For me, Google video search, Google books (Internet Archive is good, but doesn’t always have the same stuff), Adobe InDesign (but in the process of learning LaTeX), and Typewise. As for the Google stuff, I liked Whoogle a lot, but almost all their instances seem to have been blocked or shut down. Also, apologies if this is repeating an earlier post.
TotalCommander.
I was using Norton Commander in DOS in the 90s, then WindowsCommander in Windows 3, which was renamed TotalCommander. Using this for maybe 35 years. I don’t know how to use Windows gui to copy/paste or explore multiple folders etc.
Krusader and Double Commander immediately come to mind.
Well I have separate computer for music production which I don’t think has any FOSS software on it, so everything that has to do with that.
I guess that list could be helpful for some, but for me (and IMO, music production in general), it’s woefully inadequate to the point of hilarity.
Pro audio has been a complete mess in Linux for ages, and it’s not even close to where it should be in order to be generally usable. Every 7-8 years or so when my old music computer starts to die I try and check if it has made substantial improvement, but apart from Musescore actually being good, it is hard to find any tangible progress from 15 years ago. Pipewire gives me some hope, but it’s far from production-ready in Pro audio world. And I’m not really going to get rid of all the VST stuff I’ve bought in the last 20 years (all of which still works out of the box on a new computer!)
In addition, making music is the one hobby I have to get me away from tinkering with computers. I am not interested if I could make my Linux setup equally good if I spent weeks tinkering on it, when it’s literally easier for me to work for a week and buy a Macbook Air (or whatever crappy windows PC), where I get all of my old work ready for action in under a day, and I can trust that everything I do will just work, and work well at that. And it does it while allowing me to work remotely with other musicians since we can all use the same stuff.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be in my grave before FOSS Pro Audio ever gets there, unfortunately.
Edit: Ironically, the one FOSS thing I would love to use in my audio stuff is Guitarix, which is then the thing that doesn’t interop well with anything else. And I would love to have easy way to do all that I do on (Win/Mac Os) on Linux, but 20 years of disappointment is pretty hard to overcome at this point.
Have you tried Ardour, Bitwig, Reaper or Zrythm? Studio 1 also has a Wayland-native version now, which is paid.
But I get the tinkering part, poorly.
I’ve tried all of them except Zrythm. In fact, REAPER is my DAW of choice. But while that works on Linux, a lot of the plugins I require do not (or well, I guess it depends on how people define “work”), and REAPER in itself is not FOSS.
I wanted to package an ambisonic VST3 plugin as a Flatpak, really need to learn that as this would make things really easy.
But I have no idea of audio production, find it really cool but its a complex topic.
makemkv also basically most of my music software
I feel LaTeX is not a replacement for inDesign. It would be a replacement for something like word. maybe try scribus?
Google Maps. It sucks, and stores randomly pop in and out while you’re trying to zoom in past the McDonalds ad that’s showing despite you searching “shoe store”, but it has so much more info than the competitors that they don’t compare.
Just want to add this comparison between Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. Google Maps is definitely better in some areas and OSM is better in others.
Yeah, this is a cool discussion. Thank you.
Unfortunately OSM won’t be able to compete with user reviews for example (except if we steal those from Google). Also a bunch of shops can’t be seen there, which is crucial for me to discover cheap restaurants.
But OSM’s bike routes are 10/10.
Tried Openstreetmap? OSMAnd? Organic maps? Both of which use OSM. HERE maps (not open source)?
the FOSS options are terrible in my area
I’ve used organic maps, and maybe osmand? It’s good! And progress is fast. But it’s not quite there yet for me.
This conversation is making me realize that it may have been a year since I last tried it? Guess I’m due!
The user generated data on google maps is really useful though.
OSMAnd is good in many ways (and has come a long way too), but the app suffers from too many settings and too much menu diving for my taste. OrganicMaps is good because it’s like having “OSMAnd lite.” Used to be that without Google Services that there was no voice navigation, but now I’m able to use RH Voice with Organic Maps. MagicEarth is another map navigation app, but not open source.
I’ve really enjoyed using MagicEarth. I’d probably move to Organic Maps if they implemented routing for other public transport besides trains.
Sublime Text, Google Photos, Google Maps (partially)
Sublime Text? What’s missing in other editors that you have in that?
