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What are some programs/tools/packages that you can't live without? (piefed.social)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/linux4noobs@programming.dev
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Disclaimer: I tried searching for something like "useful programs", "useful packages", "useful tools", "recommended packages", etc. Don't see any posts like that, if this is a duplicate, then it's not intentional and my search skills have failed me.

Anyway, I was watching a YT video today and the guy launched a cool program in his terminal, I paused to see what he was running. It was btop, of course being new I never heard about it. Then I thought -- how many cool tools/packages are there, which people use, but I am not aware of?

So what do you like? What do you install on a fresh install? What are the most useful tools in your belt? What can't you live without on Linux?

Perhaps I'll find something useful :)

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[–] 17 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I'll list a few of my regularly-used tools, both CLI and GUI.

CLI:

  • ncdu: An interactive TUI variant of du, for tracing disk usage across targeted directories.
  • podman: An alternative runtime to Docker that is arguably just better at this point. Can handle rootless containers with ease, works with SELinux, can handle Docker compose files with add-on tool podman-compose, can automatically update containers intelligently, can integrate well with SystemD, and more.
  • mtr: Another network tool. Effectively traces network routes to a given IP. Great for diagnosing faults in latency or major packet loss.
  • ffmpeg: A very complicated, but powerful tool for converting, manipulating video and audio files in all sorts of ways. FFMpeg can essentially be the answer to any 'do X to Y file' question.

GUI:

  • Kdenlive: A powerful video editor developed by KDE. For free and open source, it is impressive how little you can't do when editing videos with this tool. A bit buggy at times, but has gotten significantly more reliable over years.
  • Handbrake: A FFMpeg frontend that allows for mass transcodes of video files based on created profiles. Great for archiving, finalizing videos down for web upload, or just converting content to a more efficient format. Specializes in lossy/destructive operations.
  • LosslessCut: A FFMpeg frontend that allows for trimming videos, stripping and/or exporting tracks from videos, editing mkv metadata, editing video chapters, and any other lossless/non-destructive operations that can be done on video files.
  • Subtitle Composer: An outright semi-professional-grade subtitle editor developed by KDE. Supports and can convert between pretty much any subtitle format you might encounter. Great for creating, editing, timing, and translating subtitles for videos.
  • KeepassXC: My password manager of choice. Has browser autofill integration, though requires some holepunch work to function with Flatpak browsers. Explicitly is based on local files. Does not rely on cloud providers.
  • Limo, R2Modman: Native mod-managers that allow for modding various Steam games (native and Proton) on Linux.
  • Blender: A powerful 3D editor. Capable of hard and soft 3D modeling, character rigging, animation, material creation and UV mapping, compositing and rendering. Pretty much an all-in-one tool for 3D art and design.
  • FreeCAD: A somewhat daunting, but functional 3D CAD software. Has received a lot of recent (~3 years) patches to improve on a lot of long-standing pain points in the software.
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  • [–] [S] 4 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    KeepassXC: My password manager of choice. Has browser autofill integration, though requires some holepunch work to function with Flatpak browsers. Explicitly is based on local files. Does not rely on cloud providers.

    I use Proton Pass and Bitwarden. How do you backup your KeePass database? Do you sync it with mobile?

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I use it also.

    I syncthing the database between phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, and home server.

    Has worked beautifully for years now. Seamless.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Syncthing with a push/pull across devices and multiple databases is amazing. I have a master db, a db of Netflix or similar that I can share freely with friends that can sync things back over, so that we can share accounts without fussing about changing passwords since it all syncs over quickly.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    It's probably not a case for everyone due to the obvious limitations, but I primarily use KeepassXC from my main workstation. I have backup scripts that periodically run for my user on said workstation that capture my Keepass database among other user files and backup to external storage, cloud storage as dictated.

    For my laptops, mobile devices; I periodically push the database from either the main workstation or pull from a backup to these devices. I do not write new entries from these devices in order to avoid having to handle writeback to the main instance of my Keepass db. This can be done, but inherently starts to hinge on needing network access all the time to ensure an up-to-date copy of the DB is present as well as being explicitly a single-user db to prevent a syncing protocol from accidentally writing over new entries from any given device. Obviously, if network sync and the potential for multi-user is important to you, continue using Bitwarden. It is a perfectly fine solution.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 7 months ago

    Thanks. Yeah, I do add or edit the entries on all my devices and I need them to sync fast. :) I used KeePass many, many years ago but at the time I only used it on my PC. That might have been before smartphone era, so my needs were different.

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