really wants a (paid) change from TC, either Directory Opus or XYplorer might be a good pick.
I used Sublime many years ago on Linux, forgot if it was native. Also, has it not gone the subscription way with v4?
pull hundreds of KDE dependencies
Very true. i3 users would get half of KDE when they install Krusader. For a KDE User it's pretty cool to have the same settings and bookmarks across Plasmahell, Dolphin, Krusader and Konqueror.
Everything that Total Commander does, Double Commander can do
I don't think I agree here. But maybe I have been using TC too long (since Windows Commander for Win 3.1). V 11 brought many cool new things. I don't think I can use a Windows box at all without it anymore.
Sublime even has their own repos for various distributions. You may still install and evaluate it for free but it requires a paid license to use. The only limitation is a nag screen though. Like it's been since Sublime2.
https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/linux_repositories.htmlOther editors are catching up quickly. The coolest Sublime feature now is their Plugin repository.
You should try DC, its a great TC clone. I do not think it is wise to pass off such a judgement, when so many TC clones have been made since late 90s. TC's main strength is plugin system, which works the same, and many file manager enthusiasts like myself have used DC. In fact, I am a person who duals Windows and Linux like a champ, so I know both sides of the software kingdoms.
I need to check on Sublime, since I used it many years ago on Ubuntu, to update my brain.exe knowledge base.
I actually used DC for a while on my Arch box at work. I found it not there yet and went back to Krusader. It's been a while maybe it's become a lot better. I'll check it out again.
I also have to use and administrate Windows for work, so yeah: knowing both can be a blessing and a curse (mostly me cursing at Server 2022).
Imagine being so free of Win11 problems, you find Server 2022 annoying...
I think you tried DC a couple years ago. But also, what all is there in TC, that you find irreplaceable for you?
Haha, we have only a handful of PCs that upgraded to Win11 so far. I think it's just as bad as Win10, maybe better than Win10 18H2 and earlier apart from the UI.
For totalcmd: Viewer than can easily search an 8GB binary file at the speed of the disk, switched seamlessly between UTF-16, ASCII, HEX. The whole Search feature now integrated with Everything. Multi-Rename with Regex and or renumbering. Treeview that can be enabled or disabled for one or both panes. Copy/Move queue with speed limiter and pause. Tab management for sorting and removing duplicates. History of most frequently used directories. Integrated wget (via the FTP-URL button). Fast image gallery view. That's what comes to mind that didn't work or not as well with DC.
Maybe also work in DC: Plugins for NTFS streams, WebDAV (windows default implementation sucks donkey balls), SCP. I even used it for burning CDs back under XP.
The latest news about Win11 integrating a bunch of AI garbage is horrifying me, whether it can be debloated away or not. I am just thinking if I could not need Windows after 10 EOLs in 2 years from now.
Everything integration sounds sick. I can only think you need to try DC with plugins to see if it works in free time, because I cannot guarantee. But I have seen DC develop over the years, since it was like in 0.3 beta, and now maybe it can work 1:1.
Thank you for this! I'm using KDE Connect and ShareX now. Both are amazing