this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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Some FOSS programs, due to being mantained by hobbyists vs a massive megacorporation with millions in funding, don't have as many features and aren't as polished as their proprietary counterparts. However, there are some FOSS programs that simply have more functionality and QoL features compared to proprietary offerings.

What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their non-FOSS alternatives? Maybe we can discover useful new programs together :D

I'll start, I think Joplin is a great note-taking app that works offline + can sync between desktop and mobile really well. Also, working with Markdown is really nice compared with rich text editors that only work with the specific program that supports it. Joplin even has a bunch of plugins to extend functionality!

Notion, Evernote, Google Keep, etc. either don't have desktop apps, doesn't work offline, does not support Markdown, or a combination of those three.

What are some other really nice FOSS programs?

edit: woah that’s a whole load of cool FOSS software I have to try out! So far my experiences have been great (ShareX in particular is AWESOME as a screenshot tool, it’s what snip and sketch wishes it could be and mostly replaces OBS for my use case and a whole lot more)

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[–] DimFisher@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

My paint and Krita are great, I use them daily

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Sorry, Joplin is a nightmare. I want something that stores Markdown in flat files, not a database with changing versions where one version of the db doesn't work in another version.

I tried to port the database over from another system, but the new version of Joplin wouldn't read from the old version's database, and it would corrupt the database when I tried to open it. What a crock of shit. I had to figure out how to dump the data from the tables using sqlite.

I use nb now instead. It is a bit wonky because it uses NodeJS, but you can view and edit files in a web browser, and it saves each entry as a .md file, which is the sane and rational way to do it. So, if nb ever fucks off, I have all my work in a directory of Markdown files, not some broken-ass sqlite database.

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[–] Yaky@slrpnk.net 13 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Markor: one of the few Android text editors/notepads that saves text to text files (crazy idea, right?) and works rally well with Syncthing.

Conversations.im for Android is an incredibly well made XMPP/Jabber messenger, and their message polling and real-time message delivery is unmatched AFAIK.

ratbag (and the frontend, piper) is a tool for remapping buttons on mice with a sensible interface. Beats installing proprietary Logitech software.

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[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

I really like Flameshot for screenshots.

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[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 28 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The Linux ecosystem of distros vs other OSs.

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[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

OpenDroneMap. It's a suite that provides photogrammetry, stitching, volumetric analysis, geographic correlation, and 3D model conversion from aerial and non-aerial photos. And that's only the features that I use myself. It defaults to CPU-only rendering, so you don't need a big bad GPU to GSD.

Even ignoring the lack of subscription cost, ODM performs at least as well as other applications I tried such as Pix4D. Professionally, I use it for year-over-year kelp bed monitoring, photosynthetic mass analysis, and home construction analysis, specifically volumetric infill needs. Personally, I use it to generate 3D models of my boat interior, which I convert to STL files for arranging infrastructure in limited spaces.

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[–] Allero@lemmy.today 14 points 3 days ago

OBS, Portmaster, Trilium, FlightGear

+all the minimalist Adwaita apps on the Flathub. Love 'em.

[–] tatann@lemm.ee 17 points 4 days ago (9 children)

AntennaPod is a pretty great podcast player, far better than the one Google did (and abandonned)

Newsblur is the only RSS reader that I've found that can apply filters to feeds

I've switched from Discord to Element with some friends for daily text chat and vocal chat (video games) and it's less cluttered than Discord, and the voice even sounds better

SpamBlocker is a better phone/SMS spam filter than the proprietary ones I've tried

Firefox (and forks) has been my browser for more than 20 years, I can't go back to proprietary ones

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[–] MTK@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Honestly, almost all Microsoft products are objectively worse than FOSS alternatives, they are just so big that people are unwilling to escape the Microsoft ecosystem.

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[–] expr@programming.dev 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

https://www.visidata.org/

Way, way better than excel for working with tabular data. Excel is child's play in comparison.

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[–] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 3 points 2 days ago

Dnscrypt-proxy has no comparison, IMO. DNS encryption, caching, IP & domain blocking, local DoH. It's so useful.

[–] zqps@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

pdfSAM. OBS. Veracrypt. A bunch of macOS usability tools that I am definitely taking for granted at this point.

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[–] SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I agree with most of the programs that others have posted. I'll just mention two that I absolutely love but no one has mentioned yet, rsync and mpv.

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[–] thisfro@slrpnk.net 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)
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