Ask HN: What was the best software that you used during 2022?
What was the best software (applications, services, frameworks, compilers, whatever) that you used during 2022?
For me, the following tools made my Windows development environment substantially better:
- Windows Terminal (https://github.com/microsoft/terminal)
- Windows Sandbox
- Visual Studio Code Remote extension
- Sublime Merge
- ImHex (https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex)
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 203 ms ] threadEntertainment: VLC followed by QMMP
File management: PCManFM, especially for viewing PDF covers at beautiful sizes
Phone: QuickEdit+, Spiro (fidget toy), SmallBASIC (+AppImages on desktop), OsmAnd- (hiking)
Terminal:
find . -iname "blah" (find a file quickly. find in general was amazing to me in 2022, with -mtime, -size, and other flags)
du -hs (how big is the stuff in this folder? Ah, that big.)
lsblk (figure out what your linux system named your usb disk, for example)
mc + sshfs (for moving files around the LAN mostly; midnight commander's progress bars are very nice)
Scripting: ABS-lang.org
Overall I give my awards to `find`, ABS, QuickEdit+, PCManFM, VLC, and Geany.
https://trello.com/
I'd agree with Windows Terminal with WSL2/Ubuntu and VSCode.
Dim (https://github.com/Dusk-Labs/dim) is also a decent shout.
- iTerm2 terminal (https://iterm2.com/)
- Visual Studio Code
- Typora for Markdown notes (https://typora.io/)
- MacPass for password management
CLI:
- Everything developed with bubbletea :)(https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea)
- Homebrew
- jq
(this is the best software I used during 2022, but obviously this is not "new" software: software that also had a first release in 2022).
I'm planning on adding Authelia [1], Prometheus and Grafana Loki to the mix soon, which should all integrate nicely :)
[0] https://caddyserver.com/ [1] https://www.authelia.com/
- Kaleidoscope is the best diff / merge gui app I have used. (https://kaleidoscope.app)
- NetNewsWire, FOSS macOS and iOS feed reader.
- topgrade, CLI to upgrade most things on my systems.
- Forklift, macOS client for file management, especially good with remote sources (SFTP, FTP, Google Drive, S3…)
- Raycast, Spotlight replacement with better unit conversion and plugins
- Infuse, macOS/iOS video player, can connect to remote sources like Jellyfin and Plex.
And I'm a Raycast convert since I got a M1 Mac, having come from Quicksilver. I'm still not sure whether I actually like it better than QS, but it's also very polished and has many small and nifty features, like the quick creation of reminders or the powerful clipboard manager. Plus the extremely useful window management functions. And the list goes on…
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34162515
That sounds convenient but leaves me wondering what particularly about that quality of life improvement changes how you view Windows.
Other interesting change is unix style \n line endings working everywhere even notepad.
Its also combined with other changes like browser hosting most apps, vscode being used on linux/mac which is still Windows first class.
Still many unix tools dont work well which is why wsl is handy. docker is handy too.
If I was starting out today I could just use Windows Terminal and worry about other things, making me view Windows not quite so unfavorably.
Operating systems: macOS and FreeBSD. Also every year and every day
What are the main pros compared to VSCode?
No need to immediately hand over money, there's both a free 30-day trial, and you can regularly get an early access (i.e., beta) version of the new version for free.
[1]: https://funkwhale.audio/
- Stable Diffusion
- Procreate
- TikTok
- Plex
Hardware with Apps that increased Productivity
- Logitech MX Keys Mini & Mx Master 3S Mouse using Logi Options+ software with the Flow option
- StreamDeck and its software for physical keys with macros
- Git, for being so versatile, after one learns its basic internal model.
- Tortoise Git, for making my day to day job of dealing with branches and merges easier.
- 7zip - my workhorse for compression for many years.
- Visual Studio 2022. Specifically: its debugger, the refactoring support, and its recent intellicode feature, which for me gives better suggestions than Github's Copilot. And its fast C# compiler
- The C# language, for constraining me just so while still allowing me to be expressive and productive. And for having a stable ABI, stellar backwards compatibility, and excellent documentation.
- The C++ language, for allowing me to be expressive as much as I want, while giving the tools to be correct (which do require some self discipline), and allowing me to write very performant code.
- Notepad++ for being simple and fast.
- Godbolt, aka Compiler Explorer. For allowing me to quickly evaluate stuff and see the actual asm.
Each of these also has its bad sides, but I won't go into that, keeping it positive just before the new year :)
It's easily the most powerful database explorer/reporting system ever built.
(No connection with the author except enthusiasm over what he's built.)
I am able to make it do anything I want, to make little extensions for every little need all the time. Truly evergreen.
https://kyome.io/runcat/index.html?lang=en
For all time, Preview.app on macOS, possibly the single greatest advantage Mac has over Windows.
The signature feature is awesome - it lets you use a trackpad or iPhone as signature pad, or capture an image. Signatures are saved for future use.
PDF support is really great - things like annotations work well and it supports proper page numbering (e.g. textbooks often have page 1 starting 10 or 20 pages in; Preview handles this) - something that built in options on windows tend to lack.
- Fedilab, a Mastodon client for Android
- Traefik, a featureful HTTP reverse proxy, including dynamic configuration in Kubernetes or docker-on-host.
- Sublime Text
- TaskTxt https://tasktxt.com/
https://zed.dev/