Been awhile since I saw a thread like this and they’re always good for at least one or two things I’ve never heard of before. Bonus points if the software is open source and cross platform. Extra bonus points if you link to where we can see it/get it.
My contribution: Destiny which is an anonymous, P2P, E2EE file sharing app - its basically a GUI for a Magic Wormhole implementation. Works on Linux (tarball or appimage), Win, Mac, Android (inc f-droid) and iOS. Only downside is it’s not been updated for 2 years.
DGT GTD is an old Android app for task tracking. It is ugly and incredibly useful. Lives entirely in the phone, no cloud subscription, no paid plans, nothing.
I have used it forever. There is no good alternative.
The current app “Chaos Control” is a close contender, but pricey and cloud connected.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dg.gtd.android.lite
I’m surprised how many people don’t know about a Linux utility called “fuck”. When you make a mistake on the command line and get an error, you just type “fuck” and it looks at what happened and suggests a fix. If this looks correct - and it almost always is - you just hit Enter and it types that in for you. Best thing ever!
Apparently many don’t know libre office is thing and free. Seeing people ask for goggle doc alternative amd all they need is a word processor.
OmniDiskSweeper. Forget apps that help manage disk space with some ugly graph that’s difficult to understand. This just lists files and directories with the heaviest / most space used from top to bottom in a file tree. Essential. Here’s what it looks like:
- Converter Now: An all-in-one convert everything to everything app.
- Light Meter: Calculate light levels and color temps for photography and videography.
- Stellarium: Honestly don’t know how “well known” it might be. But it’s fun to point at stars and planets.
+1 for converter now, close to my most used app on Android.
LocalSend is open-source and great for file transfer (or even just sending text) between my devices.
Never occurred to me to even look for such a thing!
For Windows users, I want to recommend PowerToys: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
The “toys” that I use a lot are: PowerToys Awake: to keep my laptop awake even if I’m away from keyboard for a while.
Fancy Zones: to create my own layout of windows, especially on the ultra-wide monitor I have at work, it’s easy to have 3 smaller windows next to each other according to my layout.
Mouse Utilities, I often can’t find my mouse cursor, just pressing a hotkey will literally spotlight the cursor.
Quick Accent, especially for multi-lingual people this is really handy, though it takes a bit to get used to its working.
FancyZones is literally the only thing I’m missing from Windows after switching to Linux. I’ve looked around stack and reddit but have only found posts asking for that functionality, haven’t found a solution. Is there a DE/window manager/etc that has similar functionality?
Isn’t Fancy Zones just window tiling? KDE has a tiling built in (hit meta+t to set up and then hold shift while dragging a window) and there are a hundred way more nerdy tiling window managers.
I use fancy zones, and also the one that finds your mouse cursor as I’m always losing it, and the always on top mode for when I don’t want a teams call to vanish while I do something else
Be like me, just make your mouse cursor neon green and huge.
It’s an android app that uses your display to make a “glow” to light a room rather than using the camera flash like a torch.
It’s in F-Droid.
Obviously the camera flash is more powerful if you’re outside or whatever, but using the display this way is way better inside. That tiny little dazzling pin-prick of light is just… unpleasant.
With candle you can also set whatever color you like. Red is nice to avoid waking people or ruining night vision.
I discovered this app when we had twins and waking up to nurse them overnight. Gonna sound weird if you’ve not been through this but basically they won’t really wake up they make a gentle sooky noise, and you put a bottle or boob in their mouth and they suckle while they sleep. If you turn a light on they’re gonna wake up which is sub-optimal.
I fell down the everyday carry flashlight pipeline / rabbit hole instead. Not recommended if you don’t want to ruin your perception of what’s a great tint of light to you.
This is the first app in this thread that made me go “I need this!” and immediately downloaded it!
Thanks!
It’s weird how much i like this app.
It’s free / open, solves a problem elegantly, and I use it all the time.
One of the first type programs I got when i got an original iPad touch. Loved it!
A windows app that shows you the space things are taking up on your computer so you can easily delete them. Usually helps me clear out a ton of space.
ncduin LinuxWiztree and Treesize are both much faster.
Windirstat is still relevant… But slow.
I prefer WizTree. It’ll show you space usage, but you can also search for files, and it’s incredibly fast.
It’s also much faster
Edit: you said that already lol sorry
I’ll have to give it a try one day.
dua-cli is good for this.
The same disk space visualisation, on Linux, can be shown with:
(Available from your distro package-manager)
Greenshot is free, open-source, and the built-in image editor is perfect (for my use-case, ymmv). ShareX is also FOSS but more well-known.
I used to use Greenshot but switched over to Flameshot. Also Free software, but has better and easier editing tools. The numbered arrows are so handy.
Another vote for Greenshot, I use it nearly daily for my work.
Screen2Gif is super useful when trying to show someone how to do something without doing a zoom or screen share. And gifs post in slack really well.
The last version on the website is from 2017. I wonder what’s going on? The repo seems to be alive. I used it for years but switched recently to ShareX since Greenshot GUI can’t really handle high screen resolution
Edit: Just checked the Blog. They didn’t had time in the last years but it seems to pick up speed again now. A new version is coming.
Yeah, it’s been solid/stable but no new developments until 1.3 is coming. You can download the pre-release version if you want to try it again, because that version has zoom options. I imagine that’s what you missed, unless you meant something else with older versions not handling high res well
https://www.sportismygame.app/ Helped me get of my fat ass and move every once in a while
If any of you still aren’t using YT Revanced… why?! So yeah, that one, cause God knows my limit for insipid and repetitive ads is extremely small.
I love pipe pipe, especially the live comments view that emulates nico nico douga style. It’s annoying for most since the comments obscure the video going past it, but it’s a bit of a nerdy fun to me.
Oooh, thanks for the recs!
I’d like to add grayjay
Because I don’t watch videos on my phone.
YouTube has broken uBlock and Firefox. Still works on Edge, but I’d rather not switch browsers back and forth. Yes, I’ve cleared my cache.
Anyone?
Is it because of your religion or…?
Why would I watch videos on a shitty little screen? My PC is hooked to 40" and 55" TVs.
What if you’re on the bus?
Everything, the only thing that makes Windows usable.
Bulk Rename Utility for Windows:
Here’s a bunch of equivalent things for desktop OSes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batch_renaming#List_of_software
PowerToys has something like this roo
dired
This is so powerful, I use it all the time.
Freedom - https://freedom.to/
A very powerful cross platform website/app blocker with a lifetime membership option. Works well for blocking multiple fediverse domains.
