Trying to discover new/unheard Linux desktop programs (Sorry for the confusion).

Edit: I apologise for confusing a lot of people. I meant Linux desktop “programs” coming from Windows/Mac. I’m used to calling them “apps”.

Edit: 🙌 I’m overwhelmed with the great “programs” people have recommended in the comment section. Thank you guys.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    34·
    3 months ago

    If you like gaming:

    For the CLI:

  • Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net
    7·
    4 months ago

    Logseq.

    What is Logseq?

    It’s a non-linear note taking app that allows smart linking and is made as a second brain.

    It makes use of the Zettelkasten system, where, in theory, you make notes of everything and categorize it. Over time, you offload your brain and make it free for more productive stuff.

    Logseq is often considered as a FOSS alternative to Obsidian.

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
      2·
      4 months ago

      I tried it on desktop but the fact that it’s “paragraph-based” so to say is annoying. I’d like to format text freely and hit return to go to a new line, not create bullet points for everything I write. It seems a bit contrived in this way, but perhaps I just haven’t found how to make it work the way I want yet

    • noodlejetski@lemm.ee
      2·
      4 months ago

      I tried it and really wanted to like it, but the Android client’s UI is just unusable for me. as much as I prefer going FOSS whenever I can, I tried Obsidian and stuck with it. it’s electron on desktop and definitely not native UI on mobile, but feels much more polished.

      • Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net
        1·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, the Android app is horrible. I only use it if I don’t have my PC in arm’s reach.

        It feels sluggish, buggy, is overloaded, I always get sync issues (usually the last words I just typed go missing), and some features (especially the graph overview) don’t work at all sometimes. And the whole app sometimes feels like an alpha version, which is just a no-go…

        I really hope the mobile app gets polished more over the next months. Many people nowadays mostly use mobile devices, and having such an unpolished app really hurts the image. And, PLEASE devs, test your software before shipping it out. Especially the mobile app is broken half the time.

        I still gladly pay the 5$/ month for the optional sync and to support the devs.

    • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
      1·
      4 months ago

      I’m actively looking for a Logseq replacement, since they require CLA signing and can pull the rug at any moment.

      We discovered Trilium and will be trying it out to see if we can migrate.

      • bastion@feddit.nl
        2·
        4 months ago

        Trillium is great. I’ve been scrolling through here to see if anyone mentioned it, and was gonna put it out there if nobody had.

        I haven’t tried it out on android (if that even exists), though.

    • Fizz@lemmy.nz
      0·
      4 months ago

      Do you feel like offloading stuff into your notes helps your cognition?

      • Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net
        2·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, definitely, especially at work.
        It really helped me to switch off my “work brain”, because I know, that everything I did today is written down, and I don’t have to keep things in my mind anymore after work. Doing that was a blessing for my stress level and mental health.

        It also gives me the edge above my colleagues that I “remember” everything I did in the last months, which is nice when my boss wants to know details of a project I did a year ago.

        I basically can’t even remember what I did 5 minutes ago (ADHD says hello), but I know exactly where I can find that knowledge. This frees up my working memory (psychological term, not related to work) immensely. It’s basically like transfering more tasks onto your hard drive instead of keeping it in the RAM.

        It’s also great to give me an graphical overview of all I think and work on all day, and unveals connections I never thought of between different topics.

        For private use, it’s also great as a journal, though I gave up on that because I’m too busy for it and it cost too much time in my everyday life. But I still use it daily for normal note taking, e.g. results of some experiments at home, hobbies, thoughts, and much more.

        • Fizz@lemmy.nz
          1·
          4 months ago

          Fuck you I’m sold. That sounds so useful if I can stick with it enough.

          • Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net
            3·
            4 months ago

            That sounds so useful if I can stick with it enough.

            That’s my main issue for private use. At my job, I never had problems sticking with the habit of writing everything down. I work in a science job, and documentation is key there. So, I basically get paid for exactly that.

            But in my free time, the whole concept of task management, knowledge offloading, and more, is a bit harder for me, especially when I come home tired.

