But does it whip the llama's ass?
I think not.
- this is a really old Winamp reference for you younger folks.
What app is so useful, you can’t believe it’s free?
3 years ago by mastermind to c/asklemmy
perishthethought 80 points 3 years ago
Nilz 33 points 3 years ago
To piggyback off of this, consider donating to VLC.
OsrsNeedsF2P 3 points 3 years ago
Donated!
shua_too 176 points 3 years ago
Bitwarden is one I use several times a day. They do have a support plan for like $10 a year that gives a couple extra features like TOTP support, but the base level is incredibly robust. It’s open source, too. I know a lot of folks also host their own servers with Vaultwarden, but that’s a little beyond my skill level.
tool 8 points 3 years ago
I pay for it just because it's cheap and to support them
I did this too when it first came out, and then the product became robust enough that I recommended we implement it at work because secrets management was non-existent. We have a bunch of licenses on the Enterprise plan now and it just keeps getting better each update.
My only complaint is that migrating the data to a new server is a pain in the ass and never works correctly, even when following the migration instructions to the letter. Always have to open a ticket with them for that. Not enough of a pain to move to another product, though.
I also still pay for my personal plan. It really is a fantastic product.
tool 1 point 3 years ago
Because we have some contracts that stipulate any data related to the project, including secrets/credentials, must remain on-site, and in some cases, on an air-gapped network. Doesn't make sense to spin up something else to manage those secrets when Bitwarden can do it all and satisfy the requirements of those contracts.
MucherBucher 1 point 3 years ago
Pretty uncommon to host company credentials via 3rd party as policy. It wouldn't even be legal under national law for my field of work for example.
randomguy2323 2 points 3 years ago
Great I do the same too!
Lucidlethargy -10 points 3 years ago
Oh wow, is it really cheap?! Good much money can I invest right away?!? 11?!1111!
canthidium 9 points 3 years ago
I just recently started using their totp function and I can't believe I didn't switch sooner. Just the fact alone that it automatically copies the code to your clipboard is such a Time saver not having to open up a separate app.
shua_too 2 points 3 years ago
It's a wild time saver. I can’t believe other folks go to a whole separate app for their codes! Hitting Ctrl+L to autofill passwords and user names then Ctrl+V for TOTP feels like a hack when I watch other people struggle with their other solutions.
haych 6 points 3 years ago
I use a separate app for my codes, if someone somehow gains access to my Bitwarden if they have TOTP as wellcthrn they have all my accounts. With my TOTP in another app they still can't access them.
canthidium 3 points 3 years ago
Right! I was using Authy so I didn't have to grab my phone every time, but even that was still having to open the Authy app and wait for it to load, copy+paste. But using the keyboard shortcuts for Bitwarden is just so fast. Like you said, feels like a hack. It even auto copies on Android and with the autofill, makes it so easy.
techgearwhips 2 points 3 years ago
I use keepassxc which autofills. Then 2fsa has an addon that auto adds the code. I'm in in under 10 seconds. I dread the idea of keeping my passwords and TOTP in the same vault.
Lucidlethargy -11 points 3 years ago
FYI, This product is 100% marketed on Lemmy for a profit. I've seen astroturfed threads multiple times now.
catsarebadpeople 6 points 3 years ago
Free app marketed for profit... There might be something wrong with you
catsarebadpeople 8 points 3 years ago
Might just be because people really like it and want to share.
Rai 2 points 3 years ago
I kinda thought that too, but it’s free and open-source… so that would be weird.
Looking into password managers, though, it does really seem like the best choice. Lastpass had breach lately, KeePass requires self-hosting, and other offerings cost more (and aren’t open-source.)
001100010010 170 points 3 years ago path: 0 1284728, hotness: undefined, score: 170, children: 11
dRLY 53 points 3 years ago
They make a large amount from Google paying them to be the default search engine. Also they have been making additional projects that can be subscribed to as add-ons for Firefox (like a VPN and an email forwarding service that allows you to make fake email addresses or phone numbers to use on sites that will forward the messages to your real inbox/phone). You can use a limited version of the email thing without paying though so it is easy to try out. And they are always ready to take donations of any size and can be reoccurring. I personally pay .99/month for the email service even though I don't use it often. As it is nice to have if I need it, and it is basically a donation at that point. lol.
Here are links to those products if you care to read more about them or at least see pricing.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/vpn/
But even just making a point to donate some one-offs here and there does help in small ways to keep a real option in browsers that isn't just another Chromium-based project.
https://donate.mozilla.org/en-US/
Everyone hated when IE was the only browser that sites were coded for, and we are seeing more and more Chromium only sites. Which means a bad vulnerability in Chromium will impact all the browsers based on it. Also privacy add-ons for Firefox tend to work better and block ads well.
salient_one 26 points 3 years ago
Mozilla seems to be pretty transparent. You can see their financial statement at State of Mozilla.
