Lemmy seems like the right place to ask this. Personally I’ve really enjoyed Gurgle, which is a FOSS Wordle clone app.
Libre office, a great office option. I’ve been using it for 15 years. Foreshadowing
VLC, Plays media. It’s a tank. Also Highways use VLC to mark many winter potholes.
Linux, It’s not that hard to use anymore.( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
WINE, not just for one night stands! it’s great for running Windows Stuff on Linux.
Also, and my personal favorite, your mom is free and open source. Mic Drop going to bed. With your mom. Wasn’t expecting that twice were you? Well, neither was your mom. Got 'em.
Also Highways use VLC to mark many winter potholes
I was searching for some kind of VLC based image / video processing algorithm to detect potholes
Was this a joke about how the logo is a traffic cone
VLC: Very Large Cone
Yes. Very much so.
mpv has superior playback quality to VLC in my opinion.
I’ve also find mpv about a thousand times faster to start up.
And to seek to position!
Aren’t they both based on ffmpeg? Surely any quality difference is just a configuration issue?
Yes. If I remember correctly VLC was originally configured (maybe still is) to network streams and prioritize no lag. That’s why you get weird artifacts in VLC sometimes that’s not present in mpv.
I use celluloid, because I absolutely hate the mpv interface. Seriously, how unexplorable and unintuitive can you make it?
It’s driven by keyboard shortcuts
Yes, that is deeply connected with being unexplorable.
Celluloid is also keyboard driven. But in celluloid there are clearly marked buttons for the most used functions and I can open the menu to check the keyboard shortcuts. Not so in mpv.
For what it’s worth, I think celluloid is a thin wrapper around mpv with the only purpose to provide a better UI. And I’m very thankful for and happy with that.
I really like the idea of Celluloid. However, last time I tried, it somehow felt less performant than pure mpv. Colors a bit washed out and not perfectly smooth playback. Should try it again soon.
MPC-HC instead of VLC https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc (the still maintained one) (windows only)
For me VLC had issues to stream very high bitrate content on my pc. MPC-HC used less resources while being smooth too.
I will say that on Windows at least I prefer MPC-HC because of how much smaller and snappier it is compared to VLC.
Libre office, a great office option. I’ve been using it for 15 years. Foreshadowing
I love LO as well, it’s perfect if you’re used to old versions of MS Office and like to be in control of everything. A good open-source alternative for the new releases of MS Office is Onlyoffice.
Krita 🎨🖌️
It’s literally FOSS Adobe Illustrator, why do people don’t use it??
I thought Inkscape was FOSS Illustrator
Probably should add darktable in here as FOSS Photoshop Lightroom Classic.
edit: and Scribus as FOSS Adobe InDesign
And also FOSS Photoshop. Without the annoying subscription model and AI scraping. And way more comfortable to use than GIMP.
I would say GIMP (+ extensions) is still the FOSS version of Photoshop.
Of course, i would love to have a fully fledged program without such a steep learning curve.
But i think Krita is fine as it is.
So i wished there was another just as good program that filled that void.
https://www.photopea.com/ could be an option, depending on your needs.
Photopea is excellent, but FOSS it is not.
Any extensions you would suggest for GIMP?
photogimp
Unfortunately my knowledge only goes for the base program. But i’ve heard many saying that with the right time and extensions GIMP does replace Photoshop.
I remember the first time I tried Krita and clearly thinking “Wait, is this a community project?!?”
Here is Krita usage in a timelapse of editing a webcomic(CC-by) by David Revoy. (My current selection for GOAT comic artist)
You mean a FOSS Clip Studio Paint or maybe Paint Tool SAI? IIRC Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based program
This is what I use if I can’t use Illustrator - it’s also got some terrific conversion tools. Currently the only app i know that can open and convert old Fireworks files.
Because I prefer to just pirate the entire Adobe suite
Ublock Origin. The amount of people going through life exposing themselves to ads is tragic. It’s so unhealthy and most people aren’t aware that there is a simple and free way of protecting yourself from the psychological warfare that corpos use against society
I don’t understand how people do not get blood red angry at advertising more often. Its the root of a lot of our problems with censorship and they flat out just exploit what little free time we all get.