            Welcome in the life of someone with ADHD. I need my life to be organized, but have a hard time with exactly that. It’s like needing to find your contact lenses because you dropped them…

        • fossphi@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          All of this makes sense, but I still can’t wrap my head around the “finding” of information. How do you search for it? Do you remember keywords or the location of the note (this I feel like maybe defeats the purpose of Logseq’s write anywhere idea)

          • Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net
            1·
            4 months ago

            I use a mix of

            • Search bar, very powerful
            • The graph overview, which allows me to “hunt” for the thing I need
            • Filters
            • And a lot of tags, aliases and crosslinks
        • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          4 months ago

          QOwnNotes

          Thank you for recommending this. I started using Joplin about week or two ago, but this one seems even better for me.

        • governorkeagan@lemdro.idEnglish
          1·
          4 months ago

          I have not, I’m using Standard Notes at the moment. I’ll have a look at QOwnNotes though, thanks for the recommendation

      • Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net
        1·
        4 months ago

        Do it!

        I had some initial problems in the beginning, because I was used to linear note taking apps like OneNote or Joplin, but once I watched a guide on how it works, it clicked and now it’s my second nature. I even began to write my hand written notes in Logseq style!

        TL;DR, if you don’t wanna watch any guides/ read docs:

        • Indentation matters. Logseq works with a parent-child hierarchy
        • You usually don’t open or create new pages, you write everything in your journal and link stuff there.
        • Use links, either with [[Link]] or #Tag, which are the same. They crosslink different topics and reveal connections.
        • Make use of plugins. There are thousands of it. Especially the Graph Analysis plugin should be included by default.
  • devpaul@lemmy.world
    6·
    4 months ago

    Someone already mentioned Logseq, but I’m really enjoying Obsidian for my note taking needs. It’s similar, but I have found Obsidian to be very nice. Not FOSS, but I really like what the devs are doing.

    • Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip
      3·
      4 months ago

      Same I tried logsec but it needs a bit more polishing and most importantly the excalidraw plugin is not that good.

      • devpaul@lemmy.world
        1·
        4 months ago

        Yeah I’ve tried One Note, Evernote and notion before coming across Logseq and Obsidian. I’m really enjoying it. I haven’t given Excalidraw much use in obsidian but I may do so in the future.

        • Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip
          1·
          4 months ago

          It’s a game changer for me. Obsidian plugin allows previewing these drawings in notes, and we can also link notes in the drawings. The built in canvas feature is simply bad. All it needs to do is center the text inside boxes. Wish the devs made it open source and this problem could get fixed but apparently they don’t believe in it.

    • land@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      4 months ago

      Same here. I have tried:

      • Joplin
      • Standard Notes
      • loqseq
      • simple notes
      • craft and a few others, but I keep coming back to obsidian. Currently self-hosting it using one of the plugins, that helps me easily sync between pc, MacBook, android and iOS.
      • devpaul@lemmy.world
        1·
        4 months ago

        Nice! Yeah you’ve definitely tried a bunch of apps.

        What service are you using to self host obsidian? And is it cheaper than paying for obsidian sync?

        • land@lemmy.mlOP
          2·
          4 months ago

          Nextcloud and Janitor plugin. In my opinion, obsidian sync is not worth it. You have many ways to sync your data across different devices. Even using GitHub or Sorj.

          Edit: For my usecase, Janitor plugin works the best. You could try it.

          Edit:

  • paradox2011@lemmy.ml
    6·
    4 months ago

    EDIT: realized this was for desktop, so removed the original list of mostly android apps. Here’s my go to desktop apps:

    Lollypop - music player
    Invoiceninja - open source invoicing service
    Meld - file/folder comparison
    Librewolf - hardened Firefox
    Joplin - notes
    QEMU/Virt-Manager - virtualization for that one windows app you still need
    KeepassXC - password management
    Element-desktop - Matrix client
    Gparted - no fuss partition management
    Lutris - game launcher that works with epic games (among many others)
    PDFarranger - best PDF management I’ve found on Linux Soundconverter - easy to use file converter
    Restic - backups
    Fdupes - duplicate file finder
    Freetube - privacy respecting YouTube client
    Paperless-ngx - very well built electronic document storage. Must be run as a server.

  • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
    5·
    4 months ago

    Linux, system:

    • KDE Plasma (Dolphin, Kate, Kfind, Merkuro, shell, Spectacle)
    • Librewolf / hardened Firefox (system app because of user namespaces, which Flatpaks cant create)

    Linux, Flatpak:

    • syncthingy
    • thunderbird
    • libreoffice
    • KDE: Okular, Gwenview, maybe soon digiKam
    • Qt: qBittorrent, Keepassxc
    • GNOME/Circle: Celluloid, PDF Arranger, Carburetor, Decoder, G4music, Railway, SimpleScan (or Skanlite), Impression, GIMP
    • GTK: localsend, GPU Screen recorder
    • Electron: Freetube, Signal, Cryptomator, Nextcloud
    • Podman: StirlingPDF

    Android:

    • Fossify Gallery, Calendar
    • Material Files
    • Markor
    • Antennapod
    • Florisboard (or maybe Futo, but I dont need the fancy stuff yet)
    • Shelter
    • localsend
    • Obtainium
    • dict.cc
    • Grayjay
    • k9mail
    • soundbound (spotify), seal (ytdl)
    • öffi, kleine Wettervorschau
    • SaveTo…
    • mjpdf
  • CCRhode@lemmy.ml
    5·
    4 months ago

    There’s no doubt there are a great variety of Linux packages in use.

    Recently I did a CD install of Debian 12 (Bookworm) desktop with Gnome, which loads a bunch of stuff over the Net. Here are extra packages that I installed manually. The first set is used by and with an automated configuration script that I wrote, so they have to come in to begin with.

