Open Source software is a program that is distributed with the original source code usually under a copyleft licence, this allows programmers to study and build on the program. This also allows security vulnerabilities and privacy invasions to be discovered more easily.
Mozilla Firefox – Web Browser – Multi-Platform+Mobile
Firefox in my opinion is one of the most unrated browsers of today. It is the most popular browser that isn’t really connected to a corporation, Despite this the FF team still like to make changes that annoy its users. However thanks to it’s open source model changes are discussed, dissected and criticised months before.
However it is not everyone’s cup of tea some prefer a more mainstream browser like Google Chrome (which isn’t recommended!).
To others who don’t mind more niche browsers here are some alternatives:
- Chromium – Source code behind Chrome, Chromium is free software unlike Chrome. But can still phone home (to Google).
- Pale Moon – A fork of Mozilla Firefox with a much more conservative and speedy interface. Updates from Mozilla code regularly.
- Midori – Lightweight and Modern, based of the WebKit Render Engine.
- QupZilla – Designed purely to be the most lightweight, integrated ad blocking.
- Brave – Modern browser with integrated ad blocking and a unique payment system to content creators
- GNU IceCat – The GNU version of Mozilla Firefox
- qutebrowser – A keyboard-driven browser, pretty steep learning curve.
Although I recommend at least trying one of the mentioned browsers above (of course with the exception of Google Chrome), Firefox is still my favourite!
KeePass – Password Manager – Multi-Platform+Mobile
In the world of today, a password manager is an underrated essential. With all the websites/services that you sign up to, you are also supposed to remember a unique, secure password for each service. A manager makes this so much easier, with a single password to remember.
KeePass has all the features that you would want from a manager, a generator, folders/sub-folders. All secure under SHA-256 encryption.
There are a few drawbacks however. Right now there is really only an official Windows client (although you can run the official on Mac and Linux with Mono). Mac/Linux/Android/iOS support all come through unofficial ports. This makes it harder to audit as one client may be good but the other, bad. There is also a 1.x and a 2.x version, I would personally suggest going with version 2.
Avoid using LastPass if you can help it! The cloud may seem convenient but it can always be hacked, It will be a constant target no matter what. To make matters worse they have been acquired by LogMeIn inc.
That being said here are some alternatives and some KeePass ports to try out:
- KeePassX – A proper cross-platform fork of KP. Compatible with KP 2.x.
- Keepass2Android – An Android fork, complete with a KeePass keyboard, allowing you to instantly type passwords, as opposed to copy and paste.
- MiniKeePass – An iOS fork, I don’t use iOS, but it seems to be the best one.
- Master Password – Check this out for sure! It is a manager without a database. Uses an algorithm to generate a password for each site based on your full name and security code. Nothing is stored ever, it is being generated on demand. No internet, backing up, syncing etc. to do ever! Has a web app and installable software.
- Encryptr – A trustworthy cloud based service.
- KeeWeb – Not a cloud service, but an offline web app (with a downloadable program). Unsure about its security, but is based off KeePass. Multiplatform, More features and looks better then KeePass.
VLC – Media Player – Multi-Platform+Mobile
What is the #1 media player that plays everything? Has (nearly) every setting one would want to set? one that runs on everything? VLC has had this reputation for 15 years. It even doubles as a music player and photo viewer. Software like this will always end up on peoples essential lists, because of how useful it is as a package…
It can play any digital file, play copy-protected DVDs, stream, subscribe to podcasts, play over the internet or local network and convert files.
VLC still has a few drawbacks, People complain about playback issues with some files. This leaves room for a few alternatives:
- MPC-HC – Windows only. Probably the most lightweight and small package, has good support for common formats but can be extended with codec packs.
- SMPlayer – Windows/Linux player. Uses MPlayer or mpv for playback engine. Good format support. Can stream YouTube. Skins can be ugly, but can be customised.
- MPC-BE – A fork of MPC-HC with a few extra features. This is the player I use along with MadVR (madvr only works on a 32bit/x86 version of mpc-be).
- mpv – An updated version of MPlayer with more features. Intended only as an engine for use in other players, however it does come with a simple interface which allows you to play, pause, seek, forward/rewind, select subtitles, select audio track. I use this on my Mac.
- bomi – Minimal player for Linux and Windows. Seems to work well, has decent settings. And looks great
- SPlayer – Compact. Has a skinned UI. Seems to really only rival some older players, but should still work well with modern formats. Windows only.
- MPlayer – An engine for use with others players, But the website does have Windows and Mac builds. Kind of getting old by today’s standards, don’t recommend for use.
JPEGView – Image Viewer – Windows
When it comes to viewing images there really isn’t a multi-platform open source program (with the exception of VLC, which isn’t really that good for viewing images, but alright for a slide show). Thankfully this feature is built-in to most operating systems. For Windows I’ve noticed it is slow (at least with Windows 7). Mac has a good image viewer called “Preview”. Linux has a few but most distros should already come with a good one, if not you can install one. Android is patchy, each brand of phone will have a different brand of gallery app.
