Been using the CLI more and more and for whatever reason it gives me more dopamine than using apps with a GUI and I'm curious about what else is out there since I was a windows user til 6 months ago.
Discovering ish and the ability to use alpine linux on my iphone, also has me curious if there is anything useful/fun out there that isn't openssh, ranger, and ffmpeg. (a-shell is still updated and comes with those two by default but doesn't have access to alpine repo and apk, uses its own iphone based thing) Tho im curious about cli tools/apps in general to use on my pc or over ssh, not just those that could be installed on my phone
I mostly use ffmpeg to convert video and compress stuff for size limits (so I can convert before sftp when away from my pc after the render finishes) Ranger file manager on phone since it can easily exit at a path, and yazi with the shell script that lets it exit at whatever path your on on pc.
Will update this list as people comment. - Conversion/Compression: ffmpeg - Email: mutt, neomut - File management: mc, nnn, ranger, yazi, sfm - File editor: vim, neovim - Git: lazygit - Piracy: ani-cli (anime) rip (music) - Pdf Management: pdftk (pdftk-idk, or stapler) - Python: rich, pythondialog, textual - Docker management : lazydocker - Performance monitor: btop, nvtop (nvidia), ncdu (disk usage) - Network management: nmtui - Web browser : browsh (firefox backend) - Video downloader: yt-dlp - Shell scripts: dialog, whiptail - Misc: netpbm (plaintext image creation) If you can't comment this post seems to be bugged for me at least, says I've deleted it and I can't reply to anyone.
inotify-tools has command-line utilities that can be used in a Bash script or a Bash one-liner to make arbitrary things "happen" when something "happens" to a file or directory. (Then the file is opened or written to or renamed or whatever.)
I probably should mention rsync. It's like a swiss army knife for copying files from one place to another. And it supports "keeping files syncronized" between two locations.
Of course, there's tons of stuff that you pretty much can't talk about Bash scripting without mentioning. Sed, awk, grep, find, etc.
Also, I totally relate about the terminal giving more dopamine. I kinda just hate going on a point-and-click adventure to do things like image editing or whatever. To the point that I've written a whole-ass domain-specific-language to do what I want rather than use Gimp. (And I'm working on another whole-ass domain-specific-language to do a traditionally-GUI-app sort of task.)
A bunch of GNU tools have added JSON output and it's so good. Like, GNU column can take tabular data and convert it into JSON really easily. It's like the perfect text stream.
You can save tons of time by adding aliases to your .gitconfig such as 'ga $fname' (where "fname" would be files you want to add) the alias for git add. You can also do the same thing with gc, gs, etc and if youre like me and you write dozens of lines of code a day, it can save you a lot of time.
helix . modal text editor similar to vim, but with less configuration required
Not only less configuration required, but also semantic navigation (jump around the AST directly with simple keybindings). I can't use a code editor without it now.
semantic navigation (jump around the AST directly with simple keybindings).
just searched up abstract syntax tree in helix, and i learned about syntax aware motions. how had i never heard of them before? they look very useful! thanks for mentioning that
Well, seeing them in the list like that rubs me the wrong way. 😅
Both of those come with a CLI, called git and docker respectively, which is the official way of using them. These CLIs might not be particularly sexy, depending on who you ask, but they're decent enough and worth learning, even if you go the lazy* route, since online resources all just explain the official CLIs and you might find yourself one day administering remote systems where you can't install additional software...
I rely on cli tools for a lot of things too. Here's a list:
tmux: terminal multiplexer zsh (with fzf zsh completion): shell fzf: fuzzy finder doas: sudo replacement bat: cat replacement fd: find replacement advcpmv: cp/mv replacement eza: ls replacement zenith: htop replacement trash-cli: trash management neomutt: email client (notmuch is a most recommended addition) neovim (and plugins): text/code editor buku: internet bookmarks manager tut: mastodon client ucollage: image viewer udevil: (un)mounting removable devices and networks without a password magic-tape: youtube search/download and more rofi: used with scripts to do a lot of things pass: password manager yazi: file explorer iwd: wireless manager khal: calendar and webdav sync with vdirsyncer taskjuggler: complete task manager newsboat: feed aggregator fwupd: firmware updater chawan: web browser ncmpcpp: mpd-client duf: disk usage abook: contacts manager
I have some of them detailed here. This GitHub also has a long list.
Feel free to tell them why and help fill us in on whats better lol, im sure no one minds finding better, or is it because youd rather use an app or website?
If you aren't aware, pbm represents an image with plaintext, which makes it great for when you want to easily create an image with code
I recently learned there is a whole suite of CLI tools which work with the format. Like conversion to/from png, scaling, and overlaying one image on top of another.
Good old nano is something i use a lot, although i am considering finally giving micro a try, heard a lot of good things about it, and i want something with a bit more features in the terminal, but i really hate vim keybinds. I also really like rmpc, which is an mpd client with album art support, though i am not using it anymore at the moment because i realized mpd wasn't really what i was looking for when it comes to music players.
Edit: also want to mention cyanrip. Really good cli cd ripper with a lot sane defaults, easy to use, and in terms of accuracy probably the closest thing to EAC on windows.
s-tui is also great. It's a tui stress testing utility. I still use it every now and then even if it's just to test if my fan curve is actually working by putting some load on the cpu.
