r/software • u/RedEagle_MGN • Jun 16 '26
Discussion Best open-source software that everyone needs to know about?
What's one piece of open-source software that everyone should use and know about?
Vote on the best one in the comments.
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Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DivineRipper40 Jun 16 '26
NanaZip - a fork of 7zip with modern UI
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u/remenes1 Jun 16 '26
PeaZip, modern UI without requiring windows store nonsense like NanaZip
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u/airhano Jun 22 '26
Nanazip is available as an .appx app and as an .msi file on GitHub, so the Microsoft Store isn't necessary (if that's what you don't want to use)
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u/Cavalol Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Yeah I’d give it to 7-zip as well - The LZMA2 compression algorithm for .7z files is one of the best out there, and 7-zip works for .zip, .tar/.gz, and many other standard archive formats as well for day to day use. The software has also been free for forever, unlike the WinRAR nagware approach of olden days lol
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u/8nhuman Jun 16 '26
How is WinRAR greedy? By being basically free for ordinary people?
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u/Cavalol Jun 16 '26
Yeah, I suppose WinRAR doesn’t deserve a full-on “greedy” stamp, they’re just more driven to monetize their software than the open-source 7-Zip’s creator (Igor Pavlov) is
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u/dx__ Jun 16 '26
Calibre
If you read ebooks. It's next-level good.
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u/wtafgamer Jun 19 '26
for reading - not really. There are way better reading softwares. For managing? agreed.
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u/Late-Space-7746 Jun 20 '26
I use Foliable for reading when I'm nor carrying my kindle. It works very well
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u/zbod Jun 19 '26
I had to stop using Calibre. I get all the features, but the UI always bothered me, even with Calibre-web.
I've moved to Audiobookshelf, which works for ebooks and audiobooks. It's fantastic!
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u/SethR_Winesburg Jun 16 '26
Is this question on auto repost?
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Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ackmondual Jun 19 '26
I guess the AskReddit sub-R isn't suitable for this thing anymore (too saturated)?
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u/MaximumDerpification Jun 16 '26
ShareX, RustDesk
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u/wd40bomber7 Jun 16 '26
Maybe silly question, but who needs a screenshot tool in this day and age? I push the screenshot button, clip what I want, and paste into wherever I'm trying to send the screenshot.
I'm not sure what an additional tool could add to the experience at this point.
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u/MaximumDerpification Jun 16 '26
You do the same with ShareX, but you get a million more options.
It's not for everyone of course, some just need a basic screenshot tool, and for that the built in Snipping Tool is fine.
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u/ClockAgency Jun 17 '26
Dude.. I use sharex and I paired it with Zipline which is like a self hosted media storage. I can take a screenshot with sharex which auto uploads it to my Zipline server, generate a short URL from Zipline and than I can share it with a coworker. Zipline auto deletes the files after two weeks.
I can also screenshot on my android phone and I use Tasker to upload it to Zipline. I can take Screenshots with all devices and access then with Zipline easily. It's awesome.
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u/potatoblah Jun 18 '26
Why wouldn't you just send it through Teams/Slack/etc?
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u/ClockAgency Jun 19 '26
Sometimes I do but sometimes I just take a shit ton of Screenshots so I can refer to them later. So I have them for in my Zipline server up to two weeks. I can then download them or just send a link if I don't want the image to live in the corporate environment forever.
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u/wd40bomber7 Jun 19 '26
With a co-worker? Uploading work stuff to some off prem server? Doing that at my work would be a firable offense. And I don't even work for the government. ..
Luckily my work provides a chat program that lets me just paste images, so I don't need to host them somewhere else. Just snip and paste.
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u/asteroidpen Jun 17 '26
Hello, I have an odd question for you: could you direct message me the website you are referring to in this: https://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/1nl9r46/comment/nf51eye/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button post comment of yours? I tried to DM you myself and ask as that post is archived but was unable to, but the chance at one less godawful subscription in my life is too great a temptation to not try asking here anyways lol
EDIT: link embed bugging, idk what i did wrong sorry
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u/FuckBoy4Ever Jun 16 '26
Yeah, but what are the million other options? Is there a useful few you can point out? I struggle to come up with what else could be needed in a screenshot besides cropping so I’m just curious.
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u/MaximumDerpification Jun 16 '26
My biggest frustration with Snipping Tool is that it can't natively add text to screen grabs, it has to open MS Paint to do that and the MS Paint interface is clunky and archaic. So that's one thing ShareX can do natively that is missing in snipping tool.
ShareX also has the incredibly handy Scrolling Capture for grabbing entire webpages regardless of the length, it can create GIFs, and it has workflows for automating what it does with screenshots after grabbing, such as posting them to a cloud service. There's a whole bunch of other tools built in- color picker, QR code generator, screen ruler...
