When Scott suggested I cover a new open-source app for Linux on the basis “it’s like Microsoft PowerToys for developers”, I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d be writing about — or why.
But after reading the website for DevToys (the app in question) where’s described as a “Swiss Army knife for developers”, things suddenly made more sense.
It’s basically a grab-bag of common developer tools baked into a single, offline-friendly utility.
DevToys bakes in 30 tools to “help with daily development tasks”, saving programmers, coders, and web builders time and effort as part of their workflow, and perhaps easing the frustration which often stems from switching between different apps, CLI tools, and websites.
To that end, DevToy’s overriding “USP” is one of convenience.
Every task it tackles can be achieved using other software, plugins, command-line tools, websites, or good ol’ fashioned manual effort. The benefit it provides is all of those tools are present, accessible, and easy to find in one place.
Although aimed at developers, a number of the tools included could prove useful for to non-devs too, e.g., comparing text, case converting, re-ordering lists, generating placeholder text, compressing JPEG and PNG images, and so on.
DevToys 2.0 offers 30 tools, including: –
- Converters for JSON <> YAML, date, number bases
- Encoders/Decoders for HTML, JWT, Base64, GZip, QR codes
- Formatters for JSON, SQL, XML
- Generators including hash, checksum, Lorem Ipsum, passwords
- Graphics tools like a colour blindness simulator, image compression/conversion
- Testers for JSONPath, RegEx, and XML
- Text helpers to preview markdown, compare text, change case, reorder
DevToys also boasts ‘smart detection’ to suggest the best tool(s) based on clipboard content (look for a lightbulb icon); provides a separate CLI version; and is extensible: anyone can build/add tools and make them available for other DevToys users to install.
A well-stocked Settings panel includes toggles and switches to customise the application’s behaviour, appearance, and tweak the text editor, e.g., choose a font, show/hide line numbers, enable line highlight, use word wrapping, and so on.
The developer has written about the journey from Windows-only UWP app to cross-platform tool, touching on the challenges, compromises, and considerations involved in building a cross-platform .NET app that works on macOS and Linux in addition to Windows.
Don’t expect a truly native feel on Linux, though.
While DevToys Linux app uses a GTK wrapper and window frame the actual UI you interact with is not built using GTK widgets, nor does it follow the GNOME HIG. Also, I find UI interactions can feel sluggish but that maximising the app solves it.
And while the app touts system integration that includes automatic light/dark mode detection, that doesn’t seem to work on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Helpfully, a manual theme mode setting is included should you prefer (and I expect most will) to run it in dark mode.
Download DevToys for Linux
Others, grab the latest build from the DevToys Github releases page or website download page.
There’s a choice of DEB installer or binary build for Ubuntu users, but note that the 2.x series is badged as ‘pre-release’ software for the moment.
Don’t want to install an app for this? Someone loved the idea of DevToys but not the form, so built a web-based fork named WebToys. It works in most modern web browsers and provides most (not yet all) of the utilities and helpers present in DevToys.