3 Game-Changing Linux Apps to Try This Month (August 2025)

I’m always on the lookout for better software to get the most out of my Linux computers. Here are a few free and open source apps I’ve come across recently that I think are worth giving a try, whether you spend most of your time browsing the web, using a terminal, or modifying files.

3

Ferdium: Make and Control Web Apps

If you have a website that stay open perpetually on your Linux desktop, and if you sometimes wish you had the site as a dedicated app instead of a tab in your browser, then Ferdium might be for you. It’s an app that keeps instances of websites (which Ferdium calls “services”) saved and contained, so that you can use them as if they’re dedicated apps rather than just sites you’re visiting in your browser.

Wish you had a YouTube desktop app? Add YouTube as a service. Want an Outlook app on Linux? Add an Outlook web mail service. Want to chat on Discord but just don’t feel like installing the Discord app? Add a Discord service. Each is sandboxed for privacy, and you can manipulate them in interesting ways, like doing a split view with each app visible in its own column.

Ferdium is based on another app called Franz, but the difference is that Ferdium doesn’t have the same pay-walled restrictions that Franz does. You also don’t need to make a Ferdium account to use it, but if you do use one, an account lets you sync your services and workspaces across devices. If you’re a homelabber like I am, you can even self-host Ferdium for synced accounts that are completely your own.

One drawback though is that Ferdium doesn’t support Widevine, a CRM (Content Rights Management) technology that allows copyrighted content like Spotify’s streams to be played. Judging from a Ferdium GitLab conversation, Google simply won’t allow them to add Widevine support, so it doesn’t look like there’s a chance for Spotify and other web apps that rely on CRM to work anytime soon.

I should acknowledge Ferdium isn’t the only Linux app that can do this kind of thing. Linux Mint has its own web app manager. Tangram also exists, though since it uses GTK it fits better in GNOME desktops than in the desktop environments I use. Tangram also seems to have issues with Outlook web mail; it kept forcing me to log in again at every session. The Ferdium experience seems more reliable and also more feature-rich.

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Ferdium also has far more installation options than Franz; it’s available as a DEB, RPM, Flatpak, Snap, AppImage, and you can find in the AUR and even on FreeBSD. Go to the Ferdium download page to see all your options.

2

btop: Pretty System Monitoring in the Terminal

Do like you monitoring your computer’s stats in the terminal? Do you ever wish the conventional method, the top command, had a little more, well, style? Ever wish you could customize the colors, feel, and layout as easily as you can your desktop?

Look no further than btop, sometimes styled as btop++. It’s a TUI (Terminal User Interface) that’s made with an attractive and modern appeal while still being flexible and offering you an in-depth look at what’s going on in your Linux system. It includes stats for your CPU, graphics card(s), RAM, hard disks, laptop battery, network connection, and active processes. You can also collapse and expand these stats, or dive into processes to get more info and terminate them if necessary.

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Customization on btop++ starts with the letter P, because if you hit that key on your keyboard, you can cycle through several presets that rearrange and display your data in several different ways. Hit the M key and you’ll see a retro game-style menu with options to configure the appearance further, including color themes and labels.

You’ll find btop++ in most software repositories. It’s usually labeled simply “btop”, but keep in mind it’s the same thing as btop++.

You may not be a media collector like I am, and if you aren’t, I apologize for the session of nerding I’m about to do.

I collect both physical and digital media, sometimes ripping digital copies from the physical. Often that results in a glut of MKV (Matroska) files, and those MKV files don’t often work exactly how I want them to.

For example, I might watch a Japanese movie I have saved in an MKV container, but it annoyingly defaults to the English dub track, which obviously I don’t want. I could just put up with changing audio tracks every time I watch the movie, but what if instead I changed the default?

That’s where MKVToolNix comes in. If I open the MKV file with it, I can do all kinds of things to the audio tracks, like add and remove them, delay or stretch them, relabel them, and add metadata flags like “Commentary,” in addition to changing which track is the default.

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That’s just the start of what it can do, though. MKVToolNix is actually a bundle of MKV-manipulating software glued together in one unified graphical interface. You can do everything from simply viewing detailed metadata to creating or modifying chapters to inserting subtitle files to merging multiple MKVs together. It’s my go-to when I need to get an MKV ready for upload to my Jellyfin server.

If you also find yourself frustrated with the state of your MKV files, then head to the MKVToolNix download page for instructions on where to get it.

If you want to hear about more apps worth trying every week, be sure to subscribe to our Linux newsletter by visiting the How-To Geek newsletter sign-up page and toggling on the Linux option!