Dual pane file manager with GUI, in other words: a proper alternative to Total Commander on Linux. Fast, simple UI, has all required functionality built in and can be extended using plugins. Krusader is probably closest one, but still has few minor paper cut issues.
Google Desktop Search (it is dead now anyway). Was brilliant while it lasted. There were some other alternatives as well but I think GDS starved them to death before Google got bored and killed GDS. (Please le me know if there are good alternatives, free/paid/open source, everything is interesting as long as they fo the same things GDS did and can convince me that they don't upload my data.)
I personally use an app called Everything[1] since I moved to win10. Win10's search indexing seems to be trash and its tendency to prioritize web results over desktop results is infuriating. Everything is good for finding something tucked away on your hard drive(s), is dead simple to use (give it a few minutes the first time around to index everything, then just search). I wish I could replace the existing Cortana with it or something else rather than opening a different app, but alas When in Windows, do as Microsoft demands.
Ableton Live and/or Bitwig Studio I don't think anything comes even remotely close to the level of productivity and rapid experimentation / prototyping these DAWs can bring to the table.
It's not quite the same thing, but VCV Rack is making incredible and rapid progress into becoming a fully fledged DAW. I find myself using Ableton less and less and Rack more and more. Check it out!
Yes, I'm aware of VCV Rack and it is an amazing open source project. I use Bitwig Studio though, and having The Grid there (which is Bitwig's own modular environment, introduced in v3) is just too convenient to use another one next to it.
Google Desktop Search (it is dead now anyway). Was brilliant while it lasted. There were some other alternatives as well but I think GDS starved them to death before Google got bored and killed GDS. (Please le me know if there are good alternatives, free/paid/open source, everything is interesting as long as they fo the same things GDS did and can convince me that they don't upload my data.)
everything is a windows desktop search engine
you can use docfetcher for a full content indexing of your files like pdf or doc
... and half your potential user base will say "what the hell is this crap, it is totally unintuitive and doesn't do the things i need it to" ... sigh.
Two that I have encountered: Aspera: a high-performance data transfer suit, used in genetics and the film industry. I wrote a blog post about it a year ago and still get near-daily emails asking me if there is an open source alternative yet. QUIC may provide a basis for a solution, but it needs to be explored. PDMS: software for planning, modeling and simulating oil and gas plants. Main two commercial suites are AVEV…
There's tons of highly specialized vertical market software that will basically never have open-source alternatives. Every industry has a few examples. I at least know of the high-end CAD, FEA, and CFD software used in certain branches of engineering. See Ansys, Autodesk, etc. The reason why is that building this type of software correctly requires an immense amount of domain knowledge. That type of knowledge doesn't…
> with no company standing behind it
One misinterpretation of this mindset I have heard: "They just want someone who they can sue if things go wrong."
If my business depends on something, I want to know that attention is being paid to it.
Google Desktop Search (it is dead now anyway). Was brilliant while it lasted. There were some other alternatives as well but I think GDS starved them to death before Google got bored and killed GDS. (Please le me know if there are good alternatives, free/paid/open source, everything is interesting as long as they fo the same things GDS did and can convince me that they don't upload my data.)
I personally use an app called Everything[1] since I moved to win10. Win10's search indexing seems to be trash and its tendency to prioritize web results over desktop results is infuriating. Everything is good for finding something tucked away on your hard drive(s), is dead simple to use (give it a few minutes the first time around to index everything, then just search). I wish I could replace the existing Cortana wi…
It's amusing how simple Everything is: it just searches the file database in Windows by name. It doesn't search file contents. I am not sure why this isn't the way Windows search works.