After I install Linux Mint (which is the distro I have settled on), I replace:

  1. Thunderbird with Betterbird
  2. Firefox with Librewolf (I also install Brave for web services that need a chromium browser).
  3. Celluloid / Rythmbox with VLC player
  4. Default Libreoffice with latest Libreoffice from source.
  5. ClipIt/Parcellite with xfce4-clipman

I find this to be my optimal setup and these software give me the extra quality of life that make my workflows easier.

What software do you replace and install on your distro of choice?

Edit: I forgot to say I replace sudo with doas. That’s something my friend told me to do although I personally don’t find any immediate working advantage with it.

  • narp@feddit.org
    131·
    8 days ago

    I doubt you’re getting downvoted for saying that chrome is faster than firefox, but for the irony of using Linux with a Chromium based browser, while being on lemmy.

    1. Chromium, while open source, is controlled by Google and a lot of browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Samsung Android, Vivaldi) are built on it, giving it a market share of around 75%.

    2. Electron apps are frameworks based on Chromium (ie VSCode).

    3. Google is evil and with Manifest V3, Adblockers like uBlock Origin, will eventually stop working for all derivatives (even for Vivaldi).

    4. The future: Because Chromium got the de facto monopoly there is no need for Firefox support anymore and the big corpos (ie Microsoft is a sucker for Chromium/Electron) can turn what’s left of the “old” Internet into apps without the ability to block ads or tracking.

    5. No “?”, just Profit.

    • Eugenia@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      I’m aware of all these things, and I agree with you. But the FACT remains: Chrome works on a 2 or 4 GB old laptop much faster and with less ram than Firefox. The one thing you don’t want in your desktop experience is to be hitting the swap constantly, because your hdd or ssd will be killed very fast, and the experience will just be slow. The whole point of removing Windows from these laptops is to find efficient software that will bring a new life to them, instead of ending up in a landfill. And that means the following:

      1. For PCs with 4 GB of ram, Linux Mint is the best choice (or with XFce if the cpu is slow, or with debian+xfce if the ssd is only 16 gb as in some chromebooks).
      2. For PCs with 2 GB of ram, Q4OS is the best choice. It has the best balance between low ram usage and a cohesive DE with good desktop preferences (it’s a fork of KDE 3.5).

      But in both cases, Chrome/ium is the best case, because it’s, a. Faster, b. Uses less ram.

      What do you want me to do about it? Change the status quo? Stop using it and go with firefox regardless, even if it ends up in an abysmal desktop experience and dead ssds? Why should I do that? The people I install Linux for them on their old laptops want a good desktop experience to replace their now slow Windows, they don’t care if it’s Linux or Gnu/linux. Now tell me, it’s still my fault for people dowvoting?

    • Engywuck@lemm.ee
      26·
      8 days ago

      There is no irony. Like, at all. Ironically Firefox is de facto controlled by the evil Google, the very evil Google which pays a huge share of Mozilla’s bills. Also, MV3 is a non-issue for in-built adblockers, as these are not extensions. You people often (and conveniently) seem to forget this detail.