I prefer dua over ncdu, specially when called interactively (dua i), since you can explore the results in parallel before it finishes scanning, while it updates asynchronously.
Oh boy. This is a rabbit hole which, once you fall into, there's no coming back out.
There is a world of terminal software. You can, quite reasonably, get entirely rid of X (and Wayland) and live in the console. Honestly, the reason I don't is only because there is no fully competent terminal web browser (although there are some quite good ones), and because anything having to do with graphics like photo management, or vector graphics drawing, is really where GUIs are useful. But for everything else, terminal clients are almost always superior.
Choosing a good terminal emulator is important, and the best one right now is Rio. It's fast, smaller memory footprint, and less CPU use than Wezterm or Kitty, and it supports ligatures, iTerm, and SIXEL graphics.
In that goes tmux, because it works over ssh and having consistent everywhere is handy, because it survives terminal and window manager crashes, and because you can open multiple clients in different windows on the same tmux session.
In that runs zsh, because it's the best shell. It's backwards-compatible to bash, but has a ton of extra features.
I'm conservative about replacing standard POSIX tools with new fad tools, because grep is literally everywhere (even BusyBox) and new things usually aren't; but ripgrep and fd are such nice improvements over grep and find I've been unable to resist. Helix is currently the best text editor. However, having a good familiarity with grep, find, and vi is IMHO critical, because they're the foundations.
My media player is ostui, which is an ncurses SubSonic client with synced lyrics and cover art support. I use catnip for visualization, because it uses less memory and CPU than cava. For task management I use a bespoke script (tdp) that use fzf with todo.txt files. I use gotop for system monitoring.
I try to use chawan for terminal web browsing, and it does do CSS layout better than most, and supports sixel image rendering, but it's often a chore so I mostly browse in Luakit, which is a GUI program.
rook is my secret service tool that uses a KeePassXC DB as the backing store, and provides credentials to everything that needs them.
vdirsyncer syncs my calendar and contracts to a VPS, and thence to my phone
mbsync syncs all of my email from my IMAP server, and I use notmuch to index and tag it
khard is a terminal address book that uses standard vcard directories
lbb is a super-fast address book search tool which also works on vcard directories
khal is a TUI calendar app, which works with vcal directories
aerc, which someone else mentioned, is a fantastic TUI email client that can use notmuch.
tasker is what I use for scheduled cron control; it uses standard crontab files.
devmon and udevil handle automounts of USB media
mosh is a UDP-based ssh, with interruptable sessions and network resilience
mpdris2-rs is the agent I use to hook up various media control tooling to ostui (which supports the mpris protocol) and other players - mpris is a sort of standardized glue for media players.
gomuks is an excellent TUI for Matrix
weechat is a TUI for IRC. I prefer gomuk's interface, but you can get a Matrix plugin for weechat if you want to use only one. I find I often have to restart weechat because otherwise it end up eating all of the memory; there's a memory leak, or something in it.
syncthing-daemon for syncing between almost everything
restic for backups
dinit handles all of my user task management, because systemd is fucking broken for user tasks. dinit is a better init system.
Almost every application I use is a cli or TUI client. The exceptions are the web browser, for reasons I've explained; Jami, which doesn't have a CLI client; Factorio, which is a game; and darktable for photo management. I'll also occasionally open Gimp or Inkscape for graphics, vlc for movies (which I could probably watch in the terminal, now that I think of it), and I usually view PDFs in a GUI client such as mupdf.
My philosophy on software is to use standards wherever possible. I avoid programs that insist on using their own DBs when there's a perfectly good standard, such as ics, maildir, and so on. It's just another form of vender lock-in. Hence notmuch (maildir), khard and lbb (directory of .ics), khal (directory of .vcs), rook (KeePass DB), and so on. This drives most of my tooling choices.
The suggestions in the comments are all nice, but the biggest game changer for me was nushell. Once you understand how it works there is no going back. I have saved so many hours already.
When going to other communities, respect their rules AND our rules when they are more restrictive. Do not give cause for others to de-federate our instance please.
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DEAR FRIENDS. IF YOU LIKE THIS TYPE OF CONTENT, SUPPORT SOUTHFRONT WORK: MONERO (XMR): 86yfEHs6pkoDEKCxc6MAnQX8cVHmzhYxMVrNuwKgNmqpWK8dDxjgGnK8PtUNJMA...
i remember seeing this meme around when the US tiktok ban -idea was confirmed and some usians who started to use similar chinese apps had actual conversations with actual chinese netizens. thankfully they brought back tiktok to the usians so they could keep drinking the capitalist imperialist koolaid. also i see the western liberals have attacked this with downvotes for daring to post anything that conflicts with their presupposed capitalistic white supremacy.
I originally provided this an alternative to the broken AUR packages.
However, it seems that Arch users would rather use broken packages and
keep complaining to me instead of their packager. I spe...
He has a point. Package managers are extremely stupid. Installing stuff on Linux is stupid. We need a 15th standard. Or one making all the existing ones work together.
