Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#81

Post by justusthane » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 11:45 AM UTC

davikr wrote: post #28

I will never go back to using Windows Explorer & Taskbar after downloading Altap Salamander and StartAllBack. Also, "Everything" for searching.

Everything is so great. In addition to my local drive at work I also have it set up to index a huge network drive, and I can actually find things.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#82

Post by RudyStone » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 11:59 AM UTC

Fish shell

BBEdit

SimCity 2000

Old issues of Wired (pre-9/11, let's say)

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#83

Post by justusthane » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 12:42 PM UTC

- Visidata

- z (https://github.com/rupa/z)

- fzf

- vim

- Fastmail

- WireGuard

- draw.io

- PowerShell (it’s difficult to overstate how much PS has improved Windows system administration)

- Microsoft PowerToys

- WSL (alternating joy and extreme frustration)

- Home Assistant

- Airfoil

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#84

Post by whereistejas » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 1:02 PM UTC

- social media -> are.na, posts.cv

- arc

- shots (camera app for ios)

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#85

Post by Y_Y » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 2:26 PM UTC

huseyinkilic wrote: post #40

Total Commander, and Midnight Commander. We all do love exploring files, don't we?

Honorable mention to ncdu

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#86

Post by locopati » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 3:39 PM UTC

Todoist most of the time (there's the occasional moment of frustration when I'm trying to custom filter something complex and i wish they'd make multiple selection easier but those are both minor)

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#87

Post by Charlie_e » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 3:59 PM UTC

Obsidian is the first that comes to mind, offline-first but with vault sync is a wonderful experience. Other than that, Tableplus is far above other other database management gui Ive used, Zellij+Helix is a great combo, and I havent used it much I found Godot really intuitive and user friendly.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#88

Post by sowbug » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 4:48 PM UTC

Desktop Linux. It stays out of my way and just works.

Apple has almost never been an option for me because I like being able to run software on diverse hardware.

Windows gets more inscrutable and annoying every time I'm asked to do family tech support. I can't believe how many ads are baked into the current version of the OS.

I'm not a gamer, so the lure to tolerate Windows for a single app has never been strong for me.

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#89

Post by srhtftw » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 5:00 PM UTC

Things that make my mac more usable for me in no particular order:

    visidata - https://www.visidata.org
    just - https://github.com/casey/just
    ripgrep - https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
    macports - https://www.macports.org
    sloth - https://github.com/sveinbjornt/Sloth

Re: Ask HN: What software sparks joy when using?

#90

Post by karmakaze » Wed, Apr 17, 2024, 5:09 PM UTC

Ableton Live. It's amazing how good UI/UX can be for non-computer-field workflows. Maybe I appreciate it more because I wouldn't be able to organize it all so neat & compactly.

And even better than that are hardware synthesizers with all the direct control knobs to fully and dynamically shape the sounds that come out. I also prefer them because looking at an Ableton screen feels too close to my day job.

It's pretty much the same story as in cars: software with a touch screen can only get so good--with a physical UI it can be better.