98 votes

Single most useful program you daily use?

What's the most useful program you use on a daily basis?

For me it's Espanso, it's a text expansion tool but you can do so much more with it like custom scripts or shell commands.

204 comments

  1. [22]
    lynxy
    Link
    Not a program, per se, but as everybody else has already outlined the ones that I feel are important (terminal, firefox / fennec, various app-launchers and editors), I'm going to go for uBlock...

    Not a program, per se, but as everybody else has already outlined the ones that I feel are important (terminal, firefox / fennec, various app-launchers and editors), I'm going to go for uBlock Origin. I would not be able to use the internet without it- it would drive me mad.

    95 votes
    1. [10]
      Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      I always forget I have it installed until I see someone elses browser...

      I always forget I have it installed until I see someone elses browser...

      50 votes
      1. [3]
        carrotflowerr
        Link Parent
        I seriously don't understand how people can deal with them. Even the US government (I forget which department) recommends it, since the ads are a security issue.

        I seriously don't understand how people can deal with them. Even the US government (I forget which department) recommends it, since the ads are a security issue.

        16 votes
        1. ArkoSammy12
          Link Parent
          This is why I could never use an Apple device. Thanks to Android, I can sideload apps like Revanced and YouTube apks to patch them and enjoy premium features for free. I could not imagine watching...

          This is why I could never use an Apple device. Thanks to Android, I can sideload apps like Revanced and YouTube apks to patch them and enjoy premium features for free. I could not imagine watching YouTube without YouTube Revanced or uBlock Origin.

          4 votes
      2. [6]
        ofm
        Link Parent
        I forget how crazy just youtube is without an an adblocker...how do people watch that?

        I forget how crazy just youtube is without an an adblocker...how do people watch that?

        5 votes
        1. vuzzar
          Link Parent
          I pay for premium, if only to not have do deal with ads on mobile/Chromecast etc

          I pay for premium, if only to not have do deal with ads on mobile/Chromecast etc

          2 votes
        2. [2]
          mattsayar
          Link Parent
          I've been using uBlock Origin Lite and while it blocks the ads on YouTube, it sucks to sit and wait for the Skip button which takes longer than five seconds. Do you have a better recommendation?

          I've been using uBlock Origin Lite and while it blocks the ads on YouTube, it sucks to sit and wait for the Skip button which takes longer than five seconds. Do you have a better recommendation?

          1 vote
          1. SteeeveTheSteve
            Link Parent
            It's because Google purposely sabotaged ad-blockers. Read this for more info: https://ublockorigin.com It works great on Firefox.

            It's because Google purposely sabotaged ad-blockers. Read this for more info: https://ublockorigin.com

            It works great on Firefox.

            3 votes
        3. SteeeveTheSteve
          Link Parent
          I turn it off every so often just to see what I'm missing. Every time, I'm just floored that people actually accept them. Websites that have so many ads it's hard to pick out the articles. Some...

          I turn it off every so often just to see what I'm missing. Every time, I'm just floored that people actually accept them. Websites that have so many ads it's hard to pick out the articles. Some will slow your computer and internet to a crawl. Ads still getting through with scams, phishing attempts and viruses. šŸ¤¢

          1 vote
    2. [9]
      ShroudedScribe
      Link Parent
      I've recently been leaning on a wiki while playing a game, and trying to use the Steam overlay browser is a nightmare with all the ads. If anyone has a suggestion for how to block those, I'm all...

      I've recently been leaning on a wiki while playing a game, and trying to use the Steam overlay browser is a nightmare with all the ads.

      If anyone has a suggestion for how to block those, I'm all ears. I'd prefer to not use network-wide ad blocking (piHole, etc.) or a standalone application (Adguard Home).

      8 votes
      1. [4]
        LookAtTheName
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Fandom? The devs of the game I've been playing recently moved away from there, but I still have my ublock origin rules that made that virus of a site tolerable if you'd like me to paste them here....

        Fandom? The devs of the game I've been playing recently moved away from there, but I still have my ublock origin rules that made that virus of a site tolerable if you'd like me to paste them here. edit: here they are for others, paste into the "My Filters" section:

        Fandom Filters

        ! fix the entire layout, remove sidebar, ads, spam, etc
        fandom.com##.global-navigation
        fandom.com##.anon.global-navigation
        fandom.com##.a-list-feed
        fandom.com##.search-box-bottom-wrapper
        fandom.com##div.wds-global-footer__column:nth-of-type(4)
        fandom.com##.wds-is-follow-us.wds-global-footer__section
        fandom.com##.entry-content.article-content > div
        fandom.com##.article-share
        fandom.com##.in-area-right.hot-block
        fandom.com##.right-rail-buttons.feed-layout__right-rail
        fandom.com##.feed-layout
        fandom.com##.article-layout__rail
        fandom.com###WikiaBar
        fandom.com##.WikiaRail.right-rail-wrapper
        fandom.com##.page__right-rail
        fandom.com##.fandom-community-header__top-container > .wds-button-group.wiki-tools > a.wds-is-secondary.wds-button:nth-of-type(2)
        fandom.com##.is-visible.fandom-sticky-header > .wds-button-group.wiki-tools > a.wds-is-secondary.wds-button:nth-of-type(2)
        fandom.com###mw-data-after-content
        fandom.com##.mcf-wrapper
        fandom.com##.global-footer__content > div:nth-of-type(4)
        fandom.com##.global-footer__section-social-links.global-footer__section
        fandom.com##.global-footer__section-advertise.global-footer__section
        fandom.com##.global-footer__section-fandom-overview.global-footer__section
        fandom.com##.global-footer__bottom > div:nth-of-type(1)
        fandom.com##a.page-header__action-button.wds-is-text.wds-button:nth-of-type(1)
        fandom.com##div#mpmodule:nth-of-type(4)
        fandom.com##.nkch-rdp
        fandom.com##.wiki-top-articles
        fandom.com##.wiki-recent-changes
        fandom.com##.categories-module
        fandom.com##.home-page-desktop__left
        fandom.com##.desktop-entry-point__body
        fandom.com##a.is-hidden-on-smaller-breakpoints.wds-is-secondary.wds-button:nth-of-type(3)
        fandom.com##.wds-is-advertise.wds-global-footer__section
        fandom.com##.wds-is-fandom-overview.wds-global-footer__section
        ! search
        fandom.com##.top-results
        fandom.com##.unified-search__layout__right-rail
        fandom.com##li.unified-search__profiles__profile:nth-of-type(4) > div > [href^="https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Search"]
        fandom.com##li.unified-search__profiles__profile:nth-of-type(2) > div > [href^="https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Search"]
        fandom.com##li.unified-search__profiles__profile:nth-of-type(6) > div > [href^="https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Special:Search"]
        ! community specific fixes
        youtube.fandom.com##.DiscordWidget

        personally, I actually comment out that first one for a little easier navigation.

        9 votes
        1. [2]
          ShroudedScribe
          Link Parent
          Well, the issue is using the browser in the Steam overlay. I have no problem with ad blocking in my primary browser (with uBlock Origin on Firefox). I found an old GitHub project to modify that...

          Well, the issue is using the browser in the Steam overlay. I have no problem with ad blocking in my primary browser (with uBlock Origin on Firefox).

          I found an old GitHub project to modify that browser, but it's definitely abandoned.

          1 vote
          1. finn
            Link Parent
            If you are using a fandom wiki, there are ad-free mirror sites that make for a much calmer user experience. The pages also load much faster without the fandom bloat. There's a list of mirrors...

            If you are using a fandom wiki, there are ad-free mirror sites that make for a much calmer user experience. The pages also load much faster without the fandom bloat.
            There's a list of mirrors linked here: https://breezewiki.com/
            I tend to use antifandom.com because it's easy to remember when editing the URL.

            7 votes
        2. skullkid2424
          Link Parent
          My main game is OSRS, which may have the best video game wiki in existence. I've been playing some cookie clicker to kill time, and every time I want to look something up, its a painful...

          My main game is OSRS, which may have the best video game wiki in existence. I've been playing some cookie clicker to kill time, and every time I want to look something up, its a painful experience...even with ads blocked, the site itself is pure enshitification. I've already tried those filters out, and its already quite an improvement. Thank you!

          1 vote
      2. [2]
        Acorn_CK
        Link Parent
        Is there a particular reason you don't want to just alt-tab to your proper browser? Running games on borderless full-screen makes it work well. That's what I have always done to avoid using the...

        Is there a particular reason you don't want to just alt-tab to your proper browser? Running games on borderless full-screen makes it work well. That's what I have always done to avoid using the native Steam browser.

        2 votes
        1. ShroudedScribe
          Link Parent
          You're not wrong. But I really like being able to pin notes so they're visible with transparency after exiting the Steam overlay. So combining that with the overlay browser is a matter of...

          You're not wrong. But I really like being able to pin notes so they're visible with transparency after exiting the Steam overlay. So combining that with the overlay browser is a matter of convenience. Though having ads blaring at me is most definitely not convenient. So perhaps I'll give up on this one.

          2 votes
      3. kmcgurty1
        Link Parent
        You can always edit your computer's hosts file to block domains similar to pi-hole. It's still a network block, but only local to your PC.

        You can always edit your computer's hosts file to block domains similar to pi-hole. It's still a network block, but only local to your PC.

        1 vote
      4. psi
        Link Parent
        Maybe try using a DNS server that blocks ads, for example Mullvad's adblock.dns.mullvad.net.

        Maybe try using a DNS server that blocks ads, for example Mullvad's adblock.dns.mullvad.net.

        1 vote
    3. SUD0
      Link Parent
      Love uBlock Origin. Some websites are completely unbearable without it. Recently, I've started using the Element Picker to set up additional filters. I have a bunch of filters for websites like...

      Love uBlock Origin. Some websites are completely unbearable without it. Recently, I've started using the Element Picker to set up additional filters. I have a bunch of filters for websites like YouTube so that I don't get sucked into wasting too much time on the website. I've got a filter for the Home page so I don't see a wall of recommendations as soon as I open the website. I've also got some filters to block the Shorts and Game shelves. I love that uBlock Origin can give me the tools to easily customize websites in a way where I can make them not as hostile towards myself.

      7 votes
    4. feigneddork
      Link Parent
      I want to add a shout-out to uBlacklist as well as Bypass Paywall Clean. Both extensions are a god-send.

      I want to add a shout-out to uBlacklist as well as Bypass Paywall Clean. Both extensions are a god-send.

      2 votes
  2. [5]
    JXM
    Link
    Canā€™t believe no one has mentioned their password manager yet! I use 1Password dozens of times each day. Itā€™s usually one 10-15 seconds at a time but itā€™s probably saved me more time than any...

    Canā€™t believe no one has mentioned their password manager yet!

    I use 1Password dozens of times each day. Itā€™s usually one 10-15 seconds at a time but itā€™s probably saved me more time than any other program Iā€™ve used.

    30 votes
    1. jdsalaro
      Link Parent
      KeePassXC gang represent šŸ‘

      KeePassXC gang represent šŸ‘

      9 votes
    2. ArkoSammy12
      Link Parent
      Bitwarden user here. Yep, it's extremely useful. I pair it with Ente Auth for cross-platform TOTP codes.

      Bitwarden user here. Yep, it's extremely useful. I pair it with Ente Auth for cross-platform TOTP codes.

      6 votes
    3. onceuponaban
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I personally stayed away from giving mine as an answer because the one I'm currently using is Proton Pass, and given recent events Note: link to US politics-adjacent thread I am no longer...

      I personally stayed away from giving mine as an answer because the one I'm currently using is Proton Pass, and given recent events Note: link to US politics-adjacent thread I am no longer comfortable recommending Proton services, and the one I aim to replace it with down the line (which would also be off-topic as I'm not actually currently using it), Vaultwarden, is actually a web application that I'm self-hosting which I would consider meaningfully different from "regular" software that this thread is about. But yeah, password managers in general are extremely useful, there's a reason every web browser has some implementation of one nowadays.

      3 votes
    4. kjw
      Link Parent
      Yeah, password manager is a killer program, finally can manage my passwords and have to remember only one password, of the file with all the passwords. Keepass user here.

      Yeah, password manager is a killer program, finally can manage my passwords and have to remember only one password, of the file with all the passwords. Keepass user here.

      2 votes
  3. [12]
    bugsmith
    Link
    For me, it's my favourite text editor, Helix. It's a modal text editor, similar to Vim, but it's superfast and has incredible defaults. I've found very little I've wanted to configure as it's...

    For me, it's my favourite text editor, Helix. It's a modal text editor, similar to Vim, but it's superfast and has incredible defaults. I've found very little I've wanted to configure as it's amazing out of the box, and it makes typing (writing, programming, whatever) an absolute joy for me.

