Essential Open Source Softwares

For Linux and Windows

OrdinaryAlien
OrdinaryAlienList by OrdinaryAlien, last updated 
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  1. Shotcut icon
     Like

    Free, open-source video editing with multi-format timelines, frame accurate seeking, and robust capture support up to 4k for diverse projects.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • AppImageHub
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    Text filter settings
    Shotcut on Ubuntu
    Shotcut on Windows
    +1
    Shotcut screenshot 3
  2. scrcpy icon
     Like

    Mirror and control Android devices on PC with up to 120fps performance and resolutions above 1920x1080. Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Android
    • Debian
    • Ubuntu
    • Arch Linux
    • Fedora
    • Gentoo
    • Alpine Linux
    • FreeBSD
    • Manjaro Linux
    • Nix Package Manager
    • Chocolatey
    • MacPorts
    scrcpy screenshot 1
  3. Stacer icon
     Like

    Stacer is an open source system optimizer and application monitor that helps users to manage entire system with different aspects, its an all in one system utility.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Dashboard
    System Cleaner
    Startup Apps
    +2
    Services
  4. Ditto icon
     Like

    Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    Ditto allows you to easily view and search past entries
    Dark theme
  5. Sandboxie Plus creates a sandbox-like isolated operating environment in which applications can be run or installed without permanently modifying the local or mapped drive.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space
    Sandboxie Control  in Windows XP
    Sandboxie Control in Vista
    +3
    View a tutorial in a sandboxed Web browser
  6. Free and open-source tool for batch uninstalling multiple apps with minimal input, removing portable, protected, and damaged software, and cleaning up leftovers.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Bulk Crap Uninstaller screenshot 1
    Bulk Crap Uninstaller screenshot 1
  7. Brave icon
     Like

    Fast, secure browser with built-in ad block, privacy controls, and global tracking protections. Optimizes data, speed, and battery life.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
    Brave screenshot 1
    Brave screenshot 1
    Brave screenshot 2
    +4
    Brave screenshot 3
  8. Krita icon
     Like

    A free, open-source painting program for professional artists offering customizable UI, 9 brush engines, layer support, and color management.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android Tablet
    • KDE Plasma
    • Epic Games Store
    • PortableApps.com
    • Steam
    • F-Droid
    Main Window
    Startup page with news
    Brush editor
    +3
    Gamut Mask editor
  9. Kdenlive icon
     Like

    Intuitive multi-track video editor with robust hardware-accelerated support; offers chroma key, color grading, and extensive audio/video format compatibility.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    Logging
    Editing
    Audio
    +2
    Effects
  10. darktable icon
     Like

    Open source non-destructive RAW photo editor and image database with lighttable and darkroom views, real-time editing, HDR and scientific image support.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Darktable’s lighttable mode showing a collection
    Darktable’s darkroom mode with an image opened
    Darktable’s darkroom mode, sharpening an image
    +3
    Darktable’s darkroom mode, split toning an image
  11. Ideal for creating bootable USBs and SD cards, ensuring safe, cross-platform use. Open-source, lightweight, and portable with a user-friendly interface.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    balenaEtcher screenshot 1
    balenaEtcher screenshot 1
    balenaEtcher screenshot 2
    +1
    balenaEtcher screenshot 3
  12. Caesium Image Compressor lets you compress your pictures up to 90% without visible quality loss. Providing a simple yet effective interface with a real-time preview and multiple image processing at the same time, everyone will be able to reach the best result.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    BETA Version
    Latest stable
    Latest stable
  13. Mycroft icon
     Like

    Mycroft is an open source voice assistant, that can be installed on Linux, Raspberry Pi, or on the Mark 1 hardware device.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Android
    • Raspberry Pi
    Mycroft screenshot 1
    Mycroft screenshot 1
    Mycroft screenshot 2
  14. UltraVNC icon
     Like

