this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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I used Plex for my home media for almost a year, then it stopped playing nice for reasons I gave up on diagnosing. While looking at alternatives, I found Jellyfin which is much more responsive, IMO, and the UI is much nicer as well.

It gets relegated to playing Fraggle Rock and Bluey on repeat for my kiddo these days, but I am absolutely in love with the software.

What are some other FOSS gems that are a better experience UX/UI-wise than their proprietary counterparts?

EDIT: Autocorrect turned something into "smaller" instead of what I meant it to be when I wrote this post, and I can't remember what I meant for it to say so it got axed instead.

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[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 320 points 1 year ago (8 children)

VLC absolutely wrecked Windows Media Player. Firefox was the same with IE.

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Did you know that MS now charges for you to play some codecs with windows media player?

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Unless something has changed recently, that's not exactly true. They charge 99c for the distribution of it through the windows store (or whatever it's called) but you can install them the traditional way no problem

I think it's still dumb but it's a distinction worth making. I think the description even links the website where you can download it

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[–] andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun 25 points 1 year ago

I really don't miss trying to find codec packs to install. Good riddance.

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[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 217 points 1 year ago (18 children)

Bitwarden password manager. I've used several proprietary PW managers, Bitwarden is by far the most stable, intuitive, and functional IMO.

[–] BoneALisa@lemm.ee 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Bitwarden is so good. I cant be bothered to self host it tbh, but ill gladly throw money their way for premium for having the best cloud-hosted PW manager

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[–] directive0@lemmy.world 203 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Blender. I feel pretty confident in saying that there is simply nothing like it in the commercial world. Its feature set is unreal; its like the swiss army knife of 3D modelling programs. I can't say enough good things about Blender. It has replaced so many secondary programs in my workflow and is slowly dominating to become my entire workflow.

It used to suck to use in the late 2010s and then work was done to overhaul its space-shuttle cockpit interface, and now it actually feels concise and usable. I freaking love blender now. Big time blender fanboy right here.

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As someone who gave up on Blender back in the 2010’s, I may need to revisit it.

[–] XPost3000@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 year ago (8 children)

You definitely should, it is lightyears improved

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[–] fubo@lemmy.world 153 points 1 year ago (15 children)

My Pop!_OS system has never shown me ads for Candy Crush.

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[–] flameguy21@lemm.ee 138 points 1 year ago (8 children)

OBS is so good that I don't know why anyone would ever use X-split.

[–] cujo@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I adore OBS. I've been teaching my friends the basics on how to use it, as they've all been using some proprietary crap that makes their lives marginally easier in one or two areas but adds a huge headache in others.

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[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 92 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Signal. Who else is making a post quantum secure e2ee algorithm and making sure the code is open source and not duplicating the keys everywhere? Thank goodness for the kind devs on this project and for other FOSS projects everywhere!

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[–] moreeni@lemm.ee 86 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (16 children)

VSCodium is better than most text editors. BTW, if you didn't know, you can still install some (turns out not all of them will work so you might still need the proprietary build from MS) extensions from Microsoft's store manually.

ShareX is the best software I have ever found for taking screenshots and/or quick gifs/videos. It's a real shame it doesn't have a GNU/Linux version, it's the only app I miss badly from my Windows days. Any other screenshot software is just nothing in comparison with it.

Joplin is my fav note-taking app. I have tried a lot of them but this one just works, has quite a big feature set, can synchronise using different mediums, from Dropbox to using Syncthing and synchronising files locally, doesn't look poorly, is cross-platform, has e2ee, doesn't cockblock you with paywalls. For me it's the perfect note-taking app.

Aegis is the best 2FA app for Android there is atm. IIRC, it got created because Google Auth had some problems with privacy so the whole idea of Aegis is to be the better option.

Lichess — a chess server with no BS and there are 0 paywalls. chess.com would force you to pay for stupid things like puzzles, with Lichess I am able to procrastinate with chess. For free.

NewPipe is the best YouTube client there is. For me, it's because of fast-forward on silence and the ability to unhook pitch and video speed. That means you don't have to either waste your time on literal nothing or struggle to understand what a person is saying anymore. NewPipe also gives you everything YouTube Premium does.