    28 votes
    1. [5]
      carrotflowerr
      Link Parent
      Helix and kakoune always looked really interesting to me but I could never really get used to either, being an emacs person

      Helix and kakoune always looked really interesting to me but I could never really get used to either, being an emacs person

      7 votes
      1. tauon
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        For me itā€™s the same as bugsmith and kari, plus running Helix inside kitty brings joy!* Itā€™s probably helped that Helix was my first modal editor, so while it did take me quite some time to really...

        For me itā€™s the same as bugsmith and kari, plus running Helix inside kitty brings joy!*

        Itā€™s probably helped that Helix was my first modal editor, so while it did take me quite some time to really get the different commands and keysā€™ functionalities internalized, I didnā€™t have to ā€œrelearnā€ anything.

        *For example, after binding

        alias ssh='kitty +kitten ssh'
        

        one can just edit-in-kitty <file> to use the local editor with all its bells and whistles ā€œon a serverā€!

        3 votes
      2. [3]
        gianni
        Link Parent
        You donā€™t need Helix! I get the same benefits as Helix from meow editā€”in addition to customization.

        You donā€™t need Helix! I get the same benefits as Helix from meow editā€”in addition to customization.

        2 votes
        1. [2]
          carrotflowerr
          Link Parent
          very interesting! how does it compare to evil mode?

          very interesting! how does it compare to evil mode?

          1 vote
          1. gianni
            Link Parent
            Itā€™s much more intuitive, it follows the selection ā†’ action pattern that kakoune pioneered and helix follows (see why kakoune). It also has a concept of a ā€œkeypadā€ which greatly simplifies...

            Itā€™s much more intuitive, it follows the selection ā†’ action pattern that kakoune pioneered and helix follows (see why kakoune). It also has a concept of a ā€œkeypadā€ which greatly simplifies accessing your C-c / C-x / C-g key-chords.

            2 votes
    2. [2]
      kari
      Link Parent
      I think Helix has ruined me cause I donā€™t want to use anything that requires lots of configuration anymore. My whole Helix config is like 11 lines compared to my couple hundred lines of Lua when I...

      I think Helix has ruined me cause I donā€™t want to use anything that requires lots of configuration anymore. My whole Helix config is like 11 lines compared to my couple hundred lines of Lua when I used Neovim

      5 votes
      1. bugsmith
        Link Parent
        Yes, that's exactly how I feel. I search more and more tools that are great out of the box. And I've gotten into the mindset of configuring myself rather than configuring the tool, so to speak.

        Yes, that's exactly how I feel. I search more and more tools that are great out of the box. And I've gotten into the mindset of configuring myself rather than configuring the tool, so to speak.

        4 votes
    3. chroma
      Link Parent
      I spent some time fiddling with it today because of this, haha. The motions are familiar, but weird... in a good way, because the whole "motion first" thing is logically more intuitive to me, but...

      I spent some time fiddling with it today because of this, haha. The motions are familiar, but weird... in a good way, because the whole "motion first" thing is logically more intuitive to me, but 6 years of vim muscle memory makes me have to think a lot. Actually, the mnemonics and modes are all more intuitive than vim IMO. One problem I have is that so many default bindings want Alt, which is "special" in macOS for sending composed characters and emojis and stuff. I actually use that feature a lot, so I'll have to rebind a lot of the defaults I guess.

      Anyway, the native IDE-ish features it has so far (mostly pretty good LSP support and config) are basically enough for me to want to switch. Neovim's LSP support is good, but a bit much config-wise. I can pretty much do what I normally do for all my projects without any plugins, which is nice. helix --health for default LSP health check is really helpful too.

      I'll probably drive this on my personal machine for a bit before I decide to fully switch. Thanks for the shout!

      4 votes
    4. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Wow, looks like a fresh take on CLI text editors. Thanks for the tip!

      Wow, looks like a fresh take on CLI text editors. Thanks for the tip!

      3 votes
    5. GOTO10
      Link Parent
      There we go... nix-shell -p helix. Let's see if my muscle memory can still learn new tricks...

      Helix

      There we go... nix-shell -p helix. Let's see if my muscle memory can still learn new tricks...

      2 votes
    6. Eji1700
      Link Parent
      Thanks for sharing this. I've never learned vim but as I've gotten more and more used to using the terminal I really have wanted to get better at something like it, and this seems to be scratching...

      Thanks for sharing this. I've never learned vim but as I've gotten more and more used to using the terminal I really have wanted to get better at something like it, and this seems to be scratching that itch without throwing me in the deepend.

      2 votes
  4. [6]
    LookAtTheName
    Link
    QBittorrent - https://www.qbittorrent.org/ tinyMediaManager - https://www.tinymediamanager.org/ Everything (locate files/folders by name instantly) - https://www.voidtools.com/ get the v1.5 alpha...

    QBittorrent - https://www.qbittorrent.org/
    tinyMediaManager - https://www.tinymediamanager.org/
    Everything (locate files/folders by name instantly) - https://www.voidtools.com/ get the v1.5 alpha if you prefer a dark theme - https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9787

    23 votes
    1. carsonc
      Link Parent
      Shoutout for Everything. Why MSFT doesn't include this capability by default in Windows is a complete mystery. I work with a large, old, labyrinthine shared drive and my colleagues, who...

      Shoutout for Everything. Why MSFT doesn't include this capability by default in Windows is a complete mystery. I work with a large, old, labyrinthine shared drive and my colleagues, who understandably can't find anything on it, treat the ability to instantaneously invoke some Word document written by a long-departed former employee some time in the Triassic Age as though I were using a Dark Magick, dangerous and possibly malicious in nature.

      15 votes
    2. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Yes, I love Everything! I work with a lot of shared network drives and the search function in Windows Explorer is sooo slow.

      Yes, I love Everything!
      I work with a lot of shared network drives and the search function in Windows Explorer is sooo slow.

      8 votes
    3. Reapy
      Link Parent
      Everything along with flow launcher have been my most used programs since discovery, I can't use a windows machine without them now.

      Everything along with flow launcher have been my most used programs since discovery, I can't use a windows machine without them now.

      3 votes
    4. Parliament
      Link Parent
      Wow, thank you for this. I just installed it and can already tell I'll be using it daily - the Windows default search is so bad! It doesn't work a lot of the time, and when it does work, it's...

      Everything

      Wow, thank you for this. I just installed it and can already tell I'll be using it daily - the Windows default search is so bad! It doesn't work a lot of the time, and when it does work, it's painfully slow.

      3 votes
    5. Bobito
      Link Parent
      Noise Comment oh my god ive been using the standard version for years, thank you so much for the dark theme tip!
      Noise Comment

      oh my god ive been using the standard version for years, thank you so much for the dark theme tip!

      1 vote
  5. [5]
    vord
    (edited )
    Link
    If I'm sitting at my computer, odds are I've used grep. It's like the Phillips screwdriver on my desk: It's not flashy, but gets used almost daily for one thing or another. A close second is...

    If I'm sitting at my computer, odds are I've used grep. It's like the Phillips screwdriver on my desk: It's not flashy, but gets used almost daily for one thing or another.

    A close second is rclone. Mounts all my cloud providers as a filesystem on all my computers. Works on my phone via RSAF. Makes E2E encryption trivial, thus I no longer worry about trusting my cloud provider to not leak my data (or pay a premium for their 'secure' features).

    16 votes
    1. [2]
      Rudism
      Link Parent
      I used to be similar on grep, but I haven't used it in a long time now since installing ripgrep on all my machines. It's similar, but equivalent commands in ripgrep tend to be less verbose than...

      I used to be similar on grep, but I haven't used it in a long time now since installing ripgrep on all my machines. It's similar, but equivalent commands in ripgrep tend to be less verbose than grep for my most common use cases.

      7 votes
      1. tauon
        Link Parent
        Also, rgā€™s faster on long files/expensive queries, as far as I understood it.

        Also, rgā€™s faster on long files/expensive queries, as far as I understood it.

        3 votes
    2. [2]
      Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Rclone might be something I'll need to look into as I have a general distaste for all file managers from cloud services. For example, my Nextcloud instance has some poor syncing habits. On the...

      Rclone might be something I'll need to look into as I have a general distaste for all file managers from cloud services.
      For example, my Nextcloud instance has some poor syncing habits.
      On the other hand I only use Nextcloud so rclone might be a bit of an overkill.

      1 vote
      1. Akir
        Link Parent
        Rclone is pretty good! Iā€™m actually really impressed with it because itā€™s really flexible and it moves files very quickly.

        Rclone is pretty good! Iā€™m actually really impressed with it because itā€™s really flexible and it moves files very quickly.

        1 vote
  6. [4]
    Toric
    Link
    easily nvim. I have it setup exactly how I want it, the git history for my dotfiles is mostly nvim tweaks. It took a bit of fiddling to get it where I wanted it, and every once in a while I still...

    easily nvim. I have it setup exactly how I want it, the git history for my dotfiles is mostly nvim tweaks. It took a bit of fiddling to get it where I wanted it, and every once in a while I still change it a bit, but now that its more or less where I want it, its an amazing piece of software.

    16 votes
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      I always was a Windows guy so CLI text editors have always been difficult to grasp. I use them too little to remember the commands.

      I always was a Windows guy so CLI text editors have always been difficult to grasp. I use them too little to remember the commands.

      1 vote
    2. onceuponaban
      Link Parent
      Neovim is my text editor of choice as well, though with the caveat that I'm specifically using the AstroNvim distribution (with my longer term plan being to set up a fully custom configuration)

      Neovim is my text editor of choice as well, though with the caveat that I'm specifically using the AstroNvim distribution (with my longer term plan being to set up a fully custom configuration)

  7. [4]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. [3]
      jredd23
      Link Parent
      I agree though people may argue with me but I find that Linux Mint checks all the boxes that I need an OS to be.

      I agree though people may argue with me but I find that Linux Mint checks all the boxes that I need an OS to be.

      5 votes
      1. onceuponaban
        Link Parent
        Did someone say argue? Jokes aside, Linux Mint is absolutely a great choice and is my default recommendation to anyone interested in Linux but unfamiliar with it. It's based on the most popular...

        Did someone say argue?

        Jokes aside, Linux Mint is absolutely a great choice and is my default recommendation to anyone interested in Linux but unfamiliar with it. It's based on the most popular distribution, Ubuntu, while avoiding the dubious decisions its parent company saddled it with while still ultimately being a very sensible base with a lot of help resources in case issues do arise. The distribution generally aims for "sane defaults" that the average user would reasonably expect without needing to specifically ask for it (while I wholeheartedly support Debian's commitment to truly free software, when you end up with a critical component of the computer not working because a very common piece of hardware doesn't have available drivers without going out of your way to look for a non-free one, something the layman wouldn't even be aware is a concern, it ends up being an obstacle to user adoption, although that's something they did eventually accept required a sensible compromise). Finally, the desktop environment developed alongside the distribution itself superficially resembles Windows' UI which is helpful to get new users acclimated. All of this combines into a very polished package that is user friendly and Just Worksā„¢, exactly what the average user wants out of their OS.

        I instead treat my computer more as a hobby which led me into the Arch Linux rabbit hole but I've since settled to using CachyOS which leverages the AUR (which I like a lot as it enables having very niche software having packages available in a way other distributions might not) while still providing sane defaults I don't need to tinker with endlessly not that this stops me from doing so anyway. Also, they default to KDE, and I like KDE. This is obviously not a common usecase, so recommending Linux Mint in general is still the best bet IMO.

        3 votes
      2. feigneddork
        Link Parent
        I've seen Linux Mint gain quite the lead in terms of recommendations I've seen online - from my mastodon feeds from people who used to use Windows and now swear by Linux Mint to that YouTuber guy...

        I've seen Linux Mint gain quite the lead in terms of recommendations I've seen online - from my mastodon feeds from people who used to use Windows and now swear by Linux Mint to that YouTuber guy who did a video about moving away from Adobe tools.

        I've personally used Pop!_OS, but I genuinely think it's awesome that I'm now seeing a bit of Linux resurgence!

        3 votes
  8. [11]
    snake_case
    Link
    Docker. There was an XKCD comic a while back that made fun of the fact that you donā€™t really have to understand how to build deploy pipelines, just shove it in a docker container and be done with it.

    Docker.

    There was an XKCD comic a while back that made fun of the fact that you donā€™t really have to understand how to build deploy pipelines, just shove it in a docker container and be done with it.

    15 votes
    1. [7]
      zestier
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Similar boat, though I have abandoned docker in favor of podman. I do use podman nearly daily though. Outside deployments I use it for dev containers and I do almost all of my development in...

      Similar boat, though I have abandoned docker in favor of podman. I do use podman nearly daily though. Outside deployments I use it for dev containers and I do almost all of my development in containers. If any piece of dev software would like to be globally installed I just containerize because I hate having to deal with conflicting versions between projects.

      5 votes
      1. [6]
        first-must-burn
        Link Parent
        Can you say more about the move from docker to podman? It seems like it is mainly more secure?

        Can you say more about the move from docker to podman? It seems like it is mainly more secure?