001100010010 10 points 3 years ago path: 0 1284728 1285553 1285746, hotness: undefined, score: 10, children: 0
EzekielJK 3 points 3 years ago
I adore Firefox but several years ago, Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Forms, etc) decided to change their font system in some bizarre way that they're never formatted right on Firefox and cause spacing issues. It sucks because I use Docs and Sheets so frequently that I end up needing to keep two browsers installed and switch whenever I want to work on some of my projects.
techgearwhips 2 points 3 years ago
This but in the Fennec flavor
001100010010 3 points 3 years ago path: 0 1284728 1361345 1361479, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 1
techgearwhips 2 points 3 years ago
I'm on Fennec on Android and LibreWolf on desktop.
lunaticneko 7 points 3 years ago
It's said that when Jesus comes back, you get to go to heaven if you paid for it.
eco 1 point 3 years ago
If you're talking about the more limited set of options you get when you right click a file in Windows 11, just hold shift while right clicking to get the original options. You've actually been able to hold shift to get additional options going way back, I think to windows XP.
There's a lot of extra useful options in there too like opening command prompts to the current folder and copying file paths to the clipboard.
Nevoic 2 points 3 years ago
On this note it's crazy there are people who will spend over $100 on a Windows license, when all they do is use a web browser or simple productivity apps like spreadsheets or word.
I can get if you're using some adobe products, or some game that hasn't been updated to the Linux compatible EAC, but for the vast majority of people paying over $100 (or having that cost passed onto you from the manufacturer if Windows is preinstalled) is crazy.
Ess 3 points 3 years ago
For the self-hosters out there, there's VaultWarden, which works seamlessly with all Bitwarden plugins and apps.
It's very lightweight and easy to setup and run. It has support for multiple accounts, so you can use it for your family, or business, or whatever!
G0FuckThyself 87 points 3 years ago path: 0 1266229, hotness: undefined, score: 87, children: 10
OldFartPhil 7 points 3 years ago
Thanks for the reminder about VLC. I don't use it much any more, but back in the wild west days of audio/video codecs (some of which were paid), VLC would play everything.
G0FuckThyself 6 points 3 years ago path: 0 1266229 1269878 1284197, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 5
G0FuckThyself 1 point 3 years ago path: 0 1266229 1269878 1284197 1308641 1323832, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 2
techgearwhips 2 points 3 years ago
VLC + autohotkey = game changer. I use it every day
LeylaaLovee 4 points 3 years ago
I'd replace PPSSPP with RetroArch
deadcatbounce 82 points 3 years ago
Linux.
RGB3x3 32 points 3 years ago
If there's one service that I'm okay giving my data over for, it's Google maps.
Without that, we wouldn't have traffic data or how busy a business is. Crowd sourcing information is the only way to get a service as good as google maps. It's actually amazing to me that it's free given all of the satellite and street imaging done.
geoma 21 points 3 years ago
I used to contribute to google maps. I had the same vision you do. But then I learned about their dark way of stealing people's data. All your contributions to google maps are now property of google. You are giving away your efforts so one of the richest world companies becomes richer. And keep abusing their users. So now I use openstreetmap.org
IlIllIIIllIlIlIIlI 15 points 3 years ago
I remember when I tried OSM maps for navigate my city a lot of years ago, awful experience. Today is almost perfect and changes in roads are updated so fast. I love OpenStreetMap.
IntlLawGnome 4 points 3 years ago
I had the same experience with OSM maps years ago, but you've convinced me to give it another chance. I'm looking forward to seeing if it handles public transport in Vancouver as well as Google Maps does.
PeterPoopshit 20 points 3 years ago
Yeah why the fuck is that? VSCode has no business being as good as it is. It's developed by Microsoft, after all. Are they planning to take it away from us and charge money for it in a few years? Why does it work on Linux so easily? Is it a government conspiracy to fill our brains with subliminal messages somehow? Wtf is the catch?
My best educated guess is that's it's a ploy of some kind. If Microsoft makes a free code editor that's really good, maybe no one will make a free open source one that's as good so that they will have control over the 1 most viable code editor? There are other things similar to VSCode but they cost money and are too big a pain to pirate because VSCode is better than them anyway.
ralC 11 points 3 years ago
It's not only VSCode, it's also Github and C# and TypeScript to a lesser extent as well, probably. They want to have control over the "coding" ecosystem. And look at what they already did with github, they trained AI on all projects on it, and they then sell access to that AI.
tool 3 points 3 years ago
Github Copilot is worth the money. I've had it finish out functions for me after just a few lines. There's usually an error or two, but the consistency with which it can predict what I'm doing or trying to do is pretty impressive.
aes_256 2 points 3 years ago
Copilot was trained on copylefted code while itself being closed. What was brought to attention by @ralC@lemmy.fmhy.ml isn't efficacy, but Microsoft's lack of ethics and social responsibility when it comes to their bottom line.
PeterPoopshit 1 point 3 years ago
How can we use C# in a responsible and FOSS way? A huge advantage of C# is that it can't run into include order problems like C++ can. This makes it easier to make better object oriented games because the object structure can be more useful and you can get better results even if your object structure planning wasn't as well thought-out.
geoma 6 points 3 years ago
Here might lie the answer to your question: https://en.wikipedia.org/...
BlackRose 4 points 3 years ago
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kibiz0r 1 point 3 years ago
They learned their lesson with the old Visual Studio. Spending all of that money to maintain an IDE where the core 90% of it was no better than any open source or shareware alternative.
The only reasons people needed VS specifically were all features that could easily be turned into self-contained plugins.
And with everything turning into cloud services, there’s pretty much no point in trying to sell installable local apps that are impossible to fully DRM and have no justifiable subscription fees.
