Some FOSS programs, due to being mantained by hobbyists vs a massive megacorporation with millions in funding, don’t have as many features and aren’t as polished as their proprietary counterparts. However, there are some FOSS programs that simply have more functionality and QoL features compared to proprietary offerings.

What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their non-FOSS alternatives? Maybe we can discover useful new programs together :D

I’ll start, I think Joplin is a great note-taking app that works offline + can sync between desktop and mobile really well. Also, working with Markdown is really nice compared with rich text editors that only work with the specific program that supports it. Joplin even has a bunch of plugins to extend functionality!

Notion, Evernote, Google Keep, etc. either don’t have desktop apps, doesn’t work offline, does not support Markdown, or a combination of those three.

What are some other really nice FOSS programs?

edit: woah that’s a whole load of cool FOSS software I have to try out! So far my experiences have been great (ShareX in particular is AWESOME as a screenshot tool, it’s what snip and sketch wishes it could be and mostly replaces OBS for my use case and a whole lot more)

  • lastweakness@lemm.ee
    8·
    8 hours ago

    I’m really sorry but Joplin is not and will not ever be “objectively” better than Obsidian. SilverBullet is subjectively better than Obsidian though. Note taking is such a heavily opinionated matter that there’s no scope for objectivity there.

    • AnimalsDream@slrpnk.netEnglish
      2·
      2 hours ago

      I don’t know how it compares, but I’ve been meaning to give Zettlr a try. The thing about notes apps is, to me at least, few digital tools are more personal. For some people it’s their diaries. Because of that I would consider privacy to be such a critical feature that I would never even consider using a proprietary app no matter how many bells and whistles it has, or how many people swear by it.

    • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Unfortunately that is the case. However, I like to use both, Joplin for quick notes and Obsidian for larger collections of notes. I find switching between notebooks in Joplin much faster than between vaults in Obsidian. Yeah, everyone seeme to prefer different note taking apps. Might have to try silverbullet though as well as “Trilium”, which someone else suggested that looks similar to Obsidian.