Top Modern UI Application for Your Linux Distribution
I am writing this article after days of installing/uninstalling many different application. Looking for stability, latest release and less bugs, Modern UI Design, Simple and Minimalist User Interface. The whole article is based on my personal opinion and experience.
- Notepad
Simplenote is the perfect candidate. Many tech-geeks have recommended me using the vim, nano or such for note taking, but trust me there’s a big disadvantage. A normal text editor does not support cross-platform. I needed a simple note taking app which supports cross-platform, with Modern UI design and Simplenote is exactly what I was looking for.
Other Features:
1. Notes are backed up with every change, so you can see what you noted last week or last month.
2. Write, preview, and publish your notes in Markdown format.
3. Apps, backups, syncing, sharing — it’s all completely free.
4. Add tags to find notes quickly with instant searching.
5. Share a to-do list, post some instructions, or publish your notes online.
Now there was one drawback with Simplenote, it does not support markdown for programming language. For example, if you pasted a random hello world code. It would appear in a simple text format. Yes, we want a note-app for developer that supports code format, again should be collaborative.
Enters, Boostnote (Powerful,Lightspeed Collaborative for developer workspace).
For more details about the feature.
Check out their homepage.
2. Music Player.
While I do not have anything against people recommending Clementine Music Player. I would nominate Lollypop for its modern design and minimalist interface.
Further, it allow streaming from different music platform
3. PDF Reader.
I am simple man with simple needs. I need a simple app to open the pdf, supports night mode (which should be few clicks away). No extra toolbar, distraction free reading, should supports highlighting and annoation.
Comes. Evince https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evince.
It was a tough call between Okular and Evince, but finally I went ahead with Evince because of its simplicity.
For advance user, I would definitely recommend Okular as it supports multiple format like PDF, EPub, DjVU and MD for documents; JPEG, PNG, GIF, Tiff, WebP for images; CBR and CBZ for comics; and many, many more.
4. Email Management App.
Bluemail. Thunderbird is great, but yeah again remember we want something modern and lightweight.
One of the best feature, I loved about Bluemail was its People-Centric Feature. I mean your inbox is filled with spam, and you are scrolling down looking for email sent by a real human. Simply tap the People-Centric button and view their emails.
Great isn’t it?
Further it supports dark theme, can view all your email from different account in a one place.
5. Photoeditor
Well I could not find a simple photo viewer, but I would definitely recommend Showfoto. It is standalone application of Digikam, which is basically a professional photo management application.
If you are goal is to just view photographs, then you can hide all the toolbar and sidemenu in Showfoto and can use it for opening any picture.
Features:
-Fast editing
-Powerful Tools
6. File Manager
To be honest, I have not tried exploring much. But from what I have used, I loved Nemo. It’s dark theme was catchy, plus I loved its simplicity. By default, it is installed on Linux Mint with simplified and minimalistic design.
7. Office
Onlyoffice Editor
Honestly working with Linux, I missed Microsoft Office very much. Libreoffice is nowhere close to Microsoft Office. It’s design is highly outdated and trust me once you get productive with Microsoft Office, it’s difficult to have a workaround. Onlyoffice is modern editor for presentation, document and spreadsheets.
It will give you feeling that you are back to Windows Environment with its modern design.
The best part about OpenOffice is it can be deployed on your own server, because that’s the power of Open Source.
Now other factor it is you can try the collaborative service for free.
Here are 11 feature that will differentiate Onlyoffice from the other.
https://www.onlyoffice.com/blog/2017/01/11-things-you-can-do-with-onlyoffice-but-cant-with-google-docs-or-ms-word-online/?from=comparison
8. Calculator
I struggled hard to find a modern calculator for Linux. But finally found Qalculate!.
I appreciate the design and trust me its very powerful.
9. Calender
Morgen (Edit 1: Minetime is no longer being maintained).
Please check out https://morgen.so/.
Although, currently there is no free version of Morgen, but it allows 14 days of free trialIt allow integration of calender from different account such Google Calender, ICloud, Microsoft Exchange.
If you are a student you can avail the license for free, do checkout their website for further details.
There are hardly any calendar apps on Linux which will look as good as Morgen.
10). System Optimizer
Need a modern application to monitor process (CPU and RAM Usage), Manage the Startup Apps, Clean up the crash report, application logs, Trash, Cache, Manage the running services.
Stacer is your Answer.
Some other suggestion where modern design is not required.
Video-Player: mpv or VLC
Screenshot: FlameRobin
Launchpad- Ulauncher
Audio Recorder/Editor : Audacity or Oceanaudio
Dock: DockX
Code-editor is personal choice so I really won’t recommend you any.
Browser: By default firefox and its theme can be changed to support to modern UI design.
Remember not to put strain on your eyes, while working therefore I would recommend to install redshift which automatically enables night mode.