By the time I get home I got 3 hours to chill. Then these ads take up 1/3 of that selling me shit I never asked for. They indirectly forced every platform I ever enjoyed to become these homogenous boring vanilla time sinks. That’s because they pay one content safe creator and then the rest start to copy them. Now if I want to avoid ads, I have to pay extra fees which fuck it, the content creators circumvent by putting ads directly into the media.
We should all be more hostile to any encroachment of ads into our lives. Its weird that instead I see people embracing it like it isn’t a cancer. We’ve lost the freedoms we had on thr internet to these ads and nobody seems to care.
deleted by creator
Reminder that the FBI recommends people to use ad blocking
Jellyfin, it’s pretty simple and if you have a spare computer, a decent connection (and by decent I don’t mean even a decent one by 21th century standards, I still have a 100/10mbps ADSL) and a 2/4tb Hdd, you can host your own FOSS Netflix/Hulu with all the shows you want, if you’re in a county where “sailing the seven seas” is a huge deal, the only subscription would be a cheap VPN or even better something like real debrid.
Literally, and I mean literally, just downloaded this yesterday because I was tired of using Syncthing to pass media files back and forth between my phone and my NAS.
Plex is a shit show, charging you to view remote files.
Got any recommendations on where to put together a decent setup? The documentation seems a bit sparse.
The “best” setup (simplest to maintain, not to set up), is using docker to host jellyfin, sonarr, radarr, lidarr, transmission with wireguard VPN, and prowlarr for all of your media needs. Jellyfin plays stuff, sonarr manages shows, radarr: movies, lidarr: music, prowlarr: your sources for said media. Transmission + wireguard VPN for the downloading.
But then you are getting into self hosting stuff which opens up a whole good, but time consuming rabbit hole
Do you use the flatpak version on Linux? I’m a bit of a noob but I think due to flatpak sandboxing it can’t access your home folder or something, so I had this problem where it could only access my /media/ external HDD.
Aside from that, I just make folders named something unambiguous like “jellyfin documentaries”, make a jellyfin directory from the control panel, name it something like “documentaries” link the two and then add the documentaries and then scan the libraries. (i may have misunderstood your question lol sry, English is my 2nd Lang)
I tried to use Emby and Plex since both were available bydefault on my NAS, good lord they both suck ass and charge for the most basic functions. Switched to Jellyfin, so much smoother and completely free.
Wow, I’ve just downloaded and set up Jellyfin based on your post. It took literally 20 minutes and looks like it will immediately replace the awkward DLNA Serviio setup I had running. Amazing
Well nice to know (^_-)
Just so you know, there are custom CSS themes aviable on some official page I don’t remember, but if you look up “jellyfin custom CSS” an official jellyfin page should come up, they look so much better.
Blender is my favorite open source tool I wish I knew how to use :)
I’d love to use it for creating my own designs and took several attempts at learning it. But I always end up giving up on it due to lack of time and energy.Did you use the youtube tutorials from the doughnut guy?
I tried to learn blender by just using it and googling the issues but gave up several times. Then I bit the bullet and went trough a proper video tutorial. Most of them run at increments of 10-20 minutes and each one reaches enough to be useful on its own.
Another tip is to do lots of tiny things you can reasonably make in a weekend before doing big things.
I prefer to use tutorials I can read and reference. But I’m willing to give videos a try if you say it’s a good one for a total beginner.
Could you give me a link?
Same
Blender has one of the hardest learning curves I have experienced so far. It simply does so much and there is so much to remember. It’s worth it, but man, it’s intense.
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an open-source (open data) project. OpenStreetMap is a collaborative mapping platform that allows users from around the world to contribute, edit, and use geographical data. The data and software behind OSM are open-source, which means they are freely available for anyone to view, use, modify, and distribute under open licenses.
The data contributed to OpenStreetMap islicensed under the Open Database License (ODbL). This license allows for the free use of the data as long as proper attribution is given and any derivative works are also made available under the same open license.
I got addicted to using and contributing on OSM daily and enjoy spending my time improving the map. In fact a lot of closed source maps such as Google Maps and Apple Maps pull from some of the OSM data, so everyone gets to benefit from contributions.
In case you’re looking into this out of curiosity, check out the Beginner’s Guide and try to verify that the data around your neighborhood is correct and maybe add a point of interest (PoI) or a street name or two. Beware, it gets addictive quite fast.