        2 votes
        1. [5]
          zestier
          Link Parent
          The motivation for my switch was running rootless. To be entirely honest, I wasn't really running untrusted containers anyway, but just got sick of the warnings about rooted containers. I just...

          The motivation for my switch was running rootless. To be entirely honest, I wasn't really running untrusted containers anyway, but just got sick of the warnings about rooted containers.

          I just ended up putting a file in my bin named docker that just execs podman and to date I've never had any issues. I did it like this rather than a normal alias just because it was the easiest way to get other software that tries to run docker, such as vscode plugins, to consistently work. I do generally stick to the common stuff though, so maybe there are some issues in edge cases that I've never encountered.

          Not having it running as a daemon is just also kind of nice. For whatever reason I had made the decision that I didn't want docker to boot itself on startup, but this meant starting the daemon whenever I wanted to use it. Not a huge thing, but it's kind of nice to just remove that from needing to be thought about at all.

          Additionally I'm surprised that podman isn't pushed more in professional settings. Big businesses are cheap and don't like to pay for licenses, but they also like Macs. As an example, I know Amazon built Finch when Docker changed their licensing (I know they only changed Docker Desktop, but installing Docker on a Mac without Docker Desktop is a nightmare) and encourage using it internally even though Finch sucks and podman would probably "just work". The reason Finch sucks is that, unlike podman, it isn't API compatible with the docker CLI so there's no way to alias it to port legacy scripts or share scripts with platforms that don't support Finch.

          4 votes
          1. [5]
            Comment deleted by author
            Link Parent
            1. [2]
              zestier
              Link Parent
              Yeah, docker is so prevalent that it has become important to me that other tools work with docker conventions out of the box. For example, I'm still going to write Dockerfiles. And then when I...

              Yeah, docker is so prevalent that it has become important to me that other tools work with docker conventions out of the box. For example, I'm still going to write Dockerfiles. And then when I want to get them going elsewhere, especially managed cloud platforms where I don't need to deal with stuff like the daemon or root, it all works the same as I'm used to. I'm so far down that rabbit hole that even when writing scripts for myself I just exec docker even though I know it is aliased to podman, but down the road I'll appreciate that I didn't need to do extra work to make those scripts work in other environments where docker is preconfigured.

              All of that loops back to why I hated Finch. Even if I was using Finch on my laptop our CI/CD was still inevitably going to be Docker and then we have 2 unique things to maintain.

              1 vote
              1. [2]
                Comment deleted by author
                Link Parent
                1. zestier
                  Link Parent
                  I haven't needed compose recently, but I don't recall having much trouble with it. At the time I think I just forced the docker host to be podman and ran docker compose. Maybe it's better to use...

                  I haven't needed compose recently, but I don't recall having much trouble with it. At the time I think I just forced the docker host to be podman and ran docker compose. Maybe it's better to use podman compose, but I've heard it may parse the yaml slightly differently and at the time I didn't want to deal with the potential for my compose file to only work with podman.

            2. [2]
              first-must-burn
              Link Parent
              I'm excited to try this on my Windows machine because I doa lot of docker/WSL there. I thought WSL itself is a docker image (?), e.g. I need Docker Desktop installed to make WSL work, but maybe...

              I'm excited to try this on my Windows machine because I doa lot of docker/WSL there. I thought WSL itself is a docker image (?), e.g. I need Docker Desktop installed to make WSL work, but maybe this is not the case? Do you replace docker desktop with podman or just run podman inside the wsl environment?

              1. [2]
                Comment deleted by author
                Link Parent
                1. first-must-burn
                  Link Parent
                  Thanks for your response! I have some dedockering to do at some point :) Thank you especially for this, I often use Xming with WSL2, so I will have to try without it!

                  Thanks for your response! I have some dedockering to do at some point :)

                  You can run X11 programs in WSL2 now too, and they use windows as your display manager without extra software.

                  Thank you especially for this, I often use Xming with WSL2, so I will have to try without it!

    2. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      When you don't want to bother with deployment Docker is a great solution. Really fixes a lot of variables.

      When you don't want to bother with deployment Docker is a great solution. Really fixes a lot of variables.

  9. [13]
    nocut12
    Link
    If an add-on counts, I'd say Tree Style Tabs for Firefox. The nesting makes it way more useful than other vertical tab things and has totally changed the way I organize my web browsing, especially...

    If an add-on counts, I'd say Tree Style Tabs for Firefox. The nesting makes it way more useful than other vertical tab things and has totally changed the way I organize my web browsing, especially for more researchy/reference-y things.

    Since this thing has made my browsing so much better and I have a browser open basically 100% of the time, I don't think it's a stretch to say that add-on changed my computing life more than anything else.

    15 votes
    1. [5]
      LookAtTheName
      Link Parent
      I used that years ago, but tend to keep only a few tabs open at a time these days so it's actually wasting screen space to use it. Have you tried Sidebery? I've heard some people have less issues...

      I used that years ago, but tend to keep only a few tabs open at a time these days so it's actually wasting screen space to use it. Have you tried Sidebery? I've heard some people have less issues with it.

      12 votes
      1. [3]
        ShroudedScribe
        Link Parent
        Sidebery is incredible. Very easy to organize tons of tabs and unload them. Can separate the tabs into different groups/panels. Can set up rules to open specific websites in container tabs, or...

        Sidebery is incredible. Very easy to organize tons of tabs and unload them. Can separate the tabs into different groups/panels. Can set up rules to open specific websites in container tabs, or make a container default for specific panels.

        If I had to live without it (on my personal computer), my browsing would be very chaotic.

        8 votes
        1. [2]
          bugsmith
          Link Parent
          I've recently got into using Sidebery. I love it for the side bar alone, especially now I've adjusted the Firefox CSS to get rid of the top bar (and thus no tabs show at the top). I'd be keen to...

          I've recently got into using Sidebery. I love it for the side bar alone, especially now I've adjusted the Firefox CSS to get rid of the top bar (and thus no tabs show at the top).

          I'd be keen to hear how you go about organising your tabs.

          So far, I've set up three panels:

          • Comms: Email, Instant Messaging, and I keep whichever LLM interface I'm into here as well (currently LibreChat).
          • Social: Just a collection of the various forums and the like that I visit regularly: Tildes, HN, Lemmy, BlueSky, Mastodon mostly
          • Work: Any of my work production and development domains, work HR site, work Google stuff, etc. I also have anything that opens in this panel open in a work container. Big fan of this for separation of concerns.

          And then I have a general tab that my random browsing holds. Although that stuff naturally splills into the other panels from clicking links too.

          1 vote
          1. ShroudedScribe
            Link Parent
            I'm not incredibly organized, but I've tried to keep things in the appropriate panel for a few areas of my life. I don't use separate containers for much, so I'll only mention when I do. General:...

            I'm not incredibly organized, but I've tried to keep things in the appropriate panel for a few areas of my life. I don't use separate containers for much, so I'll only mention when I do.

            • General: Almost everything, but I try to move tabs to the other panels later if I can. I at least try to make use of parent tabs or groups to contain things a bit. I pin my (multiple) email webmail, calendar, tildes, and mastodon.

            • School: Everything related to my courses. By default these tabs open in a school container that keeps accounts (like Gmail) separate. I will sometimes open non-container tabs for searches related to school but not something I'd want linked back to my school google account. I pin the main portal for my courses and my school gmail webmail tabs.

            • Homelab: Everything related to my home server/network/etc. setup. This one gets pretty messy, so I try to heavily use groups and parent-child tab relationships where it makes sense. I also use one of those homepage self-hosted applications (and pin it) to provide quick access to the different applications I host.

            • Gaming: A place to look up walkthroughs/guides, game-specific wikis, mods, etc. I try to create groups for each game to keep it tidy.

            • Job Search / Professional: Pretty self-explanatory. I don't currently use a separate container here, but I probably should. I do force LinkedIn to open in its own container that gets moved to this panel, because LinkedIn is perhaps the most creepy and invasive service I know of.

            • Home Improvement / DIY: Mostly just home projects in the research or in-progress stage.

            • Dev/Programming: Software development stuff that's sometimes connected to my homelab, but falls into the category of being more programming specific.

            • Travel: Separate groups for each destination or trip. Sometimes even just for "maybe one day" type trips. I don't use this one incredibly often since I try to keep this info shared with my partner so we can plan things together.

            So I don't use any of the "force URLs into a certain panel or container" rules besides LinkedIn. But maybe I'll change that for the job search one like I mentioned.

            1 vote
      2. nocut12
        Link Parent
        I haven't tried it ā€” I guess haven't had enough issues with TST to look for an alternative. Really the only thing that bugs me is that the sidebar isn't open by default when you open a new private...

        I haven't tried it ā€” I guess haven't had enough issues with TST to look for an alternative. Really the only thing that bugs me is that the sidebar isn't open by default when you open a new private browser window, though I think that's just an issue with how firefox handles sidebars in general.

        Looks nice though, might be cool to check out.

    2. [3]
      hydravion
      Link Parent
      Ever looked at TidyBee? (I built it)

      Ever looked at TidyBee? (I built it)

      4 votes
      1. [2]
        nocut12
        Link Parent
        That's really slick ā€” the searching and filtering looks awesome and I love the idea of blurring the line between open tabs and bookmarks. Personally, I prefer sticking to open source stuff when I...

        That's really slick ā€” the searching and filtering looks awesome and I love the idea of blurring the line between open tabs and bookmarks. Personally, I prefer sticking to open source stuff when I can, but this looks really well done.

        1 vote
        1. hydravion
          Link Parent
          Hey, thanks for the kind words!

          Hey, thanks for the kind words!

    3. [2]
      underdog
      Link Parent
      What does your workflow look like? Do you use default settings? I use TST on Firefox but I had issues adapting to the, what seemed to me, arbitrary nesting of tabs. I ended up turning it off. So...

      What does your workflow look like? Do you use default settings?

      I use TST on Firefox but I had issues adapting to the, what seemed to me, arbitrary nesting of tabs. I ended up turning it off. So now I use it mostly because I prefer vertical tabs (my monitor is huge).

      My current workflow isn't great either so I'm always looking for ways to improve, and I'd love to understand how to use those features better.

      3 votes
      1. nocut12
        Link Parent
        Pretty close to the default settings. I do prefer the "Promote all children to the parent level" option when a tab with children is closed, and I like the option to always add new independent tabs...

        Pretty close to the default settings. I do prefer the "Promote all children to the parent level" option when a tab with children is closed, and I like the option to always add new independent tabs at the end.

        1 vote
    4. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      If I'm researching pages for specific topics I'll copy the URL to whatever I'm managing the project in. For example I might copy the URL in a temporary comment in code or I'll copy it to my Joplin...

      If I'm researching pages for specific topics I'll copy the URL to whatever I'm managing the project in.
      For example I might copy the URL in a temporary comment in code or I'll copy it to my Joplin note.

      1 vote
    5. Akir
      Link Parent
      TST is the best thing to happen to the browser since tabs. I canā€™t stand most other browsers these days because vertical hierarchical tabs are so much better to use. But one thing I have noticed...

      TST is the best thing to happen to the browser since tabs. I canā€™t stand most other browsers these days because vertical hierarchical tabs are so much better to use.

      But one thing I have noticed lately is that a lot more websites in the past ~5 years have really bad layout breakpoints. A lot of websites will refuse to display things correctly if you donā€™t have 1000 horizontal pixels.

      1 vote
  10. [28]
    Akir
    Link
    Honestly, right now itā€™s Visual Studio Code. To be honest, I mostly hate it. Configuring a text editor with text files is actually a bummer when the text editor is basically an IDE, and the...

    Honestly, right now itā€™s Visual Studio Code.

    To be honest, I mostly hate it. Configuring a text editor with text files is actually a bummer when the text editor is basically an IDE, and the shortcuts have almost zero consideration for MacOS by default All of the run and debug shortcuts are function keys, which are defaulted to media controls so you have to also hold down the fn key. Also the reset debugging button is F11, which the OS already has assigned to exposĆØ. A lot of functionality is hidden behind their command pallet idea, which sounds nice but I need to use them so infrequently I can never remember how to fucking summon it. Itā€™s the only piece of software that continually makes you feel like you donā€™t know how to use it - its actually worse than vim in that respect.

    But rather critically itā€™s the only editor that has decent built-in debugging for the framework Iā€™m working on right now, and itā€™s also free and what my students will be expecting to use. If I had a choice I would rather use nova. I havenā€™t paid for the latest updates but itā€™s got a lightning fast text rendering engine, a layout and UI that is incredibly simple without being incapable or inflexible, and perhaps most importantly, has actually never crashed on me. Though to be fair, Code has an absurd number of extensions added that are not helping that situation.

    13 votes
    1. [9]
      Sunkiller
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Visual Studio is great if you need an IDE on Windows but on MacOS it's garbage. There's also something to be said for not using an IDE when you start out to ensure you know what's happening in the...

