Notunderscore's (mostly open-source) recommendations
We sometimes had no idea what to install / what programs to have, and while this list may cover some programs that may be useless to some people, I hope you find it useful anyway.
But first...
I'd like to thatk the platform for helping anyone switch to open source or to simply find alternatives...
Explore diverse software alternatives using a crowdsourced discovery service featuring apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile, with personalized lists.
- App Discovery Service
- Free • Proprietary
- Online
Browser/extensions
Things that browse the web or make in it better!
Everything YouTube premium offers, but open source and lightweight.
- YouTube Downloader
- Free • Open Source
- Android
- SoundCloud
- YouTube Music
- Bandcamp
- YouTube
- F-Droid
- PeerTube
A free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite. Firefox is highly extensible, with thousands of third-party add-ons available.
- Web Browser
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- BSD
- iPad
- AppImageHub
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
- Flatpak
- Homebrew
- Chocolatey
- Gecko
A Google Chromium variant for removing Google integration and enhancing privacy, control, and transparency.
- Web Browser
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Flathub
An efficient blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean.
- Ad Blocker
- Free • Open Source
- Microsoft Edge
- Vivaldi
- Google Chrome
- Pale Moon
- Thunderbird
- Opera
- Node.JS
- Chromium
- Mozilla Firefox
SponsorBlock is a browser extension and open API via crowdsource for skipping sponsor segments in YouTube videos. It's open-source. Users submit when a sponsor happens from the extension, and the extension automatically skips sponsors it knows about using a privacy...
- Ad Blocker
- Free • Open Source
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Microsoft Edge
- Google Chrome
- Safari
- Opera
- Firefox
LanguageTool is a free proofreading software compatible with multiple applications like LibreOffice, Microsoft Word, Firefox, and Google Chrome. It supports around 20 languages and can be customized. It has two versions: free and premium.
- Grammar Checker
- Freemium • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- iPhone
- iPad
- Microsoft Edge
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Office Outlook
- Safari
- Visual Studio Code
- Microsoft Word
- Eclipse
- TinyMCE
- TeXstudio
- Google Docs
- Thunderbird
- Vim
- OmegaT
- Sublime Text
- GNU Emacs
- Opera
- Gmail
- Fidus Writer
- LyX
- LibreOffice
- Apache OpenOffice
- Mozilla Firefox
- LibreOffice - Writer
- ONLYOFFICE
Hey, don't tell YouTube I'm using this, m'kay? It's an app that, you guessed it, downloads YouTube videos without paying for premium.
- YouTube Downloader
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Python
- PC-BSD
Games
osu! is a rhythm game based on the gameplay of a variety of popular commercial rhythm games. While aiming to keep authentic gameplay and scoring, osu! increases the epic factor through online rankings, multiplayer, replay exchange, and a huge community following.
- Music Game
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
Quaver is a community-driven and open-source competitive rhythm game with two game modes and online leaderboards. Create your own maps or challenge the world in online multiplayer matches.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- SteamOS
- Steam
Dolphin is an emulator for two recent Nintendo video game consoles: the GameCube and the Wii. It allows PC gamers to enjoy games for these two consoles in full HD (1080p) with several enhancements: compatibility with all PC controllers, turbo speed, networked multiplayer, and...
- Game Emulator
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- Flathub
Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation.
- Game Store
- Free • Proprietary
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- Windows Phone
- iPad
- Flathub
- SteamOS
Utilities
It is: · a screenshotting tool
but also: · a color picker · a qr code maker and scanner · an image converter · an OCR program · monitor tester · an on-screen ruler · a quick DNS switcher · a hash verifier
All in a nice app.
- Screenshot Capture Tool
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- PortableApps.com
- Steam
Even if this app seems like it's only for emulating ISOs, you can also create them!
- ISO Mounting Tool
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- PortableApps.com
Efficient file archiver offering superior compression and encryption. Supports multiple formats such as TAR, ZIP, with a unique self-extracting feature.
- File Archiver
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- PortableApps.com
- ReactOS
You can use HFS (HTTP File Server) to send and receive files. Its different from classic file sharing because it uses web technology to be more compatible with todays Internet. It also differs from classic web servers because its very easy to use and runs "right out-of-the.
- Web Server
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- Wine
Hourglass is the most advanced simple countdown timer for Windows. Just enter a time in just about any format, and hit Enter.
