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Free and Open Source Software, and Review
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cls - terminal-based soundboard
cls is a terminal-based soundboard that combines file management with command-driven audio playback. It is designed for streamers and other users who need to trigger and route sound effects from a keyboard-driven interface.
The software supports global hotkeys under Wayland, directory tabs and a wide range of audio formats. Audio can be sent to the default output, a selected device or a virtual PulseAudio or PipeWire sink for use with streaming and recording applications.
This is free and open source software.
spectatui - manage projects built with GitHub Spec-Kit
spectatui is a terminal dashboard for managing projects built with GitHub Spec-Kit. It provides a central interface for tracking features, reading specifications, managing integrations, and monitoring AI-assisted development workflows.
spectatui watches the project’s specs/ and .specify/ directories and automatically refreshes when files change. Its multi-pane interface includes specification browsing, workflow progress, agent output, extension management, configurable layouts, themes, and mouse support.
This is free and open source software.
CImg - lightweight C++ toolkit
CImg is a lightweight C++ toolkit for developing image-processing applications. It provides classes and methods for loading, saving, displaying, transforming, filtering and analysing images, while requiring only a single header file.
The library can represent datasets with up to four dimensions, ranging from one-dimensional signals to hyperspectral volumetric images. Its template-based design supports numerous pixel types, together with image collections and sequences.
This is free and open source software.
WBCE CMS - user-friendly content management system
WBCE CMS is a user-friendly content management system designed for creating and maintaining websites.
It offers an intuitive administration interface, straightforward template development and flexible handling of different content types.
The core distribution includes modules for formatted pages, news and contact forms, together with media management and administrative tools. Its functionality and appearance can be extended with additional modules and templates.
This is free and open source software.
Soundboard - desktop audio mixing application
Soundboard is a desktop audio mixing application for playing sound clips through voice chats and games.
It can combine clips with microphone input and route the mixed audio through a virtual output device.
On Linux, the application works with PipeWire or PulseAudio and can create a virtual Soundboard sink. It supports configurable hotkeys and is built with Tauri, React and Rust.
This is free and open source software.
Beelink EQi 304 Mini PC Review - Cores
This is a series looking at the Beelink EQi Core 3 304 mini PC running Linux. In this series, I’ll put the Beelink mini PC through its paces from a Linux perspective, comparing it with other systems to see how it performs in real-world Linux use.
The Beelink EQi Core 3 304 is a recent addition to Beelink’s EQ range of compact PCs. It’s built around Intel’s Wildcat Lake Core 3 304 processor, a 5-core, 5-thread chip comprising one performance core and four low-power efficiency cores. The processor integrates Xe3-LPG graphics and currently has a CPU Mark of 11,720. The review unit comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 6400MT/s memory and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage, giving the system a capable hardware base for everyday desktop use, office work, media playback and lighter Linux workloads.
ClassicPress - lightweight content management system
ClassicPress is a lightweight content management system designed for creating and managing websites without a block-based editing interface. It is a community-led fork of WordPress 6.2 that retains the familiar TinyMCE classic editor.
The software removes Gutenberg and Full Site Editing, resulting in a smaller installation with less complexity and bloat. It is intended for creators, businesses and developers who prefer a traditional content management workflow.
This is free and open source software.
Nex - minimalist web framework
Nex is a minimalist web framework for building server-rendered Elixir applications with HTMX.
It favours a small API, file-based routing and HTML-first development without the complexity of a large client-side JavaScript stack.
The framework supports pages, reusable components, JSON APIs and real-time communication. It is aimed at internal tools, dashboards, independent products and other applications where server-side rendering and rapid development are priorities.
This is free and open source software.
Hologram - full-stack, isomorphic Elixir web framework
Hologram is a full-stack, isomorphic Elixir web framework for building interactive web applications entirely in Elixir. It compiles client-side Elixir code to JavaScript and can be used on top of Phoenix.
The framework provides a declarative component system for creating reusable user interfaces without relying on a JavaScript framework. Client-side actions handle interface state and interactions, while server-side commands provide access to databases, external APIs and other backend services.
This is free and open source software.
Drizzle ORM - lightweight, headless object-relational mapper
Drizzle ORM is a lightweight, headless object-relational mapper for TypeScript and JavaScript applications.
It provides a thin, strongly typed layer over SQL rather than concealing database operations behind a proprietary query language.
The software supports PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite databases, including serverless services. It runs with Node.js, Bun, Deno, Cloudflare Workers, edge environments and web browsers.
This is free and open source software.
OpenImageIO - image processing
OpenImageIO is a library and collection of utilities for reading, writing and processing image files.
It is designed particularly for visual effects and animation pipelines, offering format-independent APIs with the scalability and robustness needed for production environments.
The software supports a wide range of still-image, texture, camera RAW and movie formats through a plugin-based architecture. It also provides high-performance image caching, texture lookups, image-processing functions and Python bindings.
This is free and open source software.