this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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We all love open-source software, but there are so many amazing projects out there that often go unnoticed. Let's change that! Share your favorite open-source software that you think more people should know about. Here’s how you can contribute:

  1. Single Option Per Comment: Mention one open-source software per comment to be able to easily find the most popular software.
  2. No Duplicates: Avoid duplicating software that has already been mentioned to ensure a wide variety of options.
  3. Upvote What You Love: If you see a software that you also appreciate, upvote it to help others discover it more easily.

Check out last year's post for more inspiration: Last Year's Post

Let's create a comprehensive list of open-source software that everyone should know about!

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[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)
[–] lemmy_ng@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 days ago

alternativeto.net is great for finding these

[–] EvanescentWave@discuss.tchncs.de 37 points 2 days ago (3 children)

VLC (VideoLAN media player): play media files, DVDs, network streams and more. Just works,

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[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 37 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

LibreOffice - simply the best office suite there is (IMHO). I was a MS-office user for years, but since I switched, I haven't looked back...

[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 36 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Inkscape - the best vector graphics program out there. So easy to use, and so powerful.

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[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Firefox - the original private webbrowser. Even though some people don't like the options in it (like those that let you stream Netflix and other DRM content). If people care about privacy, they use this browser, or one that is made from it...

[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 30 points 3 days ago (1 children)

GIMP - unlike Krita - which is made for drawing - this is made for photo-editing. It's like Photoshop. The learning curve is a bit steep, but it is really powerful.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Krita is certainly made for painting and also animation, but you can also edit photos with it, best to have both, GIMP and Krita, they are great complementing tools.

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[–] KarnaSubarna@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 days ago

NextCloud - Self hosted personal cloud solution that you can run on Docker or bare metal.

https://nextcloud.com/

[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 30 points 3 days ago

Krita is a fantastic program for drawing. It's made for making beautiful paintings and animations.

[–] Artisian@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Librera (android pdf+ reader).

I spend a lot of time reading pdfs on my phone, this has done an excellent job. Well featured, responsive, and seems respectful of the battery.

Ads or payment if you buy from the playstore, but free on F-droid and source code is here.

[–] Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

+1 to Librera, I read downloaded fanfics on it when I'm on a long trip with no Wi-Fi. Very customizable, and can have an extremely dim dark mode.

[–] zeca@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Its good, i started using it because it allows you to inverts the colors, so you can turn your pdfs into white text on black background.

[–] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 8 points 2 days ago

fzf fuzzy finder. Great tool to quickly find those files you were looking for.

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 42 points 3 days ago (1 children)

qBittorrent: only for your legal torrenting needs from e.g. archive.org :>

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[–] TheOrionArm@lemmy.world 38 points 3 days ago

librewolf a privacy-focused fork of the latest stable firefox (win,linux,mac)

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 37 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 14 points 3 days ago

Also has a great deDRM tool I used to remove kobo DRM!

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[–] callyral@pawb.social 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

strudel. From the website:

With Strudel, you can expressively write dynamic music pieces.

The best place to actually make music with Strudel is the Strudel REPL

It's really fun to make music in it, I recommend trying it out!

link to repo (codeberg)

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[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

sgt-puzzles. Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle collection.

Contains a bunch of simple puzzles, of the minesweeper and sudoku style. Loopy is my favorite.

Available for Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android, and anything with a web browser and a mouse. Packaged in Debian and F-droid, and probably many other places.

I like it for time wasting in lines at the DMV, for a low-stakes game when anxious, and for falling asleep.

[–] Core_of_Arden@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Thunderbird - a brilliant e-mail program, which also handles contacts, newsfeeds, calender and more. It's available for multiple platforms, like Android, Windows, Linux and so forth...

[–] Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Just wanted to say that mobile Outlook had a stroke trying to let me login to my school account after doing a mandated password change, while Thunderbird let me login issue free. So yeah, Thunderbird is where I check my mail now (outside of my proton mail account)

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[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Silverbullet is like Trilium or Obsidian a markdown notes app, which is lightweight and highly customizable (by css and scripting). And all files could be forever accessed as simple markdown-files in an easy folder structure without much overhead. The database is only for indexing and could be restored anytime.

Mihon Manga reader for android. Allows auto aggregation from web sources to make tracking and reading manga smooth and easy

[–] PumpkinDrama@reddthat.com 210 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (13 children)

Syncthing: Continuous, private, and encrypted file synchronization across multiple devices without using the cloud.

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[–] LambdaRX@sh.itjust.works 77 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Newpipe, an YouTube client, which is:

  • ad free

  • lightweight

  • useful, it allows downloading videos, music, and playing them when screen is locked

  • usable without account

  • multi-platform, it can also serve as client for the PeerTube, Bandcamp, SoundCloud

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[–] toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone 155 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (25 children)

KDE Connect: An app for iOS, android, pretty much every flavor of linux, windows, etc. that lets you connect any devices together to share files, show notifications of other devices, use your phone as an input device(keyboard, mouse), control multimedia applications(start, play, stop, etc.), trigger commands, and everything else if you make a plugin for it.

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[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago

MusicBrainz Picard: superb mp3 tagger with online metadata lookup feature and audio track fingerprinting

[–] Sergio@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago

Vassal - an open-source (LGPL-2.1) boardgame engine. basically, people build different modules for each game they want to play, then they can play that game over the internet or solo. Mostly focused on "chit-and-hex" style wargames.

[–] PumpkinDrama@reddthat.com 132 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (14 children)

KeePassXC: A modern, secure, open-source password manager that stores and manages sensitive information offline.

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[–] Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 67 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Anki (and AnkiDroid):

The gods of learning and studying with flashcards. You will never want another flashcard program, especially if you were still using Quizlet (so enshittified now...) because Anki uses SRS (spaced repetition system) which makes you review things right before your brain forgets it to reinforce the subject material.

Add-ons: Bread and butter of Anki, I use several to make beautiful automatic flashcards of reading material/videos/games when I study Japanese. There's an add-on for literally anything.

Cross platform: Free on desktop, cost $25 on iOS, and free on Android, although Ankidroid is an unofficial app. Still great though!

Cloud: Syncs your anki database across devices. If you don't use anki for a while, will delete from the cloud, but as long as you have your own local database intact, you can reupload again later.

Sharing Decks: If you don't feel like making your own decks, download ones that others shared for free.

Anki is used by language learners, college students, med students, etc. If you need to memorize it, use Anki.

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[–] apprehensively_human@lemmy.ca 51 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Immich is a photo/video hosting solution à la Google photos

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[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Tox is easy-to-use software that connects you with friends and family without anyone else listening in. While other big-name services require you to pay for features, Tox is completely free and comes without advertising. Chat, P2P serverless, screen/file sharing, voice, video, groups, encrypted.

https://tox.chat/

https://github.com/TokTok/c-toxcore

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[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 89 points 4 days ago (9 children)

LocalSend should be called God Send because it'll save your life. It's AirDrop, but for everything and open source. Works really well, no setup, no server.

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[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

and lastly, Tor Browser: anonymous web browser to evade state censorship and surveillance

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

FanControl: superb PC fan manager with custom temperature/fan speed curves and the options to combine sensors whatever way you like

[–] PumpkinDrama@reddthat.com 89 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Lichess: A popular free, open-source online chess platform offering play, puzzles, and tournaments.

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