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
DeskPins can be used to make any application topmost, that is, to keep it above all other windows. Just grab a pin from the DeskPins icon in the system notification area (a.k.a. taskbar tray) and click on any window.
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- Windows Explorer
antimicro is a graphical program used to map keyboard keys and mouse controls to a gamepad. This program is useful for playing PC games using a gamepad that do not have any form of built-in gamepad support.
- Key Mapping Tool
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
Download and create torrents, search for files, create download queues and change task priorities with this high-speed torrent client.
- Torrent Client
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- AppImageHub
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
If you want to write pecifully without distractions, I used it to write a 10000 word sory!
- Text Editor
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- Linux
- PortableApps.com
developent
aka headache makers
The Linux kernel is the core component of the Linux operating system. It's responsible for managing the system's resources and facilitating communication between hardware and software. It was first created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and is open-source, allowing for...
- Operating System
- Free • Open Source
- Linux
Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Chrome OS
- BSD
- Self-Hosted
Arch Linux is an independently developed, x86_64 optimized GNU/Linux distribution targeted at competent Linux users. It uses pacman, its home-grown package manager, to provide updates to the latest software applications with full dependency tracking.
- Operating System
- Free • Open Source
- Linux
MySQL Community Edition is a freely downloadable version of the world's most popular open source database that is supported by an active community of open source developers and enthusiasts.
- Relational Database
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. Currently it can create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields.
- Database Management Tool
- Free • Open Source
- Linux
- Online
- Self-Hosted
- PHP
MariaDB is a backward compatible, drop-in replacement of the MySQL® Database Server. It includes all major open source storage engines.
- Relational Database
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
Android Studio is a new Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. Similar to Eclipse with Android Development Tools for Eclipse, Android Studio provides...
- Android Development Tool
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Chrome OS
Remote control
Veyon, Virtual Eye On Networks, is a free and Open Source software (FLOSS) for computer monitoring and classroom management supporting Windows and Linux.
- Online Education Service
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- Linux
Personally, I use tightvnc even though it's unencrypted because I only control computers on LAN, but if you want encrypted VNC, use tigervnc 👇
- Remote Desktop Tool
- Free Personal • Open Source
- Windows
TigerVNC is an advanced VNC implementation. It is based on the fourth generation of VNC. TigerVNC also includes features from the TightVNC and TurboVNC projects. This includes accelerated JPEG compression. TigerVNC supports the latest X.Org X server.
- Remote Desktop Tool
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
Video/Image/Rendering
Comprehensive software providing screen recording and live streaming on Mac, Windows, and Linux with powerful encoding support and unlimited scenes.
- Screen Recorder
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- PortableApps.com
- Steam
- FreeBSD
Free open-source 3D software for modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering, compositing, video editing, and simulation.
- 3D Modeler
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Flathub
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
- Steam
- Flatpak
Paint.net is a free and very capable image editing software for Windows. Great alternative to Photoshop for people that do not need all the stuff PS offers.
- Digital Painting Tool
- Free • Proprietary
- Windows
- .NET Framework
Kdenlive is a non linear video editor. It is based on the MLT framework and accepts many audio and video formats, allows you to add effects, transitions and render into the format of your choice.
- Video Editor
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- KDE
- Flathub
- Flatpak
OpenBoard is a cross-platform (Linux / Windows / macOS) interactive whiteboard application. It is currently maintained by the Education Department (DIP) of the Canton of Geneva in Switzerland.
- Note-taking Tool
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
Gaupol is an editor for text-based subtitle files. It helps you with tasks such as creating and translating subtitles, timing subtitles to match video and correcting common errors. Gaupol includes a built-in video player and also supports launching an external one.
- Subtitle Editor
- Free • Open Source
- Windows
- Linux
- Xfce
Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Audacity is free, open source software.
- Audio Recorder
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- AppImageHub
- Flathub
- PortableApps.com
- LAME
MuseScore is a free music notation and composition software available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Music Production App
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- BSD
- iPad
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
Chat
You want to communicate, right?
Signal is a messaging app with an unexpected focus on privacy, combined with all the features expected from a modern IM app. Signal has received a lot of praise from all around the world for its security and privacy-respecting technologies.
- Video Calling App
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- iPad
- Flathub
- Ubuntu
- Debian
And that's the end of the list, folks! I hope y'all find it useful, and thanks for viewing this list!