And when an enterprise goes to pick a cloud repo service, cloud code workspace, cloud hosting, devops system, AI development assistant, etc… Who are they gonna pick? Maybe the one from the same company that makes “that one app all our devs rave about”?
phoukas 8 points 3 years ago
I feel like the Google maps algorithm has gotten worse over the last year or so. Maybe it's the Android auto interfacing with my car, but it sends me on weird routes sometimes even with a similar eta. I think it might be related to the eco settings but man is it annoying.
kibiz0r 2 points 3 years ago
Their privacy policy says they don’t sell your data.
Not that you should automatically trust any communication platform (present Lemmies excluded), but exchange of data for services is at least not the business model on paper.
In a sense, you still “are the product”, because people won’t buy Nitro if there’s noone to talk to.
But that’s different from like… tracking micro-motions of your mouse to categorize your personality traits and increase ad conversions.
geoma 2 points 3 years ago
Please have a look at this about Discord Terms of Service:
kibiz0r 2 points 3 years ago
Looks like that's based on an outdated TOS. Even then, those terms are pretty tame except for the one about transferable license for uploaded content, which has thankfully been narrowed by a lot in the current TOS. (Now it just means: We're allowed to store your images on S3, resize them, and show them to people you specifically selected to send them to.)
For a company that's worried about 230 safe harbor, GDPR, CCPA, and wants to promote their first-party products at you, this is all standard.
Also:
This service does not sell your personal data
MostlyGibberish 11 points 3 years ago
Here's a list of all the official and third party Jellyfin apps
frippa 8 points 3 years ago
There's an app on f-Droid, there's an app on the Linux app store (Pls don't get mad at the name, i switched to Linux less than a month ago) that's as much as I need, I don't own a "smart" TV, I don't own a car with an iPad, my fridge is dumb so the only screens I need supported are the Linux pc and the phone, and those screens are supported.
piskertariot 3 points 3 years ago
I gave Jellyfin a full year, and at the end of that year, the problematic Chromecast support did me in. Back to Plex I went.
ProfezzorDarke 9 points 3 years ago
Oh god yes. Like GiMP, but like, usable.
solidneutral 51 points 3 years ago
LibreOffice for word processing and spreadsheets.
jcg 9 points 3 years ago
Honestly the open source office suites are pretty amazing now. It's what put me off Linux initially all those years ago, how Word/Excel just felt way better than LibreOffice, but now even the browser based stuff is on par.
OsrsNeedsF2P 2 points 3 years ago
I've only ever used Google Drive suite for my office work so that was super easy on Linux. I've heard people who crunch huge datasets in Excel don't have an alternative though
original_reader 50 points 3 years ago
path: 0 1325848, hotness: undefined, score: 50, children: 0
OpenStreetMap is a free, editable map of the world, created and maintained by millions of volunteers. It includes data about roads, buildings, shops, points of interest, and more.
Many of the benefits of Google Maps without all its spying and advertising.
Bonus in line with this: OsmAnd.
Edit: a more lightweight, but fully FOSS OSM client: Organic Maps. Blazing fast and under constant development.
Edit 2: Here is a Lemmy community dedicated to OsmAnd: !osmand@lemmy.ml
MostlyGibberish 50 points 3 years ago
Taking the opportunity to get on my soapbox and remind everyone that free software still requires someone's time and effort to maintain. If you've been using a free app for a while and you and you enjoy it (and you have the means to do so), consider sending a donation to the developers/maintainers! It's a good way to help ensure that the great, free app you enjoy stays great and free.
Ess 6 points 3 years ago
If I might add to your excellent reminder, that if you're lacking on funds but have some coding skills, most projects are in need of some help. Stick your head into the dev forum and try a low-hanging bug.
If you can't code, MANY projects need help with documentation, translation, marketing, fund raising, etc.
Writing a comprehensive positive review on an app store or review site can have an impact.
If you do have a few bucks but need more for them than a donation can offer, buying their products (when available) - even just stickers and mugs helps to spread the word around while also supporting the developers.
pwalker 49 points 3 years ago
Weawow is a completly (also ad-)free weather forecast app run basically solo by a Japanese guy. I was surprised when I found this app that it was so good in every aspect that I had to donate the guy. It has has more than half a Mio. reviews on google play with an average of 4.9 . Idk of any free app with that many reviews having this kind of rating, well deserved.
Further honorable mentions:
- Vivaldi browser
- Joplin notes app
- nextcloud
- wikipedia (obviously)
- Öffi
- Signal
- keepass
- rif for reddit (R.I.P)
EuphoricPenguin22 46 points 3 years ago
Additive Manufacturing
FreeCAD Linkstage - RealThunder's fork of the FOSS CAD package is less buggy, has improved rendering, and is much easier to use.
PrusaSlicer - A snappy alternative to Cura for slicing 3D models for printing. A lot of awesome features and it's constantly under development.
Blender - I've done a little here and there with Blender, but Cycles works great for product renders. It's such a vast and amazing program that can accommodate so many different use-cases.
Music Production
LMMS - An FL Studio-like DAW with a simplified workflow and robust features. Lackluster plug-in support out of the box, but the addition of a VST host and waveform editor make it a fully-featured way to make music.
