Some FOSS programs, due to being mantained by hobbyists vs a massive megacorporation with millions in funding, don’t have as many features and aren’t as polished as their proprietary counterparts. However, there are some FOSS programs that simply have more functionality and QoL features compared to proprietary offerings.

What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their non-FOSS alternatives? Maybe we can discover useful new programs together :D

I’ll start, I think Joplin is a great note-taking app that works offline + can sync between desktop and mobile really well. Also, working with Markdown is really nice compared with rich text editors that only work with the specific program that supports it. Joplin even has a bunch of plugins to extend functionality!

Notion, Evernote, Google Keep, etc. either don’t have desktop apps, doesn’t work offline, does not support Markdown, or a combination of those three.

What are some other really nice FOSS programs?

edit: woah that’s a whole load of cool FOSS software I have to try out! So far my experiences have been great (ShareX in particular is AWESOME as a screenshot tool, it’s what snip and sketch wishes it could be and mostly replaces OBS for my use case and a whole lot more)

  • tatann@lemm.ee
    0·
    2 days ago

    AntennaPod is a pretty great podcast player, far better than the one Google did (and abandonned)

    Newsblur is the only RSS reader that I’ve found that can apply filters to feeds

    I’ve switched from Discord to Element with some friends for daily text chat and vocal chat (video games) and it’s less cluttered than Discord, and the voice even sounds better

    SpamBlocker is a better phone/SMS spam filter than the proprietary ones I’ve tried

    Firefox (and forks) has been my browser for more than 20 years, I can’t go back to proprietary ones

    • aeshna_cyanea@lemm.ee
      0·
      1 day ago

      Matrix/element is good for private group chat but quickly falls apart for any public/semi public scenario where you might need automated moderation :( discord still undefeated there

    • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      2 days ago

      I use NetNewsWire (iOS), but I might try out Newsblur. Seems pretty interesting. SpamBlocker looks like a cool alternative to Whoscall. Element is great, the only downside is getting people to adopt it. Firefox (and its forks) are awesome.

        • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          0·
          2 days ago

          yeah it’s an android app. shame that apple is so restrictive on their app store policies

          • tatann@lemm.ee
            0·
            2 days ago

            Well, no offense but getting away from Apple should be a great first step to fossify your digital life :)

            • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              0·
              2 days ago

              Well just throwing away my phone us a really bad idea, don’t want to add to the e-waste. For the time being, I’ll try to use the phone until it dies before switching to a new phone.

      • tatann@lemm.ee
        0·
        2 days ago

        I only used Discord with a bunch of friends I play with, no “official game servers” so it was pretty easy

        The hard task will be to have some other non-gaming friends to join, because they use Whatsapp (which me and my gaming friends refuse to touch)

        • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          0·
          2 days ago

          I use Whatsapp for all my friends since in my region EVERYONE uses whatsapp. I have one cousin who uses Signal though, so that’s something.

          • tatann@lemm.ee
            0·
            2 days ago

            I just use emails with my friends who are on Whatsapp

            One of them migrated from Gmail to Protonmail so maybe he could help move to a “non GAFAM” environment