Linux @lemmy.ml OsrsNeedsF2P @lemmy.ml 1 yr. ago

What's your favorite Linux Desktop software?

For me, it's hands down Flameshot. The best screenshot tool in the world - I've got it hooked up to my PrtScrn key for super easy screenshots.

I also love Kwrite as a Notepad++ alternative, and KolourPaint as a MSPaint alternative

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Amberol is probably one of the biggest hidden gems in GNOME apps. It's a simple easy music player whose background color changes based on the song's artwork.

Parabolic is another GNOME app for downloading videos from youtube using yt-dlp. It's super easy to use and even allows for multiple concurrent downloads.

mpv is one of those rare moments where using a proprietary implementation is objectively worse. Must install on any personal computer/mobile device.
- Excuse my silly question, but what does mpv do that vlc doesn't?
  
  MPV has automatic native wayland support, VLC doesn’t (yet, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/VLC_media_player#Wayland_support)
  
  I haven’t found any other large differences in functionality when it comes to simply playing video (only thing I use either one for).
  
  VLC is also less accurate to the source than mpv is.
  
  See the notice on this wiki that contains some comparisons.
  
  I don't know the full details but this is a quote I have seen from reddit about VLC:
  
  uses wrong matrix for RGB conversion (results in wrong colors)
  
  uses point upscaling for chroma planes
  
  introduces strong banding
  
  wrong chroma location (MPEG-1 for everything)
  
  Old subtitle renderer that in more Typesetting heavy situation will say fuck you
  
  all the other bugs (including some that haven't been fixed in years) make it equally unsuitable media player.
  
  It is probably possible to get things in order by digging into the settings in VLC, but mpv prioritizes accuracy by default.
  
  For me I got mad at VLC cause it was opening video track in separate window for some reason.
  
  MPV handles decoding much better than VLC, in my experience trying to watch fansubs
  
  Both are comparable in terms of video playback (both use hardware acceleration and ffmpeg) but mpv's appeal is that it's ultimately a minimal (as in lack of apparent GUI) command line tool rather than a fully featured application like VLC. I like mpv because of it's non-features which is why it's the backend for a lot of Desktop environment video players.
  
  If you want minimalism I advise you to use a tiling window manager instead of Gnome. If you want Wayland absolutely, use Hyprland.
  
  I use POP!_OS right now so I'm waiting for System76 to release their cosmic-epoch to have the definitive non-GNOME/KDE wayland desktop environment.
- I have MPV setup to play any YouTube link when I press ctrl cmd m with a YouTube video url in my clipboard.
- So do you use Celluloid or nah?
  
  Thank for the Parabolic rec. I love GNOME apps sm
  
  For those who don’t know: Celluloid is a GTK4 frontend for MPV that mostly just makes it look neater.
- How does Amberol hold up with libraries in the high thousands? So many nice looking music played keep struggling with my music folders.
  
  Really makes me miss Winamp sometimes.
  
  Amberol does hold up really well with high threshold music folders in my experience. I had a 24+ hours worth of music that loaded successfully in less than a minute.
  
  Amberol has a "restore playlist" feature which loads your last playlist quickly.
  
  Why not Audacious if you want something like Winamp?
- Mpv is a good engine, but I prefer something like smplayer+mpv for all the extra functionality. I also like that VLC has tons of features, like full file/codec info and stats. I know there are other ways to get that info, but it's very easy in vlc.
- I use Lollypop for music, well in reality i just use MPV for that too lol but i downloaded that "just in case"

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