heracl.esJul 29, 2025

Hey creative #Linux peeps, are there any lists of idiosyncratic, specific and exceptional softwares you're fond of?

Like @everest's https://tinytools.directory/ or @neauoire & @rek's https://100r.co/site/projects.html

Bonus for #FOSS and abandonware that just works well offline. Cooking up a little essay.

Tiny Tools Directory

A list of small, free, or experimental tools towards joyful digital creation.

Show threadheracl.es

"… the modern internet exerts a tyranny over our imagination. The internet and its commercial power has sculpted the computer-device. It's become the terrain of flat, uniform, common platforms and protocols, not eccentric, local, idiosyncratic ones. […] Computers are a feeling, not a device."

https://github.com/timhwang/nyrc/blob/main/NYRC%201%20-%20The%20Computer%20is%20a%20Feeling.md

nyrc/NYRC 1 - The Computer is a Feeling.md at main · timhwang/nyrc

The New York Review of Computation. Contribute to timhwang/nyrc development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Jul 29, 2025 at 8:59pmMegalodon
Show threaderuweroJul 29, 2025
@heracles Does #emacs count? Or #lisp? Not really a list of software but in a lot of ways idiosyncratic and exceptional I guess, and can make you feel differently about computers. And then you discover that there were #lispmachines at some point (https://interlisp.org/) and you just get deeper and deeper into the rabbithole :)
Medley Interlisp Project

The Medley Interlisp Project a retrofuturistic software system What did we leave behind on the path to developing today's computer systems? Could there be lessons for the future of computing hidden in the past? Enter the Medley software environment to explore these questions.

The Medley Interlisp Project
Show threaderuweroJul 29, 2025
@heracles also @inconvergent deserves to be mentioned in this context I think
Show threadNicolaJul 29, 2025
@eruwero @heracles Given how old emacs is, I'm almost tempted to say every other editor is idiosyncratic by not copying it.