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!

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      6·
      3 months ago

      Absolutely LOVE syncthing. I recently had to go on an emergency trip and was glad I set up syncthing on my phone but hated that I didn’t set it up properly on my laptop.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        I love syncthing, but never managed to get permissions to work right on any of my android phones. I chalk that up to phone vendor fuckery though.

          • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 months ago

            I’ll have to try it the next time I have time, but I’m also trying to switch to a real linux phone. Right now, I have to wait for a friend to travel to the EU to be there while Pine64 has what I’m looking for in stock.

              • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                3 months ago

                And doesn’t ship PinePhone Pro motherboards to the US at all.

                I didn’t get into details because it wasn’t important, but they’re always be someone going “wELL AKTsHUally”. I already own a PinePhone, but it died. The easiest solution would be to get a new MB and swap it in.

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
      2·
      3 months ago

      I’d love to use this but I just mostly don’t use multiple devices at the same time, so I don’t see how the sync would ever happen.

      • aspoleczny@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 months ago

        I’m in the same boat, so I had set up Syncthing more like centralised service - installed one instance on my home server, and made every other device sync only with it. Files propagates without issues.

      • zeca@lemmy.ml
        2·
        3 months ago

        I have an instance on my phone running 24/7 which does the bridge. But i dont use much storage, i mainly work with text files, so the pc at work syncs with my phone, and when i get home my own pc gets the files from my phone immediatly. Its been working really well for years for me.

    • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      Syncthing has been a wonder to discover. Basically replaced any desire for me to rely on the cloud.

  • Ardens@lemmy.ml
    28·
    3 months 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…

  • toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    27·
    3 months ago

    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.

    • golden_zealot@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      The craziest thing I discovered when I started using it was when I noticed that because my desktop was now connected to my phone and my phone was connected to my watch, I could completely control the media on both from my watch and the integration felt natural - but also something I haven’t seen work that well in the proprietary world.

      • Deckname@discuss.tchncs.de
        5·
        3 months ago

        For me it was, that the video i was watching paused when i got a call and repeated the moment i hung up. FUTURE (or apple ecosystem, i suppose.)

    • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      For some reason, I just can’t get my Kubuntu desktop and Android phone to talk to each other with this. It does weirdly connect just fine on Arch/EndeavourOS, though.

      • zeca@lemmy.ml
        3·
        3 months ago

        Maybe kubuntu has some weird firewall default settings. When i tried using opensuse some years ago, it took me quite some time to figure out that it was its firewall that wasnt letting me use my printer and some other stuff i cant remember

        • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          That could be it! I haven’t tried messing with firewall settings in detail.

      • toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        2·
        3 months ago

        I also have problems with one machine, it just refuses to see the others. It might have something to do with the firewall or SElinux, but I’m not sure.

    • etherphon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      I wish I could send a whole folder of files at once with this, mine seems to only work one file at a time.

    • iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      The next level i kinda wish it had (because it already has about everything else) would be to have the phone screen shown in the desktop.

      • cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml
        1·
        3 months ago

        You should be able to achieve that with scrcpy (at least with Android). Never got around to test it myself, so I can’t vouch for how well it works though. My usecase for it died with installing a mini-PC in my living room, and now it would only be a curiosity for me.

        • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          3 months ago

          Works quite well. Scrcpy is some great “just works” piece of software. I use it for all kinds of stuff, from typing with my PCs screen and keyboard in android apps, to remotely connecting to phones hooked up in a lab (using adb over SSH port forwarding, plus reverse forwarding whatevet 27… port scrcpy uses)

  • Ardens@lemmy.ml
    272·
    3 months 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…

  • Ardens@lemmy.ml
    251·
    3 months ago

    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
      6·
      3 months ago

      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.

        • Zerush@lemmy.ml
          2·
          3 months ago

          It’s not, right, because of this I said that Gimp and Krita are good to use as complementary tools for normal users. Krita is even capable to edit .raw formats, used in Photography, In Gimp you need an Plug-in to edit .nef or .raw formats, but with not so good results, also not in Krita, that is why Photografs still prefer to use Photoshop.

    • kazerniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      I’m not sure about that “best” qualifier. From what I’ve read, it still doesn’t really support CMYK colour mode and its text tools are lacking compared to Adobe Illustrator.

      • Ardens@lemmy.ml
        11·
        3 months ago

        CMYK is easy to work around.

        So, your argument is, that you can find 1 tool where AI is better, and then everything else doesn’t matter?

        Well, fine - keep paying a sh*tload of money for Adobe, and use AI, that’s totally fine by me. :-)

        Oh, if you’d be so kind, show me something made in AI, that Inkscape can’t do?

        • kazerniel@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          3 months ago

          Not sure why you’re being this hostile.

          CMYK is easy to work around.

          But that’s the point, that you need workarounds for such a simple and (if you work with printed materials) essential feature.

          So, your argument is, that you can find 1 tool where AI is better, and then everything else doesn’t matter?

          That’s literally not what I said, just that I don’t think it’s necessarily the best based on what I’ve read. I agree that it being FLOSS raises its appeal quite a bit, but it’s not quite there yet to replace Illustrator for me.

          Well, fine - keep paying a sh*tload of money for Adobe, and use AI, that’s totally fine by me. :-)

          Yeah, Adobe’s predatory pricing is why I’m not paying for it. But sadly it’s still the only tool I found that has all the features I need.

          Oh, if you’d be so kind, show me something made in AI, that Inkscape can’t do?

          A CMYK file lol. But I’m not going to do work for you, you’re clearly not engaging in good faith.

          • Ardens@lemmy.ml
            11·
            3 months ago

            Because “best” is obvious a subjective statement, and you wanted to argue that…

            Inkscape can make a CMYK-file, with an addon. It’s pretty easy. Besides CMYK is only relevant is you want to print, and most graphics work today is for screens. It literally takes about 7 seconds to make it CMYK.

            What feature do you need, that Inkscape can’t do? Is it really the 7 seconds to make it CMYK, that breaks you?

    • python@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 months ago

      Inkscape is incredible! I needed to vectorize some images in pretty specific ways and struggled through the process with my usual drawing software (Clip Studio Paint). It sucked so much! Inkscape did the same thing much better in a fraction of the time

  • LambdaRX@sh.itjust.works
    22·
    3 months ago

    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

  • Ardens@lemmy.ml
    221·
    3 months ago

    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…

    • Novaling@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      3 months 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)

    • notarobot@lemmy.zip
      32·
      3 months ago

      I switched to outlook at work. I had a lot of wierd issues with thunderbird. Like how i would sort them newest fisrt, and grouo by conversation. But then when i got a coversation and expanded it. I had to scroll all the way to the bottom to se the latest. Of the last update I got that deleted everything.

      I might go back to it. But it’s not perfect

      • Ardens@lemmy.ml
        31·
        3 months ago

        First of all, you don’t have to go back. Second of all, being perfect is a pretty high bar for any software - can you mention any on this list, or even commercial ones, that have no flaws or bugs, or could not be better? Third. I’ve used it since it was part of Navigator, and I have never lost any data. Without being tech-support for Thunderbird, I might think that you have somehow installed either a different version of Thunderbird, which makes a new user-folder. Your data might still have been there.

        Sorting is done the same way in Outlook and Thunderbird, by clicking on the subject you want to sort it by. How you couldn’t do that, is beyond me…

        But, as I said at first - you don’t have to go back. I guess you felt like making this post about complaining - something I don’t think that any software in this list (or beyond this list) could be above…

        • notarobot@lemmy.zip
          11·
          3 months ago

          Back to TB. Windows mail had a lot of issues with IMAP. I hadn’t replied to complain. It’s just that if we are recommending software I thought it would be useful to share my experience with it

    • Echolynx@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      I gotta figure out how it works and go through the setup one of these days. I’ve just been using Syncthing for my photos currently.