Element - Fully open-source VST host with support for VST3. Also works as a standalone application, which means you can create plug-in chains without touching your DAW. You can also save presets of those chains, and do crazy signal routing with the two-dimensional geometry nodes-esque UI.
Vital/Vitalium - It's literally FOSS Serum. You can follow Serum tutorials, and have them turn out. A wavetable synth that's so darn easy to use, you'll never want to use anything else. This is the quintessential FOSS future bass producer's synth.
Dexed - DX7 cartridge manager and emulator. It sounds like an awesome 80s FM synth; what can I say? Must-have for synthwave and noodling around with new sounds.
Sforzando/SFZ - An open standard and a free player for said open standard. Allows for what are essentially lossless, unzipped soundfonts.
VSCO/VSCL - A few decent symphonic instrument libraries based around SFZ. Both are CC0.
Freepats - A decent place to find more SFZ instruments. A few classics like a dry Tele and a few CC0 pianos live here.
Audacity- The only FOSS waveform editor worth using. It's extremely flexible, has a ton of useful built-in effects, and makes for a great companion to LMMS when you need to make more in-depth edits to samples.
Cardinal - FOSS fork of VCV as a VST, which enables you to create crazy virtual eurorack creations and play them with MIDI. You can also use it standalone, and the sheer number of built-in plug-ins basically guarantees your dream of automatic music generating machines are only a few clicks away.
MusicGen - A recent ML tool by Facebook that can be run locally; essentially SOTA on few-shot text-to-waveform music generation. If you have a somewhat-high-end GPU, it will probably work for you. A great tool for sampling into weird ambient tracks.
RVC - A recent tool that is fast to train and provides extremely realistic voice-to-voice conversion, especially for vocals. Ever see those AI SpongeBob singing memes? This is probably how they did it.
Photo Editing/Design
PhotoGIMP - While I'm still using Photoshop, PhotoGIMP is an add-on for GIMP that attempts to port the Photoshop UI to... GIMP. It's mildly successful, and potentially can ease the pains of transitioning to a new program. I'm honestly too lazy to switch at this point, but it looked promising when I peeked the last time.
Inkscape - I suck at vector anything, but this program proved to be useful on occasion. I believe it's a serious competitor to Illustrator if you bother to learn how to use it properly.
A1111's Web UI - Now totally FOSS, this absolutely insane piece of software integrates with so many different useful plug-ins to accomplish basically any conceivable image generation or AI-with-images task imaginable. You can literally do anything from normal text-to-image generation to upscaling or colorizing, and even img2img; it's multi-modal to no end.
EDA/PCB Design
KiCAD - Hands down the best EDA package I've used. Granted, it's the only one I've used. Still, this is how FOSS software for engineering purposes should be designed. I wish they would send their UX people over to help FreeCAD out. If you need to design a PCB for anything at all, use KiCAD, period.
Programming
NodeJS - The sole reason JavaScript is worth learning for more general computing tasks; with the sheer variety of packages on NPM, it feels like you can do anything.
VSCodium - All of what makes VSCode worth using, and none of the creepy MS telemetry.
General Computing
7zip - The one program to conquer all archive formats. It works, and it's absolutely tiny. I've even installed this on Windows 2000, and of course it worked fine.
LibreOffice - Occasionally buggy, but certainly the best FOSS office package currently available. LibreOffice Writer and Calc are especially usable and work great.
VLC - Is there anything this traffic cone can't play? Superb video and audio codec compatibility, although it won't play a MIDI unless you feed FluidSynth a soundfont to atone for your sins.
Strawberry - For when you want to listen to tons of music, but you hate the clunky nature of other audio managers. Strawberry basically doesn't use a DB, and instead edits metadata directly. It will also instantly update when you add new songs or change metadata, so you rarely have to restart it. It's the fastest way to manage tons of music I've found.
PCPartPicker - A website, but still worth mentioning. This is basically the only tolerable way to part out a PC, and it makes sharing specs of your recent projects trivial.
Rufus - Someone else mentioned this one, but it's basically the only tolerable way to create bootable installation media. Works well, and it's FOSS.
Operating Systems
Manjaro KDE - The closest you can get to SteamOS's desktop mode. Based on Arch, like SteamOS, and the same DE as SteamOS.
ZorinOS - Tolerable derivative of Ubuntu LTS, especially for Windows natives.
Games/Emulators
Quadrapassel - Best Linux Tetris clone ever conceived. It's in my Steam Deck library, for Pete's sake.
Yuzu - Pairs well with a PC handheld and a "screw Nintendo" attitude. The Switch emulator that is often marginally faster (and often slightly less accurate than) Ryujinx.
OpenRCT2 - RCT, especially the first two games by Chris Sawyer, are some of the best tycoon games ever created. OpenRCT2 is a faithful reimplantation that is going places.
reffugit 2 points 3 years ago
Syncthing allows you to sync directories between devices. I have different folders synced between by Windows desktop, Pi4, Android, tablet, and laptop.
Joplin is an open source note-taking app that I use with Windows and Android. I use Syncthing to sync the notes between my different devices.