    Free remote desktop access for Windows, enabling screen sharing, remote control, file transfer, secure connections, helpdesk, and IT support use cases.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Server Property Page
    File Transfer
    Remote Desktop
    +1
    UltraVNC screenshot 3
  15. WireGuard icon
     Like

    Simple, fast VPN tunnel utilizing state-of-the-art cryptography, minimal codebase for security, supports cross-platform use, offers IPv4/IPv6, and ease of deployment.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • BSD
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • FreeBSD
    • OpenWrt
    • Termux
    WireGuard screenshot 1
    WireGuard screenshot 1
    WireGuard screenshot 2
    +1
    WireGuard screenshot 3
  16. Dopamine icon
     Like

    Dopamine is an audio player which tries to make organizing and listening to music as simple and pretty as possible. It can play wav, mp3, ogg vorbis, flac, wma and m4a/aac.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Dopamine screenshot 1
    Now playing
    System tray controls
  17. MPC-QT icon
     Like

    Media Player Classic Home Cinema (mpc-hc) is considered by many to be the quintessential media player for the Windows desktop. Media Player Classic Qute Theater (mpc-qt) aims to reproduce most of the interface and functionality of mpc-hc while using libmpv to play video instead...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • mpv
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    MPC-QT screenshot 1
    MPC-QT screenshot 1
  18. Cross-platform, free media player supports multimedia files, DVDs, streaming, offers hardware acceleration, 4K, lossless audio, and more.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • BSD
    • iPad
    • AppImageHub
    • Apple Watch
    • Snapcraft
    • Google Chrome
    • Apple TV
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • F-Droid
    • Kindle Fire
    • Haiku
    • Android TV
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
    VLC Media Player screenshot 1
    VLC Media Player screenshot 1
    VLC Media Player screenshot 2
    +4
    VLC Media Player screenshot 3
  19. PeaZip icon
     Like

    PeaZip is free file archiver utility, based on Open Source technologies of 7-Zip, p7zip, FreeArc, PAQ, and PEA projects, for Linux, macOS and Windows.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    PeaZip
    Archive creation
    Archive extraction
    +4
    PeaZip on macOS
  20. BleachBit icon
     Like

    Erase unnecessary files like cache and cookies, maintain privacy, and optimize disk space on Linux and Windows. Supports various applications and uses.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Blackberry
    • PortableApps.com
    BleachBit 1.9.3 on Windows 10 showing Firefox preview
    BleachBit 1.9.3 on Windows 10 showing the Preferences dialog
    BleachBit 0.8.2 on Ubuntu 10.10 (Kurdish translation)
  21. The qBittorrent project aims to provide an open-source software alternative to µTorrent. Additionally, qBittorrent runs and provides the same features on all major platforms (FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, OS/2, Windows). qBittorrent is based on the Qt toolkit and libtorrent-rasterbar library.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • AppImageHub
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    • Cloudron
    qBittorrent screenshot 1
    qBittorrent screenshot 1
    qBittorrent screenshot 2
    +2
    qBittorrent screenshot 3
  22. uGet icon
     Like

    uGet is a lightweight and full-featured Download Manager for Linux and Windows. uGet allows you to download in multiple parallel streams for download acceleration, put files in a Download Queue, Pause & Resume downloads, Advanced Category Management, Browser Integration...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • Xfce
    • aria2
    uGet
    uGet 1.7.6 running on Ubuntu 10.10
    uGet 1.10.4 running on Ubuntu 13.10
    +6
    uGet 1.10.4 - Category Properties, part 1
  23. Xtreme Download Manager is a powerful tool to increase download speed up-to 500%, save videos from video sharing sites and integration with ANY browser.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    New interface with v8.0
    Xtreme Download Manager screenshot 1
    Xtreme Download Manager screenshot 2
    +4
    Xtreme Download Manager screenshot 3
  24. Grub Customizer is a graphical interface to configure the GRUB2/BURG settings and menuentries.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Grub Customizer screenshot 1
    Grub Customizer screenshot 1
    Grub Customizer screenshot 2
    +1
    Grub Customizer screenshot 3
  25. AcetoneISO, is a feature-rich and complete software application to manage CD/DVD images. Thanks to powerful open source tools such as fuseiso, AcetoneISO will let You mount typical proprietary images formats of the Windows world such as ISO BIN NRG MDF IMG and do plenty of other...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    AcetoneISO screenshot 1
  26. WinCDEmu icon
     Like

