Why software do you use in your day-to-day computing which might not be well-known?

For me, there are two three things for personal information management:

  • for shopping receipts, notes and such, I write them down using vim on a small Gemini PDA with a keyboard. I transfer them via scp to a Raspberry Pi home server on from there to my main PC. Because it runs on Sailfish OS, it also runs calendar (via CalDav) and mail nicely - and without any FAANG server.

  • for things like manuals and stuff that is needed every few months (“what was just the number of our gas meter?” “what is the process to clean the dishwasher?”) , I have a Gollum Wiki which I have running on my Laptop and the home Raspi server. This is a very simple web wiki which supports several markup languages (like Markdown, MediaWiki, reStructuredText, and Creole), and stores them via git. For me, it is perfect to organize personal information around the home.

  • for work, I use Zim wiki. It is very nice for collecting and organizing snippets of information.

  • oh, and I love Inkscape(a powerful vector drawing program), Xournal (a program you can write with a tablet on and annotate PDFs), and Shotwell (a simple photo manager). The great thing about Shotwell is that it supports nicely to filter your photos by quality - and doing that again and again with a critical eye makes you a better photographer.

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
    19·
    29 days ago

    Every day?

    • Herbstluftwm, the window manager. I used i3 for a decade, then bspwm for a few months, then landed on hlwm which I’ve been happily using for over a year. I don’t foresee changing until I’m forced to switch to Wayland. I’ve used almost every window manager and DE available for Linux and Solaris. Hlwm has things I can no longer live without:
      • It’s entirely configuration-file-less, which means the CLI client is the first class citizen for C&C.
      • It’s tiled and keyboard controllable is, again, a first-class citizen
      • It has a sane tree model, with no weird exceptions
      • It’s stable
      • It’s fast and small. You never see it in top, sorting either by CPU or memory
    • Zsh, the shell, in which I run 90% of my applications (the regular exceptions being the Luakit browser and Factorio, the game. everything else is CLI or a TUI). Zsh is bash backwards compatible, and it has a bunch of extra convenience syntax that makes scripting more powerful, pushing out the border where switching to a real programming language is necessary. I have lived in sh, bash, and csh over my life, and I’ve tried fish and a number of others; the rich data model for process communication is compelling, but I’ve always discovered it lacking, so on zsh I remain.
    • Tmux, the terminal multiplexer, which is (almost) invariably the first child of every terminal (rio -e 'tmux attach -t#'). Because terminals crash, because it survives session restarts, because it lets me log in remotely and continue what I started in my desktop, and because it works over ssh and having a consistent multiplexer environment across machines is nice. I used sceen for years before discovering tmux, and have tried almost every other terminal multiplexer; and none add any significant value for me over tmux.
    • Helix, the editor in which I spend most of my time. Because I started with emacs and used it for years before switching to vim. Then I used vim for decades before switching to Kakoune. Then I used Kakoune for about 2 years before switching to helix. Kakoune was too much like Emacs for my taste: heavy on chording, light on modality. Helix is much more like vim: lighter on chording, more mode-driven. Chording aggravates my carpel tunnel, and I’m more comfortable in modal editors. I switched from vim because the plugins necessary to be a competent development environment got insane, and my vim was starting to take as long to start up as emacs, which was unacceptable. Also, LSP integration was super flaky and broke every six months; it’s what initially drove me to Kakoune.

    I’m currently using Rio as my terminal. It has bugs, but it’s actively developed and regularly releases will fix one more thing. It has both ligature and sixel support, and it’s wildly fast and far, far less memory intensive than either kitty or ghostty, which are both pretty fat. I am not including it in “the list” because some remaining bugs are pretty big, like randomly crashing when it gets resized or sees some sequence of asci escape codes. It’s not much of an issue because I run everything in tmux, and it crashes less with every release, but I hesitate to recommend it until it’s more stable.

      • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
        1·
        27 days ago

        That’s one I don’t remember, but I probably wouldn’t have: the config file is in Lisp. Not only is Lisp something I never use anymore, which gives it a high cognitive load, but I don’t particularly care for Lisp-like syntax.

        I’m certain there are several less common WMs that I haven’t tried. It’d probably be almost impossible to try every WM every written for X; it seems to be a common hobby project for folks interested in the X protocol.

        I did say “almost every”, but perhaps even that was exaggeration. I do think I’ve tried the majority, though.