[–] saloe@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

+1 for Newpipe, my favorite feature is hiding thumbnails so I don't have to see that stupid fucking "wow" wide-eyes face everyone makes with pointless arrows and circles. Now I just read the video title and my brain hurts less.

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[–] anthonylavado@lemmy.ca 78 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Thanks for the praise! We're not on Lemmy too much, but someone in the Core Team caught site of this and shared it with me. If you're wondering who I am: github

[–] Lem453@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Please post on lemmy! I really liked seeing the devs give updates on Reddit.

An open source platform feels completely natural for a project like jellyfin!

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[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 68 points 1 year ago (18 children)

Blender for video editing. I haven't even touched its 3D animation features.

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[–] bleistift2@feddit.de 64 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ll take LibreOffice Writer over MS Word anytime. All that ‘I know better than you,’ ‘You wanted to copy the space, too, right? Even though you stopped marking before it,’ can kiss my ass.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 58 points 1 year ago (16 children)

All the Linux file managers I've tried are nicer to use and more stable than the Windows File Explorer.

[–] klangcola@reddthat.com 27 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Protip: KDE's Dolphin is available for Windows.

The Windows integration isn't perfect, but it's very useful nonetheless. Multiple tabs and the Ctrl+I filter alone makes it worthwhile.

On a related note: KDE's Kate text editor is also available on Windows and it works GREAT! So great that KDE eV has published it on the Windows store, making it easy to install

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[–] JoeBidet@lemmy.ml 52 points 1 year ago (7 children)
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[–] Norgur@kbin.social 50 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Audiobookshelf. Way WAY better than Audible

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[–] ReCursing@kbin.social 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

KDE is better than Windows

~~Audible~~ Audacity is more audio programme than most people need

KdenLive is more video editor than most people need

Kritta is more art programme than most people need

There are edge cases where there are professional programmes that might be better but unless you are a professional you do not need them and even semi-pros would likely be better served by those three

[–] VicentAdultman@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Windows just rips off every plasma feature at this point, even kde devs make fun of it

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[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (20 children)

Desktop: Zotero, RStudio, Thunderbird, Sumatra PDF, Notepad++, NoMacs (image viewer), Espanso (text expander), qBittorrent, Inkscape

Android: FairEmail or K9 Mail, Authenticator Pro, Feeder, F-Droid, Pocket Casts, SD Maid

Multi-platform: Home Assistant, Wireguard, Syncthing, Jellyfin, Kodi, Samba, Firefox

Honorable mentions that don't have the best UX but are still hugely appreciated for existing: Joplin, QGIS

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[–] massive_bereavement@kbin.social 49 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Calibre vs... em something that's not calibre.

I'm honest not sure what I would use instead, but it would be hard to replace.

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[–] jikel@lemm.ee 48 points 1 year ago (34 children)
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[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 48 points 1 year ago (15 children)
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[–] JoeBidet@lemmy.ml 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

The thing I find hard to convey is that FLOSS software is superior to proprietary software for many reasons, most of which are non-technical: FLOSS software is superior to proprietary software if it isn't spying on you, if it's governance is collective, if it's not build to make you pay for things that should be free, if it lets you decide where your data goes, etc...

we're often missing the point when we attempt at side-by-side comparison of FLOSS and proprietary software.. It's usually one-dimentional, and playing on our opponent's field: these companies racketing their users based on rent-based exploitative business models will always have more resources than independant developpers to improve "UX/UI"... so I think this must not be the only prism through which reading these things.

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[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 year ago (11 children)

VLC is obviously the best media player, I can't think of one I've used that comes close ever, either in ease of use(hotkeys) or functionality.

Audacity is such a simple yet comprehensively functional audio editor.

OBS is a very simple video recording software that works so well.

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[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Kodi (formerly XBMC) beats pretty much all streaming services in terms of UI.

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[–] darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hands down the clang C++ compiler, no commercial C++ compiler I've ever seen or even heard of even comes close enough that a comparison could be meaningful.

[–] HamsterRage@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never expected to see a compiler in this list, at least not in 2023.

Back in 1988 I realized how rubbish Microsoft was when I discovered Borland's Turbo Pascal and Turbo C compilers. I'd previously used the MS compilers and they were multipass, multi-minutes to finish a compile. The Borland ones were single pass and FAST.

