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GNU/Linux Software and How It's Better Than What's on Windows
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HowTo Geek ☛ This self-hosted Linux app cut my subscription costs by $300
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
Subscriptions are the new cable, and if you're not careful, you might find that your subscription costs wind up creeping higher than any cable subscription ever did.
This open-source app is how I keep track of my subscriptions, and how I ultimately saved myself several hundred dollars per year.
My subscriptions got out of hand
Subscriptions are a bit of a trap. You sign up for a one week, two weeks, or month free trial. All you need do is provide your credit card to sign up. Even things you know you want are a bit of a trap, since the reasonably low monthly price makes it deceptively easy to think that they're "not that expensive," but they add up.
If you told me I'd wind up paying about $150 dollars per year just to watch 10 episodes of one television show I would have laughed, but it happened. I also wound up coughing up $130 annually for many years for a Microsoft 365 subscription I only rarely used, which I've mostly replaced with free and open source alternatives where possible, or more privacy-focused alternatives where a paid option is necessary.
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HowTo Geek ☛ These amazing Windows apps actually started on Linux, and they’re all free
Windows has a vast ecosystem of its own apps, but many of my current favorite apps for Windows actually started their digital lives on Linux. If you're looking for a few free or open-source alternatives to your conventional Windows apps, some of these options are a great place to start.
KDE Connect
Windows 11 can connect to a mobile device using Phone Link, but it requires an account, and I've never actually had great luck with it.
My favorite alternative is an app called KDE Connect, which was actually originally developed for Linux and then moved to Windows. Unlike Phone Link, it doesn't require an account. Just connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network, install the KDE Connect app, and you're good to go.
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Make Use Of ☛ This Linux file manager is so good it ruined File Explorer for me
As I’ve been slowly ditching Windows and moving to Linux completely, one thing I really wanted was a file manager that felt great to use. I started off with the default options in most distros, usually Dolphin on KDE. It was definitely an upgrade from File Explorer, but it still felt just okay, and I kept wanting something more.
Eventually, I did find what I was looking for, and I think I’ve finally found the perfect fit for me.
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I've been slowly replacing a lot of my bloated apps with terminal-based alternatives, mainly because they just work faster and don't have the bloat of most Electron apps these days. I even turned my terminal into a full IDE recently. While doing that, I started wondering: why not run my file manager inside the terminal too? That's when I came across Yazi.
Yazi doesn't follow the "app window with buttons and menus" formula you'd expect from a file manager. Instead, it runs entirely inside your terminal. And I know that sounds intimidating at first, especially if you associate the terminal with developers and tinkerers.
But I would go as far as to say Yazi is actually way easier to use than File Explorer, even though it runs entirely inside a terminal window. You don't need to be a CLI expert, and you don't even need to memorize archaic commands to use it.