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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by scheep@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

Some FOSS programs, due to being mantained by hobbyists vs a massive megacorporation with millions in funding, don't have as many features and aren't as polished as their proprietary counterparts. However, there are some FOSS programs that simply have more functionality and QoL features compared to proprietary offerings.

What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their non-FOSS alternatives? Maybe we can discover useful new programs together :D

I'll start, I think Joplin is a great note-taking app that works offline + can sync between desktop and mobile really well. Also, working with Markdown is really nice compared with rich text editors that only work with the specific program that supports it. Joplin even has a bunch of plugins to extend functionality!

Notion, Evernote, Google Keep, etc. either don't have desktop apps, doesn't work offline, does not support Markdown, or a combination of those three.

What are some other really nice FOSS programs?

edit: woah that’s a whole load of cool FOSS software I have to try out! So far my experiences have been great (ShareX in particular is AWESOME as a screenshot tool, it’s what snip and sketch wishes it could be and mostly replaces OBS for my use case and a whole lot more)

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[-] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

Just from top of my head and from what I have to use at work:

  • Dolphin vs. Explorer - Dolphin is sooo much better and useful it's not evwn funny
  • Notepad++ vs. Notepad - day and night, even though Notepad got an overhaul in W11 it's still piece of shit compared to Notepad++
  • literally any foss player vs. what MS offers - be it VLC, SMPlayer, MPV, anything is better than windows built in crap
  • ImageGlass, Nomacs, Gwenview, etc. vs. MS Photos - same as above, windows picture viewer is now worse than ever while open source alternatives get better and better
  • and plenty others, like Linux vs. Windows, lol
[-] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago
  • literally any foss player vs. what MS offers - be it VLC, SMPlayer, MPV, anything is better than windows built in crap

FFMPEG is an open source command line tool and software library for audio and video encoding. You’ll find it mentioned in the credits of just about any video playing software ever, but you can also just go use it for free.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I absolutely support dolphin over explorer. Whenever I have to deal with Windows, having to use this crappy excuse for a file tool feels like pain incarnated.

[-] VirusMaster3073@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I wish linux had more game/software support. I know there's wine but still

[-] gigachad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I can play 90% of my games without efforts. 5% are to old, the other 5% are EA Games, need uplay or whatever shitty launcher, have Anti-Cheat - stuff you usually wouldn't want to have on your PC anyway

[-] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

With steamOS their investment in proton your wish has largely been granted. Native support would be better sure but ill take it

[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

I wish more game/software had Linux support. I know there's wine but still

There, FTFY

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 week ago

Have you not tried gaming since proton matured into what it is today? If you're using wine for gaming then you are doing it wrong.

Pretty much every Windows game that doesn't have anti-cheat works on Linux now.

[-] HiTekRedNek@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

Proton doesn't always work, and what's worse is it's not consistent.

What works on one person's machine, may not work on a different one. But in windows, the game works fine on both.

I'm looking at you, Distant Worlds and Distant Worlds 2.

I've never gotten DW to work, and DW2 worked for a while, but hasn't worked for me in over a year.

[-] VirusMaster3073@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I'm not sure why we're being shit on for just wanting software to work properly out of the box

[-] VirusMaster3073@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

I'd prefer to wait until someone releases an OS with a hybrid Linux and ReactOS kernel

[-] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 week ago

I think you'll be waiting forever for that one. Not even sure why you would want that; I seriously doubt it would even work as a shortcut to reactos becoming a viable and mature OS.

[-] VirusMaster3073@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I prefer an operating system that can run the back catalog of Windows NT software out of the box without having to adjust settings or type terminal commands to do so. I also want Linux and Windows programs running in a shared environment and to interact with each other better

[-] anachrohack@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

I think Linux lacks a good Foss alternative to visual studio, unless you count vscode.

[-] aeshna_cyanea@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

Are the jetbrains ides open source?

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 points 1 week ago

They have open source versions that run on Linux. I'd say they're better than VSCode.

[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

I agree, there are very few really good IDEs and the majority of them are closed source. The only open source one I can think of off the top of my head is Kdevelop, and last time I tried it it was not great.

That being said, I think the reason for that is that most FOSS projects are stuff someone started and maintained because they wanted an alternative with XYZ, and for IDEs a good chunk of people who could build excellent IDEs don't even use one, so they don't even start to work on it. The reason is that vim/emacs are so great it's very hard to beat them, I think a good configured vim/emacs can beat anything the best IDEs can do, and while configuring vim/emacs to get to that level is difficult, it's stile much more easy than building an IDE from scratch. So you're left with a gap where beginners don't have any tools because experts don't need them.

[-] Enkimaru@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

There is Eclipse ... and I guess if you google around you will find quite a few IDEs ... but VSCode, IntelliJ and Eclipse are the standards.

[-] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 week ago

don't you want copilot in your notepad?

[-] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Fuck no. Luckily it's not even enabled in my country.

[-] Venator@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 week ago

I thought dolphin was for playing gamecube games?

[-] buffysummers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

It also plays Wii games. 😉

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 week ago

Wondering why you use notepad++ instead of Kate

[-] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago

I have to live with Windows at work so that's where I use Notpad++. I'm fine with Kate at home.

[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

Why not use something like Nvim on both?

[-] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

I'm too old to learn vim escape game. I'm glad I can do :q :-D

this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
55 points (100.0% liked)

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