What applications are missing in Linux?

Linux Discussion Applications
3

BaseCamp is a little similar to google maps in that you can plot a course between two, or more, locations. However, BaseCamp supports tracks in addition to routes ( routes recalculate if you miss a turn, tracks do not ). Tracks are more useful for off-road / trail riding. BaseCamp also allows me to import tracks from previous rides, cut out sections, and use those to build new tracks. BaseCamp supports several different map types including topo maps. The benefit is that I can create the route / track prior to a ride and then import it directly into my gps device.

I’m not familiar with Marble, but I will take a look at it.

I’ll 2nd TurboTax

4

Your wish is my command:

Edited Note: Could also try using it on Wine

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5

MediaMonkey. I like this best of any media managers I have used.

It is said to work somewhat under Wine, and they are presently working on version 5, but no native or cross-platform version yet.

6

This isn’t anything that would be in widespread use, but the one reason I keep Windows on my secondary laptop is for photo booth software. The software I use on Windows (can’t recall the exact name) is a turnkey photo booth kiosk. With a 2-in-1 laptop in tablet mode and an inkjet photo printer (plus camera and tripod) I can easily set up a photo booth at family events, etc. It also includes a pretty powerful layout editor, and a number of other advanced options I don’t even use!

I haven’t found anything even close in Linux. There’s some fairly rudimentary software for controlling a DSLR camera, last I checked, but that’s about it.

I’ve toyed around with the idea of trying to build something like that as a side project in Python, but haven’t been able to come up with the time to do anything with the idea.

7

Nowadays I tend to have opposite problem. It’s harder finding right software when I’m using Windows - although this is mostly because I’m much more familiar with Linux and try to avoid using proprietary software especially when I’m unsure of the source.

That being said, I’m still unable to run some of the games. Even though most of my gaming happens on either Linux or Switch.

I also miss universal communicator that could integrate with multiple protocols. But it’s kinda impossible to have with most used communication channels being closed. I do have Rambox, but it’s far from what I’d want.

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8

What is sorely missing are the utilities (and perhaps kernel drivers) that can unbrick an Android phone after trying to install a custom ROM.

Note: I just got a new Oneplus 6 phone, tried to install TWRP (aiming at installing LineageOS), but TWRP totally bricked the phone, and I consummately followed the instructions. There’s nothing quite like that near-heart-attack moment, when your brand new phone gets ruthlessly bricked without even so much as an error message. Thankfully there was an unbricking tool, but it only worked in Windows.

I had no bare-metal Windows install, so I backed up my M2 drive (which had my MX Linux 19 install), then installed Windows 10 just to run that unbricking tool, which required a special Qualcomm driver for Windows.

Once unbricked, then I backed up the Windows install from the M2 drive (should I ever need that unbricking tool again, and I hope not). The Windows install on the 256GB M2 drive (in my case, “/dev/sda”, but be careful here, look before you leap!) compressed down to like 9GB, and it was fast, thanks to zstd!

zstd -v --threads=7 < /dev/sda > /media/youruser/big_disk/windows_bak.zst

Then I restored MX 19 back again:

zstdcat -v /media/youruser/big_disk/linux_bak.zst > /dev/sda

Whew!

This dumpster fire wasted about 20 hours!! It was a nightmare!! I’ve lost all trust in TWRP and trying to install custom ROMS, btw.

PS: I’m sure glad I used the MX Tools called “Snapshot”, and “Live USB Maker”, which allowed me to boot from a USB stick, then back up (compressed) and restore my M2 drive, quickly, using the awesome “zstd” compression utility on the fly. MX Linux and zstd were the beacons of sanity in this whole mess.

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9

“It’s harder finding right software when I’m using Windows”, that’s a good problem to have right there.

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11

There’s all sorts of Linux apps missing for the PinePhone and Librem 5. They run a much more honest-to-goodness Linux than Android.

How about apps like Signal, Matrix, Nextcloud, KeePassXC, etc. specially form-factored for use on those phones?

I, for one, look forward to the day when I can afford to fart in the general direction of Android, not needing it any longer. None of these dodgy Custom ROM dumpster fires any longer, and downloading all sorts of strange, experimental secret-sauce builds from XDA developers.

That highly specific unbricking tool I downloaded not from OnePlus, but from some almost totally random account at “androidfilehosting.com” could have had anything in it, for all I know.

