I’ve worked on this for a few years now, and now I can finally share it to everyone! Please lmk if you have any questions or any issues with my picks!
https://swarbler.github.io/bestof/software/desktop-apps (software, some are cross-platform some are platform-specific)
p.s. what do you all think are the best Linux laptops? Right now I’ve only got the System76 Lemur Pro, but I’ve seen other laptops like ThinkPads being pretty good too.
This is way too opinionated imo. Many of these options I disagree with. There are github repos with much larger content suggestions and they all benefit from offering multiple options. There is often no such thing as a singular “best”.
So, my opinion of this list is that, unfortunately, while it is informative by listing names of software, it offers zero description as to why you’ve deemed it best. As I said, often times software has trade-offs, and that allows a competitor can be a better choice when those weaker areas are more important to a user. I suggest thinking about that and improving to fit that into your site.
But again, repos exist that already cover this in depth. So try to be different. Perhaps do reviews, add screenshots, and do more than those repo readmes can.
oh and also I should definitely include links to awesome-selfhosted and other similar github repos, that would definitely be good too.
Thanks for the criticism! yeah, there is definitely heavy bias in this. I’ll try to add some description to why I chose what I chose. I think I did that well when it comes to the “devices” section (I have written the specs of some of the laptops and compared them based on that) but yeah you’re right I definitely need to improve on that.
Screenshots of the programs are a good idea too. A lot of the desktop and phone apps were mostly based on my experiences with them and I agree that it’s definitely quite biased. Maybe I could extend bestof into being a review site as well, that would be kind of cool and interesting.
oh, and also, bestof isn’t yet another suggestion repo, my idea is that it covers a whole lot of different topics from clothing to smart home tech to 3d printers. I’ve got the breadth of content, but need more depth, as you said! Again, thank you for your time to respond, really appreciate it!
Obsidian isn’t FOSS, but two fantastic replacements are Standard Notes and Notesnook.
A great paint option I don’t see listed is KolourPaint, plus Kdenlive for video editing. For audio editing, Tenacity is the better choice over Audacity. It’s an Audacity fork made after some questionable privacy policy changes.
CryptPad is an awesome Google Doc’s replacement, but Libre Office is actively working on their version too.
For your security section, adding some encryption software would be smart. Both VeraCrypt and Cryptomator are amazing. Also, Bitwarden/Vaultwarden are solid password manager alts for KeePassXC, with Vaultwarden being self hosted.
Here’s a great site for all sorts of Lemmy clients.
As far as Linux laptops go, System 76’s Darter Pro is also a solid choice. Tuxedo is probably System 76’s biggest competition, as they offer very comparable laptops. Their InfinityBook Pro is a great computer. Frameworks, Slimbook, and Star Labs are all also worth a mention.
that seems pretty cool. I should probably add links to similar github repos as well (e.g. awesome-selfhosted, awesome-[whatever], etc.)
OnlyOffice exists on Flatpak too
yes, but LibreOffice makes more sense for Linux in my opinion. for some weird reason LibreOffice’s UI in Windows looks horrible, so for Windows I prefer OnlyOffice. On Linux, LibreOffice’s UI is fine, so I prefer that over OnlyOffice for Linux.