OSM is also used for humanitarian use thanks to the HOT tasking platform. For example the majority of relief effort in Turkey’s February earthquake, Sri Lanka flooding, and the recent Marocco earthquake. Mapping can literally help save lives. It’s fun and easy too!
I love OSM, I try to put notes to fix things when I see them (for example, one-way streets that aren’t properly set up, or left turns that aren’t allowed). One day I’ll hopefully have the confidence to fix things myself.
I use Osmand mostly, as it allows me to easily have everything offline. (Plus I can sideload/back up the maps on android)
There is a fun app called StreetComplete than makes it easy to complete missing info and I suppose fix it too.
Also OSM usually beats Apple and Google by a mile when it comes to route planning for bicycles. I think it’s one part techbros being eternally car brained and one part if you’re a cyclist the chance you’re the kind of crank to contribute to things like OSM is exponentially increased.
I’ve been using this as my main map app for years. Ive never contributed though, and will do that next!
Additionally, if you’re into mapping, give QGIS a try.
It’s an open source geospatial data management application, which is available cross-platform.
It neatly integrates many processing tools into a relatively intuitive GUI, and having even some basic skill can lead to some job opportunities.
You can even import OSM data through plugins or download services, which you can use for all kinds of fancy things.
Is there a decent option for using OSM with Android Auto? I want to move away from Google as much as possible, but Mapfactor’s routing is… well, terrible.
There is a (somewhat) active community here too: [email protected]
I once saw a comment about an app that made it easier to contribute to OSM. Do you know which one that might be?
You can also try the webapp https://mapcomplete.org
That was very likely Street Complete which is self explanatory and a great way to start. You are adding all kinds of useful information about any kind of object or building with this.
There’s also Vespucci which allows to alter the whole map (ie edit streets, POIs and so on) but takes a lot more to get familiar with.
Home Assistant. If you ever want to do home automation properly, this is the way. Works with pretty much anything—Zigbee, zWave, BT LE, MQTT—while keeping things manufacturer agnostic, local, private and highly responsive (your commands don’t need to go through some server 3000 km away and won’t have ugly 1 second latency as a result).
DAVx⁵ and Radicale to sync contacts and calendars between devices without snooping middle-men.
Syncthing to sync any files between devices. Works remotely, too, thanks to Syncthing relays.
Navidrome for your personal music streaming service.
Debian, Docker, Docker Compose and Portainer as the backbone to run all your services.
And many others.
One of the best things about HASS is the counterweight it applies to the home automation industry.
When everyone is trying to lock people in to proprietary systems, the hass community is keen to find alternatives.“To use this temperature sensor, you must use our hub and app”
2 days later: ‘Good news everyone, it’s manchester coding on 433Mhz, and I’ve written a direct integration for rtl_433’I’d actually recommend Podman over Docker nowadays. It’s basically a drop in replacement and embraces open source while Docker’s moving more in the direction of a closed monetized model.
I really want to use podman, but the compose part in it is still a bit too far behind
I guess I’m pretty basic with my compose files, what did you end up running into with that?
Proton.
I know it might not be in the spirit of the thread because it’s not something you download and use as it’s own thing but it has allowed me to exclusively run Linux on my gaming PC. I think more folks should try it to slowly tip the scales more on Linux.
Do you mean, using it without Steam? I do use Proton with Steam. AC Valhalla runs so great.
Using it with steam or without. I personally use it with steam as well, it’s amazing. Hopefully we reach a point where publishers are incentivised to make sure their games run smoothly on Linux at launch through proton.
For anyone doing academic writing, I use a combination of Logseq, Zotero, and Zettlr. All open source. Collect articles in Zotero. Annotate and take notes on those articles in Logseq with absolutely amazing PDF annotation tools. Write draft in Zettlr which allows me to enter Zotero citations and reference Logseq notes.
Bonus shoutout to LibreOffice for exporting and formatting the final draft. And that’s your recipe for one all-natural, organic, FOSS thesis!
I guess, i love you The PDF annotation part always bothered me. Will give it a try
I… love you too?
Zotero is such a lifesaver. I started using it to allow for easier citations and reference lists but I’ve loved being able to keep my sources organized and saved in one place while doing research. The browser extensions are also super convenient to save everything to sort later on.
How does it compare to LaTeX?
Unfortunately I’ve never used LaTeX so someone else will have to answer that.