    Title Description Purpose
    info Gnu info processor “Config”
    curl Command line tool for transferring data with URL syntax “Config”
    dbus-x11 Simple interprocess messaging system (X11 deps) “Config”
    emacs Editor “Config”
    gconf2 GNOME configuration database system (support tools) “Config”
    mc Midnight Commander - a powerful file manager “Config”
    python3-iniparse Access and modify configuration data in INI files “Config”
    python-lxml-doc Python XML documentation “Config”
    python3-lxml Pythonic binding for the libxml2 and libxslt libraries “Config”
    sakura Simple but powerful libvte-based terminal emulator “Config”
    Title Description Purpose
    “apcupsd” “APC UPS Power Management” “Monitor”
    “artha” “Handy off-line thesaurus based on WordNet” “Utils”
    “backintime” “Simple backup/snapshot system” “Utils”
    “brasero” “CD/DVD burning application for GNOME” “Utils”
    “bwm-ng” “Small and simple console-based bandwidth monitor” “Monitor”
    “ccze” “Robust, modular log coloriser” “Utils”
    “certbot” "Automatically configure HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt " “Utils”
    “claws-mail-dillo-viewer” “HTML viewer plugin for Claws Mail using Dillo” “Mail”
    “claws-mail-feeds-reader” “Feeds (RSS/atom) reader plugin for claws mail” “Mail”
    “claws-mail-plugins” “Claws mail” “Mail”
    “claws-mail-spam-report” “Spam reporting plugin for claws mail” “Mail”
    “cmake” “Cross-platform, open-source make system” “Retroshare”
    “conky-all” “Highly configurable system monitor” “Monitor”
    “copyq” “Advanced clipboard manager with editing and scripting features” “Utils”
    “cups” "Common UNIX Printing System™ - PPD/driver support, web interface " “Utils”
    “dcraw” “Decode raw digital camera images” “Photo”
    “devilspie” “Automatically resize windows” “Utils”
    “dict” “Dictionary client/server and a selection of dictionaries, too” “Utils”
    “dictd” “Dictionary server” “Utils”
    “diction” “Utilities to help with style and diction” “Utils”
    “exiv2” “EXIF/IPTC photo metadata manipulation tool” “Photo”
    “festival” “General multi-lingual speech synthesis system” “Utils”
    “ftp” “Classical file transfer client” “Utils”
    “gedit” “Popular text editor for the GNOME desktop environment” “Editor”
    “gimp” “GNU Image Manipulation Program” “Photo”
    “git” “Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system” “Utils”
    “gnome-audio” “Audio files for GNOME” “Utils”
    “gnome-extra-icons” “Optional gnome icons” “Utils”
    “gnucash” “Personal bookkeeping and finance” “App”
    “golang” “Go programming language compiler” “yamn”
    “hplip” “HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP)” “Utils”
    “hplip-gui” “HP Linux Printing and Imaging - GUI utilities (Qt-based)” “Utils”
    “hugin” “Panorama photo stitching program” “Photo”
    “imagemagick” “Image manipulation programs” “Photo”
    “libbz2-dev” “High-quality block-sorting file compressor library” “Retroshare”
    “libcurl4-openssl-dev” “Development files and documentation for libcurl (OpenSSL flavour)” “Retroshare”
    “libglib2.0-dev” “Development files for the GLib library” “Retroshare”
    “libjpeg-turbo-progs” “Programs for manipulating JPEG files including loss-less rotation” “Photo”
    “libmicrohttpd-dev” “Library embedding HTTP server functionality” “Retroshare”
    “libopencv-dev” “computer vision core library” “Retroshare”
    “libqt5opengl5-dev” “Qt 5 OpenGL library development files” “Retroshare”
    “libqt5multimedia5” “Qt 5 Multimedia module” “Retroshare”
    “libqt5network5” “Qt 5 network module” “Retroshare”
    “libqt5x11extras5-dev” “Qt 5 X11 extras” “Retroshare”
    “libreoffice-base” “Database component for LibreOffice” “Utils”
    “librsvg2-bin” “Command-line and graphical viewers for SVG files” “Photo”
    “libsqlcipher-dev” “Sqlcipher shared library” “Retroshare”
    “libssl-dev” “Secure Sockets Layer toolkit - development files” “Retroshare”
