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Awesome Linux Software

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106 pointsPleaseHelpMe27 comments

I appreciate the effort that goes into these kinds of lists but to be honest I would advocate people getting more familiar with their package manager and learning how to search for packages within it instead of using 3rd party lists compiled in this way. The benefit of the package managers is they can convey more information (eg open source or not - just looking through that list I saw non-free software without much warning about their status) as well as actually enabling you to install said software.

Plus there are nice graphical package management tools like the Ubuntu Software Center that has screenshots and reviews which I believe would better aid those who are less experienced with Linux - those who are the likely target of this git repository - so they would benefit more greatly from said management tools than an ordered list of app names. And frankly I would trust the descriptions used by package managers more than the unofficial overviews compiled by casual users of the software (thus people who might overlook features or even just miss the point of the product entirely).

> I would advocate people getting more familiar with their package manager.

Personally, I think these kinds of lists and the package manager don't compete with each other. On one side, you list the software packages. The other side is where you get them/ where you package or publish some if you are a developer. For example, if you are from another OS and just came to linux and you wonder: how can I edit videos on Linux. I don't think searching from the package manager is more valuable than this list. It gives people more choices, a wider look, a quick skim like you go shopping.

> Plus there are nice graphical package management tools like the Ubuntu Software Center.

I swear half of the softwares I found on this list (with my usage, not all of them) is not in the Ubuntu Software Center.

The problem is the ton of garbage that one finds before actually finding Awesome Linux Software on them.

Reviews are not enough, curating is also required, because when everything is a 5 with 50% reviews going both ways no one has time to try out everything.

I get your point and that's definitely true for any reviewing system but I'm unconvinced this list does any better job. Let's take the Sharing Files category[1]:

* aria2: no reference that it is a command line program

* Deluge: no reference that it is a command line program which requires quite a bit of configuring to get a web gui working

* Dropbox: it's comment says "Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily." which isn't technically untrue but isn't really all that accurate either given the context it's placed in. Should be rewritten as "Cloud storage with paid for and free plans".

* ownCloud: no reference that this is a web project so you need to run Apache / nginx with PHP and have the whole thing port forwarded on your router.

* Teamviewer: a non-free remote desktop application. While it does support file transfer it doesn't strictly belong in this category

* uGet: described as "The best download manager for linux" which is highly subjective, opinionated description and doesn't actually describe what it does well. So it's of no help to people what-so-ever

* uTorrent: no mention that it is not open source, and only the server (ie not the desktop GUI version - the server is only controlled via the web UI) natively supports Linux. Also last time I checked it worked on Ubuntu, but there's no mention of that here either

That's just one category as well. There are issues in all the categories I looked at. Take the Office[2] category as another example, they have 12 entries, 4 are described as office suites, and 3 of those 4 are have descriptions that say "one of the best" or "the best" office suite on Linux. And ironically the only one of those 4 descriptions that actually explains what comes with the office suite is the only one that wasn't described "one of the best on Linux". So how is that helpful to users confused about which office product to run on Linux when the only one that is explained is the one that isn't recommended and all the others have no meaningful description?

The curation and descriptions of these kinds of lists really need to undergo heavy editorial work otherwise they become pointless and I'm really not convinced this meets the mark. For example if I wanted a decent bit-torrent client I could just google "linux torrent client" and I would get pages of results linking to reviews comparing different clients and listing their top 5 / 10 / whatever - often with some real in depth analysis too. That's the kind of lists that people who are looking for software need. Something that explains their use, their strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise it becomes no more effective than a list produced by your package manager.

Don't get me wrong, lists like these had a real benefit in the 90s when it was harder to search for content, but these days you need to provide a lot more than just a list of names and a terse description if you want to actually help people. As it stands, some of the descriptions given could waste a lot of people's time as they go down the rabbit hole of installing ownCloud (for example) but expecting it to function like Dropbox / Onedrive and then getting frustrated by the configuration of Apache and their home router. Or installing Deluge or aria2 and then getting annoyed that they aren't seeing an icon appear in their launcher.

[1] https://github.com/LewisVo/Awesome-Linux-Software#sharing-fi...

