Free and open-source software that you should be using!
Free and open-source software often beats the paid, pre-installed defaults, not just on price, but on quality and on how much it respects you. The big players win by being pre-installed or by nudging you toward a subscription, so these tools don’t get the attention they deserve. Here’s what I actually use, by category.
Web browsers
- Firefox: fast, private, endlessly customizable, and not built by an ad company.
- LibreWolf: a hardened, de-Googled build of Firefox. It’s what I run.
Messaging
- Signal: the standard for end-to-end encrypted messages, calls, and files.
Office suite
- LibreOffice: Writer, Calc, Impress, and more; opens and saves the MS formats (docx, xlsx, pptx) without the license.
- Thunderbird: the long-running free desktop mail client; solid and secure.
- Thunderbird for Android (formerly K-9 Mail): the same project, now on your phone.
- Evolution (Linux): mail, calendar, and tasks that integrate cleanly with the desktop.
Media player
- VLC: open source, with the codecs onboard to play literally anything you throw at it. My default.
Photo editing
- GIMP: a capable, free stand-in for Photoshop.
- darktable: a Lightroom replacement for RAW editing and photo management.
Torrents
- qBittorrent: fast, lightweight, no ads, everything built in.
Password manager
- Bitwarden: a cross-platform encrypted vault that syncs everywhere.
- KeePassXC: a fully offline, local vault if you’d rather hold the file yourself (you handle the syncing).
Code editor
- Notepad++: a lightweight Windows editor with syntax highlighting for quick edits.
- VSCodium: VS Code without the Microsoft telemetry (on Flathub and the AUR). It’s what I’m typing this in.
File compression
- 7-Zip: high compression, huge format support, free. I install it on everything I can.
Bottom line
Everything here is what I actually use and recommend. Swap what you can. It’s usually cheaper, often better, and always more yours.