For me, it’s hands down Flameshot. The best screenshot tool in the world - I’ve got it hooked up to my PrtScrn key for super easy screenshots.

I also love Kwrite as a Notepad++ alternative, and KolourPaint as a MSPaint alternative

  • NormalC
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    1 year ago
    • Amberol is probably one of the biggest hidden gems in GNOME apps. It’s a simple easy music player whose background color changes based on the song’s artwork.

    • Parabolic is another GNOME app for downloading videos from youtube using yt-dlp. It’s super easy to use and even allows for multiple concurrent downloads.

    • mpv is one of those rare moments where using a proprietary implementation is objectively worse. Must install on any personal computer/mobile device.

    • @Qvest
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      201 year ago

      Excuse my silly question, but what does mpv do that vlc doesn’t?

        • ayaya
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          1 year ago

          VLC is also less accurate to the source than mpv is.

          See the notice on this wiki that contains some comparisons.

          I don’t know the full details but this is a quote I have seen from reddit about VLC:

          • uses wrong matrix for RGB conversion (results in wrong colors)
          • uses point upscaling for chroma planes
          • introduces strong banding
          • wrong chroma location (MPEG-1 for everything)
          • Old subtitle renderer that in more Typesetting heavy situation will say fuck you
          • all the other bugs (including some that haven’t been fixed in years) make it equally unsuitable media player.

          It is probably possible to get things in order by digging into the settings in VLC, but mpv prioritizes accuracy by default.

          • @[email protected]
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            1 year ago

            For me I got mad at VLC cause it was opening video track in separate window for some reason.

        • astraeus
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          11 year ago

          MPV handles decoding much better than VLC, in my experience trying to watch fansubs

      • NormalC
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        1 year ago

        Both are comparable in terms of video playback (both use hardware acceleration and ffmpeg) but mpv’s appeal is that it’s ultimately a minimal (as in lack of apparent GUI) command line tool rather than a fully featured application like VLC. I like mpv because of it’s non-features which is why it’s the backend for a lot of Desktop environment video players.

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          If you want minimalism I advise you to use a tiling window manager instead of Gnome. If you want Wayland absolutely, use Hyprland.

          • NormalC
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            31 year ago

            I use POP!_OS right now so I’m waiting for System76 to release their cosmic-epoch to have the definitive non-GNOME/KDE wayland desktop environment.

    • @demesisx
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      81 year ago

      I have MPV setup to play any YouTube link when I press ctrl cmd m with a YouTube video url in my clipboard.

    • WorseDoughnut 🍩
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      11 year ago

      How does Amberol hold up with libraries in the high thousands? So many nice looking music played keep struggling with my music folders.

      Really makes me miss Winamp sometimes.

      • NormalC
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        11 year ago

        Amberol does hold up really well with high threshold music folders in my experience. I had a 24+ hours worth of music that loaded successfully in less than a minute.

        Amberol has a “restore playlist” feature which loads your last playlist quickly.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      I use Lollypop for music, well in reality i just use MPV for that too lol but i downloaded that “just in case”

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      Mpv is a good engine, but I prefer something like smplayer+mpv for all the extra functionality. I also like that VLC has tons of features, like full file/codec info and stats. I know there are other ways to get that info, but it’s very easy in vlc.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Firefox with tree style tabs, with the user CSS that removes tabs and combines bookmarks bar into the title bar.

    Away from computer right now but I’ll take a screenshot in an hour or so.

    And Emacs. :)


    Back at my computer now!

    OK, here’s my screenshot:

    screenshot of desktop showing Firefox showing Tree Style Tabs on the left of the window

    So, you can see the tree style tabs (TST) in the sidebar area on the left. I’m using the “photon” theme for TST. with another extension for TST called TST Colored Tabs. If you middle-button-click a link, it’s opened in a new tab like usual, but TST also assigns it as a child tab of the page you were viewing. It’s incredibly useful for keeping track of where you are and what you’re doing. Especially in my DevOps job, I have dozens of tabs open and chaos would reign supreme if I used top-of-window tabs like standard. You can see the bookmarks toolbar has been dragged up into the title bar using the customize toolbar window accessed by right clicking on the title bar.

    To accomplish this you need to enable a setting in about:config called toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets, set that to true. Then exit Firefox.

