Hey, what’s up?
Today, I wanted to share the top 5 favorite pieces of software that I use on Linux.
So if you’re currently thinking, or maybe you’re already in the processing of leaving Windows for Linux or simply want to learn new softwares then this post might be for you.
Keep in mind that all of these pieces of software are already available on Windows. So if you’re transitioning to Linux, you can already start using and learning using them on Windows to make the transition easier. That being said, they might not be all free and open source. I just wanted to talk about available alternatives, and the list isn’t in special order.
So let’s go right in
Before we start, I just wanted to mention that I decided to donate $20 USD to each of the free and open source softwares in this list. In my case, I’m lucky enough to be able to afford my softwares and free and open source softwares respect my freedom. I also know FOSS can struggle with financial resources. Since they respect my freedom, that means I’m also free to donate them money. $20 USD might not be much, but it is what it is.
1- INKSCAPE
Inkscape is a free and open source software for vector images. It is an alternative to Illustrator or Affinity Designer.
Personally, I use Inkscape to create designs that I put on merch and other products but mostly t-shirts. I make these designs available on many print-on-demand websites like Amazon Merch on Demand, Redbubble, Etsy, TeePublic, etc. For me, the main important features that I use in Inkscape are basic manipulations of SVG files (like resize, colors, alignment, etc.), bitmap tracing (even it could be a little better), and exporting quickly the images into transparent PNGs.
On Windows, I was using Affinity Designer and I absolutely would love to see it coming to Linux. But for now, I’ll be using Inkscape and I donated $20 USD.
2 – THUNDERBIRD
Thunderbird is a free and open source software for emails. It is an alternative to Microsoft Outlook.
If you didn’t know Outlook recently became free to use, but you have to tolerate a bunch of ads. And for me, I hate dislike ads and Thunderbird doesn’t show any ads which I really appreciate. Coming from Outlook, Thunderbird does everything that I need which is mostly, reading and replying to emails from 3 or 4 accounts. Outlook is also including AI to the software, I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen or what to think about that. Is AI going to replace emails at some point? That sounds scary to me. So yeah, thunderbird is a big win and it gets my vote.
Honestly, I don’t see myself using anything else than Thunderbird, it recently remade its UI and I just think it’s great. I’ll keep using it and I donated $20 USD.
3 – GIMP
Gimp is free and open source software for raster images. It is an alternative to Photoshop and Affinity Photo.
Personally, I mostly use it to create my video thumbnails. Technically, it does everything that I need but to be honest, I find the controls and key binds a little annoying. For example, There are also some features that are hard to do. For example, I love creating outlines around my elements and texts. But in gimp, I find it hard because you have to create a new layer for that specific outline instead of having that feature built-in to the element.
If you don’t want to use gimp, you can probably find other alternatives or even use web apps like Photopea, which are free to use with a web browser.
On Windows, I was using Affinity Photo and I absolutely would love to see it coming to Linux. But for now, I’ll be using GIMP and I donated $20 USD.
4 – JOPLIN
Joplin is a free and open source note-taking app.
Personally, I do note-taking for various reasons: to do journaling, to track gym progress, for to-do lists and writing my thoughts to make these videos and I will probably publish these notes at some point on my website. As of right now, I think it is probably the best alternative to Evernote or Microsoft OneNote. I also know that Microsoft is adding AI to OneNote, which I’m not really sure about that. With the current advancement of AI, I think human experience is going to become more and more valuable and rare, so I prefer to take to write my own thoughts and share them instead of using AI.
Since this is a free app, there’s no inbuilt cloud feature so if you want to synchronize it between your devices, you can connect Joplin with your OneDrive account, or you can use WebDAV. What I love about it that you can encrypt your own notes to make sure that they’re safe.
Another that I love is the big synchronize button that it has. On OneNote, I never really knew when and how the synchronization worked. So sometimes, I would quit the app without the application having synch properly. Because of that, I would always get a bunch of conflicts with my notes. But Joplin tells you when it’s synching and what it’s done doing it.
Honestly, I don’t see myself using anything else than Joplin, it does everything that I need. So I’ll keep using it and I donated $20 USD.
5 – DAVINCI RESOLVE
Davinci Resolve is a commercial video editing software. It is probably the best alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro.
I’ve been using for a few months now for my video, and it is available on Linux! Now, to be completely honest, I like to keep my video edits very simple, and I probably don’t need a big software like Davinci Resolve, but I still love using it. But depending on your needs, you might need not even need it.
Now, since it is a commercial software, it is not free and open source. Now, I wanted to talk about it because Linux users tend to be so focused on free and open source software and I think that if Linux want to be more popular and mainstream, it should be more welcoming and open to different perspectives, ideas and companies that want to support its users. They chose to make it available for Linux and genuinely think that’s awesome.
There is actually a free version which is really awesome, it is not some cheap freemium thing. You can actually do a lot of things in the free version and if you want more advanced features like the AI stuff, then you might want to pay the paid version.
Overall, I just think it’s a good business model, the software is actually amazing and if you decide to purchase the software then, you own it because it is a one time license fee. You get all the future versions.
The only bad thing that I have to say is that compared to the Windows version, the Linux version doesn’t seem to be supporting AAC audio, so most of my video have issues with audio, which I find a bit annoying. I have to use an extra software that does some conversions to have the right audio. It’s not perfect, but it is what it is.
6 (BONUS) – SHOTCUT
Since Davinci Resolve was a commercial software, I figured that I would put a free and open source alternatives to make it fair. Which is why I bring Shotcut as #6.
When I started making videos in the very beginning, a few years ago, I used Shotcut and it did the job. Now, to be honest, it’s been a while since the last time that I used it. For me, since Davinci Resolve is available on Linux, I don’t really see myself using Shotcut. But if you need a free and open source video editing software, then you could check it out.
That being said, Shotcut is the only free and open source software in this list that doesn’t accept donations. So I obviously couldn’t donate to this software. But one way to contribute is to talk about it and make videos about it. So this is kind of what I’m doing, I guess. I’m contributing to Shotcut.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, if you’re thinking or already in the transition of switching to Linux or if you’re simply considering new softwares, then those are the ones that I currently use and that you can use too. All of them are also available on Windows, so in my case, knowing that I was switching to Linux, I started to use and learn them while preparing my transition while still on Windows. So when I arrived at Linux, I already knew how they operated, making the transition much smoother.
So that’s pretty much it, I hope this post was helpful to you. If it was, you could consider following me on social media and if you have any thoughts or comments, you can leave them below because your thoughts could help future readers.
I hope this helps, peace!
Leave a Reply