Software I use in 2025

Because I like lists!

A note, to start: My Mac Studio has largely sat idle or even powered off for most of 2025. I’m not sure why, exactly, but at some point I just found I didn’t enjoy using macOS anymore. It could be as simple as I’m much more used to the things that annoy me on Windows. Whatever the case, I will not be including Mac software below.

I will also not be listing any phone apps.

What I will be listing:

• Software I use in Windows 11
• Software I use in Linux Mint
• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) I use in both (or even the Mac, should I turn it back on)

Windows 11

• Browser: Firefox. Backup: Vivaldi.
• Diary/Journal: Diarium
• Tasks: TickTick
• Email: Fastmail (I use the web-based version)
• Blogging: WordPress (I have tried many alternatives, none have stuck so far)
• Text Editor: This is complicated. I can’t make up my mind, so I’m dabbling with all of these to varying degrees:
  • Obsidian
  • Notepad (built-in Windows app)
  • Notepad++
  • Zed
• Messaging: Signal
• Group chat: Discord
• Social media: I am only on Mastodon now, I use the Phanpy web app as the client.
• Music: The built-in Windows Media Player
• Word Processor: I don’t use one much these days, but when I do, it’s LibreOffice Writer.
• Fiction writing, with the caveat that I haven’t done much for the past few years:
  • Scrivener
  • novelWriter
• Photo editing:
  • Affinity Photo
  • Photos (the built-in app)
  • Luminar Neo
• Drawing: I do this on a tablet now, so nothing here
• Audio editing: Audacity (I rarely do audio editing, though)
• Video editing: DaVinci Resolve (I rarely do video editing)
• RSS reader: Good question! I keep flipping through a bunch.
• Read later: Folio (browser extension for Firefox)

The apps listed above that are paid:

• Diarium (one-time purchase through the Microsoft Store)
• TickTick (optional yearly subscription to open more features)
• Affinity Photo (one-time purchase. This was before Affinity Studio launched, which is completely free but gates AI features behind a Canva subscription)
• Luminar Neo (one-time purchase)
• Scrivener (one-time purchase)

Linux Mint

• Browser: Firefox. Backup: Vivaldi.
• Diary/Journal: Zed
• Tasks: TickTick (web version, as no native Linux version exists)
• Email: Fastmail (I use the web-based version)
• Blogging: WordPress
• Text Editor: This is complicated. I can’t make up my mind, so I’m dabbling with all of these to varying degrees:
  • Obsidian
  • Sublime Text
  • Zed
• Messaging: Signal
• Group chat: Discord
• Social media: I am only on Mastodon now, I use the Phanpy web app as the client.
• Music: Rhythmbox (included with Mint). Backup: VLC Player.
• Word Processor: LibreOffice Writer (included with Mint)
• Fiction writing, with the caveat that I haven’t done much for the past few years:
  • Scrivener (I have the Windows version running through Lutris)
  • novelWriter
• Photo editing:
  • Pix (included with Mint)
• Drawing: I do this on a tablet now, so nothing here
• Audio editing: Audacity (I rarely do audio editing, though)
• Video editing: I have not done this on Mint.
• RSS reader: Newsflash
• Read later: Folio (browser extension for Firefox)

As you can see, there is a lot of overlap with Windows, which shows how much Linux software has matured in recent years. The one place I feel it lags is in photo/graphics editing (no, I will not use Gimp, the interface just repels me, for some reason¹Also, they really should just change the name.).

Paid programs in Linux Mint are the same as Windows.

I think I covered all major categories, but if I’ve forgotten something, I’ll edit it in later.