Steam probably.
this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
78 points (85.5% liked)
Linux
47994 readers
987 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I won't say it's "best", as I just want to run a game without friendlists and other bloat, so I really hate the fact Steam is nessesary for so many games.
But I would call it "essentiall".
Yup, as time went on, I simply felt less need to have proprietary software on my system. Steam remains as an exception; simply by virtue of having no F(L)OSS alternative (AFAIK).
Steam itself isn't that special and things like Heroic exist but where Steam wins is the ecosystem. Also Valve sponsor developments of Linux desktop technologies, so even if Steam itself is proprietary, some of the money ends up advancing open source.
Valve has put a lot of work into helping WINE & Linux. Even if it was a selfish play to break free from Microsoft & other app stores to lock those into their marketplace fee, I can’t help but be grateful for the better ecosystem & uptick in users. Since they are privately held too, they aren’t in the same business of chasing quartely profits or making the experience worse & worse by selling your data & slapping ads everywhere.
Although I don't use them, the Jetbrains products should be near the top of the list.
Was going to say this. Pycharm is probably the only paid software I use. With that being said, students don’t need to pay for it, so I don’t have to worry about that.
DaVinci Resolve is THE video editor on Linux. Unfortunately the libre apps for it don't get even close, to the point that even with all the limitations in the free and paid versions, it still is the best option.
Also shout out to Bitwig Studio, although I don't use it.
KDEndlive is pretty solid, imho
It is, but when it comes to more complex needs, it falls short. It is really good for simpler editing needs and it is getting better fast.
If you haven't done it yet, please consider contributing by writing down what you believe is currently missing, either as your own blogpost or via https://community.kde.org/Kdenlive#Contact
Honestly IMO it's not even a comparison whatsoever. Kdenlive cannot be used professionally for any real work, it will just crash on you before you even find out it can't even do what you want. I've tried it off and on for many years and it's always a massive disappointment compared to pro solutions.
In the past 5 years stability has improved significantly, like I haven't had a crash in the past year of casual use. ymmv but I would recommend it to new users at this point.
I had to switch from kdenlive to DaVinci Resolve recently and it breaks my heart. I'm by no means a professional, but I am a heavy user who is frequently sifting throughout footage. Unfortunately, crashes are still very common for a power user. After encountering a memory corruption bug for the second time that resulted in lost project work (despite saving to disk!!!), I had to switch to something better.
load more comments
(3 replies)
KDEnLive is a good "editor" for simpler projects, but not a good video editing "suite". It comes nowhere near Resolve's color grading ability, or even audio editing ability these days. And it has no compositing ability at all. In fact, except Natron on Linux (that gets updated once every 2-3 years with just bug fixes and not many features), there's nothing about compositing. Blender's compositing is unusable btw.
load more comments
(4 replies)
I see it has two different products for two different use cases. Kdenlive is for those who missed Windows Movie maker or iMovie. Something to stitch together videos, or split apart videos.
DaVinci Resolve is for those who need stable professional software like adobe.
Not saying that kdenlive can’t be used professionally but I found its stability lacking, its tools unpolished and its functionality limited. The only benefit is that it can handle aac audio, and export it too thanks to ffmpeg.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Reaper. Great usability and decent Linux support out of the box (looking at you, davinci resolve). Generous free trial and a cheap one-time payment for a license. LMMS has served me well and is fine for basic stuff, but reaper is a whole other level, both in features and usability. I've heard good things about ardour too but have yet to give it a try.
Reaper is awesome.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Half-life: Alyx, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, ... you get the idea. It's not so much those apps per se, and I'd prefer them to be FLOSS too, rather it's the amazing content and in such rare cases, I'm happy to financially support the creators.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Does it count as paid if I donated what I think is a reasonable price?
Cause then it's KDE, Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice and Gimp. I'd prefer those programs even if their proprietary counterparts were free.
Came here to say this too... I contribute a few €/£/$ per month to various projects...
I won't get all righteous here, but just because you don't have to pay, doesn't mean you to say you can't support the developer(s)...
I like Sublime Text and Sublime Merge and use both daily.
I would never willingly use proprietary software. I don't mind paying if I also have access to source code that is licensed foss.
I while I understand the sentiment, I have found that paid software is more polished than foss software… most of the time. And when I need to get work done, I want to ensure that my software is stable and I will pay to do so.
That said, I feel software is like a bell curve, and the older the type of software is, the more it should be FOSS. Like word processors, 3D modelling, or image manipulation should be foss, while video editing and 3D scanning software is OK to be paid.
What I feel everyone should agree with is not being forced to use a subscription service to use the software. I will boycott software if it forces that upon their customers, looking at you Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Pycharm professional and Steam are pretty dope
It’s so odd how proprietary software is frowned upon so much in this community, but no one cares when it comes to gaming.
Even Stallman said games are an unfortunate, but reasonable exception. Of he can see it, anyone can.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
I paid for Vuescan. There are a ton of Linux scanning apps, but pretty much all of them require editing all pictures to some extent after the scan. Vuescan applies a useful set of defaults that work for most pictures, speeding up the work flow. I had over 4,000 pictures to scan so anything to simplify that was worth it.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Lightburn for controlling laser engravers.
It's pretty much the only choice on Linux (though it is cross platform). Free 30 day trial, then ~$80 lifetime licence.
The other choice is LaserGRBL, which is open source, but doesn't seem to have a Linux port for some reason. And it has a lot fewer features, with a more complex workflow.
Does Unraid count as paid Linux itself, not just a Linux utility?
Dungeondraft, Wonderdraft, FoundryVTT. Battle map making, world map making, and virtual table top respectively
load more comments
(2 replies)
Some rare games that don't scam you.
gitkraken has a lot of features that I never use. But showing the various branches and their connections as a color-coded tree is worth paying money for.
When it comes to 2D CAD/CAM, then QCad is the best. They have a GPL version, but their commercial version has a lot more features, like importing/exporting most Autocad files, and CAM functionality. For just $40 bucks, it's worth every penny. The only disadvantage it has is that it can't ever have an ARM version, because the plugin they use for Autocad files is licensed, and it only exists for x86 afaik.
load more comments
(1 replies)
OpenAudible - because Audible cycles books in and out of the membership too fast and sometimes their phone app sucks.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I like Insync. It synchronizes with Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. It is not the only client out there but it works better than the other ones I’ve used.
load more comments
(3 replies)
moneydance for household finance tracking
Step 1: reduce your household spending by avoiding useless paid software.
load more comments
(3 replies)
SAP S/4HANA
If expensive and proprietary is what you want, it's hard to beat.
load more comments
(1 replies)
WinRAR -s, honestly I haven't paid for anything since I switched to Linux because everything is open source or freemium not that I paid for anything when I use windows anyway I quacked almost everything but I did bought Terraria and Half Life series
You joke, but I actually have a license key for WinRAR that I use with the native rar cli on my Linux machines.
Not sure how decent yet, but got recommended Beyond Compare at work, which is a trial software and recently discovered it runs on linux.
It's basically a file compare tool, but can also compare images and looks really nice.
It also features, like on Windows, really handy entries for the right click menu of pretty much all popular Linux File managers.
I just bought a standard license for version 5, because it seems awesome and I wanna use it more.
Bitwig studio
Pianoteq for virtual piano emulation with MIDI keyboards.
view more: next ›