Recommended software index
All of the software on this list is open-source. I try to pick lesser-known programs and link to them here.
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Games
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Emulators
- RPCS3 - PlayStation 3 emulator. Relatively stable for most games, but make sure to read wiki entries and apply changes to the configuration as needed. Used to crash on macOS a few months back, but works fine now.
- PCSX2 - PS2 emulator. Works VERY well, over 99% of games are compatible. Only real issue I had was lag in a cutscene in Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, but outside of that everything performs smoothly. Sadly, there's no Linux ARM version, so I wouldn't be able to run it in Asahi.
- RetroArch - Emulator launcher that supports many different emulators (cores). It works well for NES and SNES games, but has many more options (DS, PSP, PS1, GameCube/Wii) that I haven't tested.
- Delta - Nintendo game emulator for iOS. It has a much cleaner overlay when playing DS games (RetroArch would cover the bottom screen), but the game selection screen is buggy, with tiles occasionally disappearing.
- PySolFC - A collection of solitaire games written in Python. Latest versions are broken on macOS, so if you use it, download version 3.1.0 instead.
- The Powder Toy - One of those falling-sand simulators.
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Utility
- LibreWolf - One of the better web browsers available. It has a built-in ad blocker (though it is dependent on Mozilla's continued support of MV2). Here is an overview in terms of network requests.
- Zim - Text editor designed for note-taking. What you edit is actually plain-text files, so there is no vendor lock-in.
- LuLu - Firewall for macOS. It can block both third-party applications and system daemons, though I'm not sure if it can catch everything.
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Other