That's basically what I do on Linux anyway except you have to give the install permissions and occasionally to tar -xyzabc and then build something and then add it to your path and then create a shortcut and then give it an icon.
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Reform voters think the new party co-founder is more intelligent, trustworthy, hard-working and principled than the prime minister, suggesting Starmer’s attempts to woo the right aren’t working. Rivkah Brown reports.
Does anyone know if these is an open source and privacy-focused alternative to xTiles? A friend of mine showed me this site where it's like Notion, but more visual and easier to use. It's looks really cool, but I wanted to know if there was something similar that's private and open source.
I looked into Logseq a while and saw comments that it was a little buggy, but that was awhile back, so I'll take a look at it again. Appflowy looks interesting at first glance, so I'll look further into it and see if it's a good alternatie. Affine seems to be interesting as well and could be a contender, as I see they have a vision board.
All these are great suggestions that I'll look further into. Thank you!
Over 300 UN staff killed, aid blocked, and UN facilities destroyed in Gaza by the Israeli regime—backed by the US—undermining and dismantling international law.
EADaily, July 30th, 2025. On August 1, the United States imposes 25 percent duties on goods from India and will apply some penalties to Delhi. One of the reasons is too close ties with Russia and the purchase of its oil, Donald Trump said.
I'm setting up a computer with linux mint debian editon, and the computer is going to be used by a lot of people who sign in via AD. I have custom display settings (background, pinned applications, theme, custom menu icon) that I would like to apply to all users, but right now they only show up when I log into the account that I set it up on.
Also, is there a way to get a custom firefox esr config to apply to all users as well? I want to remove pocket and make duckduckgo the default browser.
Side-note: Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, so you might not need to adjust that config. I'm not sure, how they handle disabling it in browsers, but given that the backend has already been turned off, presumably they would disable it even on ESR with some update...
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill on July 29 allowing Ukrainian citizens over the age of 60 to voluntarily enlist in the military during martial law, the parliament's website shows.
The measure enables older volunteers to serve in non-combat and specialized roles, expanding Ukraine's recruitment pool amid continued manpower shortages.
In April 2024, Kyiv lowered the draft age from 27 to 25. In February 2025, the country introduced one-year contracts for 18-24-year-old volunteers with added financial incentives.
The new law is expected to help address staffing gaps in technical, logistical, and support units, where experienced professionals are in high demand.
The measure enables older volunteers to serve in non-combat and specialized roles, expanding Ukraine’s recruitment pool amid continued manpower shortages.
[Warwick] Powell begins his exegesis with a declaration I agree with: that perception matters more than reality, more than ever today in our increasingly ‘simulated world’, where money and economies themselves are nothing more than grossly over-counted hyper-leveraged debt-and-fiat instruments.
He goes on to argue that Trump’s unprecedented ‘coup’ over abject Ursula was actually a European triumph over the easily-cajoled nectarine narcissist.
But look beneath the bombast, and a different picture emerges. The picture is paradoxically not of European weakness per se (or vassalage as self-loathing Europeans would be tempted to say), but of European entrapment strategy from a position of relative weakness. If anything, this “deal” locks the United States deeper into Europe’s security and economic architecture, not the other way around. And it does so by using the one thing Trump cannot resist: the illusion of winning.
The article above explains that the EU commission already admitted mere hours after the “huge deal” was signed that the promised investment is to come from private corporations which have had no incentives offered to them for such a thing, which means the entire charade is nothing more than another empty show of ‘wishful thinking’, meant to glaze us with a brief PR tableau.
These days, virtually all foreign policy is conducted in this way. The tempo of our hyper-connected digital times has facilitated a kind of simulacrum where no exaggeration, lie, or absurdity is too great so long as it can be quickly flushed away by an even greater one. If one isn’t available, the mainstream media magicians are tasked with waving their hands over some new ‘crisis’ or ‘outrage’ to cover the tracks of whatever needs to be forgotten. But why, you ask, does Powell ultimately reach the conclusion that the deal is not merely a hologram, but on the contrary a cunning triumph by the decaying Europeans? The answer lies in a compelling thesis that the Maggot Queen’s chief objective was to ensnare Trump and the US in Europe’s politics and the Euro-deep state’s Forever War. He concludes:
By offering inflated figures, headline-making numbers, and “big wins,” the EU ensures that: - The U.S. defence industry is financially bound to Europe; - The U.S. energy sector is locked into Europe but with limited capacity to actually deliver on the stated numbers, which means European buyers are back on the market anyway; - The U.S. financial system continues to absorb European capital, which is only a function of persistent European trade surpluses vis-a-vis the US; and - Any attempt by the U.S. to reduce its European footprint would now come at an enormous domestic economic cost. In effect, Europe has engineered strategic entanglement for the U.S. in European security affairs under the guise of submission. Trump thinks he’s winning, but the structural reality is that the U.S. is being burdened with more responsibility, more expectations and more economic exposure.