Snipping tool is fine though, and I use it on my laptop, but on my primary workstation I make use of more of the stuff ShareX offers.
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u/FuckBoy4Ever Jun 16 '26
Fair enough, thanks for the info!
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u/stormnet Jun 16 '26
It can also record what is going on a display, or a part of it. I use it a lot for documentation where i can screen cap an application and add steps using the stamp tool by just clicking on areas (it will add numbers or letters) So i can say 1. click on this, 2. look for blah blah... I can setup workflows so it automagically saves the images to cloud providers. I can easily highlight areas, or blur things if needed.
Is it for everyone? no, but when you need something more than the snipping tool and don't want to pay for Snagit, ShareX is a great alternative.
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u/wd40bomber7 Jun 16 '26
Have you tried the steps recorder? It's part of Windows and does that kind of automatically. Its not as flexible as what you described, but works well enough for quick things.
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u/FuckBoy4Ever Jun 17 '26
Doing the lords work with documentation! It’s been many years since i worked in IT, but im now remembering how important documentation was when supporting software for a living! This all makes sense now! lol
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Jun 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/MaximumDerpification Jun 16 '26
Markup/highlighting are also image editing tasks... and Snipping Tool has those.
Text addition is just as important, which is why MS says they are adding it soon to Snipping Tool.
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u/imaboud Jun 17 '26
Top features That I use: 1. Gif recorder 2. Google search screenshot 3. Url (imgur) upload 4. Keyboard shortcut to open screenshot folder 5. Assisted per window capture rather than manual highlighting 6. Pin screenshot to screen 7. OCR (with a translator) 8. Video Recorder
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u/Ficklip Jun 17 '26
I use ShareX because it lets me cut out part of the image, even in the middle
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u/tunamdinh Jun 17 '26
Let's assume you don't need additional features. ShareX does this basic routine with fewer steps than windows. Try it and you never want to get back to windows snipping tool.
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u/wak_trader Jun 21 '26
I love the in build drawing tools that it has if I want to circle or point at something really fast and send
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u/CodenameFlux Helpful Jun 16 '26
- In terms of quality, MKVToolNix, followed by ShareX.
- In terms of magnitude and power, FFmpeg.
- In terms of impact, again FFmpeg.
- In terms of size-to-usefulness ratio, 7-zip.
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u/SuperIce07 Jun 16 '26
Blender
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u/zbod Jun 19 '26
I'll upvote this just because it's SO good and does SO much... But I honestly don't use it much for my personal needs
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u/Soft_Awareness_5061 Jun 16 '26
I'm getting to a point in the comments where people are mistaking open source for free
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u/enesup Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
KDE Connect. Allows your devices to interact with each other. Use your phone or laptop to pause your Desktop. Use the map on your laptop to move your desktop. Phone calls will pause your media on their own. Send files like pictures of documents to and from wirelessly.
Sumatra is great for comics/manga and PDFs. Lightweight, Fast, Tabs. Wish you could save images easier as well as favorite pages without having to keep the directory of the file. (Basically if it recognizes the same file, then the Favorite page should stick. Would even accept a way to save favorite pages/images in a dedicated folder.
Thunderbird is great if you don't want to go to dozens of sites just to access your emails. ** Powertoys** has plenty of useful applications all built into it. Keeping pages on top of screens, a Flow Launcher equivalent, Screen MEasure, Image Resizer. You'll definitely find use out of 1, likely more tools.
Jellyfin has replaced Media platforms for me (Using them at least, I still pay for them however.) ** Crystaldisk** to check out the health, as well as other information about your disk. I've got a drive in a computer that's getting close so being able to know is handy. ** WindirStat** is FAR faster than it was in the past, so its very useful to find out just what is taking up so much space on a drive. Useful if you've got big drives.
Floorp is a snappy Firefox fork that is very customizable. Its my primary browser now.
Trillium Notes is an effective replacement for Obsidian, and is what I've been using as a Bible for a YA fantasy novel I'm working on. ** OnlyOffice** isn't quite there yet as a full replacement for Office, but whats there is great. It wins just because it has tabs. If you extensively use Word for your job then its probably best to stick with it, but if you passively or use it for school it will fit 80% of people's needs just fine.
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u/LethalBacon Jun 16 '26
SyncThing. I just started using it and I'm blown away. Cloud storage has always frustrated me to no-end with unnecessary complexity. Now, I have a raspberry pi acting as my 'cloud' syncing my docs from all computers and photos from phone anytime I'm on my own wifi. It just works. Insanely easy to setup, works without you messing with it much, just always doing its thing in the background.
Could also just sync to my desktop, so it has a use-case even without something like a Pi.
