Microsoft Defender.
I convinced my work to let me use linux on their laptop. They sent me instructions for setup. One of them was to install Microsoft Defender, had a link to the Ubuntu package and everything. Blew my mind.
this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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What the fuq??
Yup! Here's a helpful link in case you feel like spreading the joy.
https://www.maketecheasier.com/install-use-microsoft-defender-linux/
But, why?
I don't know, but my guess is it might still be able to detect some cross-platform malware signs and detect malware intended for Windows on Linux machines (e.g. I can download a PDF or .docx that is harmless on my machine, but if I reupload and a Windows user downloads it, I've spread malware regardless). IIRC ClamAV is sometimes used to scan attachments on an email server, often looking for Windows exploits being sent through the server.
That kinda makes sense
Reminds me of a ransomware problem that a place I worked at had. After weeks of computers getting reinfected over and over. It was figured out it was one "techy guy" with Linux on his work laptop. He kept sharing infected files.
So since he kept infecting the windows PCs on the network. It got Linux and macs banned at work.
Everyone had to have windows PCs moving forward.
Lot of Linux and Mac folk don't realize how big of a vulnerability they can be even if they themselves aren't affected.
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We've got to install Microsoft Defender, Edge, and PowerShell on Ububtu so that the device will be flagged as compliant in Intune.
TIL. Nothing will ever surprise me in life anymore. 😂
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KDEConnect, probably the best (only?) to do what it does in such a magnificent way
The entire KDE Community is incredible. From KDEConnect to Kdenlive, Krita, and Plasma I am a very happy nerd.
Kicad is up there with the paid options for electronic schematic drafting / PCB design. I don't use a lot of KDE stuff since I also don't use KDE, but Kicad is absolutely essential for me.
Despite the K in its name, KiCad is nothing to do with the KDE project. It's an independent program started (iirc) at a French university. I agree it's awesome, though.
Well now... TIL!
It's so good that it absolutely killed my will to maintain a project I had that does something like this once I discovered it. They even support Windows too.
It’s wonderful.
I do miss being able to send stuff from my PC to my iPhone though, but that’s Apple’s fault.
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about 10 years ago, i noticed steam was available for linux. for the longest time i had pretty much written off gaming on linux (apart from like tuxcart, nethack, emulators...). i hadn't considered actually being able to play "real" games.
that was before proton, so there really wasn't a ton of stuff i could play, but i found some good stuff like hotline miami, papers please, super win the game.
obviously now we have proton and linux can be argued as a superior gaming platform in many cases.
Bitwig and Reaper. Two of the best music DAWs on the market and they each have a Linux native version.
EDIT: I forgot to include Renoise, the music tracker DAW.
Yeah, Reaper is surprising! It's in the Arch repos and Flathub.
I would have been happy if I had to build it from source or download a random deb from their website. But, damn. It's on Linux and easily installable!
As a guitarist ToneLib and Carla are also up there for me.
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Microsoft Edge was a recent surprise. It's surprising both that Microsoft would create it and that any Linux users would run it. Since its Chromium based, there should be no need for developers to test Edge separately.
A very unwelcome surprise, too.
I'm pretty neutral about the mere existence of software I'm not interested in using.
I think MS assumes no one will use it. But having Linux builds of some of their software enhances their "MS loves Linux" marketing.
Teams is another example.
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You can also get Teams on Linux
That's a little less surprising to me. Organizations are likely to pick competing communication software if Teams is not available to everyone. Web browsers are generally interoperable after Microsoft lost the war to popularize one that wasn't.
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LocalSend.
No more USBs ever (outside of install media). So so simple, fast, and works on all devices and FOSS.
It is really the best UX of any file sharing app I have experienced (outside of airdrop I guess, but obvious problems there)
Okular is also a favorite of mine.
