Notepad++ - This piece of software is a very advanced form of Notepad. Fuck that basic Notepad shit that Windows or any other OS gives you. This one is all you’ll ever need for basic note-taking needs. But it does a hell of a lot more. One thing I love about it is that, if for any reason I put my PC to sleep, it crashes, power outage, I can run this again and everything I’ve ever written and no matter how many tabs - it’s all retained.

AIMP - The definitive media player that you’ll ever need for just playing stuff (music only, sorry if I mislead those thinking it can do video). Winamp and all the other software are just around for nostalgia (though Winamp has it’s uses where you need it to play specific formats like video game music such as SNES with .SPC). One feature that attracted me to it was, it used to infuriate me when I am playing something and something crashes in any other media player. And you boot up that media player and you have to play your playlist all over again or that song from the beginning.

Not AIMP, if I accidentally close it, crash or whatever, I can bring it back up and it’ll have the song or whatever on Pause so I can resume. Why isn’t shit like this more implemented in software?

  • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
    0·
    16 days ago

    EMACS:- No I’m not kidding, Yes it has a learning curve but the real fun is AFTER you figure it out & find out that it can do more than just edit texts

    • You can play music
    • You can turn it into an Email client
    • Browse the internet
    • A fully-fledged IDE
    • There’s Tetris in it
    • Even have it function like Obsidian
    • Have Vim-keybindings (For VIM-users)
      • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml
        0·
        16 days ago

        Because it all connects together, and you can program them jointly to help solve tasks.

        Having email and version control inside emacs makes it easy to set up an email based patch system.

        Of course this system will then benefit from the existing code highlighting, introspection, and an integrated debugger.

        Integrating it with your time planner means you can automatically add commits to your journal as a way of tracking what you’ve been working on.

        The old joke always was emacs is a great operating system, it just needs a good text editor.

        The real downside for me is everything is just a little bit janky. It all almost works perfectly and the code is right there to fix it, if you can be bothered. Generally I can’t.

      • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
        0·
        16 days ago

        Well it’s not really a text-editor, it’s a productivity environment (That is poor advertisement on GNU’s part)

        & these are all extensions, the real question is Why WOULDN’T you want it in a text-editor ?

      • wer2@lemm.ee
        0·
        16 days ago

        As a vim user who recently started with Emacs, if you ever want to try it, use evil-mode to get vim motions.

    • sith@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Maybe better to recommend Doom Emacs, if no BS is a requirement. It takes time to make friends with vanilla Emacs.

        • superkret@feddit.org
          0·
          16 days ago

          I tried Emacs once a long time ago, and recoiled from the weird key combos. Especially how you have to first enter one combo and then a second one for what you actually want to do.
          My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I remember it feeling pretty clunky.

          • verdigris@lemmy.ml
            0·
            16 days ago

            Yeah I definitely prefer vim bindings over emacs. Though as other commenters have mentioned, it’s totally possible to use vim bindings with emacs. I’ve never tried it but if the other features attract you it might be with trying.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
    0·
    16 days ago

    It’s a niche thing, but if you play electric guitar and need a virtual amplifier and effects, you’ll like Guitarix very much. Just thinking that is a community project blows me away every time

  • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    17 days ago

    “Everything” - find any file on your machine instantly. No need to update an index, it uses the NTFS master file table directly.

    • shrodes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Wizfile as an alternative to this which I prefer

      Also Wiztree from the same devs as a WinDirStat alternative

    • GreenAppleTree@lemmy.world
      0·
      17 days ago

      It is my pet peeve that instead of using the MFT, they gave us the bloody abomination they call windows search.

      I mean, make it a hidden tool like regedit, for all I care. It’s really not that hard.

      • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        Microsoft made NTFS, but not even Windows uses it properly. For example, the : character is perfectly valid in NTFS file names, but not in Windows. If you mount an NTFS volume in Linux without specifying the windows_names option, you can very easily make it unusable in Windows. It’s a sick joke, but nobody’s laughing.

        • Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          17 days ago

          Hey, to be fair, ‘/’ and the null character are the only illegal character for file names on Linux (which is a blessing AND a curse)

    • Joe Dyrt@lemmy.ml
      0·
      17 days ago

      This my top-used non-windows-component bestest utility for finding info on my pc. It’s da bomb!

    • FelixMortane@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      I find it almost criminal the amount of people who do not know about this. Absolute life saver for work.

  • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    KeePassXC, or any kind of KeePass-compatible client. It uses strong encryption to store passwords, passkeys, and arbitrary data. Also does TOTP. Not using a password manager in current year is stupid.

    QOwnNotes - a note-taking app that uses plain markdown files. None of that stupid metadata-inside-markdown-inside-database bullshit.

    • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      I can confirm both these. Although Qownnotes is a bit of mess in UI, it does its job well. I wanted something simple that will just load bunch of locally saved md files and this is the best I could find so far.

      • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        If you want a similar markdown editor, Obsidian does much the same, but with a much nicer single-panel UI. The client is free (as in no-cost), but closed-source.

        • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          17 days ago

          I’m kind of hesitant with it since it’s not FOSS. To be honest I never really understood why anyone makes free (no $$) software but not open source it. I might give it a try though.

          • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            17 days ago

            Obsidian also operates a paid cloud storage and public hosting service. Releasing the client for free is a way to gain good publicity and hook new customers, but making it open-source (or even nonfree source-available) would make adapting it to a different storage service trivial, which would hurt Obsidian’s business.

            • kurcatovium@lemm.eeEnglish
              0·
              16 days ago

              I’ve tried both and did not like either. Logseq would be probably ok if it didn’t sort every note as a bullet list.

              Zettlr was veeery slow for me.

  • MashedHobbits@lemy.lol
    0·
    17 days ago

    Davinci Resolve - Video Editing

    Blender - 3D Modelling

    Darktable - Photo Editing

    Keira - Digital Art

    Are some I use frequently.

    • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      Not only is Resolve’s free version amazing, the paid version is even better. And it has a reasonable, one time, upfront cost that gives you lifetime access.

  • I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    Ddrescue

    Hard to beat for working with dying drives, although it’s a bit tricky to get it to just do used data areas instead of the whole drive.

  • AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk
    0·
    17 days ago

    Lots of great software already posted, but with some complaints about windows inefficiencies I can’t believe no one has posted:

    Microsoft PowerToys https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

    Basically, it’s a suite of tools that windows devs have made to make their lives easier while working in windows. Some features have made it into actual windows releases over the years, but most not.

    It has an always on top, batch rename, customisable window snapping, better search, keyboard key remapper, mouse across multiple devices, colour eyedropper, and many many more.

    Absolute must have for anyone that uses windows regularly.

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      17 days ago

      keyboard key remapper

      Specific example: the caps lock key is useless and only ever activated on accident when I fat-fingered the A key. Remapped it to F-13 which exists as a kind of place holder with no function since keyboards stop at F-12; then set F-13 as my push-to-talk key in Discord, so now I’ve got a super conveniently located PTT that won’t disrupt anything (like switching to aLL CAPS WHEN I INEVITABLY MISS THE A KEY).

      Small change, absolutely love it. 10/10

  • geoma@lemmy.ml
    0·
    17 days ago

    If you want something efficient and free of bullshit you probably first need to change your OS to a GNU/Linux distro

    • everett@lemmy.ml
      0·
      17 days ago

      “Free, efficient, no bullshit” is kind of the default for Linux software.

      • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        17 days ago

        not unless you count UX as partof the “efficiency”. A lot of oss software has top-notch functionality, but horrible ux

        • kellenoffdagrid❓️@lemmy.sdf.org
          0·
          17 days ago

          Yeah that front still needs improvement, but I will say things have gotten a lot better, especially in the past 5 years. Regardless of personal opinion on their approaches, projects like GNOME, Inkscape, GIMP, KDE (sort of, the settings app is still confusing as hell), even Blender’s recent UI updates have been pretty solid. There’s still a lot of room to improve though, and plenty of older software still hasn’t seen much of its UX addressed.

        • verdigris@lemmy.ml
          0·
          16 days ago

          I don’t think this is generally true at a higher rate than for any other software. Multi-billion dollar companies will have more polished UX, but step outside of the major flagship apps and things quickly degrade. Even the best in the business have plenty of problems, you can’t design a perfect UX that will please all users.

      • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        I did consider posting a screenshot of just all the applications on my PC… 🙃

        But yeah, not much OP can do with hundreds of recommendations that don’t work on their OS.

  • middlemanSI@lemmy.world
    0·
    17 days ago

    X-Inkscape for vector graphics. It has a ton of functionality out of the box and it can be enhanced by coding your own plugins. I love it

    • verdigris@lemmy.ml
      0·
      16 days ago

      Literally how? If you’re talking about the toolbars, it looks like literally any text editor. If you’re talking about the text, that’s probably because you’re not used to looking at monospace rendered text. It’s much better when you’re editing anything technical. If you don’t need advanced features you don’t need N++.

      • Felling_High_Horses@endlesstalk.orgEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        LMFAO. You must be a troll?

        One literally looks like it’s from the 90s, the other respects modern design.

        Can you read my comment? Or are you one of those rabid FOSS enthusiasts who will stab themselves with a rusty nail if it’s free? I talked about the fucking appearance of the notepad.

        • verdigris@lemmy.ml
          0·
          16 days ago

          As I said, if you don’t need advanced features you don’t need N++. If you’re happy with notepad you are definitely not the target audience lol.

            • verdigris@lemmy.ml
              0·
              16 days ago

              I already addressed your complaints about the look; it’s all for functionality and technical features which you clearly do not need. You don’t get to expose a rich feature set without complicating the UI.

              • Felling_High_Horses@endlesstalk.orgEnglish
                0·
                16 days ago

                Again with the strawman. Why do you dislike the idea that your shitty software has shitty looks so much that you need to construct a whole-ass argument for me in your head?

                Oh that’s right, you’re a cretin.

                • verdigris@lemmy.ml
                  0·
                  16 days ago

                  I guess because it’s better than interfacing with your lack of an argument and ableist slurs?