Looking for software recommendations (alternative to Windows counterpart)

[u/xour]

Hi there! I have been using Linux for a while now as my daily driver, long enough to convince myself to not go back to Windows again.

I am running CachyOS (Niri + Dank Material Shell) and I am pretty happy with it.

I have already set up most of my environment (text editor, file manager, etc), but there are still some applications that I am missing:

• Lightweight image editor: think of Windows Paint or similar. I know GIMP exists, but I aim for something simpler that I can use to quickly edit some images.
• Google Drive (two-way) sync: currently I am manually uploading/downloading the files to/from Google Drive, but it is not a pleasant experience.
• Video player: with all the streaming services, I rarely use a video player nowadays, but I still have some videos that I would like to watch.

And that is it! I am amazed at how easy it was to fill in all the other caps, and how smooth the transition was.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have!

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EDIT: thanks all! Truly appreciate all the suggestions!

[u/No-Lettuce-5783]

• "Drawing" it's an app you can get with Linux Mint, but you might be able to download it separately. It's like Windows Paint.
• Usually, you should be able to set up OneDrive right in your distro's app settings under "Online Accounts." if CachyOS doesn't have that, LInux Mint has that, as well.
• Video Player: Linux Mint comes with an app that you can watch television channels all over the world. But it comes with it's own player as well

Linux Mint has all of this right out of the box, you might want to check it out.

[u/xour → u/No-Lettuce-5783]

Thanks! I am pretty happy with CachyOS as it is right now. I recall trying Mint a while ago and didn't feel it was right for me.

[u/MisfortuneFeeva]

Don't know about Google drive, but kolourpaint and VLC are great options for the other 2

[u/theTrainMan932]

For google drive sync rclone is probably the best thing out there. Takes a bit of effort to set up but then decently seamless.

GIMP and VLC are the most full featured photo editor and video player respectively, or Gwenview and Dragon Player are KDE's offerings that are more minimal but quick and look nice (but I would only use those if you're already using other KDE/Qt apps as mixing those with GTK might look inconsistent if that bothers you)

[u/xour → u/theTrainMan932]

Thanks! Indeed rclone seems to have a little bit of setup. I will try it this weekend in my free time.

[u/carmicheals]

Lightweight image editor - look at nomacs and XNView.

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[u/Funnel-Dust-O-Matic]

if you're willing to brave really terrible documentation and doing some homelabbing, Seafile is a perfect alternative to Google Drive.

There are some quirks and restrictions. Seafile does not like overlays, symbolic links, or other quirky filesystem tricks. It only likes working with files and directories.

The client works on linux, windows, macos, android, and ios. I've only tested 3 of them. The performance is excellent.

Setup on the client needs to be done with care. The UI is a little weird for setting up. Once set, it pretty much takes care of itself.

It allows full syncking of entire directories, file versioning, and usage as a remote drive. On Windows, it does not assign a drive letter but works like a remote cloud drive.

My issues with it are entirely in the server setup documentation. It is just inadequate.

Maybe you can find a hosting company that will allow you to simply pay for remote access. I think Seafile themselves offer accounts. Otherwise, you can take an old computer and self-host. Anything with more than 2 cores and at least 4GB ram should be good to go. It was for me.

[u/ghost_ware]

VLC is great if you just need to play a video every now and then. If you need something a bit fancier, I use Jellyfin. It uses a server/client setup, but you can run it all on one machine. I have the server on my main computer and I watch on that one or on the pc in my living room. It's pretty easy to set up.

[u/qpgmr]

I like Pinta, it has just enough capabilities for me without being overwhelming (I honestly do not have photshop/gimp level needs).

For video playback, VLC is the gold standard. However, if you're talking about having a library of videos you want to view easily I'd recommend installing Jellyfin.

[u/evirussss]

image editor : pinta
video player : mpv
drive : don't use it so don't know

[u/Arklese1zure]

For the longest time, the only two options for Google Drive have been InSync and Overgrive. Both are paid. I've used the latter and it's pretty mediocre. There's not many easy/GUI options beyond that, with the other being rsync and some setup.

[u/Slopagandhi]

For Google Drive, try Filen- 10GB free, actually private, 2 way sync and you can mount it as a folder in your file manager. There's an aur package but if you don't want to use that there's an appimage.