Now, perhaps the above conclusion is a tad oversold for dramatic effect. Without truly crunching the economic figures in a more thorough way it’s uncertain just how ‘cunning’ or deliberate this European twist really is. But it’s true that under the guise of giving Trump’s ego a much needed economic arm-shot, Europe managed to at least maneuver him into perpetually supporting the European MIC and by extension the Ukraine war. This is not a European victory, per se—it is a grave disaster for the futures of average European citizens—but it is a victory for the Euro-deep state, the Brussels and London cabals controlled by generational private finance, the bankster clan which must hold power at all costs and cannot allow a rival system to emerge on the global stage, much less their doorstep.
As stated above, it can be argued that what we’re seeing is a self-assembly process wherein the inevitable factionalization of the post-globalist world—one based on the ‘open society’ model—is taking place. And the US, knowing it can no longer control this process, nor dominate the newly-rising factions, has simply resigned to carving the world into spheres and engineering a renewed domination of its own sphere as a kind of consolation prize. It is a necessary tactic of retreat: if we can’t be masters of the world, we’ll at least be full masters of our half of it.
At this point, the only transformational certainty lies in the rise of a rival system in the East, which will eventually lead to the demise of the one operated by the Old Nobility. The only problem: it is impossible for them to go down without a fight, and they will have to trigger major war in preservation of their waning hegemony.
Trump made waves this week with his major economic subjugation of Europe on the announcement of his 15% tariffs, made before a stooped and servile Ursula von der Leyen.
Potato historians, scientists and promoters are featured here including authors Redcliffe Salaman, History and Social Influence of the Potato, Lucienne Desnoues, All Potato, Wilhelm Volksen, The Potato in Art and Literature, heirloom potato variety preservationist Donald MacLean, French scientist A. A. Parmentier, American potato scientist and World Food Prize Laureate John Niederhauser and potato art impresario Jeffrey Allen Price.
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Last spring, the United States quietly placed long-range missile launchers within reach of China’s mainland — and almost no one noticed. There was no congressional debate, no televised announcement, and no vote. It was the latest step of a growing military partnership with the Philippines, just across the South China Sea.
The U.S. has been steadily expanding its military footprint in the Philippines as part of its broader strategy against China, a nuclear-armed rival. With little public scrutiny or accountability, Washington is now preparing to deploy a second Typhon missile system to the Philippines. Experts and U.S. officials have widely acknowledged that the confrontational policy could bring the U.S. into direct conflict with China.
“We are being used as a training ground, as an experiment ground for the U.S. missile system,” Mong Palatino, the secretary-general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, a progressive civil society coalition, told The Intercept. “It endangers our population, it undermines our security. The lesson here is that we will not be able to be self-reliant as long as we are dependent on a former colonial master like the U.S. in protecting our sovereignty.”
Last spring, the United States quietly placed long-range missile launchers within reach of China’s mainland — and almost no one noticed. There was no congressional debate, no televised announcement, and no vote. It was the latest step of a growing military partnership with the Philippines, just across the South China Sea.
The U.S. has been steadily expanding its military footprint in the Philippines as part of its broader strategy against China, a nuclear-armed rival. With little public scrutiny or accountability, Washington is now preparing to deploy a second Typhon missile system to the Philippines. Experts and U.S. officials have widely acknowledged that the confrontational policy could bring the U.S. into direct conflict with China.
“We are being used as a training ground, as an experiment ground for the U.S. missile system,” Mong Palatino, the secretary-general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, a progressive civil society coalition, told The Intercept. “It endangers our population, it undermines our security. The lesson here is that we will not be able to be self-reliant as long as we are dependent on a former colonial master like the U.S. in protecting our sovereignty.”
Humanitarian convoys entering Gaza from Egypt are being looted amid deepening starvation and accusations that Israeli forces are fostering chaos, as WHO reports rising child hunger deaths
EADaily, July 30th, 2025. The head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, refused peace proposals and now finds himself in an extremely difficult internal situation.
Welcome to Lemmy where there's a lot of communists who are not agreeing with the narrative of liberal, socdems or greens media of US/EU/UK.
Russia is winning because China is communist and therefore winning. I don't know what the average Lemmy tankie thinks of why the Soviet Union lost, but my reasoning is simply, lack of solid fossil fuels and too early in the game to rise through solar & wind power or even natural gas. China had bitumen coal and a better version of a people's democracy since Deng imho.
US has lots and lots of coal compared to any country in the world, so even with its half-baked liberal democracy it still was able to thrive above the rest until recently.
Despite friendly relations between the two countries, the US has done "relatively little business" with India "because their tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade b…
Who cares? 5% here 75% there, no wait, 35% and 25% goes there. 60% over there ... Or no it won't just not yet. Then 41% for them and the 60% for the other one will be just 15%
“(1) GENERAL DUTY.—In order to reduce the proliferation of the unlawful sale, distribution, or manufacture (as applicable) of counterfeit substances and certain controlled substances, a provider shall, as soon as reasonably possible after obtaining actual knowledge of any facts or circumstances described in paragraph (2), and in any event not later than 60 days after obtaining such knowledge, submit to the Attorney General a report containing—
“(A) the mailing address, telephone number, facsimile number, and electronic mailing address of, and individual point of contact for, such provider;
“(B) information described in subsection (c) concerning such facts or circumstances; and
“(C) for purposes of subsection (j), information indicating whether the facts or circumstances were discovered through content moderation conducted by a human or via a non-human method, including use of an algorithm, machine learning, or other means.