      Visual Studio Code is great if you need an IDE on Windows but on MacOS it's garbage.
      There's also something to be said for not using an IDE when you start out to ensure you know what's happening in the background, off course depending on the framework.

      Edit: accidentally added code to Visual Studio and the conversation derailed.

      8 votes
      1. Akir
        Link Parent
        Right now Iā€™m trying to teach python to kids who arenā€™t even good at typing yet and so the autocompletion features are actually more of a hindrance than a help. But itā€™s the curriculum to use it,...

        Right now Iā€™m trying to teach python to kids who arenā€™t even good at typing yet and so the autocompletion features are actually more of a hindrance than a help. But itā€™s the curriculum to use it, so it is what it is.

        3 votes
      2. [7]
        babypuncher
        Link Parent
        I wouldn't consider VSCode an IDE, it's an extensible text editor. It can be turned into an IDE with extensions. Stock VSCode with a terminal panel and basic syntax highlighting is a great way to...

        I wouldn't consider VSCode an IDE, it's an extensible text editor. It can be turned into an IDE with extensions. Stock VSCode with a terminal panel and basic syntax highlighting is a great way to start learning, IMO.

        Also, what makes it so bad on macOS?

        2 votes
        1. [4]
          Weldawadyathink
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Honestly some of the comments from OP seem off. Edit: OP clarified in a lower comment. Maybe itā€™s just confusion between VScode and Visual Studio? I canā€™t remember if Visual Studio has a version...

          Honestly some of the comments from OP seem off. Some portray themselves sometimes as a MacOS primary user, and sometimes as a windows exclusive user. They actively use Everything on windows, which makes sense for a windows power user. But in this comment they make it seem like they are familiar enough with MacOS design language to realize that VScode doesnā€™t really fit in with macOS stylistically. But in another comment they have never heard of raycast. I donā€™t know how you follow macOS as a power user at all and not hear of raycast. Maybe they are a windows power user that has used Mac in the past, but not as a power user? But then it would be weird to say VScode direct work well since itā€™s almost identical to the windows version. Edit: OP clarified in a lower comment.

          Maybe itā€™s just confusion between VScode and Visual Studio? I canā€™t remember if Visual Studio has a version for macOS, but VScode is an entirely different product.

          2 votes
          1. [2]
            Sunkiller
            Link Parent
            Hi, OP here to clear up some confusion. In my comment I mistakenly added Code to Visual Studio, I meant Visual Studio the IDE instead of VScode. As you guessed Iā€™m primarily a Windows user but...

            Hi, OP here to clear up some confusion.

            In my comment I mistakenly added Code to Visual Studio, I meant Visual Studio the IDE instead of VScode.

            As you guessed Iā€™m primarily a Windows user but Iā€™ve also tried using a Mac in the past. I could never get used to it.
            I also have some machines running linux distros.

            2 votes
            1. Weldawadyathink
              Link Parent
              That makes sense. Sorry for casting shade your way. Itā€™s a pretty common mistake to make. It is a little unfortunate that Microsoft used the visual studio name for code since they could not be...

              That makes sense. Sorry for casting shade your way. Itā€™s a pretty common mistake to make. It is a little unfortunate that Microsoft used the visual studio name for code since they could not be less related.

              3 votes
          2. babypuncher
            Link Parent
            This would make a lot of sense actually, until recently there was a Visual Studio for Mac, and it was indeed lacking compared to its Windows counterpart. Most .NET devs working on Mac use VSCode...

            Maybe itā€™s just confusion between VScode and Visual Studio? I canā€™t remember if Visual Studio has a version for macOS, but VScode is an entirely different product.

            This would make a lot of sense actually, until recently there was a Visual Studio for Mac, and it was indeed lacking compared to its Windows counterpart. Most .NET devs working on Mac use VSCode or Rider instead, so much so that Microsoft finally killed off Visual Studio for Mac last year.

            1 vote
        2. [2]
          gpl
          Link Parent
          I use it on macOS and donā€™t have any issues or complaints really, but maybe in comparison to Windows itā€™s lacking? Now Iā€™m curious too.

          I use it on macOS and donā€™t have any issues or complaints really, but maybe in comparison to Windows itā€™s lacking? Now Iā€™m curious too.

          1. babypuncher
            Link Parent
            I've used it extensively on Windows, Mac, and Linux. A big part of the appeal of VSCode is that it's the same everywhere.

            I've used it extensively on Windows, Mac, and Linux. A big part of the appeal of VSCode is that it's the same everywhere.

            2 votes
    2. [12]
      onceuponaban
      Link Parent
      I think the biggest thing that undermines the point of the palette is the fact it's bound to CTRL + SHIFT + P by default which is needlessly complicated for a feature which is supposed to make...

      I think the biggest thing that undermines the point of the palette is the fact it's bound to CTRL + SHIFT + P by default which is needlessly complicated for a feature which is supposed to make other features easier to access. If anything I'd intuitively expect that to be a printing related shortcut.

      That is one thing that (n)vim does right: you want to type a command? Switch to normal mode if you're not already in it (which is going to be the Escape key) and press :. That's it, you can type your command. And since saving a file is one of those commands, you will pretty much immediately learn and remember it for anything that is too niche to warrant a hotkey of its own and too specific for a vim motion.

      That being said, in your situation I suspect that even if a debugging plugin for your framework happens to exist for it, subjecting your students to nvim out of the blue wouldn't go well :) (and Azatoth help you if someone is on Windows)

      4 votes
      1. [7]
        0xSim
        Link Parent
        I'm not in front of my computer right now, but doesn't F1 also work to bring up the palette?

        I'm not in front of my computer right now, but doesn't F1 also work to bring up the palette?

        3 votes
        1. [6]
          onceuponaban
          Link Parent
          After checking on a computer where VS Code was installed, apparently yes it does... which raises the question of why is CTRL+SHIFT+P the shortcut it shows for the palette in the menu over the much...

          After checking on a computer where VS Code was installed, apparently yes it does... which raises the question of why is CTRL+SHIFT+P the shortcut it shows for the palette in the menu over the much simpler F1?

          1 vote
          1. [5]
            Wes
            Link Parent
            The shortcut comes from Sublime Text, which created (and inadvertently standardized) the command palette as a feature. It's now accessed in Chrome and VS Code by the same hotkey. I'm guessing VS...

            The shortcut comes from Sublime Text, which created (and inadvertently standardized) the command palette as a feature. It's now accessed in Chrome and VS Code by the same hotkey.

            I'm guessing VS Code added F1 as a shortcut later to make it more accessible, though they may wish to still be aligned with the "standard" hotkey.

            1 vote
            1. [4]
              d32
              Link Parent
              I hated when I switched from VS Code to Obsidian for note taking and F1 suddenly brought ... help window :) On Windows, I reconfigured it with Autohotkey; on Linux I found no solution.

              I hated when I switched from VS Code to Obsidian for note taking and F1 suddenly brought ... help window :)

              On Windows, I reconfigured it with Autohotkey; on Linux I found no solution.

              1 vote
              1. [3]
                0xSim
                Link Parent
                You know you can rebind keys in Obsidian? Open the settings and go to Hotkeys

                You know you can rebind keys in Obsidian? Open the settings and go to Hotkeys

                1 vote
                1. [2]
                  d32
                  Link Parent
                  Thanks! I may have overlooked that. Or perhaps it is a relatively new feature?

                  Thanks! I may have overlooked that. Or perhaps it is a relatively new feature?

                  1 vote
                  1. 0xSim
                    Link Parent
                    It's been there for as long as I've been using it, so at least 3 years :) Quite useful for 3rd party plugins that don't have default bindings

                    It's been there for as long as I've been using it, so at least 3 years :)

                    Quite useful for 3rd party plugins that don't have default bindings

                    1 vote
      2. [4]
        Akir
        Link Parent
        The debugging is entirely for a personal project. I suppose I could use a debugging library and just type in my breakpoints but I really donā€™t like that approach.

        The debugging is entirely for a personal project. I suppose I could use a debugging library and just type in my breakpoints but I really donā€™t like that approach.

        2 votes
        1. [3]
          onceuponaban
          Link Parent
          Ah, I mixed the two up and assumed the framework and what you're teaching were related. Point is, something tells me it would be a bad idea to spring nvim on students that presumably aren't...

          Ah, I mixed the two up and assumed the framework and what you're teaching were related. Point is, something tells me it would be a bad idea to spring nvim on students that presumably aren't already familiar with it.

          Out of curiosity, what approach do you use for debugging that requires more than stepping through breakpoints?

          1. [2]
            Akir
            Link Parent
            Honestly this is the first meaningful project I have even needed breakpoints in, so I donā€™t know how much more there is for it. The debugger in VS Code is useful to me because it allows me to...

            Honestly this is the first meaningful project I have even needed breakpoints in, so I donā€™t know how much more there is for it. The debugger in VS Code is useful to me because it allows me to break apart the entire state of the program, including places I might not have really thought to look through otherwise. I find the ability to insert conditional breakpoints particularly useful because the project is a video game, which makes it essentially a Rube Goldberg level state machine.

            Yesterday I was working on a fix/improvement for a library that I was working and realized shortly after I submitted the PR that there was a problem with the project I was testing it in. If I didnā€™t have that level of debugging I probably would have never figured out that the problem was actually in my project code.

            3 votes
            1. onceuponaban
              (edited )
              Link Parent
              For what it's worth, it looks like the debugger implementation in VS Code follows a standard which is also supported by other IDE/text editors, including Nova itself according to its documentation...

              For what it's worth, it looks like the debugger implementation in VS Code follows a standard which is also supported by other IDE/text editors, including Nova itself according to its documentation since version 9, although it seems more limited regarding which debuggers are supported. Other programs that support it include Eclipse, Emacs (because of course it does), Helix, and Neovim (through this plugin if you want to try it out) as well as being a WIP for Zed.

              1 vote
    3. [2]
      bengine
      Link Parent
      Take a look at vscodium which doesn't include all the MS telemetry they add on top of the open source base.

      Take a look at vscodium which doesn't include all the MS telemetry they add on top of the open source base.

      The VSCodium project exists so that you donā€™t have to download+build from source. This project includes special build scripts that clone Microsoftā€™s vscode repo, run the build commands, and upload the resulting binaries for you to GitHub releases. These binaries are licensed under the MIT license. Telemetry is disabled.

      4 votes
      1. onceuponaban
        Link Parent
        I would definitely wholeheartedly recommend VSCodium. While I subjectively don't like quite a few things regarding VSCode's UI, that's mostly down to me having weird preferences and it's...

        I would definitely wholeheartedly recommend VSCodium. While I subjectively don't like quite a few things regarding VSCode's UI, that's mostly down to me having weird preferences and it's undeniably a well designed piece of user friendly software as far as code-focused text editors are concerned. VSCodium fixes the worrying privacy implications of VSCode being subject to Microsoft's all-encompassing gaze on top of that. The existence of a painless drop-in replacement to a popular program that I can suggest is extremely helpful, especially given that few people consider this a concern critical enough to accept compromising on user experience for.

        1 vote
    4. Kryvens
      Link Parent
      Have you tried Zed? I don't use an IDE every day so it's not on my list for this particular conversation, but it's an excellent IDE for Mac/Linux that's soon to be available for Windows...

      Have you tried Zed?

      I don't use an IDE every day so it's not on my list for this particular conversation, but it's an excellent IDE for Mac/Linux that's soon to be available for Windows...

      3 votes
    5. [3]
      tanglisha
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I used to hate it. Then I started using Talon Voice (control your computer using your voice) due to my RSI and I discovered Cursorless. Absolutely nothing about using it changed what I switched...

      I used to hate it. Then I started using Talon Voice (control your computer using your voice) due to my RSI and I discovered Cursorless. Absolutely nothing about using it changed what I switched from Mac to Linux. Seriously, I canā€™t say enough good things about Cursorless, it just keeps getting better.

      Hereā€™s a talk on Cursorless at StrangeLoop by its creator. (~40 minute video)

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        Akir
        Link Parent
        This sounds really neat but I have little faith in computers understanding what Iā€™m trying to say. The reason why I like Siri in spite of its limitations is that it is the only voice recognition...

        This sounds really neat but I have little faith in computers understanding what Iā€™m trying to say. The reason why I like Siri in spite of its limitations is that it is the only voice recognition that works anywhere approaching reliably even though it still doesnā€™t quite get there.

        Even if it did having to learn another phonetic alphabet is a real turn off for me. I can barely remember the NATO phonetic alphabet as it is and Iā€™m from a military family.

        I might still check it out eventually though because the sheer novelty intrigues me.

        1. tanglisha
          Link Parent
          Itā€™s all about motivation. I started using Talon because I was in a lot of pain. I was already using a custom made keyboard, but typing kept making it worse and worse. Even taking a small part of...