When it comes to Windows nothing beats this great project, It supports common image formats out-of-the-box. Has a very minimal UI and keyboard shortcuts that make sense (left/right arrows to navigate through photos, scrollbar to zoom). It even has basic editing, you can crop images and convert them to a variety of formats. The only issue I really had was that the nav bar always felt in the way and all of it functions could be performed with the right click menu however it can be disabled. Right click > Settings/Admin > Edit User Settings… Then search for “ShowNavPanel” change it to say “ShowNavPanel=false”.
If you crave a more complete tool for Windows then Irfanview is what your after. It is free for personal use and isn’t open source, however it has been very trustworthy since the late 1990’s. It still works well after all this time and has great editing features.
There are other viewers for other platforms as well:
- LeafPic – An open source viewer for Android phones, it’s in beta so it can be unstable, but promising so far!
- digiKam – Mainly designed for Linux, but Windows and Mac builds are available through KDE. This is a much beefier photo manager program that replaces the now defunct Google Picasa.
- darktable – A Mac and Linux image viewer that is mainly geared towards a Darkroom like non-destructive editor.
- Shotwell – Designed for the GNOME Desktop environment on Linux.
- gThumb – Another more simpler GNOME app for Linux.
- Ristretto Image Viewer – An XFCE image viewer for Linux, simple and lightweight. Installed via terminal…
sudo apt-get install ristretto - Gwenview – A KDE viewer for Linux which can view nearly everything
LibreOffice – Office Suite – Multi-Platform+Mobile
LibreOffice is one of the most amazing packages I’ve ever come across. It a complete office package that is free and open source, and is even compatible with Microsoft Office files. It is originally based off OpenOffice.org and has improved on the original office tools so much since then, adding the greatest MS Office support we’ve seen yet. Writer is for Documents, Calc for Spreadsheets, Impress for Presentations, Draw for Drawings, Math for Formulas and Base for Databasing.
Now of course OpenOffice deserves huge credit for maintaining the reputation of the free office zone during the 2000’s. After all Libre would be nothing without it.
There really isn’t any other alternatives, at least none I would consider better:
- Open365 – LibreOffice + self-hosted file sync + Contacts. Meant for easier communication with other. Looks promising so far!
- Apache OpenOffice/OpenOffice.org – Once considered the greatest open source office suite, now largely behind the 8 ball ever since Apache bought it. Rarely updates to the point the team is thinking of ceasing the project altogether
- Calligra Office – A KDE developed suite. Might be worth checking out. Only really runs on Linux.
- Joeffice – Not intended as a replacement for Libreoffice at all. Very small Java-based office suite
- AbiWord – A stand-alone word processor. Quite neglected. Here is an interesting read
- LyX – A much simpler word processor. It is designed to get you to write the document structure instead of just the appearance.
- EtherCalc – Online spreadsheet tool, people who have the same link can edit at the same time
- Gnumeric – Stand-alone spreadsheet tool. Only for Linux/BSD.
qBittorrent – BitTorrent Client – Multi-Platform
If you ever find the need to “torrent” information from the BitTorrent Network (and you accept the legal risks!) You’ll need a good client. qBittorrent should tick all those boxes for a casual torrent user, has a simple UI, search, magnet links, shows information about the current torrent etc.
[DO NOT USE μTorrent or other non-free/non-open source clients]
In 2015 it was discovered that μTorrent shipped its installers with bitcoin miner malware (1) (2) (3). Even with this malware removed it was a scary demonstration of power, The FBI/NSA/Whoever could very easily ask for a direct backdoor into a proprietary software and we would never know. Although if you download copyrighted content your ISP will likely send you a warning letter. Still I would highly suggest against using a proprietary BitTorrent client!
Of course one should always research since the open-source FrostWire used to distribute the optional (and infamous) Ask.com Toolbar. Even though it appear to removed I haven’t included it because of this reason.
Besides a few of these clients have begun shipping with ads. They simply don’t stand up to the FOSS offerings:
- Deluge – If qBT didn’t take your fancy, then Deluge will! It has a lot more features that BitTorrent vets will appreciate through its plug-in system. Not as lightweight as qBT though.
- Transmission – A pretty client aimed at Mac/Linux/BSD, Again it has all the basic features. I would suggest users Mac and Linux users to try this first before any other client.
- Transmission-Qt – A fork of Transmission for Windows. I would suggest trying the other options on this list before using this.
- Halite – A Windows only BitTorrent program. It’s lightweight but still has all the features one would want.
MusicBrainz Picard – Music Tagger – Multi-Platform
Music quality isn’t the only problem with digital music. How it’s meta-data is presented is also an issue. From incorrectly spelt artist names to an albums tracks in the wrong order. Picard connects to the public domain MusicBrainz database, and will try and find the release your music is from it will then add all the information it’s got (e.g. track name, artist, album, year, publisher, album art etc.) in the music file.
Of course it’s database isn’t perfect if notice incorrect information, low quality or bad art work, or even a missing release, Feel free to make edits. Of course you should read the beginners guide first.
Of course you can also manually insert all the metadata yourself if you would prefer.
There are a few FOSS alternatives I found:
DifficultUsername 