[i] The softwares listed below are mostly focused for Linux, with exceptions, fortunately, most of them are cross-platform.
SOFTWARE TYPES
Open Source Software is software whose original source code is publicly available, allowing anyone to view, modify, and distribute it. This transparency promotes collaboration and security, as users can verify there are no hidden functions. While often free to use, some projects charge for enterprise support or advanced features. Examples include Linux and Firefox.
Freeware is proprietary software offered at no cost, but with restricted rights. Users can download and use it for free, but cannot view, modify, or redistribute the source code since it remains under the developer's copyright. Developers typically use freeware to build a user base or generate revenue through ads and donations. Examples include Skype and Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Freemium combines "free" and "premium" by offering a basic version at no cost while charging for advanced features. The free tier is functional but intentionally limited, often lacking power-user tools, storage space, or ad-free experiences, to encourage upgrades. This model relies on converting a small percentage of users into paying customers. Examples include Spotify and Dropbox.
Commercial Software is proprietary software developed specifically for sale, requiring users to purchase a license for legal use. The source code is kept private, and strict licensing agreements prevent modification or redistribution. Revenue from sales funds dedicated support, regular updates, and quality assurance. Examples include Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop.
Each model serves different goals, open source prioritizes transparency and collaboration, freeware focuses on adoption, freemium aims for conversion, and commercial software emphasizes profit and professional support.
AI
Apertus: Apertus is a fully open, multilingual AI model developed by Swiss institutions and designed as a transparent, ethical alternative to proprietary large language models.
Ask Brave: Search the Web. Privately. Truly useful results, AI-powered answers, & more. All from an independent index. No profiling, no bias, no Big Tech.
Cortex: Cortex is an Local AI engine for developers to run and customize Local LLMs.
Jan: Open source ChatGPT-alternative that runs 100% offline.
LM Studio: Experiment with LLMs on your computer. Chat interface and programmable API.
Lumo: Proton's privacy‑first AI chat assistant that lets you ask questions, get help, and manage files while keeping every conversation encrypted and under your control.
Msty: One app, one-click setup, no Docker, no terminal, offline and private, unique and powerful features.
Ollama: Open-source project that enables users to easily run large language models (LLMs) locally on their machines.
Open WebUI: Open WebUI is an extensible, feature-rich, and user-friendly self-hosted AI interface designed to operate entirely offline.
Page Assist: Page Assist is an open-source extension that provides a Sidebar and Web UI for your Local AI model.
SHAI: SHAI is a cutting-edge, terminal-based AI assistant designed to simplify your day-to-day development tasks.
ARCHIVER
7-Zip: 7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio.
PeaZip: Free file archiver utility for Windows, macOS, Linux, Open Source file compression and encryption software. Open, extract RAR TAR ZIP archives, 200+ formats supported.
WinRAR: Compress, Encrypt, Package and Backup with only one utility.
zpaq: zpaq is a free and open source incremental, journaling command-line archiver for Windows, Linux and Mac OS/X.
zpaqfranz: Zpaq compatible archiver for Win, Linux, Free/OpenBSD, Solaris, MacOS.
COMMUNICATION & EMAIL
Gajim: Gajim is an instant messaging client for the XMPP protocol which uses the GTK toolkit.
Geary: Geary is an email application built around conversations for the GNOME desktop. [!] Geary has Privacy/Security issue [1].
Proton Mail: Keep your conversations private with Proton Mail, an encrypted email service.
qTox: qTox is a chat, voice, video, and file transfer instant messaging client using the encrypted peer-to-peer Tox protocol.
Thunderbird: Thunderbird is a free email application that's easy toset up and customize.
DOWNLOADER
Video Downloader: Download videos from websites like YouTube and many others (based on yt-dlp).
Free Download Manager: It's a powerful modern download accelerator and organizer for Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux.
yt-dlp: A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader.
GAMING
Cheat Engine: Cheat Engine is a tool designed to help you with modifying single player games.
FLiNG Trainer: Quality and free trainers and mods for your PC games.
MrAntiFun: PC Video Game Trainers, Cheats and mods.
Steam: Steam is a video game digital distribution service by Valve.
WeMod: Free trainers and mods for your favorite PC games in one easy app. No more risky downloads.
INTERNET & BROWSER
Dillo: Dillo is a multi-platform graphical web browser, known for its speed and small footprint, that is developed with a focus on personal security and privacy.