    Then create a directory called chrome in your profile directory, which on Linux is in ~/.mozilla/firefox/PROFILENAME/, which you can get from the about:profiles page. Inside the chrome directory, you create a file called userChrome.css and add this stuff to it:

    #main-window[tabsintitlebar="true"]:not([extradragspace="true"]) #TabsToolbar > .toolbar-items {
      opacity: 0;
      pointer-events: none;
    }
    #main-window:not([tabsintitlebar="true"]) #TabsToolbar {
        visibility: collapse !important;
    }
    
    #sidebar-box[sidebarcommand="treestyletab_piro_sakura_ne_jp-sidebar-action"] #sidebar-header {
      display: none;
    }
    
    /*
        Display the status bar in Firefox Quantum (version 61+)
        permanently at the bottom of the browser window.
        Code below works best for the Dark Firefox theme and is based on:
        https://github.com/MatMoul/firefox-gui-chrome-css/blob/master/chrome/userChrome.css
        This userChrome.css file was last modified on: 28-Jun-2018.
        Tested to work with Firefox 61 on Windows.
        Related blog post: http://www.optimiced.com/en/?p=1727
    */
    
    #browser-bottombox {
      height: 20px;
      border-top: solid 1px #505050;
    }
    
    .browserContainer>#statuspanel {
      left: 4px !important;
      bottom: 0px;
      transition-duration: 0s !important;
      transition-delay: 0s !important;
    }
    
    .browserContainer>#statuspanel>#statuspanel-inner>#statuspanel-label {
      margin-left: 0px !important;
      border: none !important;
      padding: 0px !important;
      color: #EEE !important;
      background: #333 !important;
    }
    
    window[inFullscreen="true"] #browser-bottombox {
      display: none !important;
    }
    
    window[inFullscreen="true"] .browserContainer>#statuspanel[type="overLink"] #statuspanel-label {
      display: none !important;
    }
    
    /*
      Begin section to move system UI buttons to the same UI bar/box
      as the addressbar
    */
    
    /* Adding empty space for buttons */
    #nav-bar {
    	margin-right:100px;
    }
    
    /* For dragging whole window by mouse*/
    #titlebar {
    	appearance: none !important;
    	height: 0px;
    }
    
    /*
      Fix for main menu calling by Alt button
      THIS BREAKS THE UI!!
      */
    /* #titlebar > #toolbar-menubar {
    	margin-top: 10px;
    } */
    
    /* Move minimize/restore/close buttons to empty space */
    #TabsToolbar > .titlebar-buttonbox-container {
    	display: block;
    	position: absolute;
    	top: 5px;
    	right: 1px;
    }
    

    And there you go! TST has more tips and configuration details in its Github project: https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab and https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab/wiki/Code-snippets-for-custom-style-rules#for-userchromecss

      • @[email protected]
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        61 year ago

        I updated my original comment above yours. I hope my comments/instructions are understandable, please let me know if I wasn’t clear on anything!

  • UnfortunateShort
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    401 year ago

    Wine/Proton. It’s a one-stop solution for gaming on Linux (for current games). Lutris is also worth mentioning as a frontend/launcher.

    • @HR_Pufnstuf
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      11 year ago

      Although, I find it a sad commentary that the most upvoted (even by me) in this thread is something to made to run non-linux software. :(

      • @merthyr1831
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        71 year ago

        that’s one way to look at it, but if not for WINE and proton we’d not have had the renaissance of desktop Linux that’s well under way :)

        • @HR_Pufnstuf
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          11 year ago

          And I totally agree with you. I just lament that games and other made for Windows software is what’s enabling that. People should just want a free and opensource operating system as a matter of self interest… but no. It’s games and Windows apps. Yet another sign that our species is just sick in the head. :)

          • @merthyr1831
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            41 year ago

            I’m with you that we need some deprogramming when it comes to how we’re far too complacent with the privacy-ignoring and humanity-disrespecting behaviour of Microsoft. But at least personally I was always someone who accepted it with gritted teeth because the alternatives sounded like a downgrade in other ways.

            Now that Linux is faster, smoother, more user friendly and compatible than ever, it made the decision to delete my Windows partition much less daunting.

            And now if Linux does give me headaches (it’s not a perfect experience!) I’m much less likely to immediately give in and reinstall Windows because I’m now accustomed to the aspects that I didn’t realise were so important to me before.

            • @HR_Pufnstuf
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              I clink my beverage with yours, dear person!

            • @[email protected]
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              11 year ago

              Only reason I’m holding on to my Windows partition at this point is for rare scenarios like needing to reprogram my VKB stick, which only has a Windows executable. Other than that, I’ve not fired it up in months. And I’m a pretty rabid gamer.

              It’s taken a long damn time to get here.

        • @HR_Pufnstuf
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          21 year ago

          Oh we need it, it’s just how to make linux survive in a capitalist world where things are only made for platforms that can make them money.

