I love finding cool and useful apps to use on my Linux PC, and this week I found some real gems. They include an icon generator, a classic games launcher, and a storage use analyzer.
I usually try to find a common thread for all the apps I’m talking about each week. This week, one of those threads escapes me. Instead, I’d like to show you one of my secrets to finding useful software: the KDE apps database. It’s a treasure trove of free and open source software developed under the KDE umbrella. It’s categorized for easy reference, too.
Emblem
Create icons and avatars without design skills (or AI)
If you’re like me, you’re often making group chats, community servers, projects, and social profiles. These often benefit from having some kind of logo or insignia representing them. It makes your chat really stand out when you have a good icon showcasing what it’s all about. Making decent ones without graphic design skills, though, is a challenge.
The Emblem app is just for that. It serves no purpose except creating simple but attractive icons without any design skills necessary. You simply upload a symbolic SVG file, click the toggles and color choosers to customize its appearance, then save it as either a PNG or SVG file. Easy, right?
The most challenging part is just sourcing a symbol to center the emblem around. If you can create a basic, monochromatic symbol, then great. If you can’t, you’ll need to dig into your /usr/share/icons folder to find them. Google also makes its Material icons on Google Fonts available for download as SVGs, which might also work for you.
Emblem is part of the GNOME Circle, meaning it’s easily downloadable and fits well on GNOME desktops. You can search for it in your software manager, or download it from Flathub. Arch folks can install it with sudo pacman -S emblem.
Filelight
“Circular” disk usage exploration
Running out of space on your computer is getting more and more expensive these days as storage prices are skyrocketing and show no signs of slowing. So how do you make the most of the storage on hand?
You could use terminal tools like df to view disk usage, or you could get an intuitive graphical tool for visualizing your storage use called Filelight. When you launch Filelight, you can select your home folder or root folder (or find another folder, like an external drive), and Filelight will scan recursively in that folder and its subfolders to reveal which folders are consuming the most storage.
Filelight breaks down storage consumption with concentric circles forming a sort of multi-tiered pie graph that you can navigate. Each circle represents a directory layer, and the circle is broken into pie slices representing each directory or file. You can click on directories to dive deeper into them and see how storage is consumed within that directory.
How to Install and Use Linux Apps on a Chromebook
Turns out, Chromebooks are more capable than I thought.
I found it interesting to find storage hogs this way. For example, Firefox I learned was using up hundreds of megabytes just with its .config file.
If you want to try it yourself, you can find Filelight on Flathub and on Snapcraft. It’s available in most Linux repositories too, so you can either search your software browser for it or use one of these commands in your terminal:
sudo apt install filelight #Debian and Ubuntu
sudo dnf install filelight #Fedora
sudo pacman -S filelight #Arch
sudo zypper install filelight #openSUSE
Minigalaxy
A simple launcher for GoG games
GoG (Good Old Galaxy) has long been known as one of the best sources of classic PC games preserved and optimized for modern computers. If you own games there, though, you probably know that getting them installed on Linux isn’t always a straightforward process.
Minigalaxy is one of many game launchers for Linux out there that seek to make playing games from a digital collection easy. What makes Minigalaxy different though is its simplicity and focus. It supports just one storefront: GoG. You can sign in to your account and instantly see all your Linux games ready to download, install, and start playing.
Minigalaxy goes beyond Linux games though and also makes Windows games playable through its built-in Wine support. Just make sure, after signing in to GoG, you go to Preferences > Show Windows Games to enable it.
Yes, You Can Get the Epic Games Store on Your Linux PC. Here’s How
Playing Epic Games on Linux isn’t a dream anymore.
In the past I’ve recommended Heroic Games Launcher for GoG library management as well as for Epic Games and Amazon Games. While I stand by that recommendation, I’d also promote Minigalaxy to anyone who prefers a simplified, no-hassle experience.
Minigalaxy is available across Linux repositories, so you can just search your software browser for it and you’ll likely find it. It’s also available on Flathub and
You can also install it from your distro repositories through one of these terminal commands:
sudo apt install minigalaxy #Debian and Ubuntu
sudo dnf install minigalaxy #Fedora
paru -S minigalaxy #Arch via AUR
sudo zypper install minigalaxy #openSUSEStill need more software for your Linux PC? Make sure you didn’t miss last weekend’s app roundup, when I talked about an image comparison tool, a thought organizer, and a power management analyzer.
