Linux

grep

So many. So many little utilities that just work. To mention a couple I think no one will mention because they are not sexy: Okular and Ark

KCalc. Man, it just computes! It can add, subtract, and even multiply. It's never given a wrong answer.

Syncthing. Absolutely ace bit of software. I remember it being a little questionable in 2013, but today it performs exactly the same task, just more reliably. Love it.

nano

nano 😎

The Linux Kernel.

Vlc.

Many have already mentioned tools that I also use and appreciate immensely.
My pick is Steam. I've picked up on gaming in the past 2 years and it's very stable right now. Every game that I have interest in just works, I can install games, including early access or demos without looking at the compatibility or the release date. The download speeds of games are high (imho at least where I'm located, and compared with a PS5). My partner is a heavy gamer and has to yet find a game that doesn't work on her machine.

Firefox + uBlock Origin + sponsorblock. Set it and forget it.

I haven't seen an advertisement or a sponsored segment on my desktop in over a decade, and same with my phone for several years. I'm astonished how willing most people are to put up with a constant barrage of ads coming from devices they own

bash. Konsole. vim (-neo or otherwise up to the point it became AI infested). ssh. steam. git i could go on for quite a while

The program sl, works every time

Caddy

Nano

xterm, xv, mc, tmux, gimp, seamonkey

I tried neovim for a while and I went back to vim for that reason: setup once, then forget about it.

I have plugins that haven't been touch for 5 years+ and they are working as intended.

Rock solid.

I'll give a shoutout to the rEFInd boot manager. If anyone has ever had trouble with Grub, rEFInd continues to work for years across multiple machines. I have never had a problem with it.

tree, locate, nvim, flatpak, htop, bmon, etc.

Cron

The OS itself, Debian. If I have to pick a component, Mate Panel. Compared to the Windows 11 start menu, it's useful, customizableand has no ads. My IT department at work can't even figure out how to remove the Windows 11 start menu ads from my computer.

Nano

• Linux Mint.
• Cinnamon.
• Xfce.
• PPSSPP.
• GNOME Boxes.

As phil Collins would say... Su su su sudo

Nginx.

It runs everything at home and at work.

Bottles.

Without it, I wouldn't be able to run addictive keys on Linux. I paid for the software back when I used Windows and since I'm able to use addictive keys on Linux, haven't bothered trying to find an alternative.

That said, its the only use case I've had with bottles that just works. Other programs ive tried are more hit or miss.

Anything from Debian. I even run Debian-Testing, and it's rock solid. Also, Linux mint, on my other partition.

zsh

Arch

my desire to use Linux and continue learning

mpv

mpv, openbox

Debian!

Sabnzbd

Okular

Prosody for me. I set it up over 2 years ago, and the only time I touched it was when updating to the latest Debian stable and enabling some new features in the config files. It's been rock-solid and just worked without complaint.

Systemd

*grabs popcorn*

Guix

Depends what "fuss or bother forever" means. Background tools run without interaction, and therefore aren't bothering. But any application with interaction is basically "fussing". The simpler the programs and its scope, less chance of problems are expected. Also updating with an Arch system BTW can cause an issue, that is not even related directly to the program itself. Oh and I'm known to make simple questions complicated...

As a daily user of Firefox and Thunderbird, they just works. I also use the KDE standard terminal "Konsole" and don't remember having a problem. I do screenshots (maybe not everyday, but often) here and there using KDEs "Spectacle". It works as expected. The simple terminal tool fastfetch to display system information works always. After installing searxng-git, to run the search engine server locally, it basically always works without fuss. I just have to update it from time to time manually, as it updates from Git source directly.

Debian, uptime right now on my server is 59 days and that's just because that was when we had a power outage longer than the UPS could keep up with

Dino, my favourite chat client, it just works.

Vim because its everywhere and is super powerful. It can even be used for some light scripting. GCC to make my own programs. Python as well, same thing and also portable. All the programs that come with mint and become part of the background like the terminal emulator. All of it, pretty awesome. Jellyfin has been a mainstay as well.

awk

all rock solid af

monit, postfix, gearman, dhcpd, bind

Probably something that is so basic or integrated into the distros I use that I forget about it because every time I use it, it just works.

I love how little of the projects mentioned here are truly Linux specific.

"Firefox" lol.

Anyways, MUSL.

I set up a couple of pi-zeros to monitor our heating and other stuff, it runs lightpd and have been running for several years uninterrupted.
They are only accessible on the local network, so I don't even bother to run updates :-)

All of it. Even Firefox.

• MythTv
• LVM
• Xfce
• Transmission
• Doom

KRunner, I think. I even removed the application menu from my panel and I have a keyboard macro for just opening KRunner

All of them.

bashmount

Elementary OS

pretty much everything i am or have been using in the last (*checks calendar) 29 years. my debian server setups, frankly by now (despite all the hate) my rock solid manjaro from the last ~8years, my raspbians... hard to pinpoint one particular piece of sw that works better than the others. but what comes to mind now: i have a mostly command line based workflow to create a yearly photo book out of family pictures from that year, using exiv2, imagemagick, and some basic bash stuff. this has been in use for 5 years now, i haven't changed it and it's quicker than any grahical thing that could replace it. ai could probably improve or automate it more but by now I'm so used to it that i cannot be bothered to start with it.

Caddy

vim, awesomewm, mbsync (isync),

As for recent discoveries: dwl — I was surprised on how robust it is, and how well it works.

I will second KeealiveD.

Pihole has been robust even the upgrades.

Docker has been perfect for years.

RaspberryPi os has been superb.

I would say Debian stable is the way to go!

Unfortunately it's not new enough to run grate on my 9950x, 870E motherboard because a lot of things is buggy and not working in optimal!

Sadly even Linux is a fuss. This is primarily due to full os updates needed every four years plus the changing security landscape. Then there are the hardware issues and replacement every ten years. I guess a partial alternative is a rolling release but then you have the issue of constant change.