Some combination of things like performance, non distracting presentation, the minimap, multi cursor that works how I like, some plugins I like, no web browser, the way every open buffer is always safe and saved in some cache without necessarily saving to the edited file, the UX for split view across tabs, minimal fuss to get UI text and colors legible for my bad eyesight, etc.
Hmm… dunno if you’ve tried it, but maybe Kate would be a good replacement? It’s pretty powerful.
Thanks, I have, but it’s not a replacement for me. I’ll try it again once a year though.
I’ve found Cudatext a good alternative for light editing tasks.
I really wanted to switch to Cuda, but there are a few small features missing which is super infuriating to me.
I can’t think of any off the top of my head right now though.
Obsidian. Plain text files with as many or as few plugins as you want. All versions of the app look and behave the same (other than mobile, but at least android is kinda close). Nothing stored in a database file, no manipulation of the text files themselves (looking at you, Joplin). I’m open to another option but so far, nothing is as elegant and platform agnostic as Obsidian.
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It is, yes, but arg! Its toolbar buttons are too small!
Just games. And I am thankful for all the open source implementations as they are almost always vastly superior to the original releases.
Thank you John Carmack for releasing the sources to your games!
same, everything i use is foss apart from games
I wanted to fully switch to Linux and FOSS for a while now but specialised software like CAD and image editing are either non existent or completely useless for professional purposes in their FOSS versions. What angers me most is that most is them could run on wine easily if the developers did some minor changes so it seems intentional.
Well… Steam.
Clip Studio Paint IIt was way ahead than any commercial or FOSS alternative. Especially if you’re illustrator or comic artist working in specialized workflow (East Asia and SEA industry).
Tried Krita back then, but still lacks a lot of major important feature and customizable UI layout.
Google maps, venmo, and lyft are my last real holdouts.
I tried Osmand~ but it like using your dads Garmin from 2005. The last two have been hard to find good alternatives to. Would be nice if signal payments were in a stable coin instead of a shitcoin.
OsmAnd is a maps app, not a navigation app
Uh no. I have been using it for navigation for the past 5 years, probably even longer. It is hit and miss in some areas but it works OK.
Are there good FOSS navigation apps?
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Is Organic Maps better at navigation than OsmAnd?
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Serious question - aren’t maps for navigation? I’ve heard this rhetoric a few times and I just… don’t entirely follow the logic. Like I do to an extent, insofar as Open Street Map data is for information like rivers, buildings, updating cell data (used to do updates here and there in my city.)
But to me all of these maps, and initially starting out, maps are for… navigating?
Idk lol, not judging, mostly just confused at the intention. “We plot out maps! But dare to try and follow it to get where you are going at your own peril.”
Maps are for documenting the location of things in the real world relative to each other. It could be anything, like roads and buildings, or rivers and bodies of water, or electrical lines.
Then there is all the information that is added to all those objects; adding names to the roads, buildings having an addtess and what type of building they are, the direction a river is flowing and how many rivers flow into or out if a lake.
All of that is just information, where an what things are, it doesn’t actually do anything. That is a map.
Navigation software takes the information about the roads and how they are connected together along with their names and combines it with addresses to show you how to get from one address to another.
You could also have software that simulates the ecological effects of rerouting a river from a lake, or damming a river.
You could take data from a map to show you all the power lines that are near trees that will need to be trimmed and give estimates to your employer on how many people to hire for tree trimming, and then combine that with a map of buildings to show how many customers would be without power if a tree branch triggers a circuit to open.
Navigation is just one part of what a map could be used for, and probably one of the only parts that most people would use a map for.
OpenStreetMap started out just being a map of streets, hence the name, but it has grown to be this massive collection of information. Then there is all of tools that decide what to do with the information. OsmAnd is a good tool for simply displaying the data. It can provide navigation but it’s not the best.
Consider a map of all cell towers. Or consider a map of all power substations. Or a map of all dams.
None of those.maps are useful for navigating.
Likewise, good luck using a navigation app (like Google Maps) to produce the above maps. They’re different tools for different jobs.
I’ve been using Organic Maps for my navigation. It uses the same OpenStreetMap data, but navigation (as well as searching for e.g. “food” as opposed to a specific place) works flawlessly and routing happens offline.
Seems ok, but seems to struggle w/ long distances. Works better than osmand tho, thanks
Gmail and Google Photos for shared stuff.
Podcast Addict I really want to use AntennaPod, but I can’t do without priority podcasts.
Also Feedly. Feeder (FOSS) is so close, but doesn’t allow different sorts for different feeds.