Every other classic board game should have a game client as good as lichess.
But, speaking of games, Simon Tatham’s puzzle collection.
PC:
- Libreoffice – the best, most customisable and powerful office software available
- Onlyoffice – alternative for less-advanced users who are used to the UI of contemporary MSO
- Zotero – great bibliography manager useful when writing scientific papers: lets you collect books, journal articles and all other types of sources, automatically finds full text PDFs online, fills in metadata and then inserts dynamic citations in thousands of different, customisable styles. Also generates bibliographies. Works with LO, MSO and GDocs
- Caprine – clean Facebook Messenger client (web wrapper based)
- TeXStudio – my LATeX editor of choice; integral (ha!) when formatting maths-heavy documents
Android:
- Cloudstream — free streaming app, works with SFlix, Sodastream, PH and other legally dubious streaming providers. Takes some trickery to set up though.
- Osmand — OpenStreetMap client with offline (optional online) navigation and plenty of plugins; loads of customisation
- Material Files — nicest file manager, especially for rooted devices
- Showly — freemium open-source TV and film tracker. Syncs with Trakt.tv
- Simple Gallery — out of all Simple Apps by this developer, this is the only one which is in fact superior to its alternatives. Highly customisable, powerful, lightweight gallery app
Good list I make use of a lot of these too. Keep both LibreOffice and OnlyOffice around depending on how I feel that day but been leaning towards LO quite a bit recently.
I will say I had Caprine for a while but my god it uses so much memory, it has an absolutely massive footprint on my laptop. I find a nice compromise is using messenger.com as that way I can still send and read messages without delving into the horrors of FB, plus can keep it in a container.
Question about zotero, I just started using it and I can’t seem to find a way to direct it to PDFs I have already downloaded? Is there a way to do that or does it only have the PDF finding feature? The citation thing is pretty cool though, it’s gonna make my writing class easier and I won’t have to use mybib anymore. Also, is there a way to make it always use the classic interface when adding a citation? I keep having to click “show classic interface” or whatever the button is, and it’s a tad annoying.
Over question about Simple Gallery: My Pixel makes those small clips before the image. Is there a possibility to see this?
I don’t think so. Dynamic Shots are proprietary are limited to Google Photos
Thanks for spreading the good word on OpenData mapping solutions! In case you find Osmand’s interface confusing, check out Organic Maps as well. FOSS and offline features are naturally part of the offering.
Lemmy
Blender. Maybe not everyone needs to try it but it it’s great if you like 3D.
I can suggest everyone to try Bitwarden if they don’t have a password manager yet. I use Pass now (because UNIXTM) but was a Bitwarden fan before.
Bitwarden is very good. And it is not getting hacked every year as Lastpass… (another free password manager).
I also saw that proton has launched proton pass as a password manager. Seems to also be free, but only the app, I think is open source, and not the server. It also works less well than bitwarden, being new it can be expected.
Kdenlive video editor
Coming from some video editing as a hobby from Windows Movie Maker over pirated Sony Vegas, OpenShot and Shotcut to Kdenlive it’s an incredible piece of kit. It has fucking working motion tracking! For free! And it works very well! Insane to me!
Open source Adobe Premiere. Fucking brilliant.
i have a few all time favourites on android:
-Aves, a really good gallery app
-openboard, awesome keyboard without tracking software
-fairmail, really good email app
-liftoff for lemmy
-dolphin emulator, if your phone can run it
-SD maid SE, one of those storage cleaner thingys
-syncthing, for making backups over WiFi
there’s even more i use on windows. if you look hard enough, you will find an alternative to every program you’re using.
Rad, but openboard doesn’t swipe? Bummer… I’ve been meaning to learn how to tap, so I’ll give it a go all the same.
pretty sure you can swipe. i just never use it.
edit: nvm you can’t
Floris board has the best swipe amongst foss options Ive tried. And Ive tried a few. But unfortunately google/ samsung swipe keyboards were super convenient.
Actually keypass2android, my password managaer has a keyboard thats the best (but its really ugly) so I cant use that.
Syncthing was the way I ended up solving the problem of having the same playlists on mobile and desktop.
Amazing list, thank you!!
Just downloaded openboard, seems pretty good. Have been growing dissatisfied with Swiftkey for a while now.
