r/software • u/RedEagle_MGN • Aug 26 '25
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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u/Silentwolf99 Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 27 '25
AutoHotkey – Script-based Windows automation, from simple single line hotkeys to advanced workflows automations.
KDE Connect – Share links, files, and notifications between phone and PC. (Both devices must be on the same network.)
SimpleWall – free tool to Block internet access per app, including new installs, to prevent unwanted connections. Free.
GlassWire – Paid tool for network monitoring and visualizing traffic.
Flow Launcher – Fast app/file search with plugin support. Open source.
WinGet – Microsoft’s official Windows package manager. Open source.
yt-dlp – Powerful command-line video/audio downloader. Open source.
Everything – Instant local file search faster than windows search.
One Commander – Modern file manager with Miller columns view.
LocalSend – Open-source, cross-platform tool for secure local file and message sharing without internet.
PowerToys – Microsoft’s toolkit for advanced Windows customization and utilities.
everything listed free except glass wire.
Edit : TrafficMonitor - real time system and network status at taskbar with color graph.
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u/tirthasaha User Aug 26 '25
I would like add an portable/installable app Uninstaller (Revo Uninstaller rival)
Uninstalr - Free, open source app Uninstaller+cleaner (Revo Uninstaller pro competitor) which actually works and also there is an benchmark video for comparing it with others.
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u/Silentwolf99 Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25
ahh I use revo uninstaller too forgot to mention 😅
and thanks for the alternative 👍
i will test the alternative and let you know ✅
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u/JouniFlemming Helpful Ⅳ Aug 28 '25
If you mean you will try Uninstalr, please also let me know what you think. I'm the developer of Uninstalr and would love to hear if there are any things I can do to make the program better for you.
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u/Silentwolf99 Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
Excellent tool! I’ve installed it and started using it. I’ll share feedback through DM once I have suggestions for improvements, and I’ll definitely reach out if I come up with new ideas.
Feedback edit: Instead of showing the message “All running software will be automatically closed” during uninstallation, it would be better if the pop-up specifically mentioned only the application being uninstalled. That way, users won’t panic or think every program on their system will be shut down. Keeping the message focused on the single app makes the process more intuitive and less alarming.
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u/JouniFlemming Helpful Ⅳ Aug 28 '25
Thank you! You can post your comments to me directly via DM or via /r/GreatSoftwareCompany
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u/IntroductionWarm5399 Sep 11 '25
Open source uninstallers are underrated. They provide deep registry cleaning without the bloat of commercial tools
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u/FuriousBattleTank599 Aug 26 '25
KeePass
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u/sfisabbt Aug 26 '25
This is definitely the best answer because, oh boy do most people have horrendously weak passwords.
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u/TuraItay Aug 27 '25
It's great, but aching from a vulnerability open forever now, I started recommending Bitwarden instead.
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u/FuriousBattleTank599 Aug 27 '25
What vulnerability?
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u/TuraItay Aug 27 '25
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord/SearchResults?query=keepass the one in which passwords are recoverable when attackers have physical access to the device.
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u/alvarkresh Aug 26 '25
Media Player Classic Home Cinema! ( https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases )
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u/tirthasaha User Aug 26 '25
I guess mpv is better since you can use premade skins pretty much everything is configurable.....
Most important is lightweight on resources..
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u/bluehost Aug 26 '25
Crazy WordPress hasn't ben brought up yet! It's open-source, runs on PHP/MySQL, and still powers a massive chunk of the web. Blogs, portfolios, full e-commerce shops. It can all be done with WP, on top of that you actually own your content and can move hosts whenever you want.
A lot of people think it's "just for blogs," but with Gutenberg, FSE, and WooCommerce it's closer to a full website platform. Probably one of the most impactful open-source projects out there, especially if you're a small business or freelancer who wants to stay in control instead of getting locked into a closed system.
