disclaimer: i'm not gonna say any of these are "replacements for" or "alternatives to" whatever you use on windows. these are just decent bits of software that i use in my life!
firefox (web browser). not happy with mozilla as a company but i have no real complaints about firefox itself.
lollypop (music player). i used itunes for years and this is kinda like that. i might try to fork it one day just cause i think the UI could be a lot better, but we'll see if that day ever comes. of the linux library-style music players, it's the one i like best.
krita (art/graphics). i use this for really justβ¦ anything and everything with graphics TBH! drawing, comics, animation, graphic design, it suits my needs nicely. the text tool is bad but they're actively working on that right now so π€
aseprite (pixel art). i don't post much of my pixel stuff but i use this enough that i bought it after trying a borrowed copy. not free but you can borrow a copy from a friend easily! edit: apparently it's free if you compile from source!
kdenlive (video). i don't do a lot of video work, but this has done everything i've needed a video program for, and i've barely scratched the surface of what all it can do.
tenacity (audio editing). i use this mostly for making music (especially using samples) but it's also just a good general purpose recording/editing program.
mednaffe, lutris, and steam. i play games and between these three i've got no shortage of em!
VLC. you probably already know what this is but, if not, it is a media player. i don't really use it for my music just cause i prefer the library-style software but for videos and whatever else it's my go-to!
OBS for streaming, nuff said.
kate for text editing.
libre office for word processing and spreadsheets. it can do other stuff too but i don't really use the other stuff!
there are others, of course, but that covers most of what i use my computer for! if anyone is like "i'd like to try linux but i don't know what programs to use" well, there's my recs!