Libreoffice is a replacement of MS Office.
confetti_8tVST5 42 points 3 years ago path: 0 1286518, hotness: undefined, score: 42, children: 3
AceFuzzLord 5 points 3 years ago
When I first got KDEConnect on my desktop, it didn't work all too well until I uninstalled and was forced to get the windows store version. It's been working just fine since then, but I couldn't tell you why the standalone version wasn't.
Still, it's such a great tool.
MementoMori 2 points 3 years ago
I genuinely want to use it but I have no idea how or even how to start. Any advice?
ThaijsClan 37 points 3 years ago
I use KeePass every single day
techgearwhips 2 points 3 years ago
Same. Love it so much
original_reader 4 points 3 years ago
This article might help answer that question for you.
piskertariot 2 points 3 years ago
As a recent convert, Bitwarden feels so modern. I'm not 100% comfortable not having my keyfile locally, but I've kept an old copy that I'll maintain with some of the more crucial passwords.
ThaijsClan 1 point 3 years ago
Haven't used or heard of Bitwarden. I'll have to check it out
AngryDemonoid 3 points 3 years ago
I sometimes forget I even use syncthing because I never have to mess with it once it is setup.
DrQuint 7 points 3 years ago
Any mentions of Krita on the internet come attached with one of two conversations.
How good it is, for how more obscure it is versus other art. Often put alongside Paint Tool SAI in the tier list. With 90% of the onlookers claiming to not have ever used either of course.
A weird, borderline unhealthy obsession with discussing the necessity of software mascot characters.
And the latter is then split absolute evenly between nerds who for some reason really dislike Libre Office's mascot and want to shit on all software mascots. And between people who want to fuck her and also fuck anything ever designed by Tyson Tan. And I gotta say, you freaking degenerates, I WANTED to play Freedom Planet 2 but every time I think of that game I also think of this shit and how one of you made this gigantic copypasta about the bat girl and....
What was I talking about?
ErwinLottemann 2 points 3 years ago
LibreOffice has a mascot?!
Krita is good, intuitive wise on the same level as Photoshop for me 😵💫
OsrsNeedsF2P 1 point 3 years ago
I don't use Krita for art either. I use it as a PaintdotNET replacement and it blows it 20km out of the water
SlowNoPoPo 6 points 3 years ago
Krita really is exceptional for free software, started doing digital art in it just for fun and it's crazy how many tools are avaialble
SexualPolytope 34 points 3 years ago
Others have mentioned most of my favorite tools. One thing I'd like to add is SageMath. It's a mathematical software that's comparable/better than commercial offerings like Mathematica and MatLab. I've rarely seen anyone in the academia using anything else these days. If someone does use something else, it's just because they're more used to it. SageMath is by far the best tool for most things math.
Also, while typing about Sage, I was reminded of how great of a tool LaTeX is. If you want to write anything that'll be more than a single page, LaTeX is probably the best way to do it.
kboy101222 -3 points 3 years ago
Gimp could've been actually used personally as a photo manipulation program... If they just didn't name the damn thing GIMP
OsrsNeedsF2P 3 points 3 years ago
It's not the name, it's the UI
(Krita gang)
KijanaBarubaru 32 points 3 years ago
Maps. Gives me accurate directions,live traffic data and anything else I need on the road e.g restaurants,hotels,petrol stations etc.
Exilfranke 16 points 3 years ago
Well, you pay with your data so there's that...
kugel7c 8 points 3 years ago
Yep but honestly live traffic and occupancy for buildings, as well as my own location history for me personally is just too useful. I can find out where I was for essentially any point in time since ~2016 data that would've been lost to me several times if I were to have kept the data myself.
paddytokey 10 points 3 years ago
Seriously it has sort of changed the world. I know I'm just handing all my location data to Google but the way it works and the features it offers are amazing and I cannot imagine a world anymore in which I might get lost if I just take a wrong turn somewhere. That combined with the free messaging has made "finding" anything location related a non issue. I can send people a location to meet, I can look up an address someone gave me, I can send my spouse my live location while I'm on my way home to let her know how far I'm out, I can find a hardware store in a town I've never been to because I need to tape to fix my bag or whatever, people write helpful comments about where to park or whatever. Maps will suggest different routes for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers or find you a public transportation route if you wish, including (usually) the exact time your train or bus or whatever leaves. It's fantastic
bzxt 7 points 3 years ago
Look into OpenStreetMaps site for desktop PCs, and pick one of many android apps for the mobile phones that use OSM (i prefer osmAnd, it has a free premium version on F-droid software store) and you won't be needing to send all your location data to Google ever again.
techgearwhips 1 point 3 years ago
I tried OSM on F-Droid a few months back and it was terrible. It could never find any addresses that I input. Magic Earth is much better. And uses the same backend I believe.
Ess 28 points 3 years ago
GNU!
Just had to give a shout out to Stallman & GNU. I've seen a lot of mentions of thanks to Linux on here, but Richard will never let us forget that Linux ain't shit w/o GNU software to interact with it.
Just think of the number of GNU programs you've used, just in a typical day on the terminal.
My hat is off to you, Richard.
JoeClu 2 points 3 years ago
So I just tried this, on Android. Yes it is pretty nice. Wish it would do plain .txt files too. Or even source code and syntaxes highlighting for different file types. Limited to just MD files sucks. Not really interested in the whole "canvas" thing. UI is a bit clunky on Android, but not terrible.
