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 :)

  • OliMoli2137@piefed.socialEnglish
    18·
    9 days ago

    Here are some useful programs I use:

    console utilities/programs:

    • zoxide: memorizes which directories you cd into, so you can later type shorthands for them

    • procs: modern replacement for the ps command. basically lists your processes

    • neofetch/fastfetch: displays your system info in a fancy way. 99% Linux users use that

    • inxi: displays detailed system info but in a less fancy way. people usually attach the output of inxi -Fxz to a forum post where they need help troubleshooting

    • asciinema: cool program that records your terminal sessions as text files

    • agg: converts asciinema recordings to gif

    • yt-dlp: insanely powerful youtube downloader (remember to only download things you are permitted to!)

    • sl: ragebait when you misspell ls

    • yazi: fancy file manager with image previews! minimal or no configuration required

    • cava: audio visualizer. when you press f it cycles colors!

    • htop/btop: you already mentioned. task managers basically

    • ncdu: interactively shows disk usage per file

    GUI apps:

    • qalculate: very powerful calculator (has both qt and gtk frontends)

    • gparted: probably the best gui disk management tool so far

    • localsend: send files locally over wifi direct

    • blueman: gui bluetooth manager

    • freetube: awesome youtube client (NOTE: against youtube terms of use!)

    • baobab: gui disk usage analyzer

    • cheese: photo taking app with funny effects

    • Havatra@lemmy.zipEnglish
      10·
      9 days ago

      Great list! And just to add a bit:

      yt-dlp is indeed insanely powerful, and works for way more than just YouTube, for both audio(music) and video. Supported sites

      LocalSend is supported on all platforms, and is perfect for situations where you traditionally use a USB to move files.

    • NostraDavid@programming.dev
      7·
      9 days ago

      Some recommendations:

      • baobab -> QDirStat
      • qalculate -> speedcrunch
      • ncdu -> gdu (“I am you, but faster”)

      I prefer lsd to ls or eza/exa (RIP exa).

      • OliMoli2137@piefed.socialEnglish
        4·
        9 days ago

        thanks for suggestions. but a couple of controversial things:

        • lsd is written in Rust, which I personally have no problem with but there are people that do
        • eza and lsd development appear to have been assisted by AI, which I don’t really know a lot about but generally dislike

        i have no problems with qdirstat or gdu, so i’ll give them a try. i’ll maybe try speedcrunch as well

        • entwine@programming.dev
          1·
          8 days ago

          lsd is written in Rust, which I personally have no problem with but there are people that do

          Huh? Do you mean to say it’s non-GPL? Some people have been going around rewriting GPL C/C++ utilities in Rust, but publishing them under non-GPL licenses, and that has been controversial. I don’t think I’ve seen people having a problem with Rust specifically.

    • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      baobab: gui disk usage analyzer

      taking some advantage from this thread, does any of you know a tool like baobab, but for android?