What apps would you love to have open-source alternatives for?
It seems like the FOSS community is continuing to grow, and FOSS apps keep getting better (Immich reallh blew my mind recently), which is a big win 😎 but there are still many apps I use that I would kill for an open source alternative. I am curious what you guys think? Are there any apps you’d love alternatives for?
Plain banking apps for smartphones. Having those developed in the open would hopefully make it possible to have forks that work on rooted devices without hiding magisk and whatnot.
That would be awesome. I wish banks would also have standardized (or at least open) APIs so I could use FOSS financial software to pull my live purchase history and then categorize that and etc. I think some banks do this, but not very common in the US from what I can tell.
Yeah, if banks had open and standardised APIs we could all use the same FLOSS banking app — or choose from any of a bazillion FLOSS apps. Instead they’re going the authoritarian route and locking customers in with bloated black box, proprietary apps…
I had to leave VirginMoney because the lady on the phone told me I needed an iPhone to reset my password (seriously) even after trying with three separate Android devices.
There’s no desktop functionality (mobile is king with them) and it amazed me that day I had to use the Current Account Switcher to go to an equally meh banking service.
Sorry state of affairs across all mobile apps to be honest and as seen by the prevalence of MDM and accessing data Vs doing the very same, on a desktop “PC”. Why the data is more precious on a mobile device to them is telling…
Stylus/handwriting oriented note taking. Stuff like Samsung Notes or Goodnotes (or OneNote, though it does a lot more) in the Android space, or e-ink options like Remarkable’s stock software.
If I just want to use a keyboard for everything I have great FOSS options like Joplin and Standard Notes, but when I want to use a pen instead it feels like no other freedom-respecting option seem to even remotely approach the usability of just sticking with real ink and moleskine-like paper notebooks.
Even someone willing to pay an upfront fee for proprietary apps will struggle to find good options that allow syncing and reading (let alone editing) your notes on other devices/platforms without resorting to a monthly subscription.
Yeah, I’m currently using an old version (2018!) Of AutoDesk sketchbook, since it seems like every other option tries to force me into a subscription or cloud service. I just want to take notes!
Yes yes yes 🙏 I swear I go around at least once or twice a month looking for this. I’m not sure if it is a huge technical feat to approach this type of program or not, but like you said there are tons of options for typing but I haven’t found even one that solely focuses on handwriting.
I’m probably stating the obvious but we’ll never have anything like Waze without a lot of people consenting to share their location. The only reason Google can pull it off is because they take it from all Android phones and cars without asking. They’re in a unique position to do so and this predatory approach is unlikely to be replicated in general, let alone by a FOSS project — which tends to come with certain moral values.
Keep in mind that but only do you need data, you need it to approach a certain threshold to be statistically reliable. Otherwise you get “exploits” like when those people were driving slowly up and down their street to dupe Waze into not recommending it to commuters.
And we’re not even getting to the part where some people may straight out push fake locations.
Krita & OpenToonz handle just about everything I need as an animator/artist, but I’m worried about OpenToonz continued development. I worry that there aren’t enough people working on it.
The frustrating thing is that, at least for me, there are no perfect word processors geared for novels and other scenarios where you manage large text masses.
Scrivener is one of those cases where you have a pretty excellent software that doesn’t have a lot of problems OSS alternatives have. I have smooth time with it. But at the same time, the software always could be better.
Probably the best OSS novel writing software I’ve used is Org-Mode for Emacs. But, you know, it’s based on Emacs, so it squeaks around the edges and gives the impression that it’s a miracle it runs as brilliantly as it does.
Two categories, broadly: any professional software, with deep features and professional quality.
I know theres audacity, but that’s really not an acceptable saw.
I know theres a few cad apps, but no professional I’ve ever met finds the good enough.
I know gimp, and I use it, but no artist I know does; they all pirate Photoshop. Literally every one.