            • @HR_Pufnstuf
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              11 year ago

              Did I object to making money? No. I object to allowing the making of money to be the guiding principle of software development. Make something great? Want to sell it? Fine. But only write it for Windows because it will sell better? Burn in heck.

                • @HR_Pufnstuf
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                  11 year ago

                  Did you think the burn in heck was for you? It wasn’t. It’s for people who only write software for Windows because it makes them more money. No one was being hostile to you. Seriously, what the heck?

  • @[email protected]
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    351 year ago

    I’m a bit of a fan of Okular. It just does a good job displaying PDFs and is not annoying. The table of content works well if the document has one. There is text select and block select for when you need to get content out of the PDF. You can tell Okular to ignore DRM with a simple checkbox in the settings, for files that “don’t allow” selecting and copying text or “don’t allow” printing.

  • @coolfission
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    251 year ago

    gparted because it’s the best partitioning manager with a gui that I’ve used

  • @[email protected]
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    201 year ago

    Syncthing is one of the most useful pieces of software I’ve ever used. It just works, and it works well.

    • @AVengefulAxolotl
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      11 year ago

      Im dipping my toes in self hosting and syncthing is just :chefs kiss:. I use it only with Obsidian, Signal & Aegis so far (and will sync my configs as well on linux), and the safety net it gives is just awesome.

    • SALT
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      41 year ago

      Ansible + Podman from Red Hat really a game changer in Industry Standard. Sometimes I want to just say, Fk Docker because they don’t listen from security perspective, until Red Hat made Podman, and they are thinking… (3 years), then implement the rootless container… same on HPC… fk docker…

  • @[email protected]
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    191 year ago

    If based on the thing I used most then it has to be Firefox!

    If you want something more trivial but personal, openttd - the best game ever. :)

  • @[email protected]
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    171 year ago

    I like KDE Connect quite a bit. Its a great tool to show of in front of my Windows friends and super usefull for media control.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    I’m not gonna mention the basics like Kate. They’re great but nothing new.

    My 2 hidden gems that I use on a daily basis are:

    • QOwnNotes for markdown note taking. Only competent desktop app I found that comes without any electron bullshit.
    • Nyrna to send a game to sleep when I want to take a break or get interrupted. Saves me from booting it up again when I want to pick up where I left off.
    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      I’m glad I’m not the only one that prefers Spectacle to Flameshot. Flameshot is way too bloated IMHO.

  • @merthyr1831
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    161 year ago

    Being a flutter dev (and shameless fanboy) I will suggest people try:

    appflowy - a FOSS near-clone to Notion.

    spotube - FOSS music streaming using the spotify API for metadata and youtube for music playing/downloading. Completely free of ads and works surprisingly well as long as the music you like is mirrored to YouTube.

    honourable mentions:

    Plex, Nextcloud, Radarr, Sonarr, qbittorrent. Not your usual apps for these kinds of threads but they’re absolutely top-tier for linux home servers.

    • SALT
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      21 year ago

      I never know spotube, this is first time! WOW!

      I think I can start put it into my uncle smartphone.

      I do still pay for spotify premium, because their service is awesome. Welp…

      • @merthyr1831
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        31 year ago

        It’s not a drop in replacement for spotify, of course. It just uses Spotify’s public API for fetching playlists and routes them through Youtube to play the audio of music videos hosted there, but as a free option it’s one of my faves :).

        If you want podcasts or certain spotify-only remixes you’ll still need spotify.

        • @merthyr1831
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          11 year ago

          Yup, it’s Flutter so it’s easy to port to other platforms. There’s Mac, Windows and iOS builds too!

  • Lvxferre
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    151 year ago

    The kernel. I literally can’t use my computer without it!

    Jokes aside, I’m a big fan of Kolourpaint too.

    • NormalC
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      11 year ago

      tbf the zen-kernel is a really cool thing to have if you get it package correctly into your system.

      • Lvxferre
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        It is, and I’ve used it for a while. I don’t recall why I stopped it, it was a long time ago; perhaps I didn’t notice any meaningful difference in performance? Stock kernels are good enough for most purposes.

  • FarLine99
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    151 year ago

    Bottles. Best non-steam gaming solution hands down.

      • FarLine99
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        71 year ago

        Way better UI, no hussle with configuration, flatpak support is seamless. Very good experience over all, such a smooth game adding -> configuring -> playing experience.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        I agree with FarLine that bottles is way better than Lutris. I still believe Heroic launcher is better than bottles for Epic/GoG/Prime games, but Battle.net and sc2 for example was so much easier to get up and running on bottles compared to lutris!