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OPEN SOURCE alternatives for the MOST POPULAR productivity apps (2026 edition)

Tech

Take a look at TuxCare's CVE tracker to identify where you're vulnerable, and how you can fix that! https://tuxcare.com/cve-tracker/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social_organic&utm_campaign=cvetracker_launch&utm_term=the-linux-experiment&utm_content=youtube_announcement Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en# 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to: - a Daily Linux News show - a weekly patroncast for more thoughts - your name in the credits YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLinuxEXP/join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperiment Or, you can donate whatever you want: https://paypal.me/thelinuxexp Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/TheLinuxExperiment/ 👕 GET TLE MERCH Support the channel AND get cool new gear: https://the-linux-experiment.creator-spring.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:24 Sponsor: TuxCare 01:30 Acrobat Pro & PDF editing 04:17 Omnifocus & Task Management 06:42 OneNote, Notion or Obsidian 11:37 Teams, Slack or Discord 12:55 Outlook & Email 14:11 Office 365 or Google Workspace 16:10 Office Online or Google Docs 18:40 Windows 19:37 Conclusion 20:37 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers

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ross.craig 1 month ago

Thanks for the video. I subscribe to having personal life based on open source. Although you forgot to mention that Logseq is splitting into 2; MD and DB. MD is no longer prioritised by the Logseq team. Plus DB is more of a ‌‌Notion replacement.

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thomastempest62 1 month, 1 week ago

What amazed me on my latitude 4590 that is already around 8 years old is that zorin os downloaded a bios update and it was actually the correct one and notebook still works. also all the drivers are working as it seems all the buttons and the little mouse knob in the middle also... Also very responsive and fast considering its an old device. but it has 16 gb ram maybe that helps also

virginiedelta14
virginiedelta14 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Love those videos, thanks a lot. For a year now working on a linux laptop, open source was my go to for years already. But what I really really miss is a perfect calendar. Thunderbirds is not great for events spanning over many days, nextcloud is not customisable, gnome, Korganizer and Merkuro - nope. That is a real problem for me. Sad face.

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marcelladörschner483 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Freecad deserves a mention in my view :)

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charles_renard 1 month, 4 weeks ago

Move from notion to anytype, the good thing about anytype is local first, they also have local peer to peer sync.

joseph_guerrero
joseph_guerrero 1 month, 4 weeks ago

3:07 hand written support…see Framework 13 Pro with its touch screen: match made in heaven!

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kristopherhart294 1 month, 4 weeks ago

Great to know! Maybe I'll try some

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cheyenne_brown 1 month, 4 weeks ago

This video is gold

paulvaleon6
paulvaleon6 1 month, 4 weeks ago

Also tux ibp 14 is a great laptop. I was skeptical until I got one and was extremely surprised. Runs great with a few distros including Debian, CachyOS, arch, mint, and Ubuntu. Screen is good enough, but wish it was oled that’s the only knock.

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martin_hayes 2 months ago

The problem with pdf editors is not a lacking alternative, it's that they are not guaranteed to play nice with Adobe. I often edit with a linux alternative, but when i send it to other people, they can't read it on their Adobe product.

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carol_atkinson 2 months ago

=== PDF editing === 1:39 Onlyoffice (has now a reliable PDF-Editor) 2:31 PDF Arranger (adding, removing, reordering pages, fusing pdf documents) 2:59 Papers (for handwritten anotations, additional textboxes) === Project Management === 4:29 Planify 6:15 super-productivity === Notes === 7:05 Joplin 7:55 Appflowy 8:29 Anytype 9:53 Logseq 11:00 Affine 11:12 Trillium Notes !!! He forgot to mention „cherrytree“ wich is small, simple, has encryption and just does the job === Communication, Collaboration === 11:40 Mattermost 13:00 Thunderbird 14:18 Nextcloud 16:15 Proton Docs 16:55 Cryptpad (his suggestion: hava look at Framasofts instance „Framapad“) 17:25 Onlyoffice, Collabora

luisquesada524
luisquesada524 2 months ago

I really love how much attention open source programs has been getting lately

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corinne.daniel 2 months ago

I actually migrated the other way, from Joplin to Obsidian a number of years ago now. I just wasn't a big fan of the additional layer of abstraction the db provided on top of my preferred file/folder structure (guess I'm kinda old school there). Either way I'm happy that my data stays local and in a common open format.

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ianvoid39 2 months ago

Zulip is really nice for slack-like chat that's more organization-managed. Huge fan of the interface, e.g. you get a very smooth thread inbox and it pushes threads heavily for better organization.

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charles_sandoval 2 months ago

For typing in local language I think IBUS is great with its m17n engine and its typing booster

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jonathan.hill 2 months ago

Thank you for this complete video Nick! It's a pity we don't have any email GTK alternatives up to date (Geary and Evolution doesn't even support dark theme!).

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sierrahayes217 2 months ago

Firefox can edit PDFs now btw

diego_almeida
diego_almeida 2 months ago

bro please try siyuan for taking notes, is niceee... just very nice!!

mariacecíliaalbuquerque427
mariacecíliaalbuquerque427 2 months ago

For email there are some more good alternatives. For personal use Claws email is a great lightweight option. For work/advanced usecases I really like the KDE PIM suite

eloah_damata
eloah_damata 2 months ago

YES! I have to edit pdf's on a daily basis, and not having a reliable and complete pdf editor on linux it's been painful. Thank Linus! And thanks TLE for informing us :)