I like having audacity to record audio. I like having gimp to fuck with shit. I like having various cad apps to bang out organizational tools to print. These things do generally fit my use case. But I still have to help people pirate everything else and god the DRM is do fucking annoying.
Abd here’s the more esoteric ask:
Not so much programs as features; Why aren’t we really going all in on shit we can do that they can’t? Features capitalists would never add, never support? Instead I find open source software always playing catch-up, and theres no reason it has to.
That’s a good start. However, it could be less based on tinder. Tinder doesn’t promote good relationship amd give us a false idea on relationship. :(
Apparence isn’t everything. Why not also searching some friends ? Suggest some events with Mobilizon app ?
And the kind of relationship we are looking for, night stand, friend with benefit, short, long…but it will work if everyone are honnest about themselve. :)
And if there is no more than 3 peoples…let’s say you have to be very lucky ^^
personally for me it’d have to be remote desktop software, don’t really need it myself, but being an SSH jockey, the day that i can do that but with remote desktop, and without it looking like a jpg, or needing to compile tigervnc specifically for it or some shit like that will be a good day for me.
I realize it’s partially dependent on hardware, and that hardware sucks, so sometimes it just sucks. But SSH just works so well though.
It’s the last app in MS Office that does not have competition. LibreOffice fills ever other app well enough but nothing comes close to exchange and Outlook. Considering they are trying to kill it off with an always online website (OWA) we need foss competition asap.
Have you tried Thunderbird after version 115? Also, what’s so special about Exchange? It’s just another (proprietary) email server, isn’t it? Couldn’t you just use Dovecot?
The company I work at lets everyone choose between Roundcube (webmail) or Thunderbird as a native client. We don’t have Outlook or Lotus Notes anymore (thankfully, because Notes is such a terrible piece of shit, it’s unbelievable). I don’t know what they use for their email server, but it’s definitely not Exchange.
Tried out FreeCad/Ondsel, and just couldn’t get it to cooperate. Trying to do even basic changes would constantly result in errors/crashes. I spent maybe two weeks trying to make a single model. Then I tried making the same model in Fusion360 and was done in an half an hour. Granted, there is a huge difference in experience level here between these pieces of software, but still.
So I think my best bet for now is a jailbroken copy of Fusion360.
@Olgratin_Magmatoe
There are currently some changes on the way. They fundamentally solve the Topo-Naming-Problem I propose to try again after the next release.
I don`t know the #Onsel fork. In what way does it differ from #Freecad or Freecad from #realthunder?
From a user perspective, it has a much more friendly UI in my opinion. When you click on an object, it displays a list of all possible actions you can take with said object. That to me was a huge upgrade over the base FreeCad implementation.
I’m very sorry for your bad user experience! What you’ve described, sounds like some basic user errors which would’ve been easily solved by sticking to good modeling practices
The most egregious issue I had was in trying to loft between two faces, such that the curve between the faces was a 3D one.
In Fusion360, it’s pretty damn simple, you click the first face, ctrl+ click the second, then select the loft option. Then it’s pretty much done.
In FreeCad/Ondsel, in trying to look up a tutorial to see how such an operation is normally done, the only tutorial that got me remotely close was this one.
Following the tutorial would lead to errors, crashes, and even if it had worked, it is such a painful way to do this operation.
So this isn’t simply an issue with bad modeling practices. Maybe it’s a terrible tutorial and there is better options out there. But the ease in which it is possible to do this task in Fusion360 should be the gold standard.
Final Cut Pro. I know it’s asking a lot and I know a lot of talented people have tried and are trying to build NLEs and all my gratitude to them. But—no offense intended—none are there yet and actually accomplishing this would be #1 on my magical (no effort provided by me) wishlist.
Blender has spoiled us with unrealistic expectations.
Their feature set and functionality is great, but their vendor lock-in is really off-putting. Even just within their platform, it’s really difficult to move assets around within workspaces.
Let alone edit graphics that you made on Canva and edit them elsewhere, say Penpot, for example.
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