Currently using Acode front F-Droid for Android, which addresses the issues named above. And it's FOSS, which Obsidian is not.
Hexarei 6 points 3 years ago
Obsidian isn't meant to be a general purpose text editor, it's a personal wiki; None of the things you mentioned are its goals, though it can highlight source code in code blocks.
It's meant to be a second brain, with interlinking between notes and ideas a la the Zettelkasten method. I use it for keeping everything from DND notes to local documentation on my home lab, to meeting notes... Think Notion or the like, if you're familiar.
Here's a great overview by one of my favorite YouTube channels: https://youtu.be/DbsAQSIKQXk
For general purpose editing, I personally use Neovim in Termux.
PipedLinkBot 3 points 3 years ago
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/DbsAQSIKQXk
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
gornius 1 point 3 years ago
Markdown has code blocks with syntax highlighting.
soyagi 27 points 3 years ago
I can't believe Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/) is free. It has nearly all the same features as Photoshop and works in just the same way. But it runs in the browser! Super quick, regularly updated, and free. Amazing.
LoyalOrange503 26 points 3 years ago path: 0 1334963, hotness: undefined, score: 26, children: 0
OldFartPhil 26 points 3 years ago
Limiting myself to free as in freedom (no ads, not free to use because you are the product): KeePass/KeePassXC, GnuCash, Firefox, LibreOffice, digiKam, GIMP.
FinalRemix 3 points 3 years ago
Digikam runs on my old thinkpad and handles hundreds of photos a session without batting the proverbial eye. It really is fantastic.
Saltarello 26 points 3 years ago
OsmAnd. Navigated me through numerous countries on holiday. Found us places to eat. So useful it persuaded me to start updating the map locally to help any fellow travelers
Joplin notes. Use this every day without fail
Nextcloud. Self hosted cloud that Ive come to rely on
NENathaniel 25 points 3 years ago
Signal and Telegram
WillyWonksters 13 points 3 years ago
Signal is certainly not. It's open source, and verifiably end-to-end encrypted. The only information that they have about you is your phone number, when your account was created, and when you last connected to the service.
Telegram is not so privacy friendly, with a major problem being that it's not end-to-end encrypted by default.
OsrsNeedsF2P 3 points 3 years ago
Signal is hostile to third party apps, but there are still third party apps for it, including Molly. If Signal were selling data, Molly devs would have found it.
semperverus 8 points 3 years ago
Is the source code still tainted or did they remove the telemetry after the backlash?
dQw4w9WgXcQ 25 points 3 years ago
DaVinci Resolve was the last app to really surprise me. It's a fantastic app for video editing with a ton of functionality. Most of the paid functions seem like composite fuctions of the free functions or overly professional tools, but for getting started with simple 2D- or 3D-animations or short film editing, it's beyond amazing.
KijanaBarubaru 4 points 3 years ago
Nice to see another darktable user! I also learnt so much about photo processing thanks to their tutorials. It's very technical stuff that went ober my head mostly but it was fun to read.
Admax 4 points 3 years ago
Sadly it's the case for a lot of open source softwares I feel. I've had the same feed back on GIMP.
But honestly once you get used to it, it has some really great tools that actually make it just as powerful (if not more depending on who you ask) than its direct competitor: Adobe Lightroom.
It's a little rough to get into it, but imo it's worth the investment.
TheFonz 2 points 3 years ago
For sure. Darktable is very powerful. I don't understand why FOSS struggles with UX/UI so much. We know what works and what doesn't. Can we have a baseline that's at least somewhat usable? Blender does a great job, but I don't know if that counts as FOSS
the16bitgamer 24 points 3 years ago
FreeCAD. All the CAD you need without the subscription and blocked off features.
elboyoloco 3 points 3 years ago
I also agree. Use audodesk inventor for work and fusion 360 for personal use. I tried freecad and could not do it.
kboy101222 3 points 3 years ago
Agreed. Using free CAD feels so substantially worse than literally any other option.
I believe SketchUp is also free for most users, and I'd much rather use it if I don't want to pay. It's not FOSS, but FOSS ≠ good
portalsentinel 3 points 3 years ago
It's FOSS!
phanto 24 points 3 years ago
I don't know if this will show up or is already in the list, but: Rufus. I burn all my thumb drives for os installs with Rufus. It also lets me bypass a lot of the windows garbage that they've tracked on to the installer, like making you sign in to a Microsoft account to install. Also, Ventoy. It's a multiple OS installer, so one big thumb drive lets me install any number of OSes from it.
While I'm setting up those OSes, ninite gets me my windows programs, and Snappy Driver Installer Origin gets me my drivers. No more laptops with pre-installed bloat for me!
Beanerrr 23 points 3 years ago
For both professional and personal use, I can list 2 that you likely haven't heard of:
https://github.com/meowtec/Imagine Imagine PNG/JPEG optimization - it basically compresses images and photos so you can email lots of stuff back and forth without using the likes of WeTransfer.
https://ditto-cp.sourceforge.io/ Ditto Clipboard Manager - a multi clipboard for Windows. Ever try to paste something, only to realise you've already copied over it? Its use and helpfulness is so ubiquitous, I just could never live without it anymore.
lightswitchr 17 points 3 years ago
Windows has a clipboard feature like that built in now. Press Win+V to enable it.
original_reader 1 point 3 years ago
That's a far cry from what Ditto can do.
