Asklemmy

7zip

Windows: PowerToys. First thing I get approval to install on a work machine. PowerToys Run (Launchy on roids) saves me from the built in Windows search, a quick calculator, etc. PowerRename gets used more frequently than I care to admit. Video Conference mute is a second nature key combination. Can't remember the name of the window manager module but it is a key part of my workflow.

Android: As I've mentioned in a reply, Edge Gestures has been on my phone for years (first installed on a Pixel 3). Having 10+ apps accessible (especially 2FA, password vault, home assistant) from any screen, plus gestures for quick controls (flashlight, brightness slider) is incredibly handy. And unlike the notification shade, the edges of the phone can actually be reached with your thumb.

Linux: Docker. It's been an instrumental part of building out my home server which allowed me to kill my Microsoft 365 & Google One subscriptions. For me it has been the gateway drug in to learning more and more about self hosting - to Proxmox, LXCs & VMs, pihole and unbound, etc.

Irfanview. Quick easy very low fuss image viewer / low level editor

Advanced renamer.

Shove-it, an ancient Windows utility by Phord Software that shoves any half-offscreen windows back onto the monitor so that you can get to all the gadgets. Phenomenally useful. First thing I install on any new build.

OpenSSH

PaintTool SAI 1 is my beloved, I don't care how old it is, I love it and it's just so comfy to me!

For those who may be wondering, PaintTool SAI is a lightweight drawing program developed by Systemax Software that was released in 2008. The "SAI" part of its name is unrelated to AI, and is an acronym for Systemax Advanced Illustrator. It was developed by one person, Koji Komatsu, and he runs Systemax all by himself. What a guy!

Linux. Luckily we have such a great FLOSS kernel to free is from the Gates and the Jobs of this world.

Browser, I guess? Without one you'd be back to early 1990s home computing.

KDE. Been using it since v3, tried various other systems like Gnome, Enlightenment, XFCE etc. and I've always been coming back to it. KDE just feels very intuitive and easy to use.

Twenty, even fifteen years ago I would've said Windows Notepad / vim. Now I rarely use basic text editors.

I don't think there's any technology that can never be superseded.

qBitorrent, undoubtably

Newpipe

Jellyfin, NZB360, HortusFox, HomeAssistant (soon), Docker?

Reeder RSS client.

Joplin App

There are too many so I've compiled them here: Mostly excellent “free” software.

When obligated to pick one it'd be AutoKey: “a desktop automation utility for Linux and X11.” Relatively and subjectively speaking, without it I feel hampered like crazy while most other software is “just” convenient.

Outlook. /s

At this point Everything Search is goated.

On foss category KDE connect. I use my phone as keyboard and mouse to navigate my laptop/PC while sleeping on my beanbag. You could use wireless mouse or keyboard but i find KDE more convenient. Also i can control the media from there

For non foss believe it or not it was google lenses, i used to use Accessibility Button setting floating bubble just for lense easy access from google assistant. They removed it and change it to "Gemini AI" now you need to screenshot and open the separate app.

Before that you just open it from accessibility and just search the screen. Translate, searching products from your screen, copy paste text from image you can do it from there no need for screenshot.

Edit : Just found out that you can change the default assistant function from the assistant app. I can use the lens with accessibility setting again *Horay

Encryption.

JPEGView It's a simple but powerful image viewer (don't be misled by the name, it can view most any standard image formats).

It feels weird to even have an opinion on such a simple piece of software, but this is the type of tool that reminds you of what software could be like. When you open an image, you see the image. No loading time. No unnecessary toolbars. No fucking pop-ups to update the software to get the latest AI tools.

Don't get me wrong, it's plenty powerful. It's got all the tools you'd expect: viewing EXIF data, cropping, rotating, brightness/color correction. It even has some more advanced tools: navigating collections of photos (including nested folders), viewing a collection as a slideshow or movie, perspective correction, batch-renaming... The impressive part is that it does all this without getting in the way of it's job: viewing images.

Unfortunately, the project has been abandoned, though it appears to have been forked here (I haven't actually used this version, but hopefully they haven't changed too much).

On windows it's grepWin - it is an excellent utility implementation.