          Itā€™s all about motivation. I started using Talon because I was in a lot of pain. I was already using a custom made keyboard, but typing kept making it worse and worse. Even taking a small part of the burden off my hands was welcome, which was exactly how I started.

          3 votes
  11. [4]
    rodrigo
    Link
    The web browser (Safari, in my case). Besides things only it can perform, it could replace most of other software I use regularly ā€” although with a worse UX.

    The web browser (Safari, in my case). Besides things only it can perform, it could replace most of other software I use regularly ā€” although with a worse UX.

    10 votes
    1. [3]
      artvandelay
      Link Parent
      The browser is definitely the single most useful program I use as well. The majority of the things I use nowadays are all web-based: messaging through Discord/FB Messenger, YouTube, social media,...

      The browser is definitely the single most useful program I use as well. The majority of the things I use nowadays are all web-based: messaging through Discord/FB Messenger, YouTube, social media, and much more. I'm currently running a new Firefox-based browser in beta called Zen that draws a lot of inspiration from Arc, definitely recommend people try it out!

      3 votes
      1. [2]
        jredd23
        Link Parent
        The issue I have with Safari is it's web engine (arguably not a browser issue but OS) and extension support. Firefox for me has better and more capable extensions.

        The issue I have with Safari is it's web engine (arguably not a browser issue but OS) and extension support. Firefox for me has better and more capable extensions.

        2 votes
        1. artvandelay
          Link Parent
          I have the same issue with Safari. My other issue with it is that I have a lot of non-Apple devices which wouldn't be able to sync bookmarks and tabs if I were to use Safari.

          I have the same issue with Safari. My other issue with it is that I have a lot of non-Apple devices which wouldn't be able to sync bookmarks and tabs if I were to use Safari.

  12. arrza
    Link
    I'm a windows admin, so it would probably be PowerShell. Managing accounts, mailboxes, permissions are all things I do daily and I like to use PowerShell rather than the gui.

    I'm a windows admin, so it would probably be PowerShell. Managing accounts, mailboxes, permissions are all things I do daily and I like to use PowerShell rather than the gui.

    10 votes
  13. arghdos
    Link
    The top hitters would be rsync, obsidian, sublime, matplotlib/pandas

    The top hitters would be rsync, obsidian, sublime, matplotlib/pandas

    9 votes
  14. [2]
    Levantus
    Link
    Definitely KeePassXC. I know some people get really technical with their own syncing solutions but I find integrating it with OneDrive to be the smoothest experience.

    Definitely KeePassXC. I know some people get really technical with their own syncing solutions but I find integrating it with OneDrive to be the smoothest experience.

    9 votes
    1. terminal
      Link Parent
      I use nextcloud to sync and i never have a problem.

      I use nextcloud to sync and i never have a problem.

      1 vote
  15. [5]
    BashCrandiboot
    Link
    TickTick, it's a task management app a lot like todoist, but I jive better with the features. It's always open and I'm constantly sorting and managing my tasks. I particularly like the custom...

    TickTick, it's a task management app a lot like todoist, but I jive better with the features. It's always open and I'm constantly sorting and managing my tasks. I particularly like the custom calendar views.

    8 votes
    1. [2]
      ShroudedScribe
      Link Parent
      I've been fighting over which self-hosted todo manager I want to use and I haven't fully settled yet. But I don't want to use one of these third-party cloud services as a matter of preference (and...

      I've been fighting over which self-hosted todo manager I want to use and I haven't fully settled yet. But I don't want to use one of these third-party cloud services as a matter of preference (and financial investment).

      Best one for me (so far) is Vikunja, but it's still a little clunky.

      4 votes
      1. gco
        Link Parent
        Thanks for posting! Just yesterday I was going through task management services and everything required an account and would sync. I just wanted something either offline or that I can self-host...

        Thanks for posting! Just yesterday I was going through task management services and everything required an account and would sync. I just wanted something either offline or that I can self-host and Vikunja looks good!

    2. [2]
      bugsmith
      Link Parent
      I live by Todoist currently. What is it you prefer about TickTick's work flow? I'm really fussy with my productivity apps and Todoist just feels right. I'm not actually entirely sure what it is I...

      I live by Todoist currently. What is it you prefer about TickTick's work flow?
      I'm really fussy with my productivity apps and Todoist just feels right. I'm not actually entirely sure what it is I love about it compared to others. But there are some things I wish it had, such as the ability to differentiate between the date something is due by and the date I wish to do something.

      3 votes
      1. Plik
        Link Parent
        TickTick has an incredibly fast entry for new items in calendar view, basically click a day, enter your stuff, click off the entry box, and you're done. Everything else has 2-3 (or more) too many...

        TickTick has an incredibly fast entry for new items in calendar view, basically click a day, enter your stuff, click off the entry box, and you're done.

        Everything else has 2-3 (or more) too many clicks just to put in a quick note/todo. The Android widget is pretty good, but sometimes doesn't sync right away.

        3 votes
  16. [2]
    aernox
    (edited )
    Link
    On my Windows PC, I open up foobar2000 pretty much every day, mainly to listen to music, but I also (rather unconventionally) use it to manage my movie/TV and audiobook collection ā€“ it works...

    On my Windows PC, I open up foobar2000 pretty much every day, mainly to listen to music, but I also (rather unconventionally) use it to manage my movie/TV and audiobook collection ā€“ it works surprisingly well for that. I like that it's simple on the surface but complex underneath, and that it can be extended with external components. I've spent a lot of time customizing the whole interface and functionality to my liking so it looks and works exactly the way I want it to. It's also really lightweight and quick to start up.

    Also on Windows, I use Total Commander as my file manager. It's dual-pane so copying and moving files around is much easier and faster than opening multiple Explorer windows. Similar to foobar2000, there's a lot of hidden functionality in the program, but I feel like it's kind of necessary to visit the official forums for help to discover all that's possible with it.

    What draws me to both tools is the fact that they're good examples of performant software with a simple UI that is light on system resources but very extensible so it can adapt to your needs. They also have multiple decades of (single-person) development with community feedback and participation behind them, so they're pretty stable and come from a place of dedication. Other programs in this vein that I use and can recommend are Notepad++ and IrfanView. Too bad that most of them are proprietary, but I can live with it.

    8 votes
    1. jredd23
      Link Parent
      Total Commander is my go to file manager but when I want or need command level control in addition to file management, my go to app is Far Manager.

      Total Commander is my go to file manager but when I want or need command level control in addition to file management, my go to app is Far Manager.

      2 votes
  17. [7]
    VoidSage
    Link
    Logseq - combo journal and todo list, and open source so I can easily install on my work laptop

    Logseq - combo journal and todo list, and open source so I can easily install on my work laptop

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Seems to be a crossover between obsidian and notion. I'm currently using Joplin which I like. I don't like to have my todo items in my journal/notes program but it does seem to be more polished...

      Seems to be a crossover between obsidian and notion.
      I'm currently using Joplin which I like.
      I don't like to have my todo items in my journal/notes program but it does seem to be more polished than Joplin.

      5 votes
      1. VoidSage
        Link Parent
        I used obsidian for a long time and decided I wanted to swap to Logseq because it forces a more streamlined workflow, which is a good thing for me because I tended to be messy and overcomplicate...

        I used obsidian for a long time and decided I wanted to swap to Logseq because it forces a more streamlined workflow, which is a good thing for me because I tended to be messy and overcomplicate things in obsidian

        I also used Joplin for a time, which I found more like onenote than obsidian or Logseq

        1 vote
    2. gianni
      Link Parent
      Came here to post Logseq as well. I think I have tried every major PKM, todo app, and notes app. I always end up back with Logseq. You donā€™t fall into the organizational paralysis of files and...

      Came here to post Logseq as well. I think I have tried every major PKM, todo app, and notes app. I always end up back with Logseq.

      You donā€™t fall into the organizational paralysis of files and directory hierarchiesā€”you just start writing. Itā€™s one of the simplest to get started with while still being incredibly powerful. In fact I believe Logseq queries (datalog) are the most robust and flexible of any app I have tried (short of direct DB access).

      Plus outlining just makes sense.

      3 votes
    3. ShroudedScribe
      Link Parent
      Another option in this category is Anytype. You can keep it local, use their sync service (encrypted), or self-host a sync node. Just be aware that the self-hosting option is... overly complex. By...

      Another option in this category is Anytype. You can keep it local, use their sync service (encrypted), or self-host a sync node. Just be aware that the self-hosting option is... overly complex. By far the most annoying application I self/host, from a setup and maintenance (updating it) perspective. But once it's running, it's rock solid.

      I went this route because I wanted one that supported multiple users as well as an iOS app. I use it as an index for the Johnny.Decimal organizational system.

      2 votes
    4. [2]
      gary
      Link Parent
      I started donating $15/month when Logseq opened sync to early access. I quit after 8 months. If I had continued, I would have donated $495 by now and sync is still in beta also being rewritten.

      I started donating $15/month when Logseq opened sync to early access. I quit after 8 months. If I had continued, I would have donated $495 by now and sync is still in beta also being rewritten.

      2 votes
      1. VoidSage
        Link Parent
        Yeah I donā€™t use sync

        Yeah I donā€™t use sync

        1 vote
  18. [3]
    onceuponaban
    Link
    I'm amused to see this thread pop up just a couple days after I was pondering making a "what misc software do you often use" thread myself. Setting aside the more mundane "My OS/web...

    I'm amused to see this thread pop up just a couple days after I was pondering making a "what misc software do you often use" thread myself.

    Setting aside the more mundane "My OS/web browser/terminal/email client/text editor" answers, one program I've been using a lot lately is FreeTube. It's just an Electron wrapper for a Youtube frontend, but it offers a very clean interface, solves the gripes I have with the actual website (I want to watch my videos in 1080p60fps whenever available and whichever is the highest otherwise, not spin the wheel to find out whether "Auto" is going to be 720p or 4K every time I open another video), integrates sponsorblock on top of eliminating ads, and has nice features like grouping your subscriptions in custom profiles rather than just everything listed together under your account, hiding whatever you don't want to see (in my case shorts, the trending and popular pages) tracking the playback time when I stop watching videos to be right where I left off later on, a convenient "download video" button (and also an external player feature which can be hijacked to instead send it to yt-dlp if the integrated download feature isn't enough), and various other things.

    If you're interested, do note that there is a significant caveat: FreeTube deliberately doesn't integrate any feature that requires a Google account to use, meaning for example no two-way syncing your subscriptions with your actual account (though you can export your existing subscriptions into FreeTube) and they won't be counted as such on the platform's side, no liking videos or leaving comments, and no watching members-only videos. And obviously, no managing your channel from FreeTube if you make content on YouTube yourself. I personally don't mind but that can definitely be a deal-breaker for many.

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Great minds think a like! I'm always hesitant to sink some time into setting things up like FreeTube as it's only a matter of time before youtube finds a way to block it.

      Great minds think a like!

      I'm always hesitant to sink some time into setting things up like FreeTube as it's only a matter of time before youtube finds a way to block it.

      3 votes
      1. onceuponaban
        Link Parent
        They've been pretty quick on the uptake whenever breaking changes happen in the Youtube API. The latest example was some integrity checks which were being progressively rolled out over the last...

        They've been pretty quick on the uptake whenever breaking changes happen in the Youtube API. The latest example was some integrity checks which were being progressively rolled out over the last couple of weeks. By the time it affected me (which resulted in any attempt to watch a video yielding a 403 error), the update that fixed it had already been out for days, and the only reason I didn't update before that was because I had disabled the integrated update notifications, since my package manager is supposed to handle it... and forgot to update my system for an entire week.

        2 votes
  19. [10]
    Kryvens
    Link
    I'd say there are two things I can't live without. First is a local terminal. I've been working with *nix for so long now that I am appreciably faster manipulating files with command-line tools...

    I'd say there are two things I can't live without. First is a local terminal. I've been working with *nix for so long now that I am appreciably faster manipulating files with command-line tools such as sed, awk, grep, sort etc, and I've been using vi or derivatives for 20+ years. Still my go-to for text manipulation.

    The other is Raycast - a shortcut tool for MacOS - but it's so much more than that.

    6 votes
    1. [9]
      Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      I'm using Everything from Voidtools a lot but Raycast seems to be that but so much more. Especially the AI answers could be very usefull. I've signed up for the Windows wait list... We'll see......

      I'm using Everything from Voidtools a lot but Raycast seems to be that but so much more. Especially the AI answers could be very usefull.

      I've signed up for the Windows wait list... We'll see...

      Edit: Fluent Search seems to be a promising alternative

      2 votes
      1. [8]
        ShroudedScribe
        Link Parent
        A lot of the functionality in Fluent Search seems to be present in PowerToys Run. Just another option to consider (and one I like quite a bit).

        A lot of the functionality in Fluent Search seems to be present in PowerToys Run. Just another option to consider (and one I like quite a bit).