        My differentiator for hlwm, the killer feature, shared by only two other projects that I’m aware of, is that hlwm has no configuration file. All configuration is performed through client commands. Every command interaction that can be performed by a user input - and much that can’t - can also be performed on the CLI. All (?) windowing events can also be monitored on the command line, and therefore scripted. The other two WMs that share at least some of these features are bspwm and river.

    • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
      7·
      28 days ago

      +1 for helix. I was new to linux and TUI editors. The vim tutor was a good intro to the concept of modal editors, but needed lsp and syntax highlighting. At the time I struggled a lot with configs, so neovim was out. Helix is just a fantastic, batteries included experience. Approachable for beginners, but feature rich for novices.

      Edit: typo, grammer

  • malfisya@piefed.socialEnglish
    9·
    29 days ago

    I like game emulation and to manage my ROM library, I use Geode-GEM. It is simple but cusomizable app to manage your ROM based on console and emulator you have.

  • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
    8·
    29 days ago

    Great topic. I’m going to have to investigate some of these suggestions later.

    Since my first pick, helix, was already mentioned here and i commented on it, I’ll add gitui. Git can be very overwhelming for me. Gitui arranges frequently used git commands in a sensible, visual layout and makes it easy for me to understand and interact with git.

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
      3·
      28 days ago

      For doing more complex tasks with git, you could have a look at jujutsu. It is really good and provides most of git’s power in an conceptually much simpler CLI interface.

      • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        28 days ago

        Thanks for the rec! The anonymous branches and working-copy-as-commit subsuming git stashes is intriguing. I’ll give it a closer look when I have a chance.

  • harsh3466@lemmy.ml
    5·
    29 days ago

    For me it’s Perl’s rename, which of course cones in a variety of package names depending on the distro you use. In trying to find a link, I landed on this stack exchange answer that gives a great overview of how the tool works and the different packages available on different distros.

    I have to bulk rename files every day, and using regex and the other features of Perl’s rename makes it so much easier to do.

  • minibyte@sh.itjust.works
    12·
    28 days ago

    You’ve heard of it for sure, but shout out to Audacity. I used Cool Edit Pro for years before having to switch to Adobe Audition. The UI in Audacity feels surprisingly familiar and it does what I need it to do.

  • klu9@piefed.socialEnglish
    31·
    29 days ago

    KDE Connect

    I’ve used it a lot just to control audio or video playing on my computer from my phone. (Sometimes when I’m sat at my computer with multiple windows and workspaces open, I even find it easier just to hit my phone’s lockscreen to pause the music.)

    I’m starting to use some of its other features, too. E.g. copying & pasting and sharing files between phone and computer.

    There’s more too I need to explore.

    (Unfortunately, sometimes I get a ‘device unreachable’ error when both devices clearly have a working connection to the same router.)

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
      7·
      28 days ago

      I’ve been using that a lot, but I wish there was a “disconnect” on the phone’s app, rather than keeping a persistent connection.

    • localhost443@discuss.tchncs.de
      4·
      28 days ago

      It’s the best.

      Being able to communicate with apple users who are still clinging on to sms with a keyboard is great. I detest typing on touchscreens.

    • fossilesque@mander.xyzEnglish
      7·
      29 days ago

      I just introduced my partner to this a week ago. Trying to slowly convert him into a Linux user haha. It works with Windows too!

  • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
    11·
    29 days ago

    Right now https://jeena.github.io/recoder/ which I just released and here is why (copied from the website):

    🎬 Why Recoder?

    I used to edit family videos in Kdenlive without a problem — it handled footage from all our devices without complaining. But then I switched to DaVinci Resolve, and suddenly nothing worked right. My Sony Alpha 7C, my Galaxy S24, and my wife’s iPhone all produced files that Resolve couldn’t handle without transcoding.

    😤 Too Much Fuss, Too Many Steps

    Every time I wanted to edit, I had to hunt down the right ffmpeg settings and manually run them on each video — a frustrating and repetitive task.

    My typical workflow is simple: I create one folder per event on an external HDD and drop in videos from all our cameras. A script renames the files based on the date and time so I can easily sort them. But for Resolve, everything has to be transcoded to DNxHD — which only supports resolutions like 1920×1080 and 1280×720.

    🔄 Vertical Videos? Extra Pain

    That also meant vertical videos couldn’t work. So now, I rotate them during transcoding to preserve resolution and rotate them back in Resolve during editing.