12

Oh yeah, another one: Raspbian is still porting Debian 10 Buster to 64-bit. Still no official 64-bit Raspbian!! So whatever is an important app for the Raspberry Pi 4, but still is buggy when used in 64-bit mode, I say we need that app working in Linux.

Docker would be a giant example (to work, totally bug-free, as we’d know it to work in AMD64).

13

Want to know what I still can’t find a native alternative to? Something like MobileSheets (Pro)![1] (or iOS’s forScore[2]) It is my go-to digital music sheet program. As a musician I don’t need music composition, just to display it and annotate where necessary. It also has a music sorting, which is handy for when you are in multiple orchestras or choirs.

MuseScore has been recommended to me in the past, but it doesn’t even have support to import PDFs. You have to convert them with an online tool or jot them down manually! Not ideal for playing musicians.

  1. MobileSheets
  2. https://forscore.co/
1 Like
14

Not true. You realize the PinePhone has about eight different OSs in development for it? Some of them are Android forks which you should be able to download the APK and install directly to it.

Since others are direct Linux made, just give it time before they are available in touch screen friendly editions

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That’s the problem surely, there’s loads of OSs in development, and that’s great but it doesn’t solve the problem of being able to listen to Spotify when you’re out and about or load your KeePass database when you need to login to a website.

I would love to be corrected on that if I’m mistaken.

edit: assuming you don’t want to use Android which is the point of the PinePhone to me, personally.

edit2: I just realised Sailfish is compatible with the Android ecosystem so I’m tempted to delete my entire reply but I’ll leave it here rather than attempt to hide my ignorance.

17

It all depends on which OS you are going to use. If it s Linux based, then it would execute just fine. Problem is the small display, and being touch screen friendly. Since this is the first Open Source cell phone released which can use Linux, there are not going to be that many apps ready for that.

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18

I know someone who made a nice app web wrapper for Spotify on the Windows Phone Platform after Spotify pulled their mobile app from the Windows Store.

Here is a screen shot from it. It does not look like it is in a browser at all. I am sure someone could do the same for a Linuxc based one until Spotify decides if they want to support Linux mobile, as they do support Linux desktop.

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Coreldraw w/embroidery-studio 4 is making me still run windows in virtual machine

Inkscape would work if I could find a program that allows me to digitize images in Linux
Tried Inkscape with InkStitch add-on (Doesn’t Work at All for my need)

20

Ok, let me speak more strictly. There’s all sorts of form-refactored, touch-optimized, usable, daily-driver-ready, likeable Open Source Apps apps missing for the Pinephone and Librem 5.

21

More stability, hardware accelleration (when rendering) and commonly-used-by-Youtubers features in non-linear video editors such as KDEnlive, Shotcut, and Openshot would make them more usable and desirable to the likes of @JasonEvangelho (who understandably and pragmatically recently went with Lightworks with a paid license instead).

Apps like Blender, which is capable, but bewildering for most to learn, could use more current documentation and tutorials.

In the professional photo world, Darktable recently had a major release, and like Blender, it’s capable but bewildering, with a need for more up-to-date documentation and tutorials.

1 Like
22

Because I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I’ve started a GitLab project called LibreSheets: README.md · master · Chris Druif / LibreSheets · GitLab

I have more or less decided to build something new from scratch uses open libraries. Because I want to encourage people to move away from proprietary platforms and project sustainability, I’ve decided that not all options will be free. Linux and F-Droid on Android will be free, all others (precompiled) will have a one-time fee, but the source code will be available

Any help will be greatly appreciated! :slight_smile:

23

As weird as it is, Microsoft OneNote. Maybe there’s a notetaking app out there that comes close, but I haven’t found one that quite matches with the requirements I have. I use it a good amount at work and can do things like attach files, attach printouts of files even with OCR, search everything (provided indexing cooperates), paste code and other technical notes. With the latest office update, it’s broken the export to word feature for me, but that’s not a huge deal.

I definitely need to experiment with Joplin more and am open to other options, just haven’t found something that has the features I need from OneNote.

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Joplin is nothing like OneNote from what I’ve used of both. It is more like Evernote. I believe the direction of OneNote is pushing more toward the web version if I understand some of the things I’ve read with more development and new features being focused there. Maybe that means a native client isn’t (as) necessary?