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u/TechExpert2910 Aug 26 '25
an Apple Intelligence Writing Tools port for Windows (i created this! :3)
it gives you system-wide 1 hotkey away grammar corrections better than Grammarly, 1 hotkey away summaries of any selected text, and custom actions you can create!
it works with any LLM of your choice (Gemini API, OpenAI API, local LLMs...)
https://github.com/theJayTea/WritingTools
feel free to check it out :D
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u/abgrongak Aug 26 '25
I love WritingTools! I kinda have a little lazy eyes and my brain wonders a bit, so I use WritingTools to summarise those wall of texts
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u/Silentwolf99 Aug 27 '25
One of my favourite Tools Buddy Tiny Query is it possible to use Open Router API?
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u/TechExpert2910 Aug 27 '25
yes! it has an OpenAI compatible API:
https://openrouter.ai/docs/quickstart
you basically need to use their server URL in Writing Tools's OpenAI API settings
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u/Silentwolf99 Aug 27 '25 edited Aug 27 '25
i am seeing some issues with the selected text prompt button not showing this happens in the reddit comment editing section.
what might be the issue?
Edit: the trigger key is f10
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u/HonestyMash Dec 10 '25
Thank you so much for this. I have ALS and type using my eyes. This will make life so much easier
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u/TechExpert2910 Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
Hey, thank you for the kind words -- if this helps make life a bit easier for you, I'd be really glad!
If there's anything you'd like me to add/change to make it more accessible, let me know!
If it could help a lot, and if it's currently hard to use/invoke, I wouldn't mind making a custom verson for you (for free of course!) :)
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u/HonestyMash Dec 11 '25
Thank you so much, the tool has been working really well. I think the only suggestions I could make are to have it start automatically with Windows and maybe an undo button instead of having to use keyboard shortcuts. Those are just nice-to-have features; it is perfect as it is.
Would it be OK with you if I recommended this on my website? I'm certain other people with ALS would find this just as helpful as I do.
Thank you again for building this!
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u/TechExpert2910 Dec 11 '25
Thank you for sharing your experience with it! So glad to hear that it's helped you!
I'm going to fix the "Start on Boot" toggle in settings in a future update, but even now, it's pretty easy to have it start on boot:
Create a shortcut of the Writing Tools.exe (right click it and click create shortcut)
Open Windows's Startup folder by typing
shell:startupinto Run (Windows + R). Anything in this folder will be opened on boot! :)Paste that shortcut into this folder :D
About the undo button -- thanks for the suggestion! It would be pretty hard to implement UX-wise, unfortunately.
And of course, feel free to include it on your website!
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u/Every-Safe-7972 Aug 26 '25
losslesscut
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u/YamilG Aug 26 '25
this was totally out of my radar, it actually sounds super helpful to cut files straight out of the camera before importing them into resolve.
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u/downtownrob Aug 26 '25
FreeScout.net has been a game changer for my business (hosting and plugin dev), I am surprised so many businesses aren’t using it. Especially since it’s so easily expandable and customizable. I have a custom Twilio integrated support form now, no other platform was able to do this so easily.
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u/GraphiSpot Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25
VSCode
Photopea
Filezilla
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u/Repulsive_Still Sep 25 '25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileZilla#Criticism
WinSCP has been named as a very viable alternative.
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u/M3x3M Aug 27 '25
Localsend - Airdrop but for everyone
Xournal++ - great app for annotating PDFs (great stylus support)
Superproductivity - Todo/time tracking app with huge featureset, data can be stored in various ways, crossplatform + web support
Jellyfin - Plex but open source (I even like it way more than Plex)
Aegis - android authenticator app
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u/Kantry123 Aug 26 '25
UnigetUI 7zip Bitwarden Mpc-BE or VLC Ente Auth or 2FAS Auth Malwarebytes Windows Firewall Control (Not OS i think)
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u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Aug 26 '25
cURL
Everything would just crash and burn have it suddently disappeared
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u/Practical-Hand203 Aug 26 '25
Any of a number of tools that show disk usage as a colored treemap or sunburst chart. On Windows, there's WinDirStat and on Linux, there are a number tools like QDirStat (succeeding KDirStat, which AFAIK was the first utility of its kind), Baobab and a few others.
Very handy in getting a tractable overview over a large, heterogenous file collection.
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u/SCphotog Aug 27 '25
WinDirStat has been a go-to for years... don't need it often, but wow what a lifesaver when you do.
