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submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by bvoigtlaender@feddit.org to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

I really like simple software that is built for a specific task which it then does extraordinary with a simple to understand codebase. Similar to the philosophy of suckless.org.

What are your favourite programs that "suck less"?

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[-] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 26 points 4 days ago

mpv, imv, zathura, ffmpeg, imagemagick, pandoc, yt-dlp, yazi/ranger, curl/wget

I realize many of this don't strictly conform to the suckless philosophy. (which is meme imo). They more loosly follow the UNIX principle: Do one thing and do it well. I would have added emacs, but why emacs follows the unix principle is an argument for another time

[-] liliumstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 4 days ago

The one thing I wouldn't agree with is ffmpeg.

It does not do one thing. It does a thousand things. The way different functionality works is inconsistent. In some cases you need to read the source code to understand how or why something is happening, as it's not generated in the already expansive documentation. To me, it's the antithesis of the UNIX philosophy.

That said, it's a brilliant piece of software.

[-] flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago

All you said also applies to Linux!

this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
110 points (98.2% liked)

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