        1 vote
        1. [4]
          Reapy
          Link Parent
          Flow Launcher is also great, I like it a bit better than powertoys run, it also integrates with Everything search, though I tend to just use it to launch everything.

          Flow Launcher is also great, I like it a bit better than powertoys run, it also integrates with Everything search, though I tend to just use it to launch everything.

          1 vote
          1. [3]
            ShroudedScribe
            Link Parent
            Interesting, I'm pretty sure all the features listed on their homepage are present in Run, and all the plugins as well. (Including integration with Everything search.) Do you just prefer the UI?...

            Interesting, I'm pretty sure all the features listed on their homepage are present in Run, and all the plugins as well. (Including integration with Everything search.)

            Do you just prefer the UI? (That also looks pretty similar though.)

            1 vote
            1. [2]
              Reapy
              Link Parent
              I did start with Run and was enjoying it, but then later saw some comments threads that flow launcher was snappier with some more features, but that was a few years back now, so the feature...

              I did start with Run and was enjoying it, but then later saw some comments threads that flow launcher was snappier with some more features, but that was a few years back now, so the feature set/performance may have improved in Run. I ended up sticking with flow launcher because I liked the UI better, and it felt snappier and more responsive at the time. It may be that run is a lot better now though. Can't go wrong with trying them both out and seeing what you like!

              1 vote
              1. ShroudedScribe
                Link Parent
                I think I have a soft spot for Run because it's a fork of Wox, which I used a long time ago. But I'll give this one a try too - they're both open source!

                I think I have a soft spot for Run because it's a fork of Wox, which I used a long time ago. But I'll give this one a try too - they're both open source!

                1 vote
        2. [3]
          Sunkiller
          Link Parent
          Now playing around with PowerToys, even integrated Everything in it. Like it a lot.

          Now playing around with PowerToys, even integrated Everything in it. Like it a lot.

          1 vote
          1. [2]
            ShroudedScribe
            Link Parent
            Yeah, there's some awesome tools in it! Other components of PowerToys I use often: Awake: I actually use this one outside of the PowerToys config, with the standalone executable. I have a button...

            Yeah, there's some awesome tools in it! Other components of PowerToys I use often:

            • Awake: I actually use this one outside of the PowerToys config, with the standalone executable. I have a button on my stream deck that uses this tool to keep my computer (and screen) awake for 30min. Pressing it again will effectively reset the timer by killing the old process and creating a new one. Another button will just end the currently running process. This is useful for preserving the life of my OLED monitor.

            • FancyZones: I've gone back and forth between different window management tools - primarily this one and WindowGrid. I'm probably sticking with FancyZones as it effectively and reliably opens windows for specific applications on my secondary monitor, even if the application does not do this by default. But the ability to resize windows on the fly in a grid is also very neat. So I'd recommend comparing them to see what's best for you. (And you technically could use both.)

            • Text Extractor: Some of my online courses display text but do not allow it to be selected or copied. This is an OCR module in PowerToys that allows you to select a region of your screen and it will copy the text to your clipboard. They recommend that you use the Windows snipping tool for this instead, but I haven't been able to make that as streamlined as just pressing a key combo, selecting a region, and having it automatically in my clipboard.

            Slightly less often but still very useful:

            • Color Picker: get various color codes for a pixel on your screen.

            • PowerRename: a nice GUI for performing multiple rename operations across files/folders in a directory. I prefer this to a powershell script because it shows a live preview of what the rename will do. (I also perform unique rename operations infrequently; I'd opt for a script if this was a regular occurrence.)

  20. [6]
    terminal
    Link
    Emacsā€¦ but that thing is almost its own operating system so its kind of a cheat to name it.

    Emacsā€¦ but that thing is almost its own operating system so its kind of a cheat to name it.

    6 votes
    1. [5]
      xk3
      Link Parent
      Any advice for new users to quickly onboard onto emacs without resorting to Doom/Spacemacs?

      Any advice for new users to quickly onboard onto emacs without resorting to Doom/Spacemacs?

      1. Boojum
        Link Parent
        I learned it decades ago before Doom and Spacemacs existed. So my advice may be a bit dated, but if you're interested in vanilla Emacs, I'd suggest: (This got long, so I'm putting this here so...

        I learned it decades ago before Doom and Spacemacs existed. So my advice may be a bit dated, but if you're interested in vanilla Emacs, I'd suggest:

        (This got long, so I'm putting this here so people don't have to scroll past it)
        • Print out a copy of the cheatsheet and keep it handy on your desk.
        • There's a built-in tutorial which is decent. Press Ctrl-h then t to start it.
        • Learn to read the notation for Emacs keybinds: e.g., C-x C-f means Ctrl-x followed by Ctrl-f. M- for "meta" maps to Alt, and S- is for Shift. Sequences of keys are space delimited (except when they're ordinary alphanumeric keys). RET is return, SPC is space bar, etc. You'll see this sort of notation everywhere in Emacs-land.
        • Learn to use the help system. C-h i brings up a detailed manual; I definitely recommend giving it a glance. C-h b shows you keybindings. C-h k tells you what a key is bound to, and C-h w (where) tells you the opposite if you know a function name. C-h f lets you look up information on internal functions, and C-h v does the same for variables.
        • Keep the menubar and toolbar on for now. A lot of Emacs users turn them off, and I do as well. But I recommend against doing that at first. They're not half bad for feature discovery, so keep them on and poke around in them to see what's there. Once that's all ingrained, then go ahead and turn them off.
        • If you keep them on, you can basically treat Emacs as like a better notepad, nano, gedit, kate, etc. at first, and I think that's a reasonable way to start. I'd suggest just using it for small edits at first, nothing too fancy, then poke around experiment when you can, and slowly build up your repertoire.
        • Understand the zen of Emacs. At its core, Emacs is an idiosyncratic Lisp interpreter with bindings to a bunch of built in functions and datatypes (implemented in C) for manipulating buffers of text, plus displaying them to a window and handling input. Layered on top of that, the majority of Emacs is implemented in that Lisp. It basically runs a loop where it displays the buffers, waits for keypresses, looks up the function their bound to and then calls that. There's no namespacing, no private functions, no plugin API, etc. Everything is open for inspection and for rebinding or redefining. Your config is just code that it executes at startup that defines new functions and variables, replaces bindings, and/or monkeypatches things. The help system is "live" and based on reflection, so C-h f, C-h v, C-h b, C-h w, and all will reflect the current state.
        • That said, there is a customization system that can write the code for you to set many of the variables that control Emacs' behavior. You can activate it with M-x customize RET. Exploring this is another good way of discovering what Emacs can do.
        • Ask for help on /r/emacs if you need it or get lost.
        3 votes
      2. chum-cha
        Link Parent
        I think this post from last year is helpful: https://tildes.net/~comp/1hkw/thinking_of_getting_into_emacs_any_advice#comment-d6id. I also found SystemCrafters' Emacs from Scratch series quite...

        I think this post from last year is helpful: https://tildes.net/~comp/1hkw/thinking_of_getting_into_emacs_any_advice#comment-d6id.

        I also found SystemCrafters' Emacs from Scratch series quite helpful.

        Then, instead of Doom/Evil, you could go with something like Crafted Emacs, which is basically a configuration you can drop into vanilla Emacs and have some useful packages and "saner" defaults right out of the gate.

        1 vote
      3. terminal
        Link Parent
        Quick into emacs is a tall order. Its old and idiosyncratic and that sets up a steep learning curve. I would recommend going into it with something in mind you want it use it for then youā€™ll...

        Quick into emacs is a tall order. Its old and idiosyncratic and that sets up a steep learning curve.

        I would recommend going into it with something in mind you want it use it for then youā€™ll extend to use it for other things as you go along. I started with org-roam for notes, then discovered dired-mode for file management (its a great file management system), then to-do lists, ssh, terminal, etcā€¦. The program can do everything and the kitchen sink but if you try to go full immersion i think it will be a frustrating experience.

        TL;DR: use it for a specific function or task and expand as you learn the system.

        i use doom emacs. Someday i hope to build up from scratch but doom has been good for me do its not a priority. Only reason i would build my own is doom emacs has so much built in that i find myself parring it down.

        1 vote
      4. onceuponaban
        Link Parent
        Not actually an Emacs user (not because I don't like it but more because I'm afraid of it taking over my OS, then my life, then my very soul) but my understanding is that going with Doom Emacs (or...

        Not actually an Emacs user (not because I don't like it but more because I'm afraid of it taking over my OS, then my life, then my very soul) but my understanding is that going with Doom Emacs (or similar distribution) is itself not a bad option for onboarding. There's nothing preventing you from starting out with it, tinkering with it later on and either decide you want to keep using it or "going back" to vanilla Emacs so you can start and never stop building your own setup using what you liked from Doom Emacs and/or adjusting what you didn't like. At least, the same logic applies with nvim (which I do use) regarding astronvim/nvchad/whatever else.

  21. Starman2112
    (edited )
    Link
    Do Android apps count? I tiptoe on the line between nerd and tech-illiterate, and Tasker is great for my demographic. There's a ton of simple, minor quality of life thingsā€”for example, I have a...

    Do Android apps count? I tiptoe on the line between nerd and tech-illiterate, and Tasker is great for my demographic. There's a ton of simple, minor quality of life thingsā€”for example, I have a profile to send a notification every 8 hours reminding me about medication. I have another profile reminding me to clock in when I get to work. Tasker handles my multitude of wallpapers. When certain contacts call me, Tasker sets my ringtone to max volume. There's a ton of little things that you can automate with Tasker to slightly improve the functionality of your phone.

    Sometimes I learn a little bit about tech wizardry. For example, I have a profile that calls a weather API, finds the forecasted high and low temperatures and humidity, and notifies me every morning about whether I should leave my window open while I'm at work. I have the beginnings of an automatic Calicojack player in Stardew Valley using OCR to decide whether to hit or stay. It's more math than tech, but I also made a GPS for Subnautica which I am still very proud of.

    Try it out, the worst thing that can happen is you'll spend $3.50 on an app that can turn your wi-fi on and off for you

    6 votes
  22. Boojum
    Link
    Emacs. I pretty much live inside an Emacs window. I've hit triple-digit day Emacs uptimes at work before. I could replace others like Firefox with Chromium (though I'd greatly miss NoScript), or...

    Emacs. I pretty much live inside an Emacs window. I've hit triple-digit day Emacs uptimes at work before.

    I could replace others like Firefox with Chromium (though I'd greatly miss NoScript), or maybe the Linux kernel and GNU userland with the BSD kernel and userland, or return from Zshell to Bash. And I swap back and forth between GCC and Clang for testing all the time. I definitely have some favorites among the various programs that I use.

    But if I interpret "most useful" as the program that would hurt the most if it magically vanished off the face of the Earth, that's going to be Emacs, hands-down.

    6 votes
  23. [3]
    Dom
    Link
    Obsidian for me, I do everything in it. Fast, simple, no faff or AI crammed in

    Obsidian for me, I do everything in it. Fast, simple, no faff or AI crammed in

    6 votes
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Really liked Obsidian but it was too advanced for my simple notes so I stuck to Joplin

      Really liked Obsidian but it was too advanced for my simple notes so I stuck to Joplin

      2 votes
    2. Lia
      Link Parent
      Same here. Obsidian has enabled me to stop using a number of other trinkets that I was constantly switching between before (and getting lost in the weeds). Additionally, to do and track stuff I...

      Same here. Obsidian has enabled me to stop using a number of other trinkets that I was constantly switching between before (and getting lost in the weeds). Additionally, to do and track stuff I wasn't even able to track before. And, I can make it visually as distraction-free as I want, which is awesome for my ADHD. I don't know how I even survived before!

      (I found Obsidian because someone on here mentioned it. Thank you, someone!)

  24. [6]
    cla
    Link
    Just one? Probably Alfred in MacOS.

    Just one? Probably Alfred in MacOS.

    5 votes
    1. [4]
      bugsmith
      Link Parent
      Have you also tried Raycast?

      Have you also tried Raycast?

      1 vote
      1. delphi
        Link Parent
        Not OP, but I'm constantly on a quest to find better Mac apps, and I personally can't stand Raycast. I've used it for two years before switching back to Alfred. I don't like that their extensions...

        Not OP, but I'm constantly on a quest to find better Mac apps, and I personally can't stand Raycast. I've used it for two years before switching back to Alfred. I don't like that their extensions are anaemic, that they insist on having every single feature and not be particularly good at any of them (window management, clipboard history), and that an AI search - which should just be a slot where you pop your own API key, especially for power users - is gated behind a stupid subscription, and no, the ChatGPT extension is not a valid workaround.

        4 votes
      2. shrike
        Link Parent
        Alfred does what I want and nothing more, their updates are mostly invisible to me and I can apply them if I want to. It also lets me pay for it once without a subscription. Raycast tries to do...

        Alfred does what I want and nothing more, their updates are mostly invisible to me and I can apply them if I want to. It also lets me pay for it once without a subscription.

