Trying to discover new/unheard Linux desktop programs (Sorry for the confusion).

Edit: I apologise for confusing a lot of people. I meant Linux desktop “programs” coming from Windows/Mac. I’m used to calling them “apps”.

Edit: 🙌 I’m overwhelmed with the great “programs” people have recommended in the comment section. Thank you guys.

    • muhyb@programming.dev
      211·
      6 months ago

      That makes sense. Maybe I’m just old but they are called as programs since punched cards, as well as on Unix, Linux, Windows (until recently apparently).

      Not exactly sure but I think the term “application >> apps” started with mobile phones. So, to me they are different. At least that evokes this meaning in my mind. It seems not with younger people though.

      • the_doktor
        5·
        6 months ago

        Go search Usenet posts from the 80s. We’ve used the short term “app” for “application” for goddamn forever.

        • muhyb@programming.dev
          1·
          6 months ago

          It seems I’m not that old and apparently it first appeared around between 50’s and 60’s as a term. I assume it’s only used among programmers back then (until Apple, approximately late 80’s). Though it was not so common as today I guess.

    • sfera@beehaw.org
      9·
      6 months ago

      I would assume that “application” (or its short form “app”) implies some kind of GUI.

    • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
      42·
      6 months ago

      I would say apps are software run with a runtime (PortableApps, Android apps, Windows Apps) while software runs by itself.

      Another interpretation could be “little (software) tools”. I assumed with “apps” you wanted some shell tools.

        • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
          1·
          6 months ago

          I mean, i’m a software developer too. I just sometines forget all he context.

          Hmm, thinking about it like that, the whole software stack has a similiar situation to the modern web: historical layers upon layers. Maybe we should sometime start from scratch, if the situation with vulnerabilities, reliability and brittleness becomes bad enough/gets more weigth.

    • eveninghere@beehaw.org
      1·
      6 months ago

      Generally speaking, all runtimes have been traditionally called programs. (On Unix systems runtimes are often synonymous to executables. I guess the term runtime is used more often by devs on the Windows and Java platform, and I think it is specifically an antonym of library, but not sure because I don’t develop on those often) Applications traditionally referred to programs that were exposed to the user through a mouse interaction by intention. On macOS an app has the .app extension and is thus a special type of a program.

      Although, depending on the context, an “application” might just mean programs because even official tech manuals aren’t perfectly rigorous.

      On Linux and Windows it is similar. They don’t have a specific extension (some .exe binaries on Windows are meant to be run through the commandline.)

      Software is the antonym of hardware, as I wrote in another comment.

      Honestly I’m surprised that people here don’t share this. The terminology was rather cleanly separated before iPhone. Unfortunately, due to smartphones the word “app” entered the mass population and it lost meaning as usual.