Linux

Bitwig. I'm moving to libre tools like Pd and Ardour, so I didn't renew my license. But it works just like it does on Mac.

Except that it supports touch screens on Wayland, and you can't do that on a Mac.

Microsoft Defender.

I convinced my work to let me use linux on their laptop. They sent me instructions for setup. One of them was to install Microsoft Defender, had a link to the Ubuntu package and everything. Blew my mind.

KDEConnect, probably the best (only?) to do what it does in such a magnificent way

about 10 years ago, i noticed steam was available for linux. for the longest time i had pretty much written off gaming on linux (apart from like tuxcart, nethack, emulators...). i hadn't considered actually being able to play "real" games.

that was before proton, so there really wasn't a ton of stuff i could play, but i found some good stuff like hotline miami, papers please, super win the game.

obviously now we have proton and linux can be argued as a superior gaming platform in many cases.

Bitwig and Reaper. Two of the best music DAWs on the market and they each have a Linux native version.

EDIT: I forgot to include Renoise, the music tracker DAW.

LocalSend.

No more USBs ever (outside of install media). So so simple, fast, and works on all devices and FOSS.

It is really the best UX of any file sharing app I have experienced (outside of airdrop I guess, but obvious problems there)

Okular is also a favorite of mine.

For me it was blender. I absolutely loved using blender as a teen for making silly games and animations (I wasn't good at that). Now as an adult I re-discovered it and I use it for making DnD minifigs

Microsoft Edge was a recent surprise. It's surprising both that Microsoft would create it and that any Linux users would run it. Since its Chromium based, there should be no need for developers to test Edge separately.

Surprised no one has mentioned OBS. I don't use it for streaming, but afaik it's one of the more popular options for that. So it's really cool that not only is it available for linux, but it's open source and works great. I'm sure every linux user has had audio, general hardware, or GPU acceleration issues at some point, but OBS is seamless in my experience. Pretty cool to see a piece of software live at the crossroads of all that and get it right.

Tux racer was neat.

There was also a weird space game that started with a Q. I never progressed and it gave me existential crisis as it felt like nothing was out there. I'd get lost in space every time.

Surprised? IE/Edge. Like, why?

Kdenlive. I used Adobe Premiere professionally and Kdenlive completely replaced it for me.

Mixx is a cool free dj software, didn't expect davinci resolve to have an official version, stremio also I didn't think would have an app for whatever reason. I like inkscape for vector art, didn't realize it was a thing til I swapped to linux. I use software and apps more in general because it's stuff I've installed and its not hidden by bloat, even if there is more windows stuff out there, its way easier to discover actual useful software using linux through linux appstores compared to windows.

Zoom. No dark mode though.

The one that surprised me the most was Steam, honestly.

Wine/Proton, made my switch to Linux way easier