        Raycast tries to do everything and keeps adding stuff all the time.

      3. cla
        Link Parent
        Yes and I always come back to Alfred. Raycast is smooth but I don't trust in a VC backed company for doing what it does.

        Yes and I always come back to Alfred. Raycast is smooth but I don't trust in a VC backed company for doing what it does.

    2. julesallen
      Link Parent
      https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/ for me. Have been using this for more years than I care to think of. Support is remarkably good and itā€™s worth every penny. Have tried just about everything else...

      https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/ for me.

      Have been using this for more years than I care to think of. Support is remarkably good and itā€™s worth every penny. Have tried just about everything else and always end up back here. AI features are not important for my workflow but can see how it would be for many.

  25. [2]
    kfwyre
    (edited )
    Link
    Standard Notes My entire life is organized in this thing, and it cross-syncs between my phone and my computers. The ā€œspecial sauceā€ is that the notes can be different types, so I can have...

    Standard Notes

    My entire life is organized in this thing, and it cross-syncs between my phone and my computers. The ā€œspecial sauceā€ is that the notes can be different types, so I can have spreadsheets, checklists, and even just notes I can write in Markdown.

    I have persistent notes for the following:

    • Shopping Cart (things I need to buy)
    • Tasks (immediate to-dos)
    • Reminders (less immediate to-dos, or more abstract reminders)
    • Logs of what Iā€™ve been reading, watching, playing, etc.
    • Spreadsheets that will pick what to read, watch, play next
    • Exercise logs
    • Weight log
    • Charging log for my car (trying to debug a glitch right now)
    • Gift Ideas
    • Tildes post ideas
    • Medical questions for my doctor

    And then on any given day Iā€™ll make random other notes when I think of things I need to remember. Part of my weekly habit is clearing out and organizing all the scattered one-off notes every Sunday night ā€” acting on them or reincorporating them into my persistent notes or whatnot.

    I also like that itā€™s private, as thereā€™s a lot of sensitive information in there. For example, nearly every exercise log or weight app wants to take my information and sell it. Having that info in a private spreadsheet I can update from the phone that lives in my pocket instead (making it effectively just like an app)? Way better.


    EDIT: I just noticed (what Iā€™m pretty sure is) AI art on the website. That cheapens what is otherwise a great product.

    5 votes
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Nice feature to be able to combine different file types. I tend to use Joplin for notes, a todo app for my todo items and a folder structure for tracking files. All linked together with project names.

      Nice feature to be able to combine different file types. I tend to use Joplin for notes, a todo app for my todo items and a folder structure for tracking files. All linked together with project names.

      1 vote
  26. [4]
    xk3
    Link
    plocate has been really useful lately. It can filter millions of filepaths in a few milliseconds. GNU Parallel and sshfs have also been quite useful and reliable. But single most useful......

    plocate has been really useful lately. It can filter millions of filepaths in a few milliseconds. GNU Parallel and sshfs have also been quite useful and reliable.

    But single most useful... probably fish shell and Tampermonkey. I've been writing more and more tiny programs that change what content is visible in my browser. For example, hide_seen_rows.js to hide rows of data that I've loaded in a tab before.

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      chocobean
      Link Parent
      How are people using user scripts? I've never tried them before, so they're sort of client side quality of life improvements in an increasingly hostile web world? Brief search reveals use cases...

      How are people using user scripts? I've never tried them before, so they're sort of client side quality of life improvements in an increasingly hostile web world?

      Brief search reveals use cases such as:

      • enabling right click paste where native form doesn't not allow;

      • space bar to pause a YouTube video, button to download MP4, resize playback window etc

      • highlight newest comments on a thread;

      • auto convert currencies or metric/imperial units

      • price comparisons (how this work?)

      • "Remove the box that says you must register or log in to view this page on Facebook."

      • forces site feed to display chronologically

      Wow. What are your other must haves?

      4 votes
      1. xk3
        Link Parent
        I mostly add functionality to simple HTML elements. Like a script that lets me turn all ol and il into checkboxes. Or if a site does something annoying I'll just write a quick script and modify...

        I mostly add functionality to simple HTML elements. Like a script that lets me turn all ol and il into checkboxes. Or if a site does something annoying I'll just write a quick script and modify the annoying or incorrect behavior. Or double click to delete elements like a simple Katamari Damacy game until the page is reloaded. Some are more useful than others--but you are basically limited to your imagination.

        1 vote
    2. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. ShroudedScribe
        Link Parent
        Wow, I had no idea tampermonkey was closed source. I'll replace it with Violentmonkey, good call.

        Wow, I had no idea tampermonkey was closed source. I'll replace it with Violentmonkey, good call.

  27. [2]
    deathinactthree
    Link
    In terms of "most useful, most often", probably Pano, a clipboard history manager as a GNOME shell extension. It's fairly configurable and I'm someone who needs to copy/paste a lot of different...

    In terms of "most useful, most often", probably Pano, a clipboard history manager as a GNOME shell extension. It's fairly configurable and I'm someone who needs to copy/paste a lot of different stuff (mostly between various work files), constantly throughout the day.

    A runner up would be Apostrophe, a necessarily simple and distraction-free Markdown editor. It's funny, up until about a year ago I never really spent any time writing Markdown, now I find myself doing it almost daily--particularly because I can conveniently compose and format almost anything in Apostrophe and copy/paste (Pano!) the results not just from the editor into Markdown-supported apps, but from the preview pane into most other software such as Outlook, Slack, O365, etc. Or just export it as PDF, Word, HTML, etc. It's a bit of a Swiss army knife for composing anything that isn't plaintext for other programs, despite its simplicity.

    If I broaden the definition of "program" though I'd have to include Perplexity. It's the only "AI" product I've found to be consistently useful, once I fully learned what it is and isn't good at.

    4 votes
    1. ShroudedScribe
      Link Parent
      Leveraging markdown formatting into emails and the like is pretty cool!

      copy/paste (Pano!) the results not just from the editor into Markdown-supported apps, but from the preview pane into most other software such as Outlook, Slack, O365, etc.

      Leveraging markdown formatting into emails and the like is pretty cool!

      1 vote
  28. [7]
    NoThanks
    Link
    Silverbullet.md - For note taking and organization, its simple and unobtrusive interface made it more useful for me than Obsidian or Logseq or other standards Reeder - RSS / YouTube / Bluesky /...

    Silverbullet.md - For note taking and organization, its simple and unobtrusive interface made it more useful for me than Obsidian or Logseq or other standards

    Reeder - RSS / YouTube / Bluesky / Mastodon in a chronological order with reader view, invaluable for avoiding doom scrolling

    Qobuz - In my endless pursuit of making my life harder by ditching mainstream apps for competitorsā€¦ Qobuz pays artists best as far as streaming apps go and the audio quality is there

    Not daily but frequents - all the apps that my library card allowsā€¦ Muskā€™s incel gestapo probably has libraries on their list so who knows how much longer we will have these (they get federal funding Iā€™m sure theyā€™re already having issues): Libby for books, Kanopy for movies, Freegal for music streaming and 3 downloads per week, also access to JSTOR and other academic and scientific research related things.

    4 votes
    1. [3]
      Queresote
      Link Parent
      An RSS reader is incredibly valuable these days. For me, it is less about the doomscrolling. I enjoy: Curated Feed - I am rejecting the algorithm-based feeds, and opting to move to those that have...

      An RSS reader is incredibly valuable these days. For me, it is less about the doomscrolling. I enjoy:

      1. Curated Feed - I am rejecting the algorithm-based feeds, and opting to move to those that have been recommended to me, or that I've found while searching for something (which might just be algorithm-based with extra steps, but oh well.)
      2. Frugal Interface options - this helps me avoid videos that entice potential viewers with the loud thumbnails, and to stop overloading my brain with random garbage UIs, layouts, or ads. Everything is in its proper place.

      I culled my YouTube subscriptions, being heavy-handed too, and I'm only down to 200. So the categories and tags help tremendously. Entertainment content can be put into a box, so too can important content have its own category at the top for me to look at (and be notified about) whenever the time-sensitive information appears.

      I'm using InoReader Firefox extension (free version) as I'm dipping my toes into the space. So far it has worked well, but I might move because I avoid anything with a subscription-based model, even if I'm on the free tier.

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        NoThanks
        Link Parent
        It feels like a lifetime ago but honestly in the grand scheme was pretty recentā€¦ I was a major user of Thunderbird for email and RSS, and also used Google Reader for a while. Feels like all we are...

        It feels like a lifetime ago but honestly in the grand scheme was pretty recentā€¦ I was a major user of Thunderbird for email and RSS, and also used Google Reader for a while. Feels like all we are doing is attempting to force a 10 year Internet reset, the Internet was just better and less damaging to my mental health back then.

        Explored a lot of options, everyone will have a different preference for clientā€¦ but I found ease of use and options best for me with a combination of both Reeder Classic and the new Reeder app depending on my mood. Some are better than others at getting around paywalls.

        1 vote
        1. [2]
          Comment deleted by author
          Link Parent
          1. NoThanks
            Link Parent
            Iā€™ll give it a look on the desktop when I have a chance but it was lack of iOS client that kept me from using it last time I tried. Looks like thatā€™s still the caseā€¦ Iā€™m on Outlook on phone and...

            Iā€™ll give it a look on the desktop when I have a chance but it was lack of iOS client that kept me from using it last time I tried. Looks like thatā€™s still the caseā€¦ Iā€™m on Outlook on phone and desktop now, been a while though so maybe itā€™s time for a switch.

            1 vote
    2. [3]
      Reapy
      Link Parent
      Silverbullet looks really cool, just threw it up on my server and going to give it a whirl. I maybe grew up before notetaking apps were a thing so I never understood how people used them and they...

      Silverbullet looks really cool, just threw it up on my server and going to give it a whirl. I maybe grew up before notetaking apps were a thing so I never understood how people used them and they always felt incredibly overcomplicated to set up and use. I've always been fine with a text file somewhere and todo style. It's also pretty rare that I want to take elaborate notes on anything that I will need to keep in the long run so I'll forget how to use the note taking apps as well. Silverbullet seems to fit this perfect gap where you can just use it as a markdown editor and be fine with it but seems to support a good variety of scripting and linking of things as it grows and you get more familiar with it. Thank you for sharing, hopefully I can fit this into my day to day!

      1. [2]
        NoThanks
        Link Parent
        Hope it works out for you - usually Iā€™m the same with my note taking habits. Iā€™d tried everything when it occurred to me to try to get organized, from Obsidian to Logseq to VS Code extensionsā€¦ but...

        Hope it works out for you - usually Iā€™m the same with my note taking habits. Iā€™d tried everything when it occurred to me to try to get organized, from Obsidian to Logseq to VS Code extensionsā€¦ but once it stopped being a project for me to set up the software I didnā€™t use it and would just open a text document for quick notes as needed.

        I did a docker install and have it running on a raspberry pi and access via Tailscale. Have it on my phone and computers as a web app and sometimes also just a browser tabā€¦

        It being so easy to just have a blank page to write half thoughts into got it over the hump of not giving me more friction than my text editor or Apple Notes, and from there started linking things as needed because double brackets are easy and why notā€¦ like I was doing some YouTube guitar lessons and made a page with all the videos in the series on one page and took notes under each. Started using the daily note feature to journal or just scratchpad. Then dug into the templating / scripting a tiny bit to make those journal entries available on the index page. Then I started a side gig and it became integral to how I keep track of information for that.

        It grew from a text prompt exactly when and how I needed it to and now itā€™s integral for daily personal and professional stuff.

        Not that anybody asked for an essay about it ā€” itā€™s just a rare piece of software that actually improved my life so I get excited. I can use 1000 apps that sell themselves as personal wikis and never actually use them, but give me a an empty text file with easy linking and eventually Iā€™ll have a personal wiki.

        1 vote
        1. Reapy
          Link Parent
          I don't mind the essay! I feel the same way when I find the right piece of software that really scratches and itch I didn't even know. I've been using it a bit over the last few days and the...

          I don't mind the essay! I feel the same way when I find the right piece of software that really scratches and itch I didn't even know. I've been using it a bit over the last few days and the 'without friction' part is exactly what sells it. Just a blank page you can type on, easy format access, and honestly I don't always recall all markdown so just /h pick header 1 and things like that really make it so smooth to edit.

          I've been moving some stuff over and didn't realize how bad my scattering of .txt files on my computers really are. I also have lost a lot of information that would easily have gone into silverbullet, but would not typically want to put into a text file. I installed a program 'hoarder' to try out a bit ago and while it is a nice bookmarking program, just bookmarking things with tags doesn't help me with anything. Turns out when I am actually going to bookmark something it's typically having to do with researching or learning about a topic, and honestly it is much better to just create a silverbullet page and throw the links on there along with the information pulled off the link.

