Arch master race: you don't have to replace defaults if nom defaults are isntalled in the first place and you choose everything our own anyways.

I replace ARCH with Windows 11 bloat edition. I use windows 11 BTW

Defaults hehe

I use arch btw

• Clementine - music player
• yakuake - terminal
• fish - command line
• Geany - text editor
• eza - replacement for ls
• zoxide - replacement for cd
• bat - replacement for cat
• Librewolf - replacement for Firefox
• Brave - replacement for Chromium

Default terminal -> Kitty

cat > bat

ls > exa

(h)top > btop

whatever terminal > alacritty

whatever browser > librewolf + brave

cli editor > micro

app launcher > albert

vlc > mpv

I choose what I want when I install. I use Arch btw

I replace the <default, slow, annoying to use> image viewer with qimgv, which is ergonomic and very fast.

i keep rhythmbox honestly because it helps me in organizing all my audio and music files and plus i don't have to keep opening the file manager to change the music, i can just press the forward button and it changes track!!

On Ubuntu, replacing Firefox/Thunderbird snap version with actual deb version.

Kinda in the Pop!_OS - NixOS club but Zen Browser here.

Firefox with (used to) Vivaldi, but now Zen Oh. That's it. Everything else for me is default

VLC player with mpv

Firefox -> Zen Browser

I still haven't found a web service that really needs a chrome browser or that you cant' just trick with changing the user agent

I don’t. I install a distro with sane defaults and get to work.

First thing I install is git, followed by emacs.

Then I download my init.el and my PC setup is complete.

I think one of the few default things I've technically replaced on my laptop right now is Libreoffice's powerpoint software with the OpenOffice one because I am too dumb to figure out how to make it so Libreoffice's powerpoint software doesn't immediately default to every character having basically 0 spacing between each other every time I either make a new document or slide. That, and I can almost never find the right number of points to make the text look good no matter the font.

Also, I do have the Librewolf appimage, but I use it a little less than my slightly tweaked default Firefox install.

Otherwise I'm normally fine with defaults, besides installing gridplayer to watch things off my external HD so I can watch and resize my shows in a way I can't with other video players.

Bash with fish.

I use MPV as movie and general media player with my custom config as well as auto-crop and URI copy/paste scripts. It works better than any other media player I tried in the last 10 years. I only use VLC for DVD menus, but it sucks even at that task, because the cursor gets stuck and the menus lag even when playing from SSD folder.

I use Tauon Music Box as music player because of its design, easy playlist/library customizability and Jellyfin integration. I also pay for spotify and use spicetify with custom skins if the songs are available there.

Kröhnkite as real auto-tiling solution with KDE Plasma.

But I'm on Arch btw., so there is not much default software apart from what the KDE meta packages contain.

Replaced alacritty with ghostty
Fish With Zsh (Fish not being posix got annoying)
The distro am using comes with not too much apps so yeah thats it

• sysvinit with openrc-init
• elogind with seatd

Yes. I run Gentoo.

I also replace Firefox with LibreWolf and Brave! I don't do much more than that though; I used to replace GNOME Software with Warehouse, but I eventually found it easier to just remove PackageKit and use Software to install my flatpaks (I still use Warehouse for changing flatpak settings).

Bahah as other dude said I don't replace anything cus I'm on arch btw, but I often tend to remove the default web browser whenever i run a vm or somethinf cus base Firefox isn't my thing, its far too dull for me. I rock ff forks like zen browser, librewolf, icecat, and mullvad. Currently on zen.

• bash -> zsh
• Gnome terminal -> Ghostty/Alacritty
• Adwaita -> My custom adwaita build with smaller sizes
• Default UI/Mono Font -> Inter/Meslo
• Default browser -> Zen Browser

Ooh, not a "hot take" answer. I rather like MusikCube. It plays nice with putting my music on my NAS and running it from both my personal machines and my Windows/work machine too. I'm not specifically excited by it as a TUI, but it also works just fine as a basic-'03-iTunes-style-navigation clone. It's super boring in the most usable of ways.

My more "hot take" answer is that I replace the terminal program in Fedora with the boring arsed "Gnome Console" from vanilla Gnome. It does all the stuff I want it to do and nothing more. If I was slightly more different than me I might be upset that it doesn't do enough terminal things but I'm just me. :)