    “libspeex-dev” “The Speex codec library” “Retroshare”
    “libspeexdsp-dev” “The Speex extended library” “Retroshare”
    “libupnp-dev” “Portable SDK for UPnP devices” “Retroshare”
    “libxslt1-dev” “XSLT 1.0 processing library” “Retroshare”
    “libxss-dev” “X11 Screen Saver extension library (development headers)” “Retroshare”
    “lm-sensors” “Utilities to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors” “Monitor”
    “mosquitto” “MQTT version 5.0/3.1.1/3.1 compatible message broker” “Home Automation”
    “mosquitto-clients” “Mosquitto command line MQTT clients” “Home Automation”
    “net-tools” “NET-3 networking toolkit” “Utils”
    “numlockx” “Enable numlock in X11 sessions” “Unknown”
    “openhab-addons” “OpenHAB Home Automation” “Home Automation”
    “otpclient” “Simple GTK+ software to generate OTPs (TOTP and HOTP)” “Utils”
    “pandoc” “General markup converter” “Utils”
    “pcmanfm” “Extremely fast and lightweight file manager” “Utils”
    “python-is-python3” “Symlinks /usr/bin/python to python3” “Devel”
    “python3-babel” “Tools for internationalizing Python applications - Python 3.x” “Devel”
    “python3-calmjs” “Node.js Python framework for building toolchains and utilities” “Devel”
    “python3-cheetah” “Text-based template engine and Python code generator (Python 3)” “WeeWX”
    “python3-configobj” “Simple but powerful config file reader and writer for Python 3” “WeeWX”
    “python3-dateparser” “Python parser for human readable dates” “Devel”
    “python3-doc” “Python documentation” “Devel”
    “python3-ephem” “Compute positions of the planets and stars with Python 3” “WeeWX”
    “python3-nltk” “Natural language processing” “Utils”
    “python3-pycryptodome” “Cryptographic Python library” “eoas”
    “python3-pyqt5” “Python 3 bindings for Qt5” “Devel”
    “python3-pyqt5.qtmultimedia” “Python 3 bindings for Qt5’s Multimedia module” “Devel”
    “python3-serial” "pyserial - module encapsulating access for the serial port " “WeeWX”
    “python3-setuptools” “Python distutils enhancements (setuptools compatibility)” “Devel”
    “python3-tz” “The Olson timezone database” “Utils”
    “python3-usb” “USB interface for Python (Python3)” “WeeWX”
    “python3-venv” “Venv module for python3” “WeeWX”
    “python3-vobject” “Parse iCalendar and VCards in python” “Android”
    “python3-xdg” “Freedesktop.org standards” “Tonto2”
    “qgit” “Qt application for viewing GIT trees” “Utils”
    “qrencode” “QR code encoder into PNG image” “Photo”
    “qtcreator” “Integrated development environment (IDE) for Qt” “Retroshare”
    “qtmultimedia5-dev” “APIs for multimedia functionality” “RetroShare”
    “qtox” “Tox client” “Retroshare”
    “qttools5-dev” “Qt 5 tools development files” “Retroshare”
    “rapidjson-dev” “Fast JSON parser/generator for C++ with SAX/DOM style API” “Retroshare”
    “rblcheck” “Query real-time black list (RBL) servers” “Mail”
    “retroshare-gui” “Secure communication with friends” “Retroshare”
    “rsync” “Fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool” “Utils”
    “sane” “Scanner graphical frontends” “Photo”
    “sqlite3” “Command line interface for SQLite 3” “Firefox Devel”
    “sqlitebrowser” “GUI editor for sqlite databases” “Unknown”
    “ssh” “Secure shell client and server (metapackage)” “Utils”
    “tcl8.6-dev” “Tcl (the Tool Command Language) v8.6” “Retroshare”
    “tesseract-ocr” “Command line OCR tool” “Unknown”
    “timeshift” “System restore utility” “Utils”
    “torsocks” “Use socks-friendly applications with Tor” “QTox”
    “trash-cli” “Freedesktop.org trash implementation” “Utils”
    “tree” “Displays an indented directory tree, in color” “Utils”
    “ttf-bitstream-vera” “Bitstream Vera family of free Truetype fonts” “Utils”
    “whois” “Intelligent WHOIS client” “is_tout.py”
    “xsane” “Graphical frontend for Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE)” “Photo”
    “zbar-tools” “Bar Code Scanner and Decoder” “Photo”
    “zip” “Archiver for .zip files” “Utils”

