The Sundarban 
Credit: Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOf
Published Apr 4, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT
Tashreef’s fascination with user technology started in the college library when he stumbled upon a tech journal, CHIP, which in the extinguish impressed him to pursue a diploma in Laptop Science. Since 2012, Tashreef has professionally authored over a thousand how-to articles, contributing to Home windows List and How-To Geek. He currently focuses on Microsoft Home windows declare at MakeUseOf, which he has been the utilization of since 2007.
With hands-on expertise constructing net sites and technology blogs, he brings gleaming developer insights to his technical writing. You presumably can leer his full work portfolio at itashreef.com.
You may well maybe additionally encounter his immediate how-to video explainers, simplifying complex issues. Past writing, Tashreef enjoys creating immediate explainer movies, gaming, and exploring animated reveals.
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Over the past few months, I have been the utilization of Ubuntu on my secondary units. I exercise it for personal initiatives, testing self-hosted apps, and serving to chums put together machines the place all they need is a browser, email, and YouTube. Or not it is not my famous OS, nonetheless I use ample time in it that I need my day to day tools to work.
The most sharp criticism I hear about Linux is that putting in and the utilization of capabilities is painful when when compared with Home windows. And honestly, there’s truth to that. You may well maybe be dealing with Flatpaks, Snaps, AppImages, equipment managers, and usually compiling from supply correct to score a single app running. On Home windows, you download an .exe and double-click it to set up the app. Nonetheless in phrases of changing core productiveness apps, I became a great deal surprised by how effectively Linux picks held up. I figured out solid replacements for unbiased about all the pieces in my Home windows workflow, with one exception that in point of fact broke things.
LibreOffice replaced Microsoft Office
A fleshy divulge of industrial suite that would not need a subscription
Credit: Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOf
Microsoft Office is one of those apps that keeps folks tied to Home windows. The earn version exists, nonetheless there’s not any native desktop app for Linux. Within the event you rely on Note, Excel, or PowerPoint day-to-day, that’s an staunch gap.
LibreOffice fills it surprisingly effectively. Or not it is free, delivery supply, and has replaced my entire divulge of industrial suite without any learning curve. Creator, Calc, and Set aside handle .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files without famous fuss. So you may per chance maybe work with complex spreadsheets and formatted paperwork from colleagues without problems nearly every time.
Or not it is additionally comparatively lighter than Microsoft’s offering. LibreOffice runs smoothly on modest hardware the place Microsoft Office would chug. It additionally would not force you to enroll, would not state adverts, and would not nag you about a subscription. The classic menu and toolbar format feels acquainted whereas you grew up with older versions of Office.
That acknowledged, it is not supreme. VBA macros don’t incessantly translate, and in case your divulge of industrial relies heavily on SharePoint or staunch-time co-authoring thru OneDrive, LibreOffice cannot replicate that. Nonetheless for writing paperwork, constructing spreadsheets, and hanging together presentations, it does the job without asking to your bank card.
OS
Linux, Android, Home windows, macOS
Developer
LibreOffice
The first delivery-supply different for offline work. LibreOffice handles complex, prolonged-make paperwork and large spreadsheets without requiring an net connection or a cloud login.
Thunderbird handles my email
A privacy-focused email client that competitors Outlook
Credit: Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOf
Outlook is the default email expertise on Home windows, and Microsoft has been pushing the novel Outlook app laborious. Nonetheless it indubitably’s in point of fact a net app wrapped in a desktop shell, and the free tier reveals adverts staunch interior your inbox, disguised as emails.
Thunderbird is a breath of new air by comparison. Or not it is free, delivery supply, and has no adverts wherever. The difficulty I handle most is the precise unified inbox. Within the event you handle more than one email accounts, Thunderbird combines them into one leer. The novel Outlook easy makes you click into every yarn one at a time.
The constructed-in OpenPGP encryption is a nice bonus for anyone who cares about email privacy. Add in the tabbed interface the place you may per chance maybe preserve messages, calendar, and settings delivery facet by facet, and it starts to feel more productive than Outlook for day-to-day exercise.
Where Thunderbird falls immediate is ecosystem integration. In case your work revolves round Microsoft 365, with Groups, OneDrive, and SharePoint, Outlook ties all the pieces together in a vogue Thunderbird cannot. Thunderbird additionally gets gradual with very tall mailboxes, and the calendar easy feels handle it became bolted on as an different of in-constructed. Nonetheless for personal email or blended-provider setups, it is laborious to beat.
Thunderbird
OS
Android, Home windows, Linux & Mac
Developer
MZLA Applied sciences Corporation
A free, delivery-supply desktop email client that stores your mail in the neighborhood and works even when the earn doesn’t.
Inkscape for score work
A free vector editor that does bigger than you may per chance maybe question
Inksc
Credit: Yadullah Abidi / MakeUseOf
Adobe Illustrator would not escape on Linux, and for anyone doing score work, that’s a demanding pill to swallow. I tried about a picks ahead of I settled on Inkscape as my Illustrator replace, and it is totally free.
Inkscape is a fleshy vector graphics editor with a toolset that’s surprisingly finish to Illustrator. The pen instrument, layers, textual declare editing, and path operations are all there. Within the event you realize Illustrator, the learning curve is basically about learning the place things are named otherwise. The gradient instrument is in actuality more intuitive than Illustrator’s because you may per chance maybe manipulate stops and route staunch on the canvas.
One other bid I’ve come to esteem from my immediate stint with the app is its SVG-first workflow. Within the event you work with net graphics, icons, or anything else that needs to scale cleanly, Inkscape treats SVG as a native format as an different of an afterthought. The constructed-in CSS selector leer lets you peek hex codes,
