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Wild, you are like from the alternate universe where Linux is dominant and nerds play around in windows. Are things better where you are from? :P
Of course! In this universe everybody uses linux phones and they are actually usable (and repairable)!
GIMP (Image editor)
putty (Secure shell/terminal emulator)
WinSCP (Secure FTP client)
QBittorrent (guess.)
7zip (All in one compressed archive manager)
Firefox
Notepad++ (text editor with syntax highlights)
Handbrake (Video transcoder)
VLC (all in one video player)
These are my top must have installed. There are others but they're situational
Let's not forget the various console emulators that are open source as well. All the good ones are.
That's a good list!
I use the same, except I use LibreWolf (privacy focused fork of FF) and VS Code instead of Firefox and Notepad++
Vs code
I would actually recommend VSCodium; it's the same product but without the Microsoft telemetry.
I use Kitty instead of Putty recently, though I don't know if the difference is worth it.
PowerToys: productivity utilities like window pinning, window management, accented character typing assistant, color picker, text extractor, etc.
You forgot the best thing. Window management, aka Fanzy Zones. You can set areas to your monitor and snap windows to those instead of just left / right side of monitor. Completely customizable.
Seconding this. It has every feature you know Windows needs but it still doesn't have (likely because of the need for testing or being aimed at power users).
Some of these are cross platform but:
7zip
Autohotkey
Bitwarden
Calibre
Draw.io
Handbrake
Speedcrunch
WinHTTrack
WinSCP
I prefer nanazip to 7zip because it's just forked 7zip that's been updated for modern windows. They're working on a dark mode too.
I have to say it, Rufus.
Ventoy is the easier answer these days IMO. Just drop ISOs on your Ventoy'd usb key and choose them from a menu at boot time.
To install linux
Xoblite: Blackbox/Fluxbox-style WM/shell for Windows.
Open Shell: Brings back the classic start menu and other classic Explorer.exe features
Notepad2e: A lightweight and portable alternative to Notepad++
AutoHotkey: Probably the best GUI automation tool out there, this is the tool that I miss the most in the Linux world.
For package management I've been really liking scoop.sh
Not everything in there is FOSS but scoop itself is! And you can install neovim, vscodium, bitwarden, Firefox, etc very easily.
One great thing about scoop is that downgrading an app is very easy. You can also manage multiple versions of a runtime, for example, you can install multiple Node.js versions and switch between them with scoop reset command.
BalenaEtcher or Rufus for writing ISOs to usb.
Universal Debloater and PC Manager for the most up-to-date version of the Redmond OS (Windows 11)
https://github.com/builtbybel/BloatyNosy
an open-source (FOSS) todo manager based on the todo.txt syntax
https://github.com/ransome1/sleek
a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for various versions of Microsoft Windows
https://github.com/windirstat/windirstat
Better font rendering for Windows
Playnite for launching games
It will open up anything. Battlenet games, steam games, emulated games.. you name it. Supports themes too!
Mostly same list as for GNU/Linux:
FreeFileSync a FOSS backup and folder synchronizer, a must have.
FreeFileSync is a folder comparison and synchronization software that creates and manages backup copies of all your important files. Instead of copying every file every time, FreeFileSync determines the differences between a source and a target folder and transfers only the minimum amount of data needed. FreeFileSync is Open Source software, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
VLC player, 7zip, translucent bar, greenshot, irfanview,
Check out https://github.com/auctors/free-lunch (list of free Windows software)
See also https://www.nirsoft.net/ (freeware, not open source)
Can anyone recommend me something that falls somewhere between Paint and GIMP?
<3
On most of my fresh installs, i usually install Tinywall, 7zip, and then a different browser like Firefox and chromium based browsers (like mull/brave)
Qclip
Bulk crap uninstaller
Vlc
Irfanview (is it proprietary?)
Gimp, Krita, Inkscape, KDEnLive, Blender, OBS
Nonfree: XNViewMP, Startisback++,
CudaText for text editing/programming
MPV for playing videos
7-zip
Firefox + uBlock Origin + Bitwarden
This isn't a FOSS apps list but a Free (as free beer) software list for Windows with a bunch of cool FOSS apps https://alternativeto.net/list/29653/my-windows-setup/
Lite xl (ide) KDE connect (file transfaring) KDEnlive (video editing software) Mpv (media player) Librewolf(better out of the box experience than Firefox ) I don't care about cookies add-on (Firefox addon) Gimp or paint.net Obs(video capture) libreoffice(office stuff) Nomacs(image viewer) BC uninstaller Alt drag (moving winows)
What I honestly miss the most is my window manager/compositor hyprland