    Here are third-party packages I admire. These are not available in Debian repositories although some provide Debian-compatible repositories of their own.

    Tor Browser Bundle: Anonymizing Network Browser

    This is available from https://dist.torproject.org/torbrowser/ as a tarball. This should be unpacked and the whole tor-browser_en-US directory moved to the ~user folder. This is so that the browser can auto-update at user authority as the need arises.

    RetroShare: Secure Communications with Friends

    This has its own Debian-compatible repository.

    metar: A Package to Parse METAR Coded Weather Reports

    ~/lab_pip/bin/activate
pip install metar --upgrade

    weeWX: Open source software for backyard weather stations.

    From http://weewx.com/docs/debian.htm. Although a Debian package exists, doing any development practically requires that all the code be in user-space, so don’t install the package. Download it instead.

    OpenHAB: Home Automation

    This has its own Debian-compatible repository.

    Ant: GTK3/4 Themes by eliverlara

    From https://www.gnome-look.org/browse?cat=135&ord=latest.

    This is for claws-mail. It provides better contrast.

  • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
    61·
    4 months ago

    I don’t know about you specifically, but I’m surprised how many people haven’t heard of Krita, a FOSS image editing app with an optional AI Image Generation plugin.

      • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        It uses Stable Diffusion, yes (specifically comfy UI for the backend), but it has a much better in app UI that any stable diffusion web UI I’ve tried.

    • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
      34·
      4 months ago

      STOP ADDING AI TO EVERYTHING PLEASE

      Am I going to be able to use a computer in any way at all in the future without having freaking world power-sucking, thieving, inaccurate, laughable AI doing stuff for me?

      • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
        81·
        4 months ago

        First of all, I actually find it quite helpful, AI is not bad in itself, just the people who use it for things it’s not designed for are misguided. Secondly, did you miss the part where this AI is optional?

        • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
          31·
          4 months ago

          The fact that it’s optional now is irrelevant. Most people aren’t going to disable AI and will thus use a horrible, broken feature that has never been proven to work reliably. And what is “optional” now becomes the standard later. Best to kill it now before it becomes the complete ruination of the tech industry.

  • The Bard in Green@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz
    5·
    4 months ago
    • sshfs. I use it for everything.
    • autossh
    • git. It always annoys me how Debian doesn’t come with it out of the box. Gets me every time I set up a new server.
    • Signal desktop app.
  • ssm@lemmy.sdf.org
    5·
    4 months ago

    OpenBSD user, in no particular order, definitely missing some stuff: pdksh (OpenBSD) or oksh (Linux/MacOS), su, unix/posix utils (man (most important), find (second most important), apropos, awk, grep, df, du, dd, ed, etc), mg, openssh, got, heirloom-doctools/troff, bc-gh (bc calculator with a bunch of extensions), xclip, xdotool, xeyes (very important), yt-dlp (youtube-dl seems dead these days), some C compiler (clang/gcc), httpd, opensmtp, ffmpeg, libressl/openssl, pf, tmux (I prefer to use my window manager, but if I’m in tty or need to retain a shell session, tmux is useful), ping, ifconfig, traceroute, netstat, nc/netcat, unwind (or other dns server like unbound)

  • ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social
    4·
    4 months ago
    • Nvim with lazy-nvim
    • Emacs (org mode)
    • Krita
    • Strawberry Music (can organize and transcode music)
    • Easy Effects (for poorly balanced YouTube videos or voice chat)
    • Calibre
    • YARG (I like plastic guitar)
  • muhyb@programming.dev
    62·
    4 months ago

    Because you asked about “apps”, people are replying with mobile apps. I think you wanted to write “programs” considering the community. Maybe you should edit this

  • SimplyTadpole@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    4 months ago

    I use CoreCtrl to fix my GPU’s atrocious fan curve, which is a necessity since normally it overheats to high hell. With CoreCtrl, I have a nice fan curve that makes my GPU rarely, if ever, run hotter than 70°C.

  • aktenkundig@discuss.tchncs.de
    3·
    4 months ago

    Analogous to the Krita post, I am surprised nobody seems to know KolourPaint. It’s similar to MS paint. I use it, when I need to make a quick sketch, whiteboard style, e.g. when sharing my screen with a coworker.

    Otherwise, I really must have Dolphin and Okular.

    I love dolphin’s split mode (quickly toggled with F3) and its ability to seamlessly navigate all kinds of protocols for my NAS, webdav for nextcloud storage, MTP for the phone…

    Okular has annotations which have been super useful to me. And it’s so easy to switch between viewing single page, two-page and multi-page. Which is great for skimming text documents and presentations. The auto reload ability is great when iterating on a document (e.g. latex doc or matplotlib chart).

    Otherwise, of course firefox and thunderbird, not much to say here Please don’t use chrome. It’s market share makes Google the de-facto owner of www technology. But I guess I’d be preaching to the choir here.

  • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
    41·
    4 months ago

    Emacs.

    Emacs is an app platform in and of itself, and the vanilla installation comes with dozens of its own apps pre-installed. Like how web apps are all programmed in JavaScript, Emacs apps are all programmed in Lisp. All Emacs apps are scriptable and composable in Lisp. Unlike on the web, Emacs encourages you to script your apps to automate things yourself.