Back then, compile times could be huge, and everyone was publishing benchmarks on compiled program performance, which mattered on the hardware of the day. I never even think about that stuff these days.

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[–] sonnenzeit@feddit.de 35 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Librera Reader is a PDF // ebook reader for Android. It has a very smooth user experience and useful options. I used to have 5 or so different PDF readers installed and would pick and choose according to the task at hand but now I'm down to just 1.

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[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Emacs and vim are both vastly superior to all other text editors.

Which one you like better is a matter of taste.

Vim is a girlfriend with rock hard abs who wants to take you rock climbing and of whom you're secretly a little scared.

Emacs is a big bouncy happy girl who wants to take care of you in every conceivable way, then split a bucket of RAM while binging pirated movies.

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[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (21 children)

Here is my opinion on some FOSS software. PS, I'm too old to give a shit about team mentality, I just want stuff to work. Also, my motivation for liking FOSS is not so much "free", but rather "unencumbered and unrestricted shared human technology and knowledge".

  • GNOME, for the hate it gets, it comes close to getting everything right. I'd give it a 95/100 score. Windows a 30/100, and MacOS a 35/100. No verdict/comment on KDE as I haven't used it. I have good reasons for disliking W10/W11 and separate ones for MacOS. As desktop environments, they are both shit for each their own reasons.
  • Blender. 3D/Scultping/Drawing/Video Editing. Aside from Linux kernel, the most impressive and well managed FOSS project there is. I grew up with pirated 3dsmax, and what a dream it would be to grow up today with Blender as it is.
  • Linux as a OS kernel. One can argue about the desktop market share, but people don't know better. They think the software that runs on it defines it. But, there is a reason why 100% of top 500 supercomputers in this world run on Linux. I'd also mention the Arch/AUR community. Doesn't matter if you use Arch or not, arch/aur wiki is a goldmine.
  • Godot: 2D game engine. As a 3d game engine, it's not nearly as good as the non-FOSS competition.
  • Firefox: If it wasn't for Firefox, I don't know what I would do. I don't trust chrome one single bit.
  • Alacrity terminal: I'm sure there are plenty great FOSS terminal emulators, but the built in ones for MacOS and Windows are garbage.
  • Prusa Slicer: I think this one is as good as the commercial counterparts for FDM G-code generation.
  • VLC. Mixed feelings about this one, as I think it's UI is lacking, but since it plays almost everything the UX ends up being great.
  • LibreOffice Writer. Perhaps debatable. But the fact that you can trust LibreOffice to respect and adhere to the OpenDocumentFormat, and equally trust Microsoft Word to deliberately not do so in subtle ways, LibreOffice Writer is ultimately the better software IMHO.

Projects I wish had an edge over commercial proprietary software:

  • Gimp. It just isn't as good, even if you get used to it. Some things, of course, it can do much better (e.g the G'Mic QT filter pack). The lack of non-destructive work flows is the key part that is missing.
  • FreeCAD. It's good, and you can do wonders with it, but oh so rough compared to onshape/Fusion/etc.
  • Darktable. Not as good as commercial counterparts like Lightroom.
  • Kdenlive. Not as good as Davinci Resolve, or the adobe counterparts.
  • LMMS: Not as good as most commercial DAWs.
  • Krita: This one is actually not too far away from being best in class. I still suspect photoshop and has an edge
  • InkScape: A "best for some vector things but not all"-kinda thing. It's FOSS nature makes it the defacto vector editing software for certain kind of makers. But as a graphical vector editing suite, adobe's stuff is just much more solid.

Mobile stuff that I think is better than the counterpart, or at least so good that I don't care if there is a counterpart

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[–] ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Unironically, the terminal.

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[–] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The whole GNU+Linux distro on your desktop computer. Or on your server.

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The GNOME desktop environment is way better than the proprietary alternatives in MacOS and Windows

[–] kadu@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I come from the tribe of KDE and I do not offer peace

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[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 28 points 1 year ago (12 children)

In many regards using Blender can be a much more pleasant experience than using many of the commercial "standards" such as Maya or 3dsmax. Depends what aspect you're looking at of course, it's not perfect and it is lacking in some areas. Krita is amazing for painting, infinitely better than Photoshop.

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[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Xournal++ for pdf annotating, note taking

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