The Best Command Line Replacements for Bloated Desktop Apps

Command line utilities are often reserved for only the geekiest amongst us, but many of them are actually a lot better than desktop alternatives. In fact, many are easier to use, waste less resources, and often have more keyboard shortcuts. Let's take a look at a few of the best.

On the surface, the command line is a scary and dangerous place, but it's a lot easier to work with than it seems at first. Once you get the hang of the command line, you can do all kinds of fun stuff in there, including replacing some of your desktop apps with command line versions that take up less space and use less system resources. Don't be scared, dive in, and check out some software.

Pianobar Plays Pandora, no Flash Required

Pianobar is a lightweight utility that allows you to manage your Pandora radio stations from the command line. This means you don't need a browser running or Flash installed. That's great on its own, but the real appeal of Pianobar is the customizable keyboard shortcuts. You can customize keybindings to whatever you want, so playing, skipping, and liking songs is super easy.

Castnow Streams Movies to Chromecast without Chrome

If you want to stream movies from your computer to your Chromecast, it's easy as long as you have Google Chrome installed. If you don't like Chrome, Castnow is an alternative way to stream right from the command line. With it, you can stream videos from your hard drive, YouTube videos, and even torrents. As you'd expect, you also get a ton of useful keyboard shortcuts as well.

Gifify Builds GIFs Quickly and Easily

There are tons of options for making your own GIFs, but most require a bit of skill and some extra desktop software. Gifify does everything from the command line and it's a lot easier to use because of it. With just a few commands, you can create a GIF out of any video you have in a matter of seconds. All you need to do is point Gifify to the video, pick a start and stop time, and off you go.

Todo.sh Makes Writing Your To-Do List Easy on Any System

We're big fans of plain text for to-dos because it simplifies your to-do list to just the basics. If you want to take that a step further, Gina Trapani's command line version of Todo.txt is for you. With it, you can edit your to-dos, archive tasks, and do just about anything else you'd need to do with a to-do list. The best part is that your to-dos are kept in the command line where they're out of the way when you don't need them, and easy to pull up when you do.

Vim Is a Distraction-Free, Keyboard Driven Writing App

You have a zillion options for text editing apps out there. If you want a distraction-free experience and don't feel like paying for an app, then Vim is for you. It's an incredibly powerful programming text editor that lets you customize it in a ton of different ways. It's also packed with enough keyboard shortcuts that once you get the hang of it, you'll never want to use a mouse again. That said, getting the hang of Vim can take some effort, but thankfully some apps that teach you the basics.

H264enc Encodes Videos, DVDs, and Blu-Rays

For whatever reason, programs that encode videos, DVDs, and Blu-Rays tend to be filled with other useless junk so they're often a bit obnoxious to use. H264enc uses MEncoder to simplify encoding down to the absolute basics. With it, you can easily convert video files, DVDs, and Blu-Rays to the H.264 format, including MKV, AVI, and more by just typing in a command. If you're not the type of person to convert videos all the time, H264enc is nice to have around in place of the more bloated desktop alternatives (we still love Handbrake though).

Photos ADE2013

from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/the-best-command-line-replacements-for-bloated-desktop-1675386357

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