Open-source Supremacy!
Ever switched to open-source software because you wanted to support a cause? I am not that type of person. I use whatever's faster and more convenient for me. And that is what led to a huge shock for me!
I had been switching to apps as and when I found a better one, one that performs faster and has less-nonsense or more features that immediately want me to switch!
Take a look at these apps that excel at what they do and work very well for me:
Zotero- It is a reference manager, but I literally use it for keeping all my study pdfs for my actuarial exams and it does it extremely well. I also use it to store all the excel files that I create for each lesson or paper and that helps me just forget that I need to maintain or organize this file.
Obsidian- The one note-taking app that beats most of the others simply because its so fast and easy to work it. It gives you so many features without bloating that you don't feel obligated to use any feature till you really need it. And it just does the job!
Zen Browser- I was an arc fan... well... till I wasn't. Arc was the refresh I needed from chrome till I realized just how slow it performed. When did I realize it? When my friend Sam (whom I introduced to Arc btw!) sent me an article over the internet that Arc was a dead browser and Zen is the open-source alternative that everyone should try out. I was extremely skeptical thinking that its an open-source project. How can it be as good as Arc which has already gone so far? But I was wrong. Zen not only outperformed Arc, but I felt the difference in speed that I had just neglected because of the bias I had about Arc, giving me all these new features that were now hard to live without.
MuseScore Studio- Yes! This music making app that has been able to replace Finale for me (which I never thought it would be able to) has always been open source and that is the reason why it has been able to improve a lot over a very small span of years.
OBS Studio- OBS obviously! The recording software has been around for so long and I don't think so people realize how great this piece of software is. Firstly I don't really know any other method of broadcasting screens for code casts. Like do they make professional software for this kind of thing? I don't know, cause OBS really meets all the requirements that any professional setting might need.
Habitica- How can I forget this one!? I have been using so many todo list apps. You know the problem with those is that they come with their own profit making strategies. So they will deprive you of some most essential features. I gave up on them. But you know, having a todo-list is always a good thing so that you know its there when you need it. But Habitica goes beyond just being a todo-list. You can develop habits (as the name hints), and keep yourself disciplined about your daily activities. It uses the concept of gamification of life which IMHO is a very well thought out approach. I think I will write another post about this app later. I just love it so much (and didn't realize that it was actually open-source!)
Yeah! There are other apps that I have not been able to replace with open source software. But for a different reason. For example MS Excel has been around for so long that it has reached a point where developers are debating about the blink rate of the cursor to improve UX. They have surpassed the end of the spreadsheet game and are truly monopolies where other spreadsheet tools like Libre Calc are just there as "alternatives to Excel" but Excel stays the OG that might virtually never meet its competent opponent.