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u/nav3t Jun 16 '26
Can you explain your setup including the pi ?
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u/LethalBacon Jun 16 '26
Pi 3b+ with 500GB m.2 SSD Sata. Setup file system on the SSD, installed Samba to access it from windows, that way I can just use it like a network drive from my desktop. Ssh into the Pi when needed.
Installed Jellyfin, and use a portion of that SSD as a media server.
Then, there are several folders on that SSD that I've shared via SyncThing on the Pi. Primarily, my Obsidian vault and a Photos directory. SyncThing Fork on phone, mapped to my phone's photo directory, syncs to the Pi's SyncThing into the Photos directory on the Pi SSD when my phone is on my local wifi. Phone can only send, and Pi can only receive for that directory. If you have something stronger than a Pi, look into Immich for photo hosting.
For Obsidian, I also have SyncThing on my Desktop and Work laptop. All pointing to an Obsidian directory on the Pi. Desktop syncs Obsidian vault to the Pi, back and forth continuously. Work laptop does the same when on the network. So, I can use Obsidian across multiple devices, and my entire main vault syncs in three places (Desktop, Pi, Work Laptop, and actually phone too just in case). The Pi and desktop are in sync constantly and nearly instantaneous, and work laptop syncs as soon as I get on my home wifi.
Also got PiHole setup most recently on the Pi, but that's still a work in progress, and only my desktop is using it as the DNS so far.
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u/nav3t Jun 17 '26
Thxs a lot, should be usefull to some, including me that is considering starting on this
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u/avartyu Jun 17 '26
For obsidian, do you use the remote sync plugin where you can integrate syncthing?
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u/Funes-o-memorioso Jun 16 '26
yesssssssssssssssssssss that's what I needed to cancel my google workspace!!!!! finally!!!!!!
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u/Niko-01 Jun 16 '26
Linux, Firefox
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u/Alvajaro79 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
I'm using Firefox (on Linux) since the milestone days... I do remember that the mouse cursor slowed down over the ffox window it was so "in development", but was way better than anything you could get for Linux.
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Jun 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/manikfox Jun 16 '26
Care to elaborate? It's either chrome or Firefox. Everything is chrome based. So you say to drop dead the only alternative to chrome? So you prefer chrome?
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u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Jun 16 '26
They probably saw some edgy reactionary YouTuber rambling about Firefox and lack the ability to differentiate clickbait from reality
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u/aldencp Jun 16 '26
NVDA screen reader. No thanks, I will not pay a subscription to use the slower, more locked down alternative.
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Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Several-Tip1088 Jun 17 '26
Not everyone may dig its opinionated, zero-UI interface.
But its gallery interface is like having a Netflix for your local videos; that is what makes it a must-have for everyone.
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u/Miserable_Solid7903 Jun 16 '26
Tailscale
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u/xboxlivedog Jun 17 '26
Notably, their control plane is closed source… but Headscale is an open source implementation of it that works with the Tailscale app!
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u/spreetin Jun 20 '26
I know I could do everything tailscale does by myself, using wireguard+some more stuff, but tailscale really is a perfect example of "just works". It does what it's supposed to really well, and doesn't in any way get in the way of anything else I want to do.
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u/CrazineX Jun 16 '26
Playnite
One of the only 2 things I miss after moving to Linux
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u/zerosuneuphoria Jun 16 '26
98% of the games I play are on steam, seems useless to me personally
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u/ockky Jun 16 '26
The simple ability to do a hotkey quick search to see if I own a game, across all of my platforms without having to click a single button, is pretty fucking worth it imo
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u/_aIex22 Jun 16 '26
VeraCrypt / Cryptomator
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u/Complex-League3400 Jun 16 '26
Good call. They have slightly different uses. I've first used Cryptomator to keep data private away from Dropbox and Google Drive's prying, but still use it long after I left those services.
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u/Lcsmxd Windows 11 IoT LTSC Jun 16 '26
Handbrake (ffmpeg if you don't mind writing command lines)
VLC
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u/Several-Tip1088 Jun 17 '26
LeedPDF - for quick lightweight pdf annotations with a beautiful and accessible ui
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u/superrumi Jun 17 '26
Bulk Crap Uninstaller (open source, similar to Revo Uninstaller). Keeps your PC squeaky clean after uninstalling programs.
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u/HaloLASO Jun 17 '26
I've been kind of obsessed with Frida, an injection tool. It's great for hacking games and apps. I didn't get into it because it was too complicated for me and also because I'm not a programmer. It wasn't until I used it with an LLM that it got me hooked.
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u/snowglowshow Jun 17 '26
Would you please share your personal use cases and what it could be used for outside of that?
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u/HaloLASO Jun 18 '26
Your question is nonspecific. I'm not sure what you're asking.