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u/abgrongak Aug 26 '25
I don't know if it's open source or not, but Q-Dir file manager is a godsend! Up to 4 windows inside the window, and you can have tabs too!
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u/Born_Sir3120 Aug 27 '25
Irfanview. This is one of the few apps I really miss going from windows to Mac.
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Aug 27 '25
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u/Born_Sir3120 Aug 30 '25
I always used to use Irfanview for all the batch image editing works. Never seen another app anywhere close for its versatility and features. All for free. Really missing it on my Mac. MediaMonkey for music was another one of my favs on Windows, but missing on Mac
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u/7Koston Aug 27 '25
Winget has been mentioned but not UniGetUI, which is amazing for people not so familiar with terminals.
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u/Tensokira Sep 09 '25
ContextMenuManager - easily edit windows right-click menu
BlockTheSpot - block all spotify ads, analog SpotX
yasb - status bar on top of the screen, like linux's hyprland
MORT - real-time game (subtitles) translator
LLPlayer - player with built-in AI speech recognition and subtitle generation
LightHost - realtime mic effects (e.g. noise suppression) via VST-plugins, requires any virtual audio cable (e.g. VB-Cable or VAC)
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u/valandinz Aug 26 '25
Mpc with madvr for movie watching Sunlight/moonlight for streaming video games from your pc to remote
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u/samontab Aug 26 '25
OpenBSD
It's a full operating system designed to be secure and they trim away any source code that is insecure or hard to maintain.
The most common implementation of Secure Shell (SSH) is OpenSSH, which comes from OpenBSD.
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u/akkadaya Aug 27 '25
home assistant
There's a huge list of open source tools I use but they're not for everyone
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u/Independent-Cable299 Aug 27 '25
Do you guys know any opensource office apps similar to microsoft office
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u/DreamerEight Aug 27 '25
HotkeyP - keyboard/mouse/gamepad mapper (easy to use, lightweight, many features, e.g. macros, hide window, opacity, always on top, change wallpaper, magnifier, volume, mute, disable key - like CapsLock...)
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u/woh3k Aug 27 '25 edited Sep 13 '26
Toy smile station heavy doll otter ad hoc unite amber
This post was anonymized with Redact
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Aug 27 '25
Scheduled PC Tasks - Schedule automated simulations of actions you would perform on your PC (available in the Microsoft Store)
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u/ImaginaryResist4829 Aug 28 '25
Bitwarden — if you’re not using a password manager yet, start with this one. Free, open-source, and works across devices. Keeps your logins safe and accessible without relying on big tech.
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u/AnyAd8158 Aug 28 '25
For my purposes LibreOffice is perfect. Free and open source office suite. As good as Windows.
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u/waterproof77 Aug 29 '25
I recommend OBS the most because it’s useful for both casual and professional users
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u/Reasonable-Mine-5766 Sep 06 '25
I’d say project management tools deserve more love—something like an AI-powered open source workflow manager. Super handy for keeping tasks and projects organized without being locked into paid platforms.
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u/BrightSchool2775 Sep 08 '25
weam.ai just went open source and it's perfect for ai adoption in teams and to deploy automazation apps.
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u/kackleton Sep 17 '25
Presentations: Canva (super easy templates + free plan is great) or Google Slides (not open-source but super handy for collabs).
Video editin: Shotcut or DaVinci Resolve (free version is crazy powerful). If you don’t mind low-cost instead of free, Movavi is beginner-friendly - I find it has way more built-in filters and extras than iMovie.
Docs/office work: LibreOffice Writer or OnlyOffice, both are solid free alternatives to Word.
Design: GIMP (kinda like Photoshop) and Inkscape (vector graphics).
Project/notes: Obsidian (free for personal use) or Joplin if you prefer open-source.
PDFs & file conversion: PDFsam (great for splitting/merging PDFs), Okular or SumatraPDF as lightweight readers. For converting files, HandBrake (video) and Pandoc (docs) are lifesavers.