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For me it was blender. I absolutely loved using blender as a teen for making silly games and animations (I wasn't good at that). Now as an adult I re-discovered it and I use it for making DnD minifigs
Surprised no one has mentioned OBS. I don't use it for streaming, but afaik it's one of the more popular options for that. So it's really cool that not only is it available for linux, but it's open source and works great. I'm sure every linux user has had audio, general hardware, or GPU acceleration issues at some point, but OBS is seamless in my experience. Pretty cool to see a piece of software live at the crossroads of all that and get it right.
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Tux racer was neat.
There was also a weird space game that started with a Q. I never progressed and it gave me existential crisis as it felt like nothing was out there. I'd get lost in space every time.
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Kdenlive. I used Adobe Premiere professionally and Kdenlive completely replaced it for me.
Surprised? IE/Edge. Like, why?
My work mandates Edge as a browser on the company PC. With Edge on Linux I can have a "work" browser on my private PC with bookmark sync etc.
Zoom. No dark mode though.
I use zoom several times a week, and have had to revert to windows several times because development lags behind win/mac, and for some reason my org has a fixation on trying new features, useful or not.
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Wine/Proton, made my switch to Linux way easier
Probably ComicTagger https://github.com/comictagger/comictagger
I had been holding onto ComicRack for years and really loved it for scraping and generating tags before adding to Komga. I was a happy camper when i found ComicTagger.
I agree simple-scan is awesome.
I just like when I do an update and my computer uses less data...and its a bit faster. Thats happened a couple of times. Feels good.
What surprised me the most, also in part due to me not really being knowledgeable about software solutions in their respective industries, was the Unreal Engine (the editor that is) and Houdini being available on Linux. Tbf, at least in the vfx department it is apparently more common as most of the high profile software in that industry does have a native Linux version available.
What I appreciated the most though was software like Reaper and Renoise providing a (very good even) Linux-native version when I looked for a new DAW to learn, seeing most software in the audio industry not being very Linux-friendly.
Bash. It has enabled me to automatize a lot of sh*t I wouldn't do just because it would take me a lot of time/efford to do. There's a LOT you can do with a few simple scripts, a few examples:
- Remove files I don't need (images, rip/conversion logs, empty folders...).
- Compress and optimize folders of photos recursively.
- Apply watermarks to photos recursively.
- Convert filetypes (flac2mp3, pdf2cbr, webm2mp3,web2jpg...).
- Configure input devices (keyboards, mouse, graphic tablets).
- Autorename files (spaces to _, . to _, _ to spaces...).
- Remove audio from videos recursively.
- Remove audio/subtitle tracks from videos.
- Download images/videos/audio from websites.
- Update appimages automatically.
- Update/cleanup system/repos.
- Use different theming for different applications.
- Mount iso/bin... images.
- Extract zip|rar|tar.gz|.... files automatically.
- Modify pdfs.
- Get the weather for my location.
- Get stats from my PCs to be shown in panel applet.
- Alias program names to ones of my choosing.
- Open CUPS config in firefox.
- Refresh font caches and other management tools I don't care to remember.
- Fix permissions.
- Make a backup.
- Restore a backup.
- Copy files safely (rsync).
- Change volume level.
- Install all the packages and configs I need to make the OS/apps behave/look the way I like.
...you name it...
...in most cases just by typing one word in the terminal. It was kind of a mindblow coming from the crappy window$ crappysystem eons ago.
Which program is the one that surprised you most that it is available on Linux?
Bash.
I find that the least surprising, but ok...
Neverball.
So gaming on Linux is obviously amazing now, but back in 2006 or so when I started using it, it was less than great. I probably tried every single game in the Ubuntu repos and Neverball entertained the hell out of me.
I spent hours rolling this shiny ball around. I loved Marble Madness on NES as a kid, so it was a natural fit.
A close second was Freeciv, as I had also grown up with a copy of Civilization.
Honorable mentions to Nesticle and Snes9x.
Used to be Skype but MS just killed that so....
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