There’s a common belief that Windows has more apps — and better ones, too — than Linux.And sure, that’s true in a few categories.If your work depends on Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Cloud, Windows is definitely the better platform.
However, that superiority doesn’t hold across the board.Some really capable apps exist only on Linux, so if you’re on Windows, you can’t use them.Here are three of my favorite Linux-exclusive apps.
Dolphin file manager This ruined every other file manager for me Close Dolphin is, in my opinion, the best file manager I’ve used on any OS.It strikes an excellent balance between functionality and accessibility.By default, when you open it, you see a basic and intuitive layout.
However, as you start digging around, you’re going to find dozens of powerful tools that can supercharge your file management workflow in ways you never thought were possible.To start, my favorite Dolphin feature is split view.It lets you open two directories (folders) side by side, which comes in handy when comparing or moving files between them.
You can also attach extra metadata to your files and folders in the form of tags, ratings, and comments.This is an absolute game changer for better file organization and makes searching and filtering a lot more precise and powerful.On top of that, you have the ability to create custom actions for the right-click context menu — something power users are going to love.
For example, you can add an action that lets you right-click an image and directly convert it using ImageMagick, calculate a file’s SHA-256 checksum, move a file directly into a specific folder, or simply run a custom terminal command on it.And speaking of the terminal, if you press F4, you can open an embedded terminal right inside Dolphin, which lets you run commands on the files in the active directory.Now, when it comes to using Dolphin, it’s the default file manager on Kubuntu and other KDE Plasma-based distros.
On other distros, you can install it using Flatpak.Technically, you can also get it on Windows, but it’s an untested, unstable nightly build.As such, from a usability standpoint, I consider it Linux-exclusive.
Related I always install these 7 Flatpak apps on my Linux PCs Make your Linux system awesome with these seven Flatpaks.Posts 7 By Dibakar Ghosh Gwenview Proof that “lightweight” doesn’t have to mean “limited” Close Before Gwenview, I used to use an image viewer to “view” images and an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP if I needed to “edit” them.However, a lot of the time, you only need to make very minor edits — like annotating a screenshot or hiding some information before sharing it — and having to open a full-fledged image editor for that feels like overkill.
Gwenview fixes that by being as fast and responsive as you’d expect from an image viewer, all while packing in all the basic editing tools you might need.It lets you crop, rotate, flip, and resize images, adjust colors, and even reduce red-eye.There are also comprehensive annotation tools, including arrows, shapes, text boxes, stickers, number counters, the ability to blur specific regions, and more.
There’s even built-in file management support, so you can copy, move, and delete images from inside Gwenview without opening a file manager.It’s also a more capable image viewer that allows you to open multiple images side by side, with support for synchronized zooming and panning.This makes it a practical choice for scrutinizing multiple images against each other.
In fairness, the Windows 11 Photos app does let you view images side-by-side with its filmstrip feature, but lacks support for synchronized zooming and panning — making it not as useful.Now, similar to Dolphin, Gwenview is a KDE app and the default image viewer on KDE Plasma-based distros.You can also install it on other distros using Flatpak, but there’s no Windows version this time — not even an experimental one.
Granted, you could technically run Gwenview through WSL on Windows, but I didn’t have a great experience doing that.Related My favorite Linux app didn’t exist on Windows—so I built a better one with Claude I couldn’t wait any longer for the developer to port their Linux app to Windows—so I vibe-coded my own version.Posts 5 By Dibakar Ghosh GParted Windows power users boot into Linux just to use this one Close GParted is the Linux equivalent of Windows Disk Management, only much more powerful and feature-rich.
The Windows utility only covers the basics — you can use it to create, delete, extend, and shrink partitions.However, with GParted, you unlock a whole new level of partition manipulation.One of the most useful features of GParted is that it lets you move partitions.
Imagine you have a 1TB drive split into a 200GB C: drive, a 300GB D: drive, and a 500GB E: drive.Now let’s say you want to delete E and add that space to C, making it 700GB.Windows Disk Management can’t do this because it only lets you extend a partition into unallocated space that’s directly adjacent to it.
You could merge E’s space into D, but not into C, because D is in the way.With GParted, you can move D: to the end of the drive so the free space sits next to C:, and then extend C: into it.You can also copy partitions from one disk to another, which makes GParted particularly useful when cloning or migrating partitions.
I should also mention that, unlike Windows Disk Management, GParted works with both Windows and Linux filesystems.You can use it with common Windows filesystems such as NTFS, FAT32, and FAT16, as well as Linux filesystems such as EXT4, Btrfs, XFS, and others.This is why plenty of Windows power users reach for GParted when they need more control over their disk partition layouts.
That said, GParted is Linux-exclusive.As a Windows user, you therefore need to boot into a Linux environment to use it.This means you either need to dual-boot into Linux or use the GParted Live image, which lets you write the image to a USB drive and boot into it directly.
Unfortunately, there’s no GParted app you can simply install and run on Windows.Related 4 ways Windows is trying to sabotage your Linux dual-boot Windows wants to be your only OS.It's up to you whether it succeeds.
Posts 9 By Arol Wright Linux doesn’t have fewer apps — it just has different apps Windows might have Photoshop and Microsoft Office, but that doesn’t mean Linux is lacking.In fact, most Linux distros have really good apps for handling basic system-level tasks, not to mention better tools for many technical workloads.As such, if you don’t strictly need Office or Adobe apps, Linux can be the better platform because the tools you use for everyday tasks are genuinely better here.
Related Yes, Linux can do 'real work'—here are 5 things I do on my Linux PC Linux is not just for servers and hobbyists—it's also for working professionals.Posts 8 By Dibakar Ghosh
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