    Emacs apps are all text based, so they all work equally well in both the GUI and the terminal.

    Emacs comes with the following apps pre-installed:

    • a text editor for both prose and computer code
    • note taking and organizer called Org-mode (sort of like Obsidian, or Logseq)
    • a file browser and batch file renamer called Dired
    • a CLI console and terminal emulator
    • a terminal multiplexer (sort-of like “Tmux”)
    • a process manager (sort-of like “Htop”)
    • a simple HTML-only web browser
    • man-page and info page browser
    • a wrapper around the Grep and Find CLI tools
    • a wrapper around SSH called “Tramp”
    • e-mail client
    • IRC client
    • revion control system, including a Git porcelain called “Magit”
    • a “diff” tool
    • ASCII art drawing program
    • keystroke recorder and playback

    Some apps that I install into Emacs include:

    • “Mastodon.el” Mastodon client
    • “Elfeed” RSS feed reader
    • “consult” app launcher (sort-of like “Dmenu”)
    • arxdat@lemmy.ml
      2·
      4 months ago

      Was gonna recommend Emacs, myself, but looks like you got it covered! Emacs is an amazing tool and is worth the journey

    • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
      2·
      4 months ago

      I’ll stick with nano over Esc+Meta+Alt+Ctrl+Shift, thanks. I mean, it’s an interesting operating system, but too bad its default text editor sucks.

      (This from someone who used to use “pull the power plug to exit” vim…)

      • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        Of course people who pull the power plug to exit Vi would be the type of people to confuse app platforms with operating systems.

    • Papamousse@beehaw.org
      2·
      4 months ago

      It comes also with a doctor, you can invoke it with “M-x doctor”. I discovered Emacs in the 80s, used it a lot in uni in the 90s, Emacs is a religion, or an OS, it’s so powerful it’s incredible. Nowadays I’m mostly using code for coding, or simply nano for small scripts/text.

      • CCRhode@lemmy.ml
        1·
        4 months ago

        Doctor, Doctor, my brother thinks he’s a chicken!

        Too much fun! Like many other Comp. Sci. students, I spent way too many hours trying to get Eliza, an automated psychiatrist from MIT, to say something shocking. Weizenbaum, the developer, “was surprised and shocked that individuals, including his secretary, attributed human-like feelings to the computer program.” In this sense AI is nothing new because Eliza passed the Turing Test in 1967.

      • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        Emacs is a religion, or an OS

        Philosophy is a subset of religion, and there is a definitely an Emacs philosophy about making absolutely all software hackable, and controlling the computer using text.

        App platforms are a subset of operating systems. People confuse the two because most app platforms are inseparable from the operating system on which they run. But some software, like the Web, or Java, or to some extent .NET/Mono, are app platforms that run the same apps across multiple operating systems. Emacs is an app platform.

    • yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca
      1·
      4 months ago

      How do you think one should get started with Emacs? Should they start start with regular GNU Emacs or should they install one of the “distros”?

      • Ramin Honary@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        How do you think one should get started with Emacs? Should they start start with regular GNU Emacs or should they install one of the “distros”?

        I always recommend using the default setup for any software. The same goes for learning GIMP, Krita, Blender, FreeCAD, or whatever else, even though you can customize them all to your liking.

        It is usually a good idea to try and learn the workflow that was intended by the people who developed this software, you could learn something from trying to use the computer in the same way that the professionals do. Same for Emacs: professional software developers have used it for almost 50 years, the default keyboard shortcuts are set the way they are partially for random historical reasons, but partially because they often make a lot of sense.

        If you are interested, please check out my blog series on getting started with Emacs, called Emacs for Professionals

      • arxdat@lemmy.ml
        1·
        4 months ago

        Honestly, just download/install from your package manager and then start using it. One of the best built-in modes is called Org mode. Don’t try anything crazy because it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It took me some periods of stopping and starting before things felt natural and became my daily driver.