WTF? We're gonna be required to narc on people struggling with addiction now, even if they're trying to quit? That's bad for everyone involved. I sure won't be hosting nothing in the US again if this passes.
Noooo, AI mods and Admins on every platform will do it for you. You, as a mod, simply have to maintain plausible deniability that you were illiciting more details and not warning people about not sharing info.
You know, just like being trans - keep your questions about everything a secret or you'll be arrested.
In practice, it's impossible to determine the purpose of purchases. If someone talks about their experience of buying from a dealer without further context, you'd have to narc. Or, you open yourself up to legal liabilities.
Besides, people buy on behalf of others all the time. People share with others. Substance use is often not a solitary activity. This law would create a situation where it's risky for you if you do not narc every time.
The bill suggests that violations may be “discovered through content moderation conducted by a human or via a non-human method, including use of an algorithm, machine learning, or other means.” Automated snooping on people’s private correspondence should constitute unlawful search. Fuck that.
Basically, if you've ever posted anything about a controlled substance online, the new Palantir - powered super-surveillance state will hold that data until it's ready to either use it to fuck you harder, or as all they need to fuck you if they don't like you.
No (at least not per the language of the act) . Paragraph 2 which it references does not include cases of possession or purchasing for personal use, or personal use itself etc. You have to have spoken about specifically making or selling fentanyl, meth, or prescription pain meds or stimulants (and falsely claiming to be a doctor).
Trump does a ton of drugs! I know a guy who'd been at parties where he personally witnessed Donald snorting huge, fat lines of cocaine. That's not even counting all of the crack he'd smoke. Enough to kill a horse. He'd send out his people and they'd come back with just pounds of cocaine and crack.
What he really like, though, was Angel Dust. Man, that guy could put away epic amounts of Angel Dust, and then he'd stumble around the room groping anything with legs. I heard that when Donald Trump was on a dust binge he'd break out his stash of the child pornography, drop trou and just start wacking it there in front of everybody. Christ, Donald Trump loves his angel dust and child pornography.
Big piece of this is paragraph 2 referenced, which reads:
“(2) FACTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES.—The facts or circumstances described in this paragraph are any facts or circumstances establishing that a crime is being or has already been committed involving—
“(A) creating, manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, or possession with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense—
“(i) fentanyl; or
“(ii) methamphetamine;
“(B) creating, manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, or possession with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense a counterfeit substance, including a counterfeit substance purporting to be a prescription drug; or
“(C) creating, manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, or possession with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense an actual or purported prescription pain medication or prescription stimulant by any individual or entity that is not authorized, which includes an individual or entity that falsely claims to be a practitioner.
Hmm how long until Hollywood sees this and demands the same of anyone discussing engaging in online piracy?
Also an interesting thought. What if this isn't actually meant to get all drug producers or users talking online but the companies? This could be meant to be used as a threat and a sledgehammer against the tech companies. Basically they pass this, let them rack up not reporting anything for months, years, then come and hit them with a lawsuit demanding internal moderation logs and data and threaten to rake them over the coals for thousands of built up violations BUT then they offer to instead drop all that in exchange for them changing their moderation policies in a certain political way to suit the administration and some token reforms to address the law which won't be scrutinized further if they comply with the political censorship wants.
French lawyers have submitted a request to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for an investigation into the role of French officials "in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide" by Israeli forces against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In a 56-page communication made public by the French investigative media outlet Blast on Monday, the 114 lawyers named President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu and 19 lawmakers of the National Assembly's European Affairs Committee.
A communication to the ICC is the equivalent of a criminal complaint to the court on an alleged crime falling under its jurisdiction.
French lawyers have submitted a request to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for an investigation into the role of French officials "in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide" by Israeli forces again…
There would be a bigger leftist movement if the CIA’s saboteurs weren’t so successful at insulting /alienating liberals - which they do deliberately because they know an honest and educated liberal is most likely to become a leftist.
I’m saying that attacking the very people most likely to take your side is classic sabotage behavior.
Doing so only makes sense only from the perspective of someone who wants to ensure no large leftist movement in the west.
Then attacking, ridiculing, and dog piling on the real leftists that point this out further sabotages any meaningful leftist movement. As already demonstrated here.
One problem with that presumptuous line of thinking:, liberals are not most likely to take our side: any cursory breeze though a history book (or look at the news) will show that they just take fascism's side while sanctimoniously lecturing leftists.
This is like when liberals complain about leftists "splitting the movement" by daring to have standards. There is no splitting, you are not in the movement. Fedjacketing people for pointing out that genocide enablers aren't comrades won't magically make you a leftist.
It's more sabotage behavior to call leftists agitating liberals to get them to read theory feds. Rather than trying to provide alternatives to get liberals to read theory, you're defending liberals against leftists while claiming to be a "real leftist." That's wrecker behavior.
'You' can, you just have to be a big brain erudite to come to conclusions that took several intellectual giants' work throughout centuries. The kind of mind that comes once every thousand years a la Solomon.
