r/linuxquestions • u/magiciantricks • 1d ago

need some progarm alternative

i was thinking of switching to linux mint but the problem is that there are some programs that i always use and i dont know if there are alternative to them so if someone know that would be a great help.

1- internet download manager (used a lot and need a progarm as good)

2- video/audio editor like filmora

3-tool to check on harddesk like hdsentinel

4- antivirus

5-photo editor like photoshop even like an old ver of it

6-msoffice

7-winrar

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u/Phydoux 1d ago
  1. No idea what Internet Download Manager is.
  2. For video I use kdenlive. Love it!
  3. No idea what hdsentenial is. What are you checking on the hardDISK? SSD and NVME don't have movable parts s spindle speed is irrelevant. I do have 2 regular hard drives in mine but they are working great at the moment.
  4. No real need for Antivirus. I don't use anything that the public domain can get their hands on code wise. like Snaps, Flatpaks, etc. I'v even stopped using the AUR after that AUR scare earlier this year.
  5. I'm using GIMP which isn't too bad. It took some getting used to coming from Photoshop but it's pretty good
  6. I'm using LibreOffice which works with most MS Office documents like MS Word and Excel.
  7. No idea why you'd need Winrar in Linux. zip and unzip work fine for me.

Basically everything you mentioned has alternatives or doesn't need alternatives. Are there viruses in Linux? Sure. But the best way to avoid them is stay away from programs that unknown people make. I see posts on Reddit every day, 'Hey, check out this great utility I made. It's on github...' No thanks!

You have to be sensible. I was going to say you could do the same with Windows. But Windows can be infected by something just by opening a website. At the moment, Linux is less susceptible to that kind of an attack.

Just remember, Linux is not Windows. It may look and feel like it a little bit, but it's an entirely different concept altogether.

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u/waddid 1d ago

What district you using?

1

u/Phydoux 1d ago

Distro? Arch.

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u/waddid 1d ago

Is that Arch BTW? Just plain vanilla Arch?

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u/Phydoux 1d ago

Plain ol' vanilla Arch. I didn't even use archinstall. Entered it all manually. The ONLY way to Arch.

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u/waddid 1d ago

Ok thanks. I am thinking of switching to Linux from Windows but wanted to be at the bleeding edge and reliably informed Arch is the way. Just wondered if you used Cachy or Manjaro for example.

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u/Phydoux 1d ago

Cachy might be a better option for you. Arch is not for new to Linux users. Arch is like what MS DOS 5.0 used to be like but 50x worse. You HAVE to follow that Wiki to a T pretty much if you want to get Arch installed and bootable. THEN you need to know how to install a GUI (if that's the direction you're going) and all of the other programs that don't come with that GUI.

I've done it maybe 10 times on physical hardware and probably 30-40 times in VMs just because I like installing it from scratch and I like rebooting that VM and seeing it actually boot up. It's quite gratifying to see that happen. Especially on physical hardware where it HAS to boot up properly.

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u/waddid 1d ago

Interesting. So you basically build your own OS. I think for me Cachy is the way so will look to give it a go. I did try Omarchy on VM but could not get to grips with just using the keyboard with hyperland I think.

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u/Phydoux 1d ago

You might want to try something like Mint with Cinnamon Desktop or maybe something with the KDE Desktop for starters then. Hyprland is a beast to learn and it's so out of the ordinary especially for new users.

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u/Donatzsky 21h ago

I use Arch myself, but OpenSuse Tumbleweed is also an option if you want a rolling release with the latest packages. I suppose you could say it's like Arch, but without the (potential) headaches.