Software

Last updated 2025-03-06

Recommendations

• Github desktop (I have a writeup for how I use Github to create a durable digital library)
• SketchUp Make 2017, the last free desktop version on archive.org
• VSCode
• Obsidian is a good "live preview" markdown editor, I don't use the features
• KdenLive video editor, very comparable to Premiere or Final Cut but open source
• Notepad++, I really do use it like a notepad, and opening random code files without the hassle of getting them into the right VSCode directory
• LibreOffice, LibreCalc is great, LibreDraw is very good at editing multipage PDFs. I've been really impressed with the whole suite.
• Darktable, though barely used as an Adobe Lightroom replacement
• Ableton 12
• Calibre for ebooks
• iVPN
• Deluge
• VLC
• Foobar for listening to MP3s
• Rekordbox for DJing

Dropped

• ArcPro, switched to QGIS
• Thunderbird, I love the idea, but it is way too slow, too much memory use, would be nice if it ran quietly in the background. Instead, GMail has some offline capabilities.
• Mixxx, missing a lot of Rekordbox’s features
• Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite, its a shame because I’ve sunk a lot of hours into it, but they keep closing the gate while competitors are getting better
• Dropbox, at somepoint I had to choose between Google Drive and Dropbox, and Google Drive was “good enough” and I was already paying a monthly subscription for GMail storage
• Slack, just use Google Chat and Spaces, one less place to go
• Steam for playing games