    WinCDEmu is an open-source CD/DVD/BD emulator - a tool that allows you to mount optical disc images by simply clicking on them in Windows Explorer. If you have downloaded an ISO image and want to use it without burning it to a blank disc, WinCDEmu is the easiest way to do it.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    WinCDEmu screenshot 1
    WinCDEmu screenshot 1
    WinCDEmu screenshot 2
    +14
    "Select drive letter & mount"-Dialog
  27. MultiBootUSB is a software to create multi boot live Linux on a removable media i.e USB disk. It is similar to UNetbootin icon UNetbootin but many distros can be installed, provided you have enough space on the disk.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    MultiBootUSB screenshot 1
    MultiBootUSB screenshot 1
    MultiBootUSB screenshot 2
    +1
    MultiBootUSB screenshot 3
  28. Rufus icon
     Like

    Formats USB drives to various file systems and creates bootable USBs from ISOs. Supports MS-DOS/FreeDOS bootable sticks and offers BIOS or UEFI options.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    Rufus screenshot 1
    Rufus screenshot 2
    Rufus screenshot 3
  29. Aegisub icon
     Like

    A free, cross-platform tool for editing and scripting subtitles, featuring visual typesetting, multiple formats, and real-time video preview.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    Aegisub screenshot 1
    Aegisub screenshot 1
    Aegisub screenshot 2
    +9
    Aegisub screenshot 3
  30. RedshiftGUI changes the color temperature of your monitor to better match that of your surrounding. This means that it sets a cooler color temperature during the daytime (due to natural lighting) and sets a warmer temperature at night (due to indoor lighting). Similar to f.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Main dailog
    Location lookup
    Settings
  31. LightBulb icon
     Like

    Background application that adjusts screen gamma, making the colors appear warmer at night, reducing strain on your eyes.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    LightBulb screenshot 1
    LightBulb screenshot 1
  32. A program that allows you to quickly remove USB devices in Windows. It was originally designed to remove only USB pen drives but will now eject any USB device. It can be run as a non-visual command line program or a normal gui program.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    USB Disk Ejector screenshot 1
  33. Audacity icon
     Like

    Free open-source multi-track audio editor and recorder with 32-bit float processing. Supports many formats and plugins for Windows, macOS, Linux.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • AppImageHub
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    Editing Audio
    Audacity 2.2.0 in default Light theme running on Windows 10
    Recording with Audacity 2.2.0 in Dark theme on Windows 10
    +4
    Audacity 2.2.0 MIDI playback running on macOS
  34. Picard is the next generation MusicBrainz tagging application. This new tagging concept is album oriented, as opposed to track/file oriented like the ClassicTagger was. Picard is written in Python, which is a cross-platform language, and makes use of cross-platform libraries -...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Python
    • PortableApps.com
    Main
  35. HandBrake icon
     Like

    An open-source multithreaded video transcoder, HandBrake compresses and converts digital media, supporting MP4, MKV formats, and offers hardware-accelerated conversion.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Haiku
    HandBrake screenshot 1
    HandBrake screenshot 1
    HandBrake screenshot 2
  36. File Converter is a very simple tool which allows you to convert and compress one or several file(s) using the context menu in Windows Explorer.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • File Explorer
    File Converter screenshot 1
    File Converter screenshot 1
  37. HexChat icon
     Like

    HexChat is an IRC client based on XChat for Linux icon XChat for Linux , but unlike XChat it’s completely free for both Windows and Unix-like systems.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • PortableApps.com
    • MacPorts
    • XQuartz
    HexChat screenshot 1
    HexChat screenshot 1
  38. CopyQ icon
     Like