          All in all it's a great program, and I'm also using tailscale to get to it everywhere right now as well. I haven't gone fully into it because I haven't set up proper backups yet on the server (something I bought just a few months ago to keep building onto) and don't want to put all the eggs in one basket, though my backups over my whole life has been basically multiple random hard drives and some important stuff in cloud, so really not much more risk if I think about it.

          But yes, all in all great program and thank you so much for writing about it and sharing it!

          2 votes
  29. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Iā€™ve played around with them but donā€™t like to do ā€œworkā€ on my phone and thatā€™s the only apple device I have. Prefer to program something on a laptop/computer.

      Iā€™ve played around with them but donā€™t like to do ā€œworkā€ on my phone and thatā€™s the only apple device I have.

      Prefer to program something on a laptop/computer.

  30. Plik
    Link
    OneNote Vivaldi Sheets ChatGPT TickTick

    OneNote
    Vivaldi
    Sheets
    ChatGPT
    TickTick

    3 votes
  31. GOTO10
    Link
    Wireguard.

    Wireguard.

    3 votes
  32. [2]
    xavdid
    Link
    There are a lot of great apps in here, but the one I couldn't live without is Things 3. It's how I keep track of basically everything I need to do, from work to chores to calling friends on their...

    There are a lot of great apps in here, but the one I couldn't live without is Things 3. It's how I keep track of basically everything I need to do, from work to chores to calling friends on their birthdays. It all goes in there and it all gets done.

    I've tried other todo apps with more features or more complexity, but nothing beats the absolute smoothness of the Things UI. It turns out that if it's an app you touch a lot, having it be nice to use goes a long way.

    3 votes
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      I keep seeing paid todo apps pop up and donā€™t see the added value for myself. As long as I can add tasks and set a due date itā€™s fine for me so I stuck to Microsoft Todo although a foss substitute...

      I keep seeing paid todo apps pop up and donā€™t see the added value for myself.
      As long as I can add tasks and set a due date itā€™s fine for me so I stuck to Microsoft Todo although a foss substitute would be good.

      Different strokes for different folks I guess

  33. kovboydan
    Link
    Computer: Firefox + uBlock Origin (/w Bypass Paywalls 3rd-party list) Phone: Orion (for tabs + blocking, and theoretically extensions too). Need to manual update filter lists which is easy to...

    Computer: Firefox + uBlock Origin (/w Bypass Paywalls 3rd-party list)

    Phone: Orion (for tabs + blocking, and theoretically extensions too). Need to manual update filter lists which is easy to forget but it works week enough.

    2 votes
  34. Deely
    Link
    Most useful will be is TotalCmd. Honorable mention: Vivaldi, ClipDiary, Robocopy, Obsidian, TrueLaunchBar. Using them for years (except Obsidian, switched to it from Evernote year or two ago), and...

    Most useful will be is TotalCmd.

    Honorable mention:
    Vivaldi, ClipDiary, Robocopy, Obsidian, TrueLaunchBar. Using them for years (except Obsidian, switched to it from Evernote year or two ago), and pretty happy with it.

    2 votes
  35. [2]
    jredd23
    Link
    For me, Firefox extension, NoScript. Been using it for years! It takes some discipline to use it properly but once you become comfortable with the bit of inconvenience it's the my go to security...

    For me, Firefox extension, NoScript. Been using it for years! It takes some discipline to use it properly but once you become comfortable with the bit of inconvenience it's the my go to security tool in my toolbox.

    2 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. jredd23
        Link Parent
        In my use case I have found NoScript to be better than uBlock. However, I have both installed but then again am a paranoid type of user.

        In my use case I have found NoScript to be better than uBlock. However, I have both installed but then again am a paranoid type of user.

  36. [2]
    irregularCircle
    Link
    Moneystats for iOS and Mac is my most used and favorite because it helps me model my financial stuff and fprecast everything so I can juggle everything and play out all my decisions rather than do...

    Moneystats for iOS and Mac is my most used and favorite because it helps me model my financial stuff and fprecast everything so I can juggle everything and play out all my decisions rather than do dumb stuff and suffer later.

    Very little stress if I keep on top of it and keep it up to date. I'd very likely be on the street if it wasnt for this app, not even joking. Left to my own devices I'd br screwed and an absolute chronic panic attack if I didnt have it

    2 votes
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Great to read youā€™ve got your budgeting in order. I used to use YNAB for this but it didnā€™t add anything to my spending habits. Intend to live frugally and splurge on individual bigger purchases...

      Great to read youā€™ve got your budgeting in order. I used to use YNAB for this but it didnā€™t add anything to my spending habits. Intend to live frugally and splurge on individual bigger purchases which is easy to oversee even without all the budgeting.

  37. Tukajo
    Link
    Probably Newpipe. A separate front end client for YouTube that adds a ton of features (like faster playback, skip silence, and video downloads).

    Probably Newpipe.

    A separate front end client for YouTube that adds a ton of features (like faster playback, skip silence, and video downloads).

    2 votes
  38. skullkid2424
    Link
    A slight twist, the most useful program/app I would use daily - the Google Inbox app. Its been retired for a while now, and I've never quite found a good replacement, and my email and life...

    A slight twist, the most useful program/app I would use daily - the Google Inbox app. Its been retired for a while now, and I've never quite found a good replacement, and my email and life organization is way worse because of it.

    Gmail is still missing inbox features, and likely will never get them. There are plenty of other email apps that are fine, but lack the ability to use your inbox as a todo list. The few I've seen that do try for an inbox-style setup are missing key features, have major security concerns, or cost an absurd amount. I'm not opposed to a reasonable subscription for an app that actually meets my needs, but I have yet to find it =/

    Sorry, it appears that I'm still a bit salty 6 years later. Anyways, if anyone knows of a good email client that does the following, let me know:

    • Allows your email inbox to basically function as a todo list
    • Has an Android app
    • Unified inbox that works for multiple emails and multiple providers
    • Swipe one way to archive/delete, swipe the other way to snooze/delay
    • Pin important emails at the top
    • Bundle/group/cluster emails like trips (either automatically or manually)
    • Create reminders that can also be swiped to complete/snooze...ideally without emailing myself
    • No ads
    • Clean and simple interface

    Bonus points for open source, privacy focused, and any "AI" features can be turned off...

    2 votes
  39. hamefang
    Link
    If I have to pick one and one only favourite useful piece of software, I'd say Obsidian - used for my writing, bullet journal-esque notes, work notes, etc.

    If I have to pick one and one only favourite useful piece of software, I'd say Obsidian - used for my writing, bullet journal-esque notes, work notes, etc.

    2 votes
  40. nic
    Link
    ChatGPT. It's my job. (Yeah, I am drinking the cool aid, kind of...) It helps me do my job. (I rage type something, I feel better, then I ask it to make it more professional) It helps me think...

    ChatGPT.

    1. It's my job. (Yeah, I am drinking the cool aid, kind of...)
    2. It helps me do my job. (I rage type something, I feel better, then I ask it to make it more professional)
    3. It helps me think through my relationship (it usually agrees with my wife, so I pick my hills more wisely now)
    4. It helps me with my kids homework (half of it is in Spanish, which I don't speak, the other half is math, which I prefer not to speak.)
    5. It helps me code some cool side projects.
    2 votes
  41. RobotOverlord525
    Link
    Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I can't type without it anymore (unless I want to spend hours or days in pain afterward). It's a miraculous, amazing piece of technology that frustrates and annoys me...

    Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I can't type without it anymore (unless I want to spend hours or days in pain afterward). It's a miraculous, amazing piece of technology that frustrates and annoys me constantly.

    I was naĆÆvely hopeful that after Microsoft bought Nuance, it might finally get some performance enhancements and better compatibility with Microsoft programs like Teams. Nope! I'm pretty sure Microsoft just bought it for the intellectual property so they could integrate some of its features into the (even slower and less accurate) Windows 11 voice recognition system. It's a real shame.

    2 votes
  42. [3]
    Chiasmic
    Link
    I like the idea of espanso, but it seems to use copy and paste and sometime itā€™s just types ā€˜vā€™ or pastes too slowly when Iā€™m moving quickly. Most used is a web browser for me, itā€™s just very...

    I like the idea of espanso, but it seems to use copy and paste and sometime itā€™s just types ā€˜vā€™ or pastes too slowly when Iā€™m moving quickly.

    Most used is a web browser for me, itā€™s just very versatile and so much of what we do is a web app these days which still count as web browser.

    1 vote
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      Yes I've noticed in some programs it doesn't behave well. For example, adding email addresses in outlook web access fails miserably. There's the option in Espanso to use clipboard to paste the...

      Yes I've noticed in some programs it doesn't behave well. For example, adding email addresses in outlook web access fails miserably.

      There's the option in Espanso to use clipboard to paste the entry or not:

      The mechanism used to perform the injection. Espanso can either inject text by simulating keypresses (Inject backend) or by using the clipboard (Clipboard backend). Both of them have pros and cons, so the Auto backend is used by default to automatically choose the most appropriate one based on the situation. If for whatever reason the Auto backend is not appropriate, you can change this option to override it.

      More info here

      3 votes
    2. public
      Link Parent
      Thank you for the heads-up about Espanso. Iā€™ll still audition it, but Iā€™ll also want to test how it interacts with my clipboard manager and native Mac text replacement.

      Thank you for the heads-up about Espanso. Iā€™ll still audition it, but Iā€™ll also want to test how it interacts with my clipboard manager and native Mac text replacement.

  43. Turtle42
    (edited )
    Link
    OpenZFS for me. It's in use even when I'm not at my computer to store and scrub all my data. For a couple of years I was just using it as a RAID implementation. And then I learned about all of its...

    OpenZFS for me. It's in use even when I'm not at my computer to store and scrub all my data.

    For a couple of years I was just using it as a RAID implementation.

    And then I learned about all of its other features; scrubbing, datasets, ZFS send, snapshots, etc. The list goes on to things like compression, L2ARC, hot spares, deduplication, and even more I'm sure.

    I want to spread the ZFS gospel far and wide now. Proper knowledge and use of ZFS can save many businesses and homelabs so much grief from unexpected events like bit-flips which gets fixed by scrubbing, or ransomware which can be rolled back to a working snapshot. It will even aid in creating simple incremental routine backups off-site using zfs send. It's more than just a filesystem, it's a Swiss army knife for your important data.

    1 vote
  44. [2]
    chewonbananas
    Link
    ZoomIt utility on Windows. Perfect for work and home when you're conveying information through images.

    ZoomIt utility on Windows. Perfect for work and home when you're conveying information through images.

    1 vote
    1. Sunkiller
      Link Parent
      For this I used to use Greentext but Iā€™ve switched to ShareX

      For this I used to use Greentext but Iā€™ve switched to ShareX

  45. [5]
    ArkoSammy12
    Link
    I am a Windows enthusiast, and I found Wintoys, and PowerToys to be really cool apps for Windows PC power users. WizTree is a nice program for analyzing your disk usage for storage management. I...

    I am a Windows enthusiast, and I found Wintoys, and PowerToys to be really cool apps for Windows PC power users.

    WizTree is a nice program for analyzing your disk usage for storage management. I also enjoy Wallpaper Engine and both my PC and Android devices. Finally, I recommend PeaZip if you want a nice program for managing zip files.

    1 vote
    1. [4]
      Mendanbar
      Link Parent
      I use WinDirStat for visualizing my disk usage, and WizTree looks like a nice alternative. Have you tried both programs, or have you always been a WizTree user? I ask because they claim on the...

      I use WinDirStat for visualizing my disk usage, and WizTree looks like a nice alternative. Have you tried both programs, or have you always been a WizTree user? I ask because they claim on the website that WizTree is 46x faster than WinDirStat and I'm curious if it's true.

      2 votes
      1. aernox
        Link Parent
        WizTree reads the Master File Table (MFT) directly to find files and folders (like voidtools Everything does), which is why it's a lot faster than WinDirStat.

        WizTree reads the Master File Table (MFT) directly to find files and folders (like voidtools Everything does), which is why it's a lot faster than WinDirStat.

        3 votes
      2. [2]
        ArkoSammy12
        Link Parent
        I have always been a WizTree user, so unfortunately, I cannot confirm whether their claim is true. I can say, however, that WizTree is pretty fast, even if I don't know how it compares to other...

        I have always been a WizTree user, so unfortunately, I cannot confirm whether their claim is true. I can say, however, that WizTree is pretty fast, even if I don't know how it compares to other programs. For example, when I open the program and I begin a scan, it only takes about 5 seconds for it to scan my main 500GB Windows SSD.

        1 vote
        1. Mendanbar
          Link Parent
          That is indeed very fast. I also have a 500GB SSD, and WinDirStat takes significantly longer (closer to a minute, or maybe more). Seems like it's time I switched. :)

          That is indeed very fast. I also have a 500GB SSD, and WinDirStat takes significantly longer (closer to a minute, or maybe more). Seems like it's time I switched. :)