And why do you use them?

    • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 months ago

      I won’t say it’s “best”, as I just want to run a game without friendlists and other bloat, so I really hate the fact Steam is nessesary for so many games.

      But I would call it “essentiall”.

    • yala@discuss.online
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      6 months ago

      Yup, as time went on, I simply felt less need to have proprietary software on my system. Steam remains as an exception; simply by virtue of having no F(L)OSS alternative (AFAIK).

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Steam itself isn’t that special and things like Heroic exist but where Steam wins is the ecosystem. Also Valve sponsor developments of Linux desktop technologies, so even if Steam itself is proprietary, some of the money ends up advancing open source.

    • toastal@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Valve has put a lot of work into helping WINE & Linux. Even if it was a selfish play to break free from Microsoft & other app stores to lock those into their marketplace fee, I can’t help but be grateful for the better ecosystem & uptick in users. Since they are privately held too, they aren’t in the same business of chasing quartely profits or making the experience worse & worse by selling your data & slapping ads everywhere.

    • Lantern@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Was going to say this. Pycharm is probably the only paid software I use. With that being said, students don’t need to pay for it, so I don’t have to worry about that.

  • joojmachine@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    DaVinci Resolve is THE video editor on Linux. Unfortunately the libre apps for it don’t get even close, to the point that even with all the limitations in the free and paid versions, it still is the best option.

    Also shout out to Bitwig Studio, although I don’t use it.

      • joojmachine@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        It is, but when it comes to more complex needs, it falls short. It is really good for simpler editing needs and it is getting better fast.

      • the16bitgamer@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I see it has two different products for two different use cases. Kdenlive is for those who missed Windows Movie maker or iMovie. Something to stitch together videos, or split apart videos.

        DaVinci Resolve is for those who need stable professional software like adobe.

        Not saying that kdenlive can’t be used professionally but I found its stability lacking, its tools unpolished and its functionality limited. The only benefit is that it can handle aac audio, and export it too thanks to ffmpeg.

      • Eugenia@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        KDEnLive is a good “editor” for simpler projects, but not a good video editing “suite”. It comes nowhere near Resolve’s color grading ability, or even audio editing ability these days. And it has no compositing ability at all. In fact, except Natron on Linux (that gets updated once every 2-3 years with just bug fixes and not many features), there’s nothing about compositing. Blender’s compositing is unusable btw.

        • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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          6 months ago

          Is it really too hard to import audio tracks after editing in audacity. I’m glad kdenlive doesn’t waste time trying to be an audio editor.

          • Eugenia@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            You misunderstand the word “editing” in this case. It’s not a matter of adding a few plugins and cutting audio. It’s a matter of having the tools to normalize human voice in a way that it’s expected in a movie, or to have automation about it, or envelopes that tracks the volume and fixes it for you. That’s the stuff that neither audacity nor kdenlive has, because they’re very specific to the movie industry. They have more generic plugins instead.

            • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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              6 months ago

              Where can I learn more about how human voice is normalized for movies? I’ve noticed a big difference in the audio of old movies and some shows, and modern high-budget movies. But I can never pinpoint the difference

              • Eugenia@lemmy.ml
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                6 months ago

                That’s mostly due to the difference in recording equipment rather than editing.

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Solid? I’m a casual user for occasionally editing video and it crashes all the time. It’s easily the least stable Linux application I ever use.

    • Gamma@beehaw.org
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      6 months ago

      Can you run it on anything besides cent yet? I tried it a few years ago and it fell flat on its face

      • joojmachine@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        it totally does, it’s pretty easy to install and run on regular distros and just a bit more work to do in immutable ones, but with davincibox it’s bound to get better

  • Julian@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Reaper. Great usability and decent Linux support out of the box (looking at you, davinci resolve). Generous free trial and a cheap one-time payment for a license. LMMS has served me well and is fine for basic stuff, but reaper is a whole other level, both in features and usability. I’ve heard good things about ardour too but have yet to give it a try.

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Half-life: Alyx, Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, … you get the idea. It’s not so much those apps per se, and I’d prefer them to be FLOSS too, rather it’s the amazing content and in such rare cases, I’m happy to financially support the creators.

    • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      What aren’t you happy to financially support creators of open source software you like?

      • utopiah@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        My formulation wasn’t clear, I meant to say I’m happy to support creators in general that make quality content, software or not, but I would always prefer to support open source, open hardware, remixable content, etc rather than closed and proprietary alternatives. I listed games as very rare examples where I’m still happy to support them even if I still wish that the software itself would be made open, even if delayed as Quake or Doom for examples have been. Does it make more sense now?

  • KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Does it count as paid if I donated what I think is a reasonable price?
    Cause then it’s KDE, Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice and Gimp. I’d prefer those programs even if their proprietary counterparts were free.

    • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.uk
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      6 months ago

      Came here to say this too… I contribute a few €/£/$ per month to various projects…

      I won’t get all righteous here, but just because you don’t have to pay, doesn’t mean you to say you can’t support the developer(s)…

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    6 months ago

    I would never willingly use proprietary software. I don’t mind paying if I also have access to source code that is licensed foss.

    • the16bitgamer@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I while I understand the sentiment, I have found that paid software is more polished than foss software… most of the time. And when I need to get work done, I want to ensure that my software is stable and I will pay to do so.

      That said, I feel software is like a bell curve, and the older the type of software is, the more it should be FOSS. Like word processors, 3D modelling, or image manipulation should be foss, while video editing and 3D scanning software is OK to be paid.

      What I feel everyone should agree with is not being forced to use a subscription service to use the software. I will boycott software if it forces that upon their customers, looking at you Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft.

    • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      I wish that was possible, but it’s not feasible to get a lot done on a 15 year old ThinkPad or whatever, that doesn’t have any proprietary firmware.

  • limelight79@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    I paid for Vuescan. There are a ton of Linux scanning apps, but pretty much all of them require editing all pictures to some extent after the scan. Vuescan applies a useful set of defaults that work for most pictures, speeding up the work flow. I had over 4,000 pictures to scan so anything to simplify that was worth it.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Yeah, I think you’re right. I forgot to add that there’s no mucking about with drivers and all of that, it really just works. Older scanners usually aren’t a problem with Linux, but Vuescan almost certainly supports them as well.

    • 8Bitz0@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 months ago

      It’s so odd how proprietary software is frowned upon so much in this community, but no one cares when it comes to gaming.

      • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        Even Stallman said games are an unfortunate, but reasonable exception. Of he can see it, anyone can.

      • rotopenguin@infosec.pub
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        6 months ago

        It is a bit different. Have you invested thousands of hours developing skills with a piece of productivity software, and locked your data into their proprietary data format? Has that vendor looked at your investment, and found that they have plenty of leverage to turn the screws on you?

        With a game, you invest tens of hours developing skills, lock your “master sword” in a proprietary save format, and then you save the princess. After that, you’re done. It is an ephemeral experience, give or take wanting to replay a few really good games. The game vendor doesn’t have that much hold over you, and their grip doesn’t get stronger the more you use it. I can replace your game with hundreds of other games, and I don’t really lose anything by doing so.

        • 8Bitz0@discuss.tchncs.de
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          6 months ago

          I absolutely agree with you, but look at launchers and such. Steam is very much proprietary and commercial. I find it a little odd that those who might do anything to avoid proprietary software, willingly use it for gaming.

          Those are just my thoughts.

    • ffhein@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I have some hobby projects in Python but I’ve never needed the pro features, I do pay for Clion though

  • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Lightburn for controlling laser engravers.

    It’s pretty much the only choice on Linux (though it is cross platform). Free 30 day trial, then ~$80 lifetime licence.

    The other choice is LaserGRBL, which is open source, but doesn’t seem to have a Linux port for some reason. And it has a lot fewer features, with a more complex workflow.

  • Dwemthy (he/him)@lemdro.id
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    6 months ago

    Dungeondraft, Wonderdraft, FoundryVTT. Battle map making, world map making, and virtual table top respectively

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    6 months ago

    gitkraken has a lot of features that I never use. But showing the various branches and their connections as a color-coded tree is worth paying money for.