Antimutt 1 point 3 years ago
FileOptimizer collects these sorts of apps and tries out each on your files to get the best compression. I use it every day, particularly for work.
perishthethought 9 points 3 years ago
I'm checking out vscodium this week, thanks to another lemee thread, and so far it's great, without the MS surveillance.
JoyfulCodingGuy 1 point 3 years ago
That's all I use and it's been great!
Anticorp 5 points 3 years ago
I'm usually really against that sort of stuff, but I'm okay with it in this case since it has become somewhat of a circular loop. They pump that data into ChatGPT, which gets consumed by GitHub Copilot, which gets pumped into VS code, which gets consumed by me.
StorageB 3 points 3 years ago
The fact that they release Cura for free, make it available on all platforms (Mac/Windows/Linux), continuously improve and update it, and have incorporated the setup of basically every 3D printer you can buy is amazing.
Also, octoprint is free and open source and is incredible as well.
skeesiks 4 points 3 years ago
ReadEra was the only App that was able to load my huge book collection and search it, after trying over a dozen other apps. It's very well programmed.
Koreader which is also mentioned in this thread couldn't handle it.
DeltaTangoLima 20 points 3 years ago
Proxmox and OPNsense. Blows me away that I can get that level of functionality completely open source.
klangcola 4 points 3 years ago
Proxmox is so good it's hard to believe. It's VMware levels of features and convenience, while also supporting LXC containers, no license shenanigans, no enshitification, and the full flexibility of Debian under the hood
The recent-ish addition of Proxmox Backup Server is the cherry on top, with de-duplicated , incremental system image level backups with support for individual file restore
makeasnek 20 points 3 years ago
BOINC. If you're a scientist, you can use it to distribute massive computational workloads for free. And there are tons of computing volunteers who will gladly do the computation for you. If you love science, it's a great way to engage with some cutting edge research projects and know that you're "doing my part!". You can help research cancer, develop new open source drugs, map the galaxy, or just do some fun math stuff. Just install and pick your projects, no PhD required! There was even a projects for a while to reverse all the minecraft seeds that some people participated in. https://sopuli.xyz/c/boinc
kuroyousei 10 points 3 years ago
That doesn't make any sense. Necessity is the driving factor for it to cost money
asparagus_p 8 points 3 years ago
Except for basic human rights
kuroyousei 2 points 3 years ago
I believe that the only basic human right is the right to participate and function in your local society (whatever that means to your individual situation). In other words, you dont really have the innate right to anything, but you absolutely have the right to participate and receive the amount of benefit from others that you provide to them. For better or worse (and im not going to argue about it) the way we do that today, in this society, is currency.
techgearwhips 19 points 3 years ago
Rclone, Neat Downloader, VLC, FreeCommanderXE, LMMS, any Keepass program, Rufus, Gimp, Notepad++, 7zip, ffmpeg, yt-DLP
EzekielJK 19 points 3 years ago
Here's how you actually free space on your computer in a way that matters without installing some malware "fix-it" program or need a computer divining rod to find every random file:
WizTree: Scan your entire computer hards drive(s) in a matter of seconds and display a very useful graph and data about where your space it being taken up. It's eons faster and easier to use than the leading competitor WinDirStat to the point where I can't imagine why anyone would use something that isnt WizTree.
BCUninstaller: It helps uninstall as many apps and programs off of your computer automatically with little to no user interaction needed beyond hitting the "start" button
BleachBit: It deletes all the temporary and nonessential stuff that gets accumulated over time. It won't clear as much as BCUninstaller or deleting stuff with WizTree and a lot of apps will generate most temporary files again anyways but I do typically see a decrease of around a gigabyte or two. Worth a shot in any case.
Winget: While not a software in the general sense, Winget is a package manager built into Windows 10/11 itself that lets you automatically download, configure, and install a ton of programs in one command via command prompt or PowerShell.
Every single program I've listed here are available on Winget.
HazardBastard 18 points 3 years ago
As a Mechanic. Ampol Netlube, from lawn mowers and passenger vehicle to motorcycles and heavy mining/industrial equipment, I can find how much lubricant it take, what viscosity and specifications.
PatFussy 17 points 3 years ago
Youtube hands down. Youtube is the best dad, best teacher, biggest information hub, and arguably the best meme generator in existence. The fact i can dive into any type of video content and come out feeling like i gained so much is incredible.
UnixWeeb 6 points 3 years ago
Depending on how you look at it then yes its not free. Though you could use something like Libretube to prevent both ads and any form of analytical data from being collected.
Though other alternatives like revanced manager prevent ads and give premium benefits. Not sure about the analytical instance of it though.
c0mbatbag3l 3 points 3 years ago
Revanced stopped working for me awhile back. I use newpipe now.
EricHill78 1 point 3 years ago
I wish I was able to log in with newpipe. Other than that it’s a great app.
Nioxic 1 point 3 years ago
You can use piped instead.
Its built on opensource. A youtube frontend without tracking, ads etc.
randromeda 5 points 3 years ago
I haven't paid a cent for YouTube in my life. Wouldn't that mean it's free?
ToastyBanana -3 points 3 years ago
You either pay for the product or are the product.