Respectfully, you just cannot conceive it because of Dunning-Kruger and because you've never been in a position in which you had to 'create a working ideology for society from scratch'. A part of me also thinks that "saying you need recipes to cook complex meals is big gatekeeping energy", then I fuck everything up and remember I'm both ignorant and naturally incompetent when it comes to cooking. No, we WANT to believe it's different, but it's not, and a wise person understands their limitations.
Education is still important, because people's openness to new ideas depends on their current material conditions. As conditions decay, radicalization increases, and so does people's willingness to get organized and read theory.
It's more that leftists have been discussing and bringing about better societies for centuries, agitating and organizing, so if we want to take things seriously we need to learn from what works and what doesn't. That's why I made an introduductory Marxist-Leninist reading guide. It's to help people new to theory.
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
The Principles of Communism is really a nice intro to communist theory, I have it as the first work read in the introductory Marxist-Leninist reading guide I made. That being said, it likely isn't creating a communist yet, just planting the seeds for one. Education doesn't have to just take the form of telling others to read theory, explaining concepts also helps, like imperialism.
Imperialism is the highest stage of the capitalist mode of production, in which monopolies and cartels become the prevalent economic force of society. Lenin synthesized...
It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Reading theory helps us identify the core contradictions within modern society, analyze their trajectories, and gives us the tools to break free. Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!
Section I: Getting Started
What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?
Breaks down fascism and its mortal enemy, Communism, as well as their antagonistic relationship. Understanding what fascism is, where and when it rises, why it does so, and how to banish it forever is critical. Parenti also helps debunk common anti-Communist myths, from both the "left" and the right, in a quick-witted writing style. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.
Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism
By far my favorite primer on Marxist philosophy. By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!
Further reading on Dialectical and Historical Materialism, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates. This is also where Engels talks about the failures of previous "Utopian" Socialists.
Section III: Political Economy
That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value. Marx is targetting those not trained in economics here, but you might want to keep a pen and some paper to follow along if you are a visual person.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions. Marxist-Leninists understand that Imperialism is the greatest contradiction in the modern era, which cascades downward into all manner of related contradictions. Knowing what dying Capitalism looks like, and how it behaves, means we can kill it.
Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism
Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?
If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't possible, which Luxemburg proves in this monumental writing.
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, without needing to be replaced with one that is run by the workers, in their own interests.
Section V: Intersectionality and Solidarity
The revolution will not be fought by atomized individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Intersectionality is critical, because it allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a broad movement.
Critical reading on understanding misogyny, transphobia, enbyphobia, pluralphobia, and homophobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender." Uses the foundations built up in the previous works to analyze gender theory from a Historical Materialist perspective.
De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor a path to justice. Fanon analyzes Colonialism's dehumanizing effects, and lays out how to form a de-colonial movement, as well as its necessity.
Solidarity and intersectionality are the key to any social movement. When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, the movements are emboldened and empowered ever-further.
Section VI: Putting it into Practice!
It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!
Mao wrote simply and directly, targeting peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader with the ability to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice, and better understand problems.
Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!
With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.
Get organized. Join a Leftist org, find solidarity with fellow comrades, and protect each other. The Dems will not save you, it is up to us to protect ourselves. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and Freedom Road Socialist Organization both organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle, not a single election. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one! Or, see if there's an org you like more near you and join it.
Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it! Don't speak nonsense, but listen!
Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody be forgotten or left behind. There is strength in numbers, when one marginalized group is targeted, many more are sure to follow.
Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your problem-solving capabilities. Not only will you improve your skill at one subject, but your general problem-solving muscles get strengthened as well.
Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others. Liberals will not save us, we must save each other.
Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. Oh, how our efforts pile up! With consistency, every rock, boulder, even mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but steady and persistent water droplets.
"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a national organization of revolutionaries fighting for socialism in the United States. Our home is in the working class.
At the very least it would get people to start grasping what communism even is, instead of them creating vibes-based strawmen in their heads that they argue against.
I'm not disagreeing, I meant for The Principles of Communism specifically because it's such a short read. If most people read it just once it would save so much time that's usually spent clearing up misconceptions in conversations.
I wish most people would start with that instead of the Manifesto of the Communist Party (or "The Communist Manifesto" as most people call it). It gets through most of the misconceptions in a much faster and simpler way. I like that you have it listed first in your reading list.
Zikeji
in reply to dil • • •Ripgrep (rg) instead of grep or ack. Stupid fast.
yt-dlp since I don't see it mentioned.
Drop tmux and use zellij (if you are scared of tmux, zellij is easier to learn IMO).
Eager Eagle
in reply to dil • • •dua-cli- file storage analyzer, ncdu alternativetopgrade- one tool to upgrade all package managersGitHub - Byron/dua-cli: View disk space usage and delete unwanted data, fast.
GitHubhexagonwin
in reply to dil • • •TootSweet
in reply to dil • • •I'm a big fan of jq. It's a domain-specific language for manipulating JSON data.
ImageMagick is like ffmpeg but for images.
inotify-tools has command-line utilities that can be used in a Bash script or a Bash one-liner to make arbitrary things "happen" when something "happens" to a file or directory. (Then the file is opened or written to or renamed or whatever.)