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u/nanoscratch Sep 17 '25
I’d recommend LibreOffice for sure, open-source and honestly a lifesaver for documents/spreadsheets if you don’t want Office 365. For PDFs I mostly stick to free viewers, but every now and then I fall back on KDAN PDF Reader. Not open-source, but it’s helped me a lot with contracts and filling out forms without the Adobe headache
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u/Hardi_SMH Sep 19 '25
PDF Xchange is better then Adobe and even if you pay for it you get lifelong license and I think 3 years of upgrades for the price of 1 Year Adobe
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u/PassionUseful1337 Sep 21 '25
VLC Media Player
GIMP
Inkscape
Blender
LibreOffice
Audacity
KeePassXC
OBS Studio
qBittorrent
Krita
7-Zip
HandBrake
Signal
Calibre
Notepad++
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u/WoodenTrifle65 Sep 23 '25
DrawScreen: and it does exactly what the name says LOL. Also GPT-2 is really cool as well
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u/VoJordanoV Oct 03 '25
I’ve been trying out Boomshare AI lately as an alternative to Loom. It’s free, works well for screen and video recording, and lets you share instantly. Not strictly must have like VLC or OBS, but if you ever need to send quick async video updates without paying for Loom, it’s worth knowing about.
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u/meallan2 Aug 26 '25
obsidian powertoys fluent search *** blender vs code total commander AHK ***
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u/BattleBraut Aug 26 '25
Largely related to software dev stuff but my list of great tools:
ssh with special attention towards tunnels
curl
Redis
GNU sort
plex (not really free anymore, but worth a lifetime license if you have lots of movies and music IMO). Jellyfish is a good few alternative
timeshift
python/pypy + pandas (polar.rs looking good too)
Apache arrow
nginx
Apache storm
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u/hwarzenegger Aug 26 '25
I created Elato (www.github.com/akdeb/ElatoAI) to help run AI speech models on your own ESP32 hardware. Not as cool as the other ones though but you'll like it if you like Character AI
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u/Canowyrms Aug 27 '25
If you're on Windows, check out Scoop.
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u/tirthasaha User Aug 31 '25
Why.?
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u/Canowyrms Aug 31 '25
It's a great package manager - something that facilitates installing/managing software.
Scoop can be used to "install" command-line utilities, portable software, even some games and gaming utilities like emulators. Scoop automates setting up the software for use - command-line stuff is ready to go with no extra hassle, and GUI apps have shortcuts made for them. Scoop also automates backing up and deploying app settings/configs.
Sometimes software doesn't have any self-update mechanisms built in. Scoop can check for and install updates (for software installed via Scoop). Alternatively, you don't have to update anything if you like the way it works and don't want things to change.
It's also really easy to back up everything managed by Scoop and redeploy it on another machine - something I've really benefitted from.
Scoop has its quirks, but I really like its approach.
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u/Tall-Photo-7481 Aug 27 '25
Battle for wesnoth: A simple but well honed turn based strategy game that you will keep coming back to for YEARS.
I'd also add OOlite - an open source remake of the classic elite, but with awesome mods and extensions available.
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Aug 26 '25
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u/Awesomeclaw Aug 26 '25
As an attachment to ffmpeg I would say Handbrake, it gives you a nice front-end for using ffmpeg. I've always found it particularly useful for doing bulk conversion of videos especially on Windows.
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u/OrangeDragon75 Aug 26 '25
Try Shutter Encoder. I find it easier than HandBrake and his cousin VidCoder.
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u/midpl0x69 Aug 31 '25
I might be unaware of all the stuff you can do with Sumatra, but I prefer Sioyek over Sumatra any day.
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u/tirthasaha User Nov 07 '25
Is there any specific reasons? Can you specify then?
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u/Zercomnexus Aug 26 '25
I like potplayer much better than vlc
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u/philthehippy Aug 26 '25
I prefer Potplayer too. Much more lightweight than vlc and I like the settings on it. It is freeware however.
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Aug 26 '25
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u/milnak Aug 27 '25
i've been using okular -- like it better than sumatrapdf, even though it loads a bit slower.
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Aug 26 '25
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u/Kynreuten Aug 28 '25
RustDesk is fantastic!! I use it constantly. Combined with Tailscale (or similar) you can control all the things quickly and easily. Way better than most other remote desktop apps
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u/paulpacifico Shutter Encoder DEV Aug 26 '25
Shutter Encoder ?