Best Free and Open Source Software

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Jun 29, 2025

• Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Microsoft Minesweeper - LinuxLinks

  Minesweeper is a logic puzzle video game genre generally played on personal computers. The game features a grid of clickable tiles, with hidden “mines” (depicted as naval mines in the original game) dispersed throughout the board.

  Microsoft Minesweeper is proprietary software. We recommend the best free and open source alternatives for Linux.

• Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Google Firebase - LinuxLinks

  Google has a firm grip on the desktop. Their products and services are ubiquitous. Don’t get us wrong, we’re long-standing admirers of many of Google’s products and services. They are often high quality, easy to use, and ‘free’, but there can be downsides of over-reliance on a specific company. For example, there are concerns about their privacy policies, business practices, and an almost insatiable desire to control all of our data, all of the time.

  What if you are looking to move away from Google and embark on a new world of online freedom, where you are not constantly tracked, monetised and attached to Google’s ecosystem.

  In this series we explore how you can migrate from Google without missing out on anything. We recommend open source solutions.

• Srain is a modern IRC client written in GTK - LinuxLinks

  Srain is a modern IRC client written in GTK.

  This is free and open source software.

• Profex - Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) - LinuxLinks

  Profex is a program for Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data based on the refinement kernel BGMN. It can be used for phase identification, phase quantification, structure refinement, and provides a large number of convenience features.

  This is cross-platform software running under Linux, macOS, and Windows.

  Profex is free and open source software.

• Jasmine - web launcher and session management application - LinuxLinks

  Jasmine is a comprehensive web launcher and session management application that transforms your scattered bookmarks and browser tabs into an organized, launchable workspace. Perfect for productivity enthusiasts and multi-account managers.

  Private profiles are completely isolated browsing environments within Jasmine. Each private profile operates as if it’s a separate browser with its own...

• Schulrechner - calculator you know from school - LinuxLinks

  This makes it much more suited for higher mathematics in university and school than your average mobile calculator (in case you forgot yours again and only have your phone), especially if you have become accustomed to the controls from a young age.

  t is built completely from scratch using pure web technologies and packaged into both an Android app as well as a Flatpak package for use on Linux devices.

  This project uses math.js

  This is free and open source software.

• Tsukimi is a third-party Emby client - LinuxLinks

  Tsukimi is a simple third-party Emby client written in GTK4-RS, uses MPV as the video player, and GStreamer as the music player.

  It’s also partially compatible with Jellyfin.

  All of basic functions and most of admin functions are supported.

  You can play music and albums, as well as videos with more advanced settings.

  This is free and open source software.

• terminal-mines is a minesweeper game for terminals - LinuxLinks

  terminal-mines is an implementation of Minesweeper. It is played using the keyboard instead of a mouse.

  This is free and open source software.