    ✨ Enter Recoder

    I built Recoder to automate this annoying step — so I could spend more time editing memories and less time fiddling with command-line tools.

    • Unmapped@lemmy.ml
      5·
      28 days ago

      I use Localsend to send files between my computers. Also to family and friends if they are local at the time. I keep seeing magic-wormhole mentioned on Lemmy. Do you know if wormhole is better somehow? Is it worth me trying it?

      • FlappyBubble@lemmy.ml
        3·
        28 days ago

        Very different tool. Magic-wormhole is dead simple, works over CLI and requires no setup. It’s not dependant on computers being within the same LAN. I wouldn’t use it with non-technical people. For users with some skill Rymdport is an option for them to interface with magic-wormhole. The tool is great for transferring secrets when setting up computers for example.

      • Flatfire@lemmy.ca
        5·
        28 days ago

        Biggest difference is that wormhole will pass traffic between devices on different networks as long as both are routable. So it’s not limited to a local network connection.

  • Nemoder@lemmy.ml
    51·
    28 days ago

    Ocenaudio for audio editing. It’s not FOSS but it’s native, simple to use, and doesn’t have backend library issues I kept having with audacity.

  • Libra00@lemmy.mlEnglish
    42·
    28 days ago

    UpNote. I use it like a combination of the gollum wiki described by OP, but I just put everything in there. I have watch and reading lists for things I want to check out, writing projects, notes for TTRPG games, I keep extensive notes on healthcare-related stuff, and so on. I like UpNote because it’s lightweight, has windows, linux, and android apps, and because it has a one-time $25 lifetime membership that does free syncing forever instead of a monthly subscription like most other things seem to. I’ve tried OneNote, Evernote, Obsidian, Joplin, AnyType, and a bunch of others and didn’t like them for various reasons, but UpNote is both pretty small and also has a pretty full-featured editor that can do rich text, all kinds of formatting, media files, etc.

    The only thing I’ve run into that UpNote wasn’t ideal for is I started writing a novel a couple months ago and managing the structure and notes and all that got a little unwieldy so I picked up Scrivener. Still wish they had an updated linux client or there was some good, complete, feature-rich linux-native equivalent, but it runs pretty good under wine, so.

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
      4·
      28 days ago

      Well, my main reason to use Zim Wiki and Gollum is that all the information stays on my computers -no sync service is needed, I sync via git + ssh to a Raspberry Pi that runs in my home. And this is a critical requirement for me since as a result of many experiences, my trust in commercial companies that collect data to respect data privacy has reached zero.

      The differences between Zim and Gollum are gradual: Zim is tailored as a Desktop Wiki, so each page is already in editing mode which is slightly quicker, while Gollum is more like a classical server-based wiki, which is normally accessed over the browser (but by default, without user authentication). The difference is a bit blurry since both just modify a git repo, and Gollum can be run in localhost, so it is good for capturing changes on a laptop while on the road, and syncing them later. A further difference is that Zim is a but better for the “quick but not (yet) organized” style of work, while Gollum is better for a designed and maintained structure.

      Both can capture media files and support different kinds of markup, while always storing in plain text. Gollum can also handle well things like PDFs which are displayed in the browser, and supports syntax highlighthing in many programming langages, which makes it nice for programming projects - it is perfect for writing outlines and documentation of software, and I often work by writing documentation first.

      • Libra00@lemmy.mlEnglish
        3·
        28 days ago

        Yeah, I have since discovered pCloud as a replacement for OneDrive and that I could just have everything saved to a pCloud directory to auto-sync… but IMO UpNote is worth the $25 anyway so I don’t mind. Also it requires considerably less effort to just install the android app vs setting up some kind of multi-device syncing with pCloud/equivalent and managing that myself. I guess I value convenience over privacy in this one area.

        Thanks for the explanation re:gollum/zim, I was curious why you were using 2 different sets of software to accomplish what seemed like the same thing. My notes are definitely more of the ‘scribble some shit down and organize it later if I get around to it’ variety, but I stopped using zim because I wanted synced notes with multiplatform apps and also it felt a little archaic, and I wasn’t really using the real star feature of wikis (cross-linking) anyway, I just wanted something with a traditional tree structure.

  • MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de
    9·
    29 days ago

    digiKam was the first Linux application I encountered that was so polished and useful for what it does that I tried to shoe-horn it into any and every DE I experimented with, as well as installing it onto my windows machines under KDE4Win.