Best Free and Open Source Software

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Dec 02, 2025

• OneKeePass - password manager - LinuxLinks

  OneKeePass is a cross-platform,open source and secure password manager. It supports the KeePass-compatible database (Kdbx 4.x). It stores and manages all your passwords and other sensitive information in a single encrypted file that can be stored in any location, including private and public cloud solutions. The database is locked with a master key.

  All created database files are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES-256, ChaCha20).

  This is free and open source software.

• yadm - yet another dotfiles manager - LinuxLinks

  yadm is a tool for managing dotfiles.

  yadm is like having a version of Git, that only operates on your dotfiles. If you know how to use Git, you already know how to use yadm.

  It doesn’t matter if your current directory is another Git-managed repository You don’t have to move your dotfiles, or have them symlinked from another location. yadm automatically inherits all of Git’s features, allowing you to branch, merge, rebase, use submodules, etc.

  This is free and open source software.

• cljstyle - tool for formatting Clojure code - LinuxLinks

  cljstyle is a tool for formatting Clojure code.

  The cljstyle tool supports several different commands for checking source files. cljstyle can be integrated into many different tools, including shells, editors, and tests.

  This is free and open source software. It runs under Linux and macOS.

• Pd-L2Ork - fork of Pure Data - LinuxLinks

  Pure Data (aka Pd) is a visual programming language. That means you can use it to create software graphically by drawing diagrams instead of writing lines of code. These diagrams show how data flows through the software, displaying on the screen what text-based languages require you to piece together in your mind.

  Pd-L2ork has the following goals:

  Documentation. Be reliable. Binary releases must be usable for performances and installations. Be discoverable. Undocumented features are buggy. Missing help files are bugs. Patches for new functionality that lack documentation are spam. Be consistent. Consistent interfaces are themselves a kind of documentation. We like documentation, so it follows that we like consistent interfaces.

  This is free and open source software.

• Rustow - modern Stow implementation - LinuxLinks

  Rustow is Stow rewritten in Rust. While writing Rustow, Stow only used as a starting idea not as an objective; so expect some different behavior and/or missing features.

  Rustow also has some additional features over Stow.

  This is free and open source software.

• liveboat - static page generator for Newsboat feeds - LinuxLinks

  Liveboat is a static page generator which turns Newsboat RSS reader feed data into beautiful static websites.

  This is free and open source software.

• lvsk-calendar - terminal-based calendar application - LinuxLinks

  lvsk-calendar is a terminal-based calendar application with minimalist design and monochromatic pastel aesthetics.

  lvsk-calendar is a lightweight, keyboard-driven calendar interface designed for terminal environments. Built with pure bash, it provides month-view navigation with minimal dependencies.

  This is free and open source software.

• osgrep - natural-language search that works like grep - LinuxLinks

  osgrep is a tool for natural-language search that works like grep. Fast, local, and built for coding agents.

  This is free and open source software.

• Xosview2 - X11 system monitor - LinuxLinks

  It can be configured to be nothing more than a small strip showing a couple of parameters on a desktop task bar. Or it can display dozens of meters and rolling graphical charts over your entire screen.

  Since xosview renders all graphics with core X11 drawing methods, you can run it on one machine and display it on another. This works even if your other host is an operating system not running an X server inside a virtual machine running on a physically different host. If you can connect to it on a network, then you can popup an xosview instance and monitor what is going on.

  This is free and open source software.

• Kerminal - modern terminal emulator and SSH manager - LinuxLinks

  Built with security-first architecture using Tauri (Rust) for native performance and Vue 3 for a responsive UI, Kerminal offers everything from basic terminal operations to complex SSH workflows with encrypted profile management, tunneling, and multi-device synchronization—all in a beautiful native desktop application.

  It’s targeted at developers, DevOps engineers, system administrators, and anyone who lives in the terminal and values security, organization, and productivity.

  This is free and open source software.

• Best Free and Open Source Software: November 2025 Updates - LinuxLinks

  Here are the latest updates to our compilation of recommended software. This is the largest number of roundups we’ve ever published in a month. We don’t only cover software. We publish lots of hardware related content too.

  Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion. Open source software at its finest.

• wl-kbptr - move the mouse pointer with the keyboard - LinuxLinks

  These are set with the modes configuration field and can be chained, e.g. wl-kbptr -o modes=tile,bisect.

  This is free and open source software.

• CapacityTester - checks for fake USB flash drives - LinuxLinks

  The volume test fills the filesystem, verifying that all of it can be used. It’s slow, it takes hours.

  The disk test overwrites the drive itself and is much faster (some GB/TB large USB drives can be checked in less than 10 minutes); but it’s somewhat experimental.

  This is free and open source software. It runs under Linux and Windows.

• rong - color generator - LinuxLinks

  This utility is useful for dynamically theming desktop environments, applications, or any system that supports Material You or customizable color schemes.

  This is free and open source software.

• rapidgzip - parallelized decompression of gzip files - LinuxLinks

  The Python module provides a RapidgzipFile class, which can be used to seek inside gzip files without having to decompress them first. Alternatively, you can use this simply as a parallelized gzip decoder as a replacement for Python’s builtin gzip module in order to fully utilize all your cores.

  This is free and open source software.

• ytsurf - YouTube in your terminal - LinuxLinks

  ytsurf lets you watch YouTube in your terminal. Clean and distraction-free.

  This is free and open source software.

• CrossMacro - modern mouse macro recording and playback - LinuxLinks

  CrossMacro is a modern mouse macro recording and playback application for Linux Wayland compositors.

  This is free and open source software.

• rapidgzip - parallelized decompression of gzip files - LinuxLinks

  The Python module provides a RapidgzipFile class, which can be used to seek inside gzip files without having to decompress them first. Alternatively, you can use this simply as a parallelized gzip decoder as a replacement for Python’s builtin gzip module in order to fully utilize all your cores.

  This is free and open source software.

• ytsurf - YouTube in your terminal - LinuxLinks

  ytsurf lets you watch YouTube in your terminal. Clean and distraction-free.

  This is free and open source software.

• binjr - time series browser - LinuxLinks

  Behind the scene, binjr uses Apache Lucene to index data from log files; meaning users can use its powerful query language to hack through vast quantities logged events. It also allows binjr to open log files of any size; unlike most text editors which will fail to load multi gigabytes-sized files as they try to fit it all in memory, binjr will happily index those and present a paginated view so that memory usage remains reasonable, while the backing index ensures that searches are fast and navigation snappy.

  This is free and open source software.

• DoltgreSQL - Postgres-compatible version of Dolt - LinuxLinks

  It’s a SQL database that you can branch and merge, fork and clone, push and pull just like a Git repository. Connect to your Doltgres server just like any Postgres database to read or modify schema and data. Version control functionality is exposed in SQL via system tables, functions, and procedures.

  This is free and open source software.