I probably should mention rsync. It's like a swiss army knife for copying files from one place to another. And it supports "keeping files syncronized" between two locations.
Of course, there's tons of stuff that you pretty much can't talk about Bash scripting without mentioning. Sed, awk, grep, find, etc.
Also, I totally relate about the terminal giving more dopamine. I kinda just hate going on a point-and-click adventure to do things like image editing or whatever. To the point that I've written a whole-ass domain-specific-language to do what I want rather than use Gimp. (And I'm working on another whole-ass domain-specific-language to do a traditionally-GUI-app sort of task.)
jq
jqlang.orgharsh3466
in reply to TootSweet • • •jqis indispensable.Badabinski
in reply to TootSweet • • •columncan take tabular data and convert it into JSON really easily. It's like the perfect text stream.balsoft
in reply to Badabinski • • •harsh3466
in reply to dil • • •zoxide. It'scdbut better. It remembers which directories you've navigated to, and fuzzy finds them.So instead of typing:
cd /really/long/path/to/sime/dirYou can type:
zoxide dirAnd it'll take you right to the directory.
I've got it aliased to
zdso I type:zd dirAnd I'm there.
GitHub - ajeetdsouza/zoxide: A smarter cd command. Supports all major shells.
GitHubdizzy
in reply to harsh3466 • • •biocoder.ronin
in reply to dizzy • • •.gitconfigsuch as 'ga $fname' (where "fname" would be files you want to add) the alias for git add. You can also do the same thing with gc, gs, etc and if youre like me and you write dozens of lines of code a day, it can save you a lot of time.harsh3466
in reply to biocoder.ronin • • •glfor git log with my flags, but have been too lazy to add more aliases.harsh3466
in reply to dizzy • • •cally [he/they]
in reply to dil • • •things i use:
lsbut with some more featuresGitHub - gitui-org/gitui: Blazing 💥 fast terminal-ui for git written in rust 🦀
GitHubbalsoft
in reply to cally [he/they] • • •Not only less configuration required, but also semantic navigation (jump around the AST directly with simple keybindings). I can't use a code editor without it now.
cally [he/they]
in reply to balsoft • • •just searched up abstract syntax tree in helix, and i learned about syntax aware motions. how had i never heard of them before? they look very useful! thanks for mentioning that
Syntax aware motions
docs.helix-editor.comrhabarba
in reply to dil • • •GitHub - toolleeo/awesome-cli-apps-in-a-csv: The largest Awesome Curated list of command line programs (CLI/TUI) with source data organized into CSV files
GitHubEphera
in reply to dil • • •Well, seeing them in the list like that rubs me the wrong way. 😅
Both of those come with a CLI, called
gitanddockerrespectively, which is the official way of using them. These CLIs might not be particularly sexy, depending on who you ask, but they're decent enough and worth learning, even if you go thelazy*route, since online resources all just explain the official CLIs and you might find yourself one day administering remote systems where you can't install additional software...www-gem
in reply to dil • • •I rely on cli tools for a lot of things too. Here's a list:
tmux: terminal multiplexer
zsh (with fzf zsh completion): shell
fzf: fuzzy finder
doas: sudo replacement
bat: cat replacement
fd: find replacement
advcpmv: cp/mv replacement
eza: ls replacement
zenith: htop replacement
trash-cli: trash management
neomutt: email client (notmuch is a most recommended addition)
neovim (and plugins): text/code editor
buku: internet bookmarks manager
tut: mastodon client
ucollage: image viewer
udevil: (un)mounting removable devices and networks without a password
magic-tape: youtube search/download and more
rofi: used with scripts to do a lot of things
pass: password manager
yazi: file explorer
iwd: wireless manager
khal: calendar and webdav sync with vdirsyncer
taskjuggler: complete task manager
newsboat: feed aggregator
fwupd: firmware updater
chawan: web browser
ncmpcpp: mpd-client
duf: disk usage
abook: contacts manager
I have some of them detailed here.
This GitHub also has a long list.
Edit: added abook and duf to the list
Cli
www-gem wordscmnybo
in reply to dil • • •GNU Parallel - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
www.gnu.orgMaiq
in reply to dil • • •nvtop: visualize nvidia GPU usage and memorytop: monitor/manage processes althoughps aux | grep appNameis still my goto.pyenv: easily install and use any python versionipython: a customizable python interpreter. I have figured out many poorly documented modules using ipython and great for exploring modules.after hitting tab will show all attributes related to your imported module, use arrow keys to select methods == profit!
nethogs: monitor network connections by app.firejail: app sandboxingGrappleHat
in reply to dil • • •Unpopular opinion maybe: many of the suggestions here are not worth the time.
