3 very important Linux apps to take a look at this weekend (April 17

a desktop pc with mx linux running and fastfetch showing the mx logo.jpg


In case your weekend plans contain doing one thing attention-grabbing together with your Linux setup, I have executed one of the legwork for you. As an alternative of spending 3 hours studying Reddit threads most effective to put in one thing mediocre, listed below are 3 apps value if truth be told attempting. One fixes cross-device report sync with out touching the cloud, one makes Markdown readable to your terminal, and one turns speech into textual content in the neighborhood with out phoning house.

Syncthing

Peer-to-peer report sync that works with none technical trouble

Syncthing is a kind of gear that sounds easy on paper however utterly adjustments how you’re employed if you if truth be told get started the use of it. At its core, it is a report syncing software—it allows you to sync folders between your gadgets over your native community and even over the web. You put in it in your Linux PC, set up it in your different gadgets, level it at a folder, and that folder remains in sync throughout the whole thing.

No cloud garage concerned, no server you want to configure, no account to create—your recordsdata transfer at once between your gadgets, encrypted in transit. Additionally, you’ll be able to keep watch over precisely which gadgets can get admission to which folders, so if you need other sync setups for various gadgets, that is utterly possible.

Syncthing is formally to be had on each main desktop OS. Then again, for those who’re on Android, you’ll want to use Syncthing-fork—a third-party fork that is actively maintained and optimized for Android. While, on iPhones, there is Möbius Sync, which runs Syncthing beneath the hood however it is proprietary and paid.

The place Syncthing truly shines is for those who use numerous local-first apps. Maximum open supply apps—KeePassXC for passwords, Logseq for notes, Tremendous Productiveness for duties—retailer their information as recordsdata in your system. That is nice for privateness, however it way cross-device get admission to is an issue. Syncthing solves that absolutely. You simply sync the folder the place the app shops its information, and abruptly your notes, duties, and passwords are on each system with none of the ones apps desiring their very own cloud sync.

When you most effective arrange one app this weekend, I’d extremely counsel Syncthing. I take advantage of it continuously, and it is actually a kind of gear that makes you marvel the way you controlled with out it.

Obtain Syncthing

Google Drive open on Google Chrome.

This not unusual report syncing mistake can price you your information

Record syncing turns out easy, however misunderstandings can result in misplaced or overwritten information. Here is what the general public get unsuitable.

Glow

Learn rendered, beautified Markdown proper from the terminal

When you spend numerous time within the terminal, modifying recordsdata with one thing like nano or micro, you’re most likely conversant in how a lot of a ache it may be to learn and edit Markdown recordsdata of their uncooked shape. The syntax that is meant to make issues arranged—headers, daring textual content, tables (particularly tables), links—simply clutters the whole thing up when it is unrendered. The extra formatting a report has, the tougher it’s to if truth be told learn.

Glow addresses this explicit drawback. You’ll use it to render any Markdown report at once within the terminal—entire with correct headers, coloured textual content, precise tables, the entire thing. It makes closely formatted Markdown recordsdata actually readable with no need to go away the terminal or open a graphical Markdown editor.

You’ll additionally use it to browse your Markdown recordsdata. When you simply kind glow in a listing, it opens a TUI (Terminal Person Interface) appearing the entire Markdown recordsdata in that listing. You’ll navigate via them with arrow keys and even seek for a selected one if you know its identify.

That mentioned, the only factor to grasp is that Glow is just a Markdown viewer, now not an editor. You’ll’t edit the report in its rendered state. However a easy workaround is to open a cut up terminal, with the report open in nano on one aspect and Glow rendering it at the different. It really works neatly sufficient for me.

Take a look at its GitHub web page for set up directions.

The Linux terminal open on a laptop screen running Ubuntu 20.04.

I set up those Linux terminal apps on each device

This is how I make each Linux terminal really feel like house.

Speech Word

A Wayland-compatible transcription software

I am a certified author, however I actually hate typing. A part of this is because I am a gradual typist, however the larger factor is wrist ache. As such, I have at all times leaned on speech-to-text gear, and Speech Word is without doubt one of the perfect implementations I have discovered, particularly if reside transcription is what you might be after.

The interface is lovely easy and intuitive. You press a button, get started speaking, and your phrases seem proper within the app window. However it does extra than simply transcription. You’ll additionally paste textual content into it and feature it learn again to you the use of text-to-speech. There is a translation characteristic too—talk into it or paste textual content, and it is going to translate it into no matter language you need.

Moreover, since the whole thing occurs throughout the app window itself, Speech Word does not want to contact your clipboard or keep up a correspondence with different apps. That makes it best for contemporary distros working Wayland, the place conversation between two apps can get messy.

Now, to start out transcribing, you’ll be able to first want to obtain a neighborhood AI transcription fashion—which you’ll be able to simply set up from throughout the app. The accuracy and pace rely on which fashion you run. In my revel in, FasterWhisper large-v3-turbo hits the most efficient stability, however the extra robust the fashion, the extra GPU energy it must run at an invaluable pace. On my RTX 3060, it is rapid sufficient to be sensible. In case you are on built-in graphics or a weaker GPU, transcriptions will take noticeably longer. So whether or not this software works for you day by day truly comes down for your {hardware} or your endurance stage.

Speech Word is to be had as a Flatpak. Obtain it right here.

Illustration of Tux, the Linux mascot, beside the Flatpak logo made of blue and white cubes on a yellow base, with the word Flatpak in the background.

I at all times set up those 7 Flatpak apps on my Linux PCs

Make your Linux device superior with those seven Flatpaks.


Come again subsequent week. I’ll have extra helpful apps to proportion.

This sequence runs each weekend, and the function is at all times the similar: 3 apps you’ll be able to if truth be told check out ahead of Monday. Some weeks the alternatives are flashy, this week I had some quiet workhorses. Subsequent week, I’m making plans to proportion one thing “robust.” See then you definately.

Kubuntu Focus M2 Gen 6 laptop.

8/10

Working Device

Kubuntu 24.04 LTS

CPU

Intel Core Extremely 9 275HX (2.7GHz as much as 5.4GHz)

This computer is purpose-built for builders and pros who need a Kubuntu Linux-powered moveable workstation and gaming platform. It options an Intel processor in a position to hitting 5.4GHz and each built-in graphics and a devoted NVIDIA 5070 Ti GPU for when you want further energy for device finding out or video games.



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