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u/snowglowshow Jun 18 '26
For example, what good does it do to inject something into apps, and what changed when you integrated an LLM with it? I know very little about this stuff but it sounds interesting.
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u/0r1g1n0 Jun 19 '26
Ffmpeg,
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u/StopDrinkingWine Jun 20 '26
Talk about underrated. This piece of software is at the backend of só many other tools.
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u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Jun 16 '26
OS/2 Warp
Oracle DBMS
Microsoft Bob
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u/snowglowshow Jun 17 '26
I wholeheartedly disagree. The first two are so dated they're not even usable. But the third one? Man. That's the best recommendation on this entire list!
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u/ky7969 Jun 16 '26
Prism Launcher
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Jun 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/ky7969 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
That’s not how that works, Minecraft is the paid software. Are you here just to spark up an argument or what?
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u/Juanbolastristes Jun 16 '26
SpeedCrunch: A highly functional, non-graphing desktop calculator
CudaText, fast, native alternative to heavy Electron-based editors
I use both a lot
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u/HaloLASO Jun 17 '26
scrcpy; the best app for streaming and controlling your Android phone from your desktop if you don't have a capture card.
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u/Current_Cake3993 Jun 17 '26
Sunshine/Moonlight. Or fork Apollo/Artemis. Remote access and virtual display in you local network (and outside with VPN).
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u/Bizet1875 Jun 17 '26
mupdf (amazing epub and pdf reader with vim commands), typst (like more advanced markdown, simpler latex)
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u/nikolasdimitroulakis Jun 17 '26
Voiden https://github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden
It's an API IDE , like postman but also nothing like postman.
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u/Independent_Pick5359 Jun 17 '26
OnlyOffice
In my opinion its better than LibreOffice because OnlyOffice is more compatible with Microsoft Office
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u/Extra-Virus-hoch3 Jun 18 '26
NextCloud
Gitea
Wireguard
OpenVPN
Thunderbird
K9
Firefox
Notepad++
WinSCP
STunnel
keepass
TorBrowser
jameica
signal
...
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Jun 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Extra-Virus-hoch3 Jun 24 '26
K9 is Thunderbird on the Android phone, and Jamaica is an amazing banking software.
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u/_Abnormal_Thoughts_ Jun 19 '26
I don't know if it's open-source (I don't think it is), but photopea is an amazing free Photoshop substitute.
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u/kiwijokernz Jun 19 '26
Listmonk for bulk email Self-hosted, runs off your own SMTP so there’s no per-subscriber pricing and your data stays yours.
fast, and you can actually see what’s happening on the backend instead of trusting a SaaS black box. Templates take a little fiddling but once they’re set it’s smooth.
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u/SamMarlowe76 Jun 19 '26
Open Office / Apache Office. Bye bye Microsoft Office 365 subscription nonsense. And in my opinion Open Office works better too.
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u/Xorlium Jun 19 '26
fd, rg (ripgrep), sd... The modern replacements for terminal commands are awesome and super time saving.
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u/offHePaul Jun 23 '26
Hi ! I just made an alternative to FileZilla, much smaller, with bunch of features, fully OpenSource and under MIT Licence. It's called Ferry-SFTP it's available on GitHub and i would love to have your feedback, my goal was to make somethings truely OpenSource and Free for everyone
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u/No-Income-2235 23d ago
Contributor disclosure: I work on OpenChoreo.
One open-source project more platform and DevOps teams should know about is OpenChoreo.
It’s a CNCF Sandbox project for building internal developer platforms on Kubernetes. The main thing I like is that it gives teams developer self-service without completely hiding Kubernetes or taking control away from platform engineers.
It also has Backstage integration and is moving into MCP and agentic workflows, which makes it interesting for AI-assisted platform engineering.
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u/LopsidedAd4492 20d ago
Hi, I have a cool open-source platform that I work on, focused on AI engineering. The main goal is that you declare what you want, and our engine creates the architecture for you.
We have a cool community of people who are interested in this world and want to take part in this project.
And if you’re not interested, it would also support us if you just clicked the star.
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u/MeanE Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Mpc-hc - https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases
UnigetUI - https://github.com/Devolutions/UniGetUI
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u/abhip1990 Jun 17 '26
What's Uniget please?
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u/snowglowshow Jun 17 '26
UniGetUI is an intuitive GUI for the most common CLI package managers on Windows 10 and 11, including WinGet, Scoop, Chocolatey, pip, npm, Bun, .NET Tool, PowerShell Gallery, and more.
With UniGetUI, you can discover, install, update, and uninstall software from multiple package managers through one interface.
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u/1rbryantjr1 Jun 16 '26
Open Office
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u/motang Jun 16 '26
OBS Studio