Brave: The Brave browser is a fast, private and secure web browser for PC, Mac and mobile. [!] Chrome based browser!
Firefox Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser. [!] Telemetry enabled by default! For better privacy, use LibreWolf instead.
ELinks: ELinks is an advanced and well-established feature-rich text mode web (HTTP/FTP/..) browser. ELinks can render both frames and tables, is highly customizable and can be extended via Lua or Guile scripts.
Floorp: Floorp is a Firefox based browser from Japan with excellent privacy & flexibility.
Ladybird: Ladybird is a truly independent web browser, backed by a non-profit.
Links: Links is a graphics and text mode web browser, released under GPL. Links is a free software.
LibreWolf: A fork of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom.
Mullvad Browser: The Mullvad Browser is a privacy-focused web browser developed in collaboration between Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project. It's produced to minimize tracking and fingerprinting.
Orion: Lightweight, WebKit based, fast. Built-in ad blocker. Zero telemetry. Web extensions support. Orion is 100% funded by its users, no ads and no third party deals ever. [!] Not Open Source! Yet?
Tor Browser: Tor Browser protects against tracking, surveillance, and censorship.
Zen Browser: Zen Browser is built for speed, security, and true privacy.
MEDIA | AUDIO | VIDEO | IMAGE
Ardour: Ardour is a free and open source, cross-platform application to record, edit and mix different audio files with ease.
Audacity: Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder.
Aviator: A lightweight, Flatpak-first, easy-to-use GUI utility for encoding with SVT-AV1 & Opus.
Avidemux: Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.
Bitwig: Bitwig Studio is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and music production software. Design sounds. Build instruments. Make music.
Blender: Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite.
Blue Recorder: Simple Screen Recorder written in Rust based on Green Recorder.
Celluloid: Celluloid (formerly GNOME MPV) is a simple GTK+ frontend for mpv. It aims to be easy to use while maintaining high level of configurability.
DaVinci Resolve: DaVinci Resolve is a professional tool that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics and audio post production.
Electron Screen Recorder: A Desktop screen recorder app built using web technologies for Mac, Linux and Windows.
FFmpeg: A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video.
Flowblade: Flowblade is a multitrack non-linear video editor released under GPL3 license.
Footage: Footage is a useful tool for quickly editing short videos and screencasts. It's also capable of exporting any video into a format of your choice.
FreeTube: FreeTube is a YouTube client for Windows, Mac, and Linux built around using YouTube more privately.
GIMP: Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done.
HandBrake: HandBrake is a open-source tool, built by volunteers, for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs.
ImageMagick: ImageMagick is a powerful, open-source software suite for creating, editing, converting, and manipulating images in over 200 formats.
Inkscape: Inkscape is professional vector graphics software which runs on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows desktop computers.
Kdenlive: Kdenlive is the acronym for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor. It works on Linux, Windows, macOS, and BSD.
Kew: A terminal music player with album art & visualizer.
Krita: Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.
Materialious: Materialious is a privacy respecting frontend for YouTube built ontop of Invidious. Modern material design for Invidious.
mpv: A free, open source, and cross-platform media player.
MoonPlayer: All-in-One video player that can play videos from Youtube, Bilibili etc. as well as local videos.
nomacs: 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.
OBS Studio: Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
OpenShot: OpenShot is a free and open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Create videos with exciting video effects, titles, audio tracks, and animations.
OvoPlayer: OvoPlayer is a free music manager and player for Linux and Windows.
REAPER: REAPER is a complete digital audio production application for computers, offering a full multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolset.
Shotcut: Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor.
Showtime: Play your favorite movies and video files without hassle.
Shutter Encoder: Shutter Encoder is a free encoding software for converting images, videos, and audio files, allowing you to choose from a large number of functions. Encode your files, replace audio, burn to DVD, analyze audio Loudness, download web videos, make your own timelapse etc. The most simply and efficiently possible.
Spotube: Open source Spotify client that doesn't require Premium nor uses Electron! Available for both desktop & mobile!
VLC Media Player: VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files, and various streaming protocols.
Waveform Free: Fully featured, completely unlimited free DAW for all music creators.
XMPlay: XMPlay is an audio player for Windows (or Linux via Wine), supporting audio formats, playlists, and ZIP archives. A load more audio and archive file formats are also supported via plugins.
OFFICE & TEXT EDITOR
Fresh Editor: Fresh is built for discovery. Unlike traditional terminal editors, Fresh uses familiar keybindings that work the way you expect. Full mouse support, menus, and a command palette make it easy to get started.
ghostwriter: ghostwriter is a Windows and Linux text editor for Markdown, which is a plain text markup format created by John Gruber.
