VLC is a big one for me.
some new weird video format opens windows stock media player because it’s not yet associated with vlc
“Hey… it looks like your going to have to buy a codec…”
manually open in vlc where it runs seemlessly
People buy codecs?
default behaviour of Windows Media Player…
Oof
Literally never heard of the end user being billed for the codecs.
[Edit]: I think I should rephrase. Could I please be informed about how are codecs priced?
Always have been. It’s either included in licensing a software or operating systems. VLC ffmpeg and other open source software are a bit of a grey area since they don’t make money from the software strictly speaking.
I wonder what are the ToS, is this $0.79 all that you have to pay to use it for commercial purposes?
+1 VLC will dutifully try to play even corrupted to hell files that any other media player would just fail with some form of “can’t play, file is corrupt”
VLC is pretty great. I would say IINA is at least a close second on Mac. Haven’t had a problem playing anything in it yet.
VLC runs great on Mac and Android as well
It even runs on iOS. It’s one of the only ways to play videos that aren’t in Apple’s bullshit proprietary format.
Yeah I personally prefer IINA on the Mac because of how native the interface is. Neither VLC or IINA has had trouble paying any video files I have.
Wasn’t there some big thing where they tried to buy it and the person that made it was just like “nah”
VLC just managed to get some newer video files to play for me on a 10 year old tablet that wouldn’t play them with it’s included video player. It was also one of the only apps on the play store that would still work on that old tablet as well. It’s been my go-to video player for years now, terrific software 🥂
I agree that it’s cool and all, but I just really don’t like VLC. It’s ugly, bad UX and misses some major features. I love other similar and also free ones thoigh, like PotPlayer, MPC and MPV.
It won’t keep track of my place in a Playlist to resume so I trashed it.
Voyager.
Can you provide a bit of info on it? What is it for and how does it stand out among the other apps or programs?
Lemmy mobile client
It’s my favorite client I’ve been using since it was a web app
I like the mlem testflight and arctic for iphone, mlem sometimes cant display an image tho
Blender, Gimp, Inkscape, OBS (open broadcast software), Linux distros of various sorts, openHAB, LibreOffice, Firefox (and plugins like uBlock), PiHole, VirtualBox, Notepad++, Paint.NET, VLC, 7-Zip, FileZilla…
I’m sure there’s more.
Gimp is a bit of a stretch.
I’ve used it a lot, but unlike most of the others on this list, the commercial product (Photoshop) is so much better that I’m willing to shell out the monthly fee to use it over Gimp.
I’ve found a nice workflow in gimp to touch my photos. It works wonderfully
GIMP
I think Blender is a very honorable mention, especially since the team that makes the software has also used it to make some really impressive short films, such as Big Buck Bunny. Who knows, maybe some indie studio can use it to make some truly wonderful stuff (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case).
“everything everywhere all at once” was made largely in Blender I think, it’s the most popular film from a studio using Blender that I know of
You’d be surprised how many animations on youtube (done by small creators are done in Blender ;)
I would guess a lot.
The Dialer.
- Comes with every phone
- 10+ digit number instantly connects you with millions of people, services, and institutions
- 3 digits connects you with life-saving emergency support
- Very low-latency voice support
- High quality audio (most of the time)
- No ads
- No obnoxious UI
All kidding aside, I’m routinely astounded at how we have yet to top the ease and utility of old-fashioned phone service.
Until you said kidding I was sold. “Where can I find this elusive beast??”
New pipe, I didn’t see anyone mentioned it
Besides, I use Linux, Organic maps, Signal, VLC, KDE on daily basis and THANK YOU good people on internet for making my life happier!
Basically every decent free thing that runs on Linux, including Linux itself - it’s amazing that it’s all free.
Any reason to use newpipe over YouTube vanced?
Anki flash cards. I use it everyday and commercial programs can’t hold a candle to it.
You use it for studying, right?
Are you implying there are other ways to use it? I only know it for studying / learning languages so I’m curious
Just wanted to make sure haha. I assumed it’s only for studying
I use it for learning english and german words
Traccar - a GPS tracker.
It tracks devices around on a map and records stats about them. Used by fleet managers to monitor thousands of vehicles simultaneous, and also people like me with just two. The interface is a little quirky, but otherwise it’s a very solid and capable program. It shows a web map with live positions of the devices, battery state, speed, direction and other datapoints.
My wife and I like to know where the other is because we both do dangerous shit solo. (She horseriding, me motorbiking, and we’ve both got health conditions). I get notifications when she enters any number of geofences, and can see where she is at any time - and vice versa. This has eased anxiety for both of us.
Initially we used Life360 which is a nice and easy app to use. Then we found out that they sell your information to actively work against you. Not just basic stuff for advertising, but your driving habits, speed, style, accelleration rates - to car insurance companies so they can raise your policy costs, or potentially deny your claim entirely. (Just one reference but there’s heaps more)
So we went self-hosted. Traccar is free and I keep our information private. Install a small app on your phone and register it, and done. Or it integrates with dozens of commercial and open source tracking systems.
Disclaimer - not involved with the project, just a user and a fan.
(Just noticed my wife’s left her phone behind when she went off riding… I guess no system’s perfect!)
Neat!
One of my few remaining Google dependencies is maps and timeline. I just like having that data somewhere and most of the FOSS stuff I’ve seen previously is piecemeal at best. Will have to play with this.
Home Assistant
Right now, it’s Calibre because I just got a Kobo eBook reader and it’s so great to be able to install pretty much any format of book onto my device and convert it if it’s a format the device can’t use. And even convert it if the book works better in a different format.
Caliber is truly amazing, but Kobo support is… Odd. I love my Kobo for comics because of the color screen, but uploading .cbz files is an obtuse process. Kobo readers won’t natively read metadata from .cbz files, but you can manually push the metadata to the device’s database. But in order to do that, you need the file to actually be in the database, which doesn’t happen until after you unplug the device.
So to get a .cbz file working, you need to plug your Kobo in, upload the .cbz file(s), disconnect your Kobo, let it index the file(s), and then hope to god that it actually shows up on the device’s library when you plug it back into your computer so you can manually update the metadata.
Truly odd. The process sounds painful to troubleshoot and find out.
There are some excellent apps already listed that I won’t repeat, but I’ll add FFmpeg. Not sure it’s quite what you’re after, but it’s incredible.
If we’re talking CLI I’ll add Chdman. Like magic for compressing ISO’s.
LocalSend, Immich, Signal, Aurora store, Radio Garden, Gray Jay, yt-dlp, and Bitwarden just to name a few
Localsend is a real godsend. Getting stuff from my phone to my pc without having to search the files.
and bro that shit transfers in the blink of an eye! It’s crazy good!
With the ease of us and speed it’s actually faster than wired for small to medium sized files.
OrganicMaps, all the trails I’ve been to so far in the US are available for offline navigation. No need to precache via gmaps and pray it won’t get deleted
Edit: OpenStreetMap which powers this is what AllTrails uses, but I’m not sure if they contribute back or not
There is a new park near me and I mapped the walking trail there.
I’m doing my part
I’ve just tested it based on your recommendation. It is amazing. I’m going to do trekking for the next 3 weeks and it is a godsend. Thank you.
Nice!
Blender