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Free and Open Source Software, howtos and Installations
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Astra is billed as an audiophile music player - LinuxLinks
Linux offers a huge range of free and open source music software, much of it mature, powerful, and actively developed. Many Linux music players include advanced features and integrate smoothly with online music services. Most desktop environments already come with one or more audio players, and there are also many excellent cross-platform and standalone options available. With so many choices, Linux users are genuinely spoiled when it comes to music players.
Every music collection is different, and choosing the right open source music player can make a real difference to how you enjoy your library, particularly if you manage a large collection of music.
Axel - command-line download accelerator - LinuxLinks
Axel is a lightweight command-line download accelerator that speeds up file transfers by opening multiple connections to a server and downloading different parts of a file simultaneously. By dividing downloads into several segments, axel can significantly increase throughput compared with traditional single-connection download tools. The program is designed to remain small and efficient while still providing useful features for managing and monitoring downloads.
Axel tries to be as light as possible, so it might be useful on byte-critical systems.
This is free and open source software.
Clockwork Orange - cross-platform wallpaper manager - LinuxLinks
Clockwork Orange is a Python application for managing wallpapers and lock screen backgrounds, supporting Linux (KDE Plasma 6), Windows 10/11, and macOS 13+.
It supports setting wallpapers from URLs, local files, or random selection from directories, with per-monitor wallpaper support on all platforms.
This is free and open source software.
Mecalin - learn touch typing - LinuxLinks
Mecalin is a typing tutor application built with GTK4, Rust, and Adwaita.
It provides a clean and intuitive interface for practicing typing.
This is free and open source software.
NeoDLP - feature-rich video/audio downloader based on yt-dlp - LinuxLinks
NeoDLP (Neo Downloader Plus) is a cross-platform desktop application that provides a graphical interface for the popular yt-dlp media downloader. It is designed to make downloading online media simple while still exposing many of the advanced capabilities available in yt-dlp. The program allows users to download video and audio from a wide range of supported websites without needing to interact with command-line tools.
The application offers a clean desktop interface where users can paste links, choose formats, and manage downloads. NeoDLP integrates FFmpeg to handle media processing tasks such as merging audio and video streams, converting formats, and embedding metadata. It also supports downloading playlists and provides options for selecting quality levels, subtitles, and other media components. By combining a modern interface with powerful backend tools, NeoDLP makes advanced media downloading accessible to a broader range of users.
This is free and open source software.
gosh-dl-cli - download manager for the terminal - LinuxLinks
gosh-dl-cli is a modern command-line download manager built on top of the gosh-dl engine, a high-performance download library written in Rust. It provides a terminal interface to a powerful download engine capable of handling accelerated HTTP and HTTPS downloads as well as BitTorrent transfers.
The tool is designed for users who prefer a command-line workflow while still benefiting from advanced download capabilities. By leveraging the underlying gosh-dl engine, the CLI can manage segmented downloads, handle torrent peer discovery, and maintain reliable transfer performance. It is implemented with Rust’s asynchronous ecosystem, allowing efficient network operations while maintaining strong safety guarantees.
This is free and open source software.
ec - terminal Git mergetool - LinuxLinks
ec (easy-conflict) is a terminal Git mergetool with a 3-way TUI and Neovim integration.
It supports diff3 base comparison, and helps you resolve merge conflicts faster without leaving the terminal.
This is free and open source software.
tortuise - terminal-native 3D Gaussian splatting viewer - LinuxLinks
Tortuise is a terminal-based 3D Gaussian splatting viewer that renders complex 3D scenes directly inside a text terminal. Rather than relying on a conventional graphical windowing environment, it displays 3D Gaussian splat data using terminal characters and colour output. The project is designed to show how modern rendering techniques can be adapted for a console environment while still allowing interactive scene exploration.
The software is aimed at users who want an unusual but technically impressive way to visualise 3D scenes without needing a traditional desktop graphics viewer.
This is free and open source software.
Dgraph - horizontally scalable and distributed GraphQL database - LinuxLinks
Dgraph is a distributed graph database designed to store and query highly connected data efficiently.
It is built with a native graph architecture and exposes a GraphQL-based query language (GraphQL± / DQL) along with GraphQL APIs for application development. Dgraph focuses on horizontal scalability, high performance, and strong consistency, making it suitable for large-scale applications that require fast traversal of complex relationships. It supports distributed deployments, ACID transactions, and automatic sharding and replication, allowing clusters to scale while maintaining reliability and fault tolerance.
Dgraph is commonly used for applications such as recommendation systems, knowledge graphs, identity graphs, and real-time analytics.
This is free and open source software.