Joplin: Joplin - the privacy-focused note taking app with sync capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
Kate: Kate is packed with features that will make it easier for you to view and edit all your text files.
KWrite: KWrite is a text editor by KDE, based on the Kate's editor component.
LibreOffice: LibreOffice is a private, free and open source office suite – the successor project to OpenOffice. It's compatible with Microsoft Office/365 files (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx) and is backed by a non-profit organisation.
Void: Void is an open source Cursor alternative. Write code with the best AI tools, use any model, and retain full control over your data. [i] Binaries for Linux can be found in Void's GitHub. [!] While Void is paused, some features may be outdated or broken.
Zed Editor: Zed is a next-generation code editor designed for high-performance collaboration with humans and AI. [!] Zed has telemetry enabled by defaut, disable it in the Welcome page in the ☰ menu.
OPERATING SYSTEM (LINUX DISTRO)
CachyOS: CachyOS is an Arch Linux-based distribution that focuses on performance optimization and customization and provides several options to tailor the system to individual user preferences.
Debian: Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions, and many other distributions have been created from the Debian codebase, most notably Ubuntu.
Fedora Workstation: FFedora Workstation is a polished, easy to use operating system for laptop and desktop computers, with a complete set of tools for developers and makers of all kinds.
Linux Mint: Linux Mint is an operating system for desktop and laptop computers. It is designed to work 'out of the box' and comes fully equipped with the apps most people need.
Pop!_OS: LPop!_OS is an operating system for STEM and creative professionals who use their computer as a tool to discover and create.
openSUSE Tumbleweed: An open source Linux distribution developed by the "openSUSE project" supported by SUSE and others.
Tails: Tails is a portable operating system that protects against surveillance and censorship.
PRIVACY
age: A simple, modern and secure encryption tool (and Go library) with small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability.
AdGuard: AdGuard is the best way to get rid of annoying ads and online tracking and protect your computer from malware. Make your web surfing fast, safe and ad-free.
AdGuard VPN: Keeps the Internet open and your data secure. Top-notch VPN from the creators of the famous ad blocker.
Bitwarden: Bitwarden is a password manager for securely storing, managing, and sharing sensitive online data such as passwords, passkeys, and credit cards. [i] Freemium because while Bitwarden has open source clients, the service itself operates on a freemium model with proprietary server components.
Carburetor: Experience seamless anonymous browsing with Carburetor - your privacy shield across devices. Built for GNU/Linux with GNOME integration and powered by Tor network. Git Repository.
CryFS: CryFS encrypts your files, so you can safely store them anywhere. It works well together with cloud services like Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive and others.
Cryptomator: Cryptomator for Windows, macOS, and Linux: Secure client-side encryption for your cloud storage, ensuring privacy and control over your data.
Hypervault: Hypervault is client-side file encryption web app. It outputs a password-locked vault with your encrypted files locked inside.
KeePassXC: KeePassXC is a modern, secure, and open-source password manager that stores and manages your most sensitive information.
Kryptor: Kryptor is a simple, modern, and secure file encryption and signing tool for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Portable Secret: Portable Secret is an open source tool that is designed to encrypt messages, images or files and save them as HTML files.
VeraCrypt: VeraCrypt is a free open source disk encryption software for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. Based on TrueCrypt 7.1a.
Zen: Simple, free and efficient ad-blocker and privacy guard for Windows, macOS and Linux. [!] On Linux, automatic proxy configuration is currently only supported on GNOME and KDE based desktop environments.
Portmaster: Portmaster is a free and open-source application firewall that does the heavy lifting for you. Restore privacy and take back control over all your computer's network activity.
SHARING
Fopnu: FFopnu is a new and powerful P2P file sharing system.
OnionShare: OnionShare is an open-source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network.
Soulseek: Soulseek is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network and application primarily used for exchanging music files.
SYSTEM
AppImageLauncher: Helper application for Linux distributions serving as a kind of "entry point" for running and integrating AppImages.
Electron: Electron is a framework for building desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
Etcher: Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily. [i] balenaEtcher no longer sends data to third parties for tracking or analytics since version 2.1.2. Official announcement
Spacedrive: Spacedrive is an open source cross-platform file manager, powered by a virtual distributed filesystem (VDFS) written in Rust.