Desktop Apps

Everyday

  • email client: Thunderbird
  • browser
    • Gecko (Firefox)
      • standard: Firefox / Waterfox (depending on how much you trust Mozilla)
      • more customisable: Floorp
      • more private: Librewolf / Arkenfox / Mullvad Browser
      • Tor network: Tor Browser
    • Blink (Chromium): Vivaldi
    • for MacOS: Orion by Kagi (has support for Chrome and Firefox extensions)
  • local AI: GPT4All (more models) / Sanctum (more user-friendly)

Productivity

  • note-taking: Joplin / Obsidian
    • MacOS: Bear
  • todo.txt: sleek
  • notepad alternative (Windows): Notepad++

Both Joplin and Obsidian have loads of different plugins and are great note-taking apps. Joplin is open-source whereas Obsidian is closed, and Obsidian organises notes in “vaults” whereas Joplin has “notebooks”

Documents

  • office suites: LibreOffice / OnlyOffice

LibreOffice’s UI looks terrible in Windows for whatever reason, so I prefer OnlyOffice when I’m using Windows. LibreOffice is fine on Linux though.

Aside from the better UI on Windows, OnlyOffice has better compatibility with MS Office compared to LibreOffice. LibreOffice has more features, however. LibreOffice is also not owned by a company like OnlyOffice is, so that may influence your decision.

Utilities

Cross-Platform

  • file sharing: KDE Connect
  • OCR screen capture: NormCap
    • MacOS: Lookupper
  • video file conversion: ffmpeg
  • screen mirroring and extending: spacedesk

Windows

  • file search: Everything
  • file explorer: One Commander
    • alternative: Files
  • image resizing and converting: Coverseen
  • renaming: Bulk Rename
  • disk space analyzer: WizTree
  • package manager: Chocolatey
  • launcher
    • standard: Powertoys Run
    • more features: Flow Launcher

MacOS

  • image resizing and converting: Coverseen
  • disk space analyzer: GrandPerspective
  • package manager: Homebrew
  • launcher
    • customisable: Alfred (one-time purchase)
    • aesthetic: Raycast (subscription)

Linux

  • image resizing and converting
    • command line: ImageMagick
    • GUI: Coverseen
  • disk space analyzer: KDirStat
  • launcher
    • customisable: Albert
      • alternative: ULauncher
    • lightweight: Rofi
  • facial recognition: Howdy

Media

  • Navidrome client: Aonsoku / Feishin
    • for macOS: Amperfy

Windows

  • image viewer: nomacs
  • media viewer: Potplayer
  • music player: AIMP
  • pdf viewer: SumatraPDF

MacOS

  • image viewer: Preview
  • media viewer: IINA
  • music viewer: Swinsian
  • pdf viewer: Preview
    • alternative: Skim

Linux

  • image viewer: feh / nomacs / pqiv
  • media viewer: MPV
  • music player: Audacious / Clementine / Quod Libet
  • pdf viewer: Okular

Social

  • Mastodon
    • web client: Elk
    • MacOS: Mammoth
  • Lemmy: ?
  • RSS reader
    • Windows + MacOS: Fluent Reader
    • Linux: Akregator (KDE) / NewsFlash (GTK4)
  • YT frontend: FreeTube
  • YT downloader: youtube-dl

Programming

  • code editor: VSCodium
  • GUI git client: Fork
    • alternative: Git Graph extension in VSCodium

vim and emacs have a steep learning curve but seem like powerful options, but I have personally never tried either

The JetBrains IDEs are also very good, each have all sorts of features tailored to the specific programming languages (WebStorm, Pycharm, CLion, etc.)

Image + Video + Audio Editing

One-Time Purchase
  • image editor: Affinity Photo
  • vector image editor: Affinity Designer
  • audio editor: Reaper
Free
  • video editor: Davinci Resolve
  • image processing: darktable
  • image editing: GIMP
  • vector image editor: Inkscape
  • audio editor: Audacity

Creative

  • painting: Krita
  • pixel art: Aseprite (paid, but you can compile from source code)
  • audio processing: Audacity
  • 3D modelling
    • hard surface modelling: Blender
      • simpler: Tinkercad
    • parametric design: Fusion 360
      • alternative: Onshape

Security

  • local password manager: KeePassXC
    • MacOS exclusive: Strongbox

Gaming

  • game store: Steam
    • DRM-free: GoG

Nintendo Emulation

  • NES: Mesen
  • SNES: Snes9x
  • N64: ares / simple64
  • Game Cube: Dolphin
  • Game Boy + GBC + GBA: mGBA
    • alternative for Game Boy + GBC only: SameBoy
  • DS: melonDS

PlayStation Emulation

  • PS1: DuckStation
  • PS2: PCSX2/LRPS2
  • PS3: RPCS3
  • PS4: shadps4