[2] https://github.com/LewisVo/Awesome-Linux-Software#office

> * aria2: no reference that it is a command line program

> * Deluge: no reference that it is a command line program which requires quite a bit of configuring to get a web gui working

  $ apt-cache show aria2 | grep Tag
  Tag: implemented-in::c++, interface::commandline, network::client,
  $ apt-cache show deluge | grep Tag
  Tag: devel::lang:python, implemented-in::python, interface::x11,

Since when does apt-cache show tags? Mine doesn't, I have

  $ apt-cache policy apt | grep Installed
  Installed: 1.2.24

He's using the `show` parameter which does include tags. However you can't really grep it like he had done because the tags can span multiple lines with indentation rather than line prefixes (ie human readable rather than machine readable).

apt-cache show doesn't show tags for me:

  $ apt-cache show aria2 | grep Tag
  $ echo $?
  1

Does on Debian and has done for a few releases as far as I can recall. I've done it on Wheezy (7.x) boxes and it's still there on an Jessie (8.1) machine I just tested it on.

Ah yes, I forgot there was a GTK+ UI for deluge (I've usually messed around with the web UI).

I don't get your point about aria2 though. That just confirms what I posted. That doing a package manager search would give your more information than the linked article.

> eg open source or not - just looking through that list I saw non-free software without much warning about their status

To add to this, I found it strange that they added the proprietary "Civilization 5" to their list, but not the Free Software game FreeCiv.

And they have Minecraft with a symbol that appears to be a dollar sign with a strike-out, which, I assume, means "free of charge". Minecraft is very much not free of charge.

Many of these tools are not available over the packet manager and can only be installed using a PPA/AUR.

The mainteners have indeed put some effort in making that list, which is comandable. But it was an instant close for me as soon as I reached Education/BibleTime.

My personnal opinion on this is that some 'Bible study application' has nothing to do in the same list as Maple or Matlab. I'll go even further by saying that it's not to be listed under 'Education'. A todler is not 'educated' when given batism, he's just endoctrined. Again, that's a personnal opinion and I'm fine if you don't share it.

Reading the Bible is what have pushed me away from religion: when you're endoctrined you're only given the "good parts"...

*indoctrinated

Thanks!

The whole point was that people can't get past their own religious hangup to find a spell checker, which they obviously need.

It is a list of software. A person might even find a spell checker in it, if they looked at it as if it was a list of software, instead of seeing it as a forum to proselytize.

Not sure what to make of this list. It mixes Proprietary Software with Free Software (with no clear indication of which is which, and no clear license information anyway), and software that is not just available for Linux anyway but on pretty much any other platform.

A good list for me would mention:

* License type

* Whether it's in active development or not

* Cross-platform or not

* Whether it's a KDE or GNOME application (or something else) - since it's pretty relevant for Linux users.

* Patreon/support links for projects where it's relevant

* Links to proper user reviews (folks who have spent significant time using them)

For example, backup solutions are all very, very different in terms of what they can do, and it took me a long time to find out the one that is working for my own criteria. Just listing a bunch of backup tools is not going to save time for anyone, Wikipedia is a much better resource in that regard for example.

I am maintaining kind of a rival repository to this one[0].

I heavily moderate it. Most of what's on that list has been verified by me. Contains about 50 pieces of software. The problem is: people don't give a shit about this heavily curated lists. They just want a gigantic list of every software ever. Heck, I think I have like five commits in total in that section, but at least it satisfies one of your criteria (GNOME or KDE based or something else). No KDE user ever has stumbled upon my list and made some contributions, so I'm really lacking on that front.

I'll see what I can do about the rest of your proposals. I'm pretty sure I could easily implement at least half of them.

[0] https://github.com/aleksandar-todorovic/awesome-linux#applic...

If you add more to your list I might contribute to it. I briefly checked your list and in the distro list you are missing of the important new ones - Solus. :)

EDIT: I don't think you need to have huge screenshots everywhere (personally I rather have text info than graphics) and it's not super useful anyway to show screenshots since it does not tell you much about anything at all. Feature lists, as in bullet points, would rather get my preference.

> I don't think you need to have huge screenshots everywhere

Can't disagree with you on that. I remember seeing a couple of repos recently that have like a "More" button which actually loads the image. Will try tracking them down to see the code and using the same procedure.

I totally understand your need. Most of the awesome+OS_name list, they seem not to care so much about these stuffs, or the owner just doesn't have time to collect all the related information. Checkout : [1]: https://github.com/iCHAIT/awesome-macOS [2]: https://github.com/Awesome-Windows/Awesome

Looks good.

I'd previously bookmarked this blog (closed in 2015) for a large number of smaller utilities :

https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/

A bit of a treasure trove. I had a great time going through those reviews.

Another two lists that should be mentioned here are:

[1]: https://github.com/iCHAIT/awesome-macOS

[2]: https://github.com/Awesome-Windows/Awesome

They all share the same idea.

How could that be! Gkrellm.net is not ont that list. Great monitoring app for your linux desktop. I use it since 2000, I think.

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