Isn't that just one of the perks of Linux? Unlike windows where your pretty much forced to use Microsoft software on Linux you have a plethora of choices.

You can choose pretty much whichever Desktop you want, whichever default packages you want you can even choose between Default, Snap, Flatpak, app image and build from source.

There's no one size fits all on Linux, we all have our own unique set up

Terminal -> foot Text editor -> neovim, or more recently I've been trying Helix.

Those are the biggest two. I also recommend mpv over VLC.

I still haven't found a web service that really needs a chrome browser or that you cant' just trick with changing the user agent

I stared using Zen Browser instead of Firefox lately and i find it really good.

First thing I install is git, followed by emacs.

Then I download my init.el and my PC setup is complete.

Firefox -> Zen Browser

I use MPV as movie and general media player with my custom config as well as auto-crop and URI copy/paste scripts. It works better than any other media player I tried in the last 10 years. I only use VLC for DVD menus, but it sucks even at that task, because the cursor gets stuck and the menus lag even when playing from SSD folder.

I use Tauon Music Box as music player because of its design, easy playlist/library customizability and Jellyfin integration. I also pay for spotify and use spicetify with custom skins if the songs are available there.

Kröhnkite as real auto-tiling solution with KDE Plasma.

But I'm on Arch btw., so there is not much default software apart from what the KDE meta packages contain.

Kinda in the Pop!_OS - NixOS club but Zen Browser here.

Konsole - kitty Firefox - librewolf Bash - fish Juk - mpv

There isn't much in a default Gentoo install to replace. In most of the cases where a decision is possible, you make it during the install process. Thus, I have nothing to remove afterwards (but a lot to add!)

I’ve recently started using https://www.nushell.sh/, and while it’s not bash compatible, which can lead to some annoyances, it’s really excellent for working with terminal data in a clean and useful manner

On Ubuntu, replacing Firefox/Thunderbird snap version with actual deb version.

I think one of the few default things I've technically replaced on my laptop right now is Libreoffice's powerpoint software with the OpenOffice one because I am too dumb to figure out how to make it so Libreoffice's powerpoint software doesn't immediately default to every character having basically 0 spacing between each other every time I either make a new document or slide. That, and I can almost never find the right number of points to make the text look good no matter the font.

Also, I do have the Librewolf appimage, but I use it a little less than my slightly tweaked default Firefox install.

Otherwise I'm normally fine with defaults, besides installing gridplayer to watch things off my external HD so I can watch and resize my shows in a way I can't with other video players.

Ooh, not a "hot take" answer. I rather like MusikCube. It plays nice with putting my music on my NAS and running it from both my personal machines and my Windows/work machine too. I'm not specifically excited by it as a TUI, but it also works just fine as a basic-'03-iTunes-style-navigation clone. It's super boring in the most usable of ways.

My more "hot take" answer is that I replace the terminal program in Fedora with the boring arsed "Gnome Console" from vanilla Gnome. It does all the stuff I want it to do and nothing more. If I was slightly more different than me I might be upset that it doesn't do enough terminal things but I'm just me. :)

Firefox gets switched to Zen Browser (and before that, Floorp).

I also always download Okular for PDFs. It always seems to be better than whatever the default is.

I typically also substitute OnlyOffice for Libra Office.

I use gentoo: I only install what I like/want/need...

I replace Spectacle with Flameshot.

I don’t. I install a distro with sane defaults and get to work.

Bash with fish and GCC with Clang.

The default terminal (varies) gets switched to Kitty. VLC to MPV.

Okular instead of the default PDF editor (varies).

Text editor (varies) to Vim.

I usually just install Arkenfox, but if I'm feeling lazy I'll use Librewolf.

I prefer doas, but I don't usually switch to it.

I rebind my caps lock key (most useless key ever) to escape.