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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[–] 72 points 1 year ago (9 children)

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
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  • [–] [S] 15 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Notepad++ really is just a better notepad. I will definitely look at Dolphin, it has a Windows version which I might need to try out. I currently use OneCommander. Yeah Windows Media Player isn’t very good. I use PotPlayer, but others like VLC, mpv, etc. all seem great too. Nomacs is awesome.

    Yeah, Linux is probably superior to Windows considering the fact the latter literally spams you with ads and promotions to make a MS account and to buy Office 365. Insane that everyone just puts up with this. I currently use a Windows machine, only reason I’m not installing Linux is because a. it’s one of those 2-in-1 touchscreen foldables, which Linux doesn’t really like too much, and b. I’m not bothered to reinstall all my apps and change all the settings and preferences again. Next computer I get, it’ll be Linux (either Fedora or Mint probably, those two seem good)

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    If the 2-in-1 is holding you back, it worked for me with Linux Mint, touch and gyro rotation included. Touch works out of the box.

    It did require me setting up iio-sensor-proxy with xrandr for the gyro sensor so it adjusts the screen when spinning the laptop around in tablet mode though. But the guide was pretty straight forward.

    Just an FYI, that linux actually works with it well.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago

    Nice to know that linux support the strange 360 degree laptops. I probably still won’t bother backing up all my data and reinstalling everything though. Will definitely try linux if I ever get a new computer, since I would have to install and set up a bunch of things if that happens anyways. I agree that I am a lazy boy but I also have exams coming up soon, so I need to prepare for that vs installing linux

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year 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.

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  • [+] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Wondering why you use notepad++ instead of Kate

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Because I've been using it for over 20 years?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Fair enough. You were just listing some KDE default apps but not others, and my experience with Kate has been great so was just curious.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    I'm using Kate now, but from my experience NPP has a lot more features built in for which I actually have to write some scripts to use with Kate. NPP has really strong encoding encoding and schema manipulation features and a robust plugin system.

    If NPP had a native linux build, I'd go back to it in a heartbeat.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year 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

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