RenardDesMers 5 points 3 years ago
This sentence was so used while being wrong because of free software
G0FuckThyself 1 point 3 years ago path: 0 1267430 1267517, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
static_motion 9 points 3 years ago
I second this, incredible product all around. Even better, they recently changed the free tier from allowing 20 devices to 100. An upgraded free tier is not something you see often.
Lorela 4 points 3 years ago
Honestly I like Daylio so much I pay for premium.
The only thing I don't like (not sure if this feature is present on desktop) is that you can't extract and chart activity data over long periods of time. E.g. I want to see patterns of activity, but not relative to mood or other activities.
insaneinthemembrane 3 points 3 years ago
Oh thank you for this recommendation. I've been wanting something like this for ages but couldn't describe it properly to find it.
karmiclychee 3 points 3 years ago
I used this for a bit as data collection to help me and my therapist to track my depression. There are a bunch of free CBT apps out there for they kind of thing too.
apolinariomabussy 16 points 3 years ago
ShareX. The ability to screenshot or record a video of practically anything onscreen with any shape or form, assign hotkeys to certain tasks, and the ability to automate all of that and attach to other applications/processes for a smoother workflow? For free? Count me in.
violetraven 2 points 3 years ago
I've been using ViMusic daily when I drive. For what I can't find I use NewPipe
vacuumflower 14 points 3 years ago
ffmpeg, imagemagick, povray, supercollider, blender ...
I'd also say amule, qbittorrent, fopnu (freeware, but not free), retroshare.
There are likely many others. EDIT: ... I can't quickly remember.
SapphicFemme 14 points 3 years ago
Jerboa
MostlyGibberish 11 points 3 years ago
Taking the opportunity to get on my soapbox and remind everyone that free software still requires someone's time and effort to maintain. If you've been using a free app for a while and you and you enjoy it (and you have the means to do so), consider sending a donation to the developers/maintainers! It's a good way to help ensure that the great, free app you enjoy stays great and free.
momtheregoesthatman 11 points 3 years ago
Duplicati. It just works. Paired with Backblaze (not free) it's been our default home backup for a long time.
wakamo 10 points 3 years ago
DMDE. I know they have free and paid version. Even with the free version I was able to recover 500gb of data 100% with all the folder structure intact. With the free version you will have to manually select each directories but it was worth the effort.
Also Mega. I have multiple legacy accounts that has permanent 50gb space.
Antimutt 10 points 3 years ago
The Portable Apps Platform - free portable software meta app. It's there, every day, like the Windows start button is there.
Brochetudo 8 points 3 years ago
GNU Texmacs.
I'm never, ever again wasting my time typing in sketchy and weird latex commands. Point and click. Easy and to the point.
assembly 3 points 3 years ago
I used OpenVPN for years and deployed it across numerous places I worked and at home, amazing project. I feel a bit guilty for switching to wireguard a couple years back but it really is amazingly fast.
ItsComplicated 7 points 3 years ago
Signal and Weawow. Although I have donated since they are wonderful apps IMO.
Kolanaki 7 points 3 years ago
Your simple, every day, web browser. It doesn't matter which one. They're all free and they all are the main, basic way of accessing the internet.
I'd have used "the internet" itself, but most people still have to pay to get connected to it.
SixTrickyBiscuits 7 points 3 years ago
lichess
elboyoloco 6 points 3 years ago
KiCad. A full suite of software for full PCB (printed circuit board) design and development. Super cool software.
TheLonelyDude2049 6 points 3 years ago
SwiftBackup! It helps me a lot every time I need to try a new custom ROM.
SpezHater69 5 points 3 years ago
Tixati for downloading torrents
Lolors17 4 points 3 years ago
Warpinator. Use it all the Time, easy file transfer without and fuss.
Want to transfer files between your PC and Phone? -No Problem
Want to send some Screenshots from your Steam-Deck to your PC? - You can do it too.
Lombaxter_Stockman 4 points 3 years ago
For me, Reaper without a doubt. I've been doing audio work for the better part of a decade now it's become my main DAW of choice for the last 5 years. Technically a license costs you $60, but every feature is available in the "trial" version that never expires. SWS script support and the insane amount community skins/extensions makes it well worth the $60 if you plan on buying. I've replaced many ProTools with Reaper setups.....
SinningStromgald 4 points 3 years ago
Calculator.
Notepad.
SinningStromgald 0 points 3 years ago
Considering how easy it is to not pay for Windows I'd saying paying is optional at this point.
Sweetyellowwatermelon 3 points 3 years ago
tachij2k, i use it for all my comic book, manga, and hentai needs. easy to use. access to a bunch of websites. I can download for offline uses. Amazing app.
unhook2048 3 points 3 years ago
Putty Linux... yes, just linux in general. tools like arping, locate, grep, less, tail, awk... all free. That entire os is free, and that blows my mind
blendedracer 1 point 3 years ago
QGIS (https://qgis.org/en/site/). A Free and Open Source Geographic Information System. There are also free basemaps available - I use the same basemaps as I use at work in ArcGIS Pro.
lustyargonian 0 points 3 years ago
Google maps
pewgar_seemsimandroid -3 points 3 years ago
any web browser
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asklemmy
@lemmy.ml
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A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
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- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
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- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
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