Best Free and Open Source Software

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Dec 22, 2025

• 6 Best Free and Open Source Java Linter Tools - LinuxLinks

  Linters are useful tools for maintaining code quality and consistency in your Java applications. They analyze code for potential issues, enforce coding standards, and help catch errors before they are pushed into production. Linters are not necessarily a quick fix, can be a distraction, and it’s not inconceivable that they may not be helpful with old, large code bases.

  This article picks some useful tools to help you fix Java code.

  Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion here.

• hsh - better shell - LinuxLinks

  hsh is a slightly different take on your shell. It’s closer to a user agent than you standard POSIX shell. It’s less of an instance, of a shell, and much closer to a system shell. E.g. when you add an alias in one instance, it becomes available on all instances as well. Changing a setting in one, updates it across al.

  This is free and open source software.

• phos - log colorizer - LinuxLinks

  phos is a fast, portable log colorizer with built-in support for:

  Ethereum: Lighthouse, Prysm, Teku, Nimbus, Lodestar, Grandine, Lambda, Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Erigon, Reth, Mana, Charon, MEV-Boost

  DevOps: Docker, kubectl, Terraform, k9s, Helm, Ansible, docker-compose, AWS System: systemd, syslog, fail2ban, dmesg, cron, auditd, iptables Dev: git, cargo, npm, go, make, yarn, pnpm, elixir Network: ping, curl, dig, nginx, caddy, apache, haproxy, traefik Data: postgres, redis, mysql, mongodb, elasticsearch Monitoring: prometheus, grafana, datadog, signoz Messaging: kafka, rabbitmq CI/CD: github-actions, jenkins

  This is free and open source software.

• PHP Coding Standards Fixer - fixes your code to follow the standards - LinuxLinks

  PHP CS Fixer has built-in rule sets, whether you want to follow PHP coding standards as defined by PHP-FIG’s PER Coding Style, a wide community like the Symfony, or our opinionated one. You can also define your (team’s) style through the configuration file.

  PHP CS Fixer can not only unify the style of your code, but also help to modernize your codebase towards newer PHP (e.g. @autoPHPMigration) and newer PHPUnit (e.g. @autoPHPUnitMigration:risky).

  This is free and open source software.

• PHPStan - PHP static analysis tool - LinuxLinks

  PHPStan focuses on finding errors in your code without actually running it.

  It catches whole classes of bugs even before you write tests for the code. It moves PHP closer to compiled languages in the sense that the correctness of each line of the code can be checked before you run the actual line.

  This is free and open source software.

• PHP_CodeSniffer - tokenizes PHP files and detects violations - LinuxLinks

  PHP_CodeSniffer tokenizes PHP files and detects violations of a defined set of coding standards.

  PHP_CodeSniffer is a set of two PHP scripts; the main phpcs script that tokenizes PHP files to detect violations of a defined coding standard, and a second phpcbf script to automatically correct coding standard violations. PHP_CodeSniffer is an essential development tool