Archives For App Review

Foobar2000 fans? Here’s a similar music player designed for Linux with KDE Plasma, LxQt, etc Qt based desktop environments.

As you may know, Foobar2000 does not support Linux, but it can be installed through Wine. And, Ubuntu users can search & install the wine based version of the music player (unofficial) in App Center (or Ubuntu Software) through Snap package which runs in sandbox environment.

Fooyin Music Player

However, for those who prefer native Linux packages, there are free open-source alternatives, such as DeaDBeef and Audacious. While, in this tutorial I’m going to introduce Fooyin music player.

Fooyin is a free open-source application written mostly in C++ and uses Qt6 for its user interface that’s well integrated with KDE Plamsa, though it also works in all other Linux desktops.

It features a customizable user interface with layout editing mode, allowing to adjust the UI layout as user prefer. While, there are some built-in presets under “Layout” menu, allowing to one click change the app appearance.

Besides UI layout, it also supports custom keyboard shortcuts, plugins with extensible features, and a scripting language for advanced configuration of widgets.

The player uses FFmpeg library for the popular audio files support, including FLAC, MP3, MP4, Vorbis, Opus, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Monkey’s Audio. And, it supports VGM and tracker module formats playback.

Other changes include gapless playback, M3U/M3U8 playlists import/export, as well as:

  • CUE sheet support.
  • Tag editing.
  • MPRIS support.
  • ReplayGain support.
  • Scrobbling, and more.

Fooyin is still moving with new features. According to the road-map, it will probably add audio conversation, internet radio, DSP plugins, as well as musical spectrum widget support in future.

How to Install Fooyin in your Linux

The application is available to install by either .deb/.rpm packages for Fedora/Debian based systems, or Flatpak package in most Linux that runs in sandbox.

Option 1: Native .deb/.rpm packages

Fooyin offers pre-build packages for Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu, which are available to download in Github releases page via the link below:

So far the latest is version supports only Intel/AMD (x86_64 amd64) platform. You may select download .rpm package for Fedora, .deb package for Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint. If you don’t even know your Linux Distribution name / version, open terminal and run cat /etc/os-release command to tell.

After downloaded the package, either click open with your system package manager (e.g., Gnome Software, App Center, or Ubuntu Software) then install. Or, open terminal and run command below to install:

  • For Debian, Ubuntu:
    sudo apt install /path/to/deb
  • For Fedora:
    sudo dnf install /path/to/rpm

Instead of manually typing /path/to/deb-or-rpm, you may drag’n’drop it from file manager into terminal to auto insert the path.

Option 2: Flatpak package

For most Linux, the music player is also available to install as Flatpak package that runs in sandbox environment. And both amd64 (modern Intel/AMD) and arm64 (RasPi etc) platforms are supported.

Linux Mint 21/22 and Fedora Workstation (with 3rd party repository enabled) may search & install the package from either Software Manager or GNOME Software.

While Debian/Ubuntu and other Linux may follow the steps below one by one to install it:

  • First, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut in keyboard, and run command to install Flatpak daemon package:
    sudo apt install flatpak

    Other Linux may follow this setup guide to enable Flatpak support.

  • After that, run the single command below to install the app as Flatpak package:
    flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.fooyin.fooyin.flatpakref

    NOTE: Flatpak package will take more disk space, as it needs to install run-time libraries, also in sandbox.

After install the package, either search and start it from system application launcher. If this is the first time you install the flatpak package, then you may need a log out and back in to apply variable change.

Or run flatpak run org.fooyin.fooyin to start the app from terminal, and replace run with update in command to check updates.

Uninstall:

To uninstall the .deb package, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove --purge fooyin

Or run sudo dnf remove fooyin to remove the .rpm package for Fedora.

For the Flatpak package, use the command to remove:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.fooyin.fooyin

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless flatpak run-times from your system.

In the commands above --purge and --delete-data told to also remove local app data (e.g., personal app configurations). You can skip to keep them.

Looking for an app to quickly edit your images or screenshots for social media, blog posts, or websites? Here’s a new app to do the job in Linux Desktop.

It’s Gradia, a free and open-source tool written mostly in Python programming language, and uses GTK4 and LibAdwaita for its modern user interface that well integrated with GNOME Desktop.

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Looking for an application to play and organize classical music in Linux? Here’s one working in process.

It’s Musicus, a free open-source application written in Rust programming language, and uses GTK4 plus LibAdwaita for modern user interface that’s designed for GNOME Desktop.

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Looking for a graphical interface to manager Distrobox containers? Here’s modern new GTK4 client DistroShelf in development.

There are many popular containers, such as Docker, Podman, and LXC, allowing to run applications in isolated environments. And, Distrobox is the one that can run any Linux distribution inside terminal.

DistroShelf

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GNOME 48 introduced “Wellbeing” settings panel, allowing to monitor and limit screen time usage. It also has Break Reminders options that can remind user to take a break in given time interval.

If you like this feature, but running on old GNOME (e.g., Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04) or other desktop environments, then there’s a good alternative app called SafeEyes that can project your eyes by reminding or forcing to take a break!

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Want to benchmark or do stress test on your Linux PC or laptop? The all-in-one solution OCCT can now do the job for you!

OCCT, stands for Overclock Checking Tool, is a popular computer hardware stability testing, benchmark, and monitoring tool. It offers pro, enterprise, and command line versions that need to pay for use, as well as a personal use edition with all core functions for free.

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For Linux, there’s now new “Clipboard Pinner” app called Serigy for GNOME desktop.

It’s NOT a clipboard manager that can save and manage clipboard history. It works by selectively pinning (copy) clipboard content (text, image, URL, etc) into app window, then easily copy back to clipboard when needed with one click.

pinned items in Serigy

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Want to get refresh of your desktop background with new wallpapers every day? Here’s a new app to do the job for Linux with GNOME Desktop!

It’s Picture of The Day, a GTK4 application written in Rust programming language. With it, you may get wallpaper images from the following sources:

  • NASA Astronomy Picture Of The Day
  • Bing
  • Simon Stålenhag Artwork
  • Wikimedia Picture Of The Day

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Remember ‘Typhoon’, the stylish desktop weather widget? It’s revived and works in all current Ubuntu and other recent Linux Distributions!

Typhoon is a free open-source application forked from Stormcloud (no long under active development). It displays current weather conditions and weather forecast in next few days on desktop with widget in custom color background.

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Looking for a stateless password manager? There’s now a new LessPass compatible password manager designed for GNOME, though of course works in other Linux desktops.

It’s LPTK, a free open-source application written in Rust and use GTK4 for its user interface. With the app, you can generate and access your passwords, and optionally connect to a compatible LessPass server to read and store password profiles.

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