    Multi-platform clipboard tool monitoring and saving text, images, and custom formats, with tabs, search, shortcuts, scripting, and customization for efficiency.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Flatpak
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
    CopyQ screenshot 1
    Shows a list of previously copied text or images.
    Tabs with text, HTML and image items
    +5
    Simple built-in editor
  39. ShareX icon
     Like

    Free and open-source tool for screen capture and recording; enables file uploads, annotation, dark mode, 4K support, and customizable themes.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    • Steam
    Main window
    ShareX screenshot 1
    ShareX screenshot 2
    +29
    ShareX screenshot 3
  40. calibre icon
     Like

    Free e-book manager offering library management, multi-format conversion, syncing to devices, news download as e-books, built-in viewer, editor, and privacy.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Self-Hosted
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Homebrew
    calibre screenshot 1
    calibre screenshot 1
    Calibre collection on the iPhone
    +4
    You can choose many languages
  41. Joplin icon
     Like

    Open source note-taking app with Markdown support, to-do integration, and synchronization with cloud services like Dropbox and OneDrive.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • AppImageHub
    • Snapcraft
    • Google Chrome
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • F-Droid
    • Cloudron
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
    • Termux
    • Mozilla Firefox
    • Online
    Desktop and mobile apps
    Example
    Cli version!
    +3
    Table inside table with KaTeX Math notations.
(Live-editing with Vim)
  42. Free and open-source office suite with advanced word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, vector graphics, math formula editor, and database tools.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • F-Droid
    • Flatpak
    LibreOffice Writer on Linux
    LibreOffice Calc on Linux
    Main menu (old version)
    +8
    LibreOffice Writer on Windows 7
  43. Kate icon
     Like

    The Kate project develops two main products: KatePart, the advanced editor component which is used in numerous KDE applications requiring a text editing component, and Kate, a MDI text editor application.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Kate screenshot 1
    Kate screenshot 1
    Kate with an ATOM color scheme using some RegEx to find and replace.
  44. Notepad++ icon
     Like

    Free open-source code editor and Notepad replacement supporting multiple languages, featuring high speed, low resource usage, privacy focus, and plugin extensibility.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    Notepad++ screenshot 1
    Notepad++ screenshot 1
    Notepad++ screenshot 2
    +10
    TextFX plugin menu
  45. Evince icon
     Like

    Evince (or GNOME Document Viewer) is a document viewer for multiple document formats: PDF, Postscript, djvu, tiff, dvi, XPS, SyncTex support with gedit, comics books (cbr,cbz,cb7 and cbt) and others. See Supported Document Formats for details.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • PortableApps.com
    • Flathub
    • GNOME
    Evince screenshot 1
    Evince screenshot 1
    Evince screenshot 2
    +3
    Evince screenshot 3
  46. Okular icon
     Like

    Multi-platform document viewer supporting PDF, comics, EPUB, images, and Markdown with annotation tools, sidebar navigation, and text-to-speech features.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Snapcraft
    • Linux Mobile
    • Flathub
    • Haiku
    Okular screenshot 1
    Okular screenshot 1
    Okular screenshot 2
    +2
    Okular screenshot 3
  47. A free, open-source viewer for Windows, supports PDFs, eBooks, Comics, with a simple, fast, and portable design prioritized for ease of use.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    SumatraPDF screenshot 1
    SumatraPDF screenshot 1
    SumatraPDF screenshot 2
    +3
    SumatraPDF screenshot 3
  48. YACReader icon
     Like

    YACReader is a comic reader and comic manager with support for cbr cbz zip rar comic files.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    YACReader screenshot 1
    Page view Feature
    Convenient right click menu
  49. nomacs icon
     Like

    nomacs is a free, open source image viewer, which supports multiple platforms. You can use it for viewing all common image formats including RAW and psd images.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • FreeBSD
    • Flathub
    nomacs screenshot 1
    nomacs screenshot 1
    nomacs screenshot 2
    +1
    nomacs screenshot 3
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