What are your must-have programs?

land@lemmy.ml to Linux@lemmy.ml – 212 points –

Trying to discover new/unheard Linux desktop programs (Sorry for the confusion).

Edit: I apologise for confusing a lot of people. I meant Linux desktop “programs” coming from Windows/Mac. I'm used to calling them “apps”.

Edit: 🙌 I’m overwhelmed with the great “programs” people have recommended in the comment section. Thank you guys.

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Logseq.

::: spoiler What is Logseq?
It's a non-linear note taking app that allows smart linking and is made as a second brain.

It makes use of the Zettelkasten system, where, in theory, you make notes of everything and categorize it. Over time, you offload your brain and make it free for more productive stuff.

Logseq is often considered as a FOSS alternative to Obsidian. :::

I tried it and really wanted to like it, but the Android client's UI is just unusable for me. as much as I prefer going FOSS whenever I can, I tried Obsidian and stuck with it. it's electron on desktop and definitely not native UI on mobile, but feels much more polished.

Yeah, the Android app is horrible. I only use it if I don't have my PC in arm's reach.

It feels sluggish, buggy, is overloaded, I always get sync issues (usually the last words I just typed go missing), and some features (especially the graph overview) don't work at all sometimes. And the whole app sometimes feels like an alpha version, which is just a no-go...

I really hope the mobile app gets polished more over the next months. Many people nowadays mostly use mobile devices, and having such an unpolished app really hurts the image. And, PLEASE devs, test your software before shipping it out. Especially the mobile app is broken half the time.

I still gladly pay the 5$/ month for the optional sync and to support the devs.

I was never able to fully get into Logseq, might give it another try at some point.

Have you tried QOwnNotes? I think it's pretty good

I have not, I’m using Standard Notes at the moment. I’ll have a look at QOwnNotes though, thanks for the recommendation

QOwnNotes

Thank you for recommending this. I started using Joplin about week or two ago, but this one seems even better for me.

Do it!

I had some initial problems in the beginning, because I was used to linear note taking apps like OneNote or Joplin, but once I watched a guide on how it works, it clicked and now it's my second nature. I even began to write my hand written notes in Logseq style!

TL;DR, if you don't wanna watch any guides/ read docs:

  • Indentation matters. Logseq works with a parent-child hierarchy
  • You usually don't open or create new pages, you write everything in your journal and link stuff there.
  • Use links, either with [[Link]] or #Tag, which are the same. They crosslink different topics and reveal connections.
  • Make use of plugins. There are thousands of it. Especially the Graph Analysis plugin should be included by default.

I used Obsidian extensively at a previous job. The linking of notes was super helpful! I don’t think it’ll work as well for my needs at the moment (at work) but I’ll give it a go

What do you do at your job? As long as you don't work at an assembly belt in a factory, you will still probably get benefits out of it.

Examples:

  • Notes about colleagues or customers
  • Project ideas
  • Random thoughts
  • Writing down meetings and mails
  • And much more!

Mainly data entry. I'm writing bullet form (pro for Logseq) justifications that the QA uses to understand my ratings (the data entry aspect). I will occasionally work on the same task so I open up the original note and just add to it.

I know that I could use Logseq to link - [[link]] - the different task projects together (maybe). Something like Project -> individual task.

My notes look like this currently:

A: 

- some thoughts

B: 

- more thoughts

C: 

- this is bad

D: 

- this is good

I would then copy and paste all of that into a text box on our system (per task) where the QA can use that to understand my ratings of the task. My role title is Advanced AI Data Trainer, it sounds more impressive than it is. It's glorified data entry.

Do you feel like offloading stuff into your notes helps your cognition?

Yeah, definitely, especially at work.
It really helped me to switch off my "work brain", because I know, that everything I did today is written down, and I don't have to keep things in my mind anymore after work. Doing that was a blessing for my stress level and mental health.

It also gives me the edge above my colleagues that I "remember" everything I did in the last months, which is nice when my boss wants to know details of a project I did a year ago.

I basically can't even remember what I did 5 minutes ago (ADHD says hello), but I know exactly where I can find that knowledge. This frees up my working memory (psychological term, not related to work) immensely. It's basically like transfering more tasks onto your hard drive instead of keeping it in the RAM.

It's also great to give me an graphical overview of all I think and work on all day, and unveals connections I never thought of between different topics.

For private use, it's also great as a journal, though I gave up on that because I'm too busy for it and it cost too much time in my everyday life. But I still use it daily for normal note taking, e.g. results of some experiments at home, hobbies, thoughts, and much more.

Fuck you I'm sold. That sounds so useful if I can stick with it enough.

That sounds so useful if I can stick with it enough.

That's my main issue for private use. At my job, I never had problems sticking with the habit of writing everything down. I work in a science job, and documentation is key there. So, I basically get paid for exactly that.

But in my free time, the whole concept of task management, knowledge offloading, and more, is a bit harder for me, especially when I come home tired.

Welcome in the life of someone with ADHD. I need my life to be organized, but have a hard time with exactly that. It's like needing to find your contact lenses because you dropped them...

All of this makes sense, but I still can't wrap my head around the "finding" of information. How do you search for it? Do you remember keywords or the location of the note (this I feel like maybe defeats the purpose of Logseq's write anywhere idea)

I use a mix of

  • Search bar, very powerful
  • The graph overview, which allows me to "hunt" for the thing I need
  • Filters
  • And a lot of tags, aliases and crosslinks

I don't use Logseq, I use Silverbullet, and yes, it helps A LOT. I have lots of random notes on random pages on how to do things at work, or on my personal servers or whatever. You know that feeling of "I've already had to deal with this, how the hell did I do it?" It's completely gone.

If you use a good organization system with a hierarchy that makes sense and tags you can easily find stuff, so you can turn off your brain from having to remember all of that and it can focus on the thing you need to actually solve now. Don't know if you're old enough to remember a time before cellphones, we had to remember our friends number, nowadays this is not a concern, because your phone will remember the number for you, it's like that but for everything, very liberating.

I tried it on desktop but the fact that it's "paragraph-based" so to say is annoying. I'd like to format text freely and hit return to go to a new line, not create bullet points for everything I write. It seems a bit contrived in this way, but perhaps I just haven't found how to make it work the way I want yet

I'm actively looking for a Logseq replacement, since they require CLA signing and can pull the rug at any moment.

We discovered Trilium and will be trying it out to see if we can migrate.

Trillium is great. I've been scrolling through here to see if anyone mentioned it, and was gonna put it out there if nobody had.

I haven't tried it out on android (if that even exists), though.

Well, I just realized they don't support multi user which is kind of a deal breaker for us, since we are a couple sharing a homelab. We always wanted to share a few files when using Logseq and it seems this won't be solved with Trilium either. This sucks.

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