Buy I'll add one to the mix:
yt-dlpI use a lot to download YouTube videos. Very robust.DigitalDilemma
in reply to GrappleHat • • •dil
in reply to GrappleHat • • •Landless2029
in reply to GrappleHat • • •tuna
in reply to dil • • •I've been meaning to try out netpbm
If you aren't aware, pbm represents an image with plaintext, which makes it great for when you want to easily create an image with code
I recently learned there is a whole suite of CLI tools which work with the format. Like conversion to/from png, scaling, and overlaying one image on top of another.
alt_xa_23
in reply to dil • • •EarlGrey
in reply to alt_xa_23 • • •Amazing tool but sadly abandoned and slowly getting more and more unstable and difficult to build
The better options:
Interstellar_1
in reply to dil • • •streamripfor ripping music from streaming servicesDecker108
in reply to dil • • •My list is a bit software developer-centric, but can be useful for development-adjacent tasks too.
juipeltje
in reply to dil • • •Good old nano is something i use a lot, although i am considering finally giving micro a try, heard a lot of good things about it, and i want something with a bit more features in the terminal, but i really hate vim keybinds. I also really like rmpc, which is an mpd client with album art support, though i am not using it anymore at the moment because i realized mpd wasn't really what i was looking for when it comes to music players.
Edit: also want to mention cyanrip. Really good cli cd ripper with a lot sane defaults, easy to use, and in terms of accuracy probably the closest thing to EAC on windows.
s-tui is also great. It's a tui stress testing utility. I still use it every now and then even if it's just to test if my fan curve is actually working by putting some load on the cpu.
k4j8
in reply to dil • • •aerc - a pretty good email client
aerc-mail.orgPapamousse
in reply to dil • • •Well, I used vi a lot, but seriously nano is better especially for beginner.
I also use DoubleCommander instead of midnight one
seralth
in reply to Papamousse • • •Mordikan
in reply to dil • • •lazydocker:terminal based docker managementncdu: disk usage analyzernmtui: terminal based network managementbrowsh: terminal based web browser with headless Firefox backendFerk
in reply to Mordikan • • •duaoverncdu, specially when called interactively (dua i), since you can explore the results in parallel before it finishes scanning, while it updates asynchronously.GitHub - Byron/dua-cli: View disk space usage and delete unwanted data, fast.
GitHublike this
Mordikan likes this.
𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍
in reply to dil • • •Oh boy. This is a rabbit hole which, once you fall into, there's no coming back out.
There is a world of terminal software. You can, quite reasonably, get entirely rid of X (and Wayland) and live in the console. Honestly, the reason I don't is only because there is no fully competent terminal web browser (although there are some quite good ones), and because anything having to do with graphics like photo management, or vector graphics drawing, is really where GUIs are useful. But for everything else, terminal clients are almost always superior.
Choosing a good terminal emulator is important, and the best one right now is Rio. It's fast, smaller memory footprint, and less CPU use than Wezterm or Kitty, and it supports ligatures, iTerm, and SIXEL graphics.
In that goes tmux, because it works over ssh and having consistent everywhere is handy, because it survives terminal and window manager crashes, and because you can open multiple clients in different windows on the same tmux session.
In that runs zsh, because it's the best shell. It's backwards-compatible to bash, but has a ton of extra features.
I'm conservative about replacing standard POSIX tools with new fad tools, because grep is literally everywhere (even BusyBox) and new things usually aren't; but ripgrep and fd are such nice improvements over grep and find I've been unable to resist. Helix is currently the best text editor. However, having a good familiarity with grep, find, and vi is IMHO critical, because they're the foundations.
My media player is ostui, which is an ncurses SubSonic client with synced lyrics and cover art support. I use catnip for visualization, because it uses less memory and CPU than cava. For task management I use a bespoke script (tdp) that use fzf with todo.txt files. I use gotop for system monitoring.
I try to use chawan for terminal web browsing, and it does do CSS layout better than most, and supports sixel image rendering, but it's often a chore so I mostly browse in Luakit, which is a GUI program.
rook is my secret service tool that uses a KeePassXC DB as the backing store, and provides credentials to everything that needs them.
dinit handles all of my user task management, because systemd is fucking broken for user tasks. dinit is a better init system.
Almost every application I use is a cli or TUI client. The exceptions are the web browser, for reasons I've explained; Jami, which doesn't have a CLI client; Factorio, which is a game; and darktable for photo management. I'll also occasionally open Gimp or Inkscape for graphics, vlc for movies (which I could probably watch in the terminal, now that I think of it), and I usually view PDFs in a GUI client such as mupdf.
My philosophy on software is to use standards wherever possible. I avoid programs that insist on using their own DBs when there's a perfectly good standard, such as ics, maildir, and so on. It's just another form of vender lock-in. Hence notmuch (maildir), khard and lbb (directory of .ics), khal (directory of .vcs), rook (KeePass DB), and so on. This drives most of my tooling choices.
GitHub - noriah/catnip: terminal audio visualizer for linux/unix/macOS/windblows*
GitHubgramgan
in reply to dil • • •bluetuithis great for managing Bluetooth devices.psykon
in reply to dil • • •I often work with media files. These are some tools I really like in this domain:
GitHub - dnglab/dnglab: Camera RAW to DNG file format converter
GitHubcorsicanguppy
in reply to dil • • •biocoder.ronin
in reply to dil • • •bottom/btm - htop/top replacement
zed editor
obs-studio (not CLI exactly)
Dessalines
in reply to dil • • •Some I haven't seen mentioned yet:
GitHub - ClementTsang/bottom: Yet another cross-platform graphical process/system monitor.
GitHubfreijon
in reply to dil • • •Nushell
nushell.sh