My favourite desktop open-source software

Firefox https://www.mozilla.org/
Thunderbird https://www.thunderbird.net/
LibreOffice https://www.libreoffice.org/
Gimp https://www.gimp.org/
VLC https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Linux: Flatpak

1. Install flatpak

https://www.flatpak.org/setup/

2. Install packages from flatpak

flatpak install -y flathub org.mozilla.firefox
flatpak install -y flathub org.mozilla.Thunderbird
flatpak install -y flathub org.libreoffice.LibreOffice
flatpak install -y flathub org.gimp.GIMP
flatpak install -y flathub org.videolan.VLC

MacOS: Homebrew

1. Install Homebrew

https://brew.sh/

2. Install packages from homebrew

brew install --cask firefox
brew install --cask thunderbird
brew install --cask libreoffice
brew install --cask gimp
brew install --cask vlc

Additional note to self: When installing a brew package from a git repository, it needs ssh. But homebrew cannot deal with passphrase-protected ssh keys. The easiest workaround is temporarily changing the ssh passphrase to an “empty” string. After installation, we can change it back to the real passphrase. https://www.unixtutorial.org/changing-passphrase-to-your-ssh-private-key

Windows: Chocolatey

1. Install Chocolatey

https://chocolatey.org/install

2. Install packages from Chocolatey

choco install firefox thunderbird libreoffice gimp vlc

Upgrade all software

You should update your software regularly.

Flatpak

flatpak update

Ubuntu

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo snap refresh

Raspberry Pi OS

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Homebrew

brew update && brew upgrade

Chocolatey

choco upgrade all -y

Windows users usually don’t like the command line. So with the help of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1894967/how-to-request-administrator-access-inside-a-batch-file I’ve created a script:

@echo off

:: BatchGotAdmin
:-------------------------------------
REM  --> Check for permissions
    IF "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%" EQU "amd64" (
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64\config\system"
) ELSE (
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system"
)

REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' (
    echo Requesting administrative privileges...
    goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )

:UACPrompt
    echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    set params= %*
    echo UAC.ShellExecute "cmd.exe", "/c ""%~s0"" %params:"=""%", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"

    "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    exit /B

:gotAdmin
    pushd "%CD%"
    CD /D "%~dp0"
:--------------------------------------    
    choco upgrade all -y

Copy this script into a text file and save if as update.bat on your desktop. Then for updates, you just need to double-click on the icon.

more programs

There are a few more programs, that I recommend:

Draw.io (vector graphics) https://www.drawio.com/
Bitwarden (password manager) https://bitwarden.com/
Brave (privacy oriented browser) https://brave.com/
Backup:
- Déjà Dup for Linux https://apps.gnome.org/de/DejaDup/ and
- FreeFileSync for Windows https://freefilesync.org/, which has no support for Chocolatey
More for Windows:
- Create and unpack ZIP archives with 7-zip https://www.7-zip.org/
- Notepad++ Editor https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Although Bitwarden is legally open source software, there’s a company that dominates the development process. Still in its domain, it is probably one of most mature free software solutions that you can find.

Flatpak:

flatpak install -y flathub com.jgraph.drawio.desktop
flatpak install -y flathub com.bitwarden.desktop
flatpak install -y flathub com.brave.Browser
flatpak install -y flatpak install flathub org.gnome.DejaDup

Chocolatey:

choco install drawio bitwarden brave 7zip notepadplusplus

Homebrew:

brew install --cask drawio
brew install --cask bitwarden
brew install --cask brave-browser

Updates

2024-02-20/2024-03-01

Howto upgrade packages

2024-08-17

change package managers for Linux to Flatpak
add Brave browser
add backup software

Any comments or suggestions? Leave an issue or a pull request!

My favourite Desktop Open-Source Software and Package Managers