The one that surprised me the most was Steam, honestly.
this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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I was really surprised by some libre games with really good graphics for free software, like Xonotic or Unvainquished. And also very cool projects like Speed-Dreams, that is not as beautiful but is really promising
Otherwise, very cool stuff like Kdenlive, Ardour, LMMS, Puredata, ... This is a long list! 😅
Bitwig. I'm moving to libre tools like Pd and Ardour, so I didn't renew my license. But it works just like it does on Mac.
Except that it supports touch screens on Wayland, and you can't do that on a Mac.
I've tried Ardour, but compared to Reaper, I unfortunately just can't use it. Pd is fantastic though!! It's what got me interested in music stuffs in college, man those are memories... making a drum kit in Pd was my first assignment, I remember suffering over the cymbal for hours and hours. Now I'm getting all nostalgic lol
Reaper is nifty, but it's not FOSS, which would be the only reason why I'd give up Bitwig. (I know that's not what the thread asked, but that's my reason for not using Reaper.)
Probably REAPER
Microsoft Defender.
I convinced my work to let me use linux on their laptop. They sent me instructions for setup. One of them was to install Microsoft Defender, had a link to the Ubuntu package and everything. Blew my mind.
I bet it has to do with Microsoft azure
What the fuq??
Yup! Here's a helpful link in case you feel like spreading the joy.
https://www.maketecheasier.com/install-use-microsoft-defender-linux/
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We've got to install Microsoft Defender, Edge, and PowerShell on Ububtu so that the device will be flagged as compliant in Intune.
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KDEConnect, probably the best (only?) to do what it does in such a magnificent way
The entire KDE Community is incredible. From KDEConnect to Kdenlive, Krita, and Plasma I am a very happy nerd.
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It's so good that it absolutely killed my will to maintain a project I had that does something like this once I discovered it. They even support Windows too.
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about 10 years ago, i noticed steam was available for linux. for the longest time i had pretty much written off gaming on linux (apart from like tuxcart, nethack, emulators...). i hadn't considered actually being able to play "real" games.
that was before proton, so there really wasn't a ton of stuff i could play, but i found some good stuff like hotline miami, papers please, super win the game.
obviously now we have proton and linux can be argued as a superior gaming platform in many cases.
Back then CS:GO used to run better on Linux! That was why I switched (apart from a borked windows system I put Linux on just for shits and giggles): to get more frames, lol. Now I couldn't live without Linux, even though I don't even play CS:GO anymore.
Bitwig and Reaper. Two of the best music DAWs on the market and they each have a Linux native version.
EDIT: I forgot to include Renoise, the music tracker DAW.
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LocalSend.
No more USBs ever (outside of install media). So so simple, fast, and works on all devices and FOSS.
It is really the best UX of any file sharing app I have experienced (outside of airdrop I guess, but obvious problems there)
Okular is also a favorite of mine.
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For me it was blender. I absolutely loved using blender as a teen for making silly games and animations (I wasn't good at that). Now as an adult I re-discovered it and I use it for making DnD minifigs
Microsoft Edge was a recent surprise. It's surprising both that Microsoft would create it and that any Linux users would run it. Since its Chromium based, there should be no need for developers to test Edge separately.
A very unwelcome surprise, too.
I'm pretty neutral about the mere existence of software I'm not interested in using.
But you're missing out on all the hate! I feel sorry for you. ;)
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Surprised no one has mentioned OBS. I don't use it for streaming, but afaik it's one of the more popular options for that. So it's really cool that not only is it available for linux, but it's open source and works great. I'm sure every linux user has had audio, general hardware, or GPU acceleration issues at some point, but OBS is seamless in my experience. Pretty cool to see a piece of software live at the crossroads of all that and get it right.
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