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)
KDE Connect was rock solid when I was testing it out with an S24u. The only real issue I had with it was that it was missing RCS (RCS is locked down to only proprietary google messages/iMessage systems) and a seamless way to go from desktop notification to SCRCPY/screen mirroring.
PCSX2: better resolution than PS2, has save states, and you can use reshade in some games to make them look better.
Lets not forget about games!
Hedgewars is better than most “Worms” games.
Warzone 2100 is more fun than many proprietary RTS games.
The OpenStreetMap ecosystem (e.g. Organic Maps as an Android Client) is better than Google Maps.
Tusky is better than any proprietary Twitter client.
F-Droid and Flathub are both better than Google Play.
Thunderbird is better than GMail
Real open Podcasting (e.g. Antennapod) is better than Spotify.
OpenDesk is better than M365.
Signal and Matrix are both better than the chat tools from Meta, Apple, Google.
(It’s about ecosystems/platforms, because most software doesn’t work in isolation)
fre:ac is way, way better than Exact Audio Copy. Audiophiles like to suck the dick of EAC and don’t trust any other software to rip CD’s. fre:ac literally has all the same features and more. There’s a Windows and Mac version as well but they refuse to even acknowledge it. I’m a Linux audiophile btw.
As a proffessional, krita shits on photoshop (f tier) and clip (a tier) when it comes to painting.
Kdenlive is really really good. This isn’t an expert opinon. I don’t do a ton of video editing but it feels both easy to learn (for a layman like me) and powerful enough to do anything I need it to do
I just want to comment that this is one of the most helpful and full of good info posts I’ve seen on Lemmy in a long while.
Syncthing.
Supports LAN Syncing and no limits other then the hardware you host yourself.
Jellyfin vs Plex
Plex is terminal with the enshitification virus
VLC
QGIS for geographic/geospatial data. Built on shoulders of FOSS giants, embracing latest highly interoperable standards, it is amazing !
Linux, hands down and tied behind its back. Both for servers AND desktop OS.
Dnscrypt-proxy has no comparison, IMO. DNS encryption, caching, IP & domain blocking, local DoH. It’s so useful.
Well, Thunderbird, for one. Outlook makes me sad.
