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Ask HN: What are your favorite Linux applications?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite Linux applications?

#15

Post by usr1106 »

I have used emacs since before Linux and window systems existed. Emacs is a small windows manager like it is nearly everything else. Nowadays I only use a tiny fraction of its functionality, because I do run a window manager and a web browser. Still emacs is one of the first programs I install on every system. On embedded systems where emacs is not feasible I try to get remote editing via TRAMP https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TrampMode working.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite Linux applications?

#16

Post by usr1106 »

Text based diff is fine for basic use cases. When the results are too confusing to grasp what really has changed or I want 3-way diff meld can do wonders. Unfortunately it does not scale well and chokes on huge files (like Yocto build logs). Sometimes I use kdiff3. Wasn't there a 3rd one? Obviously I haven't used it for a long time, because I can't remeber it now.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite Linux applications?

#18

Post by teddyc »

Trying to name some more obscure ones that I love.

Tizonia is a CLI music player that can play music from your Google Music library. I like it bc I don't have to use a browser.

Pianobar is a CLI client for Pandora, but I can run this on a Mac too so not sure if it counts. Same no browser required benefit.

I love CLI music players bc they help you extend battery life vs browser based.

Gpaste is a clipboard manager. It even stores images copied to the clipboard.

Not sure if it counts but when I do a rectangle select screenshot in Ubuntu, it puts it in the clipboard (instead of putting a file on the desktop like Mac does) and then I can just paste it in the Jira ticket / GitHub pull request / Slack / etc.

Probably a bit more that deserve mention that I am not considering right now.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite Linux applications?

#19

Post by teddyc »

Docker runs native. You get instant file sync.

On Mac my options are dinghy or docker-sync, both of which drive me insane by either being too slow (former) or not syncing files fast enough or good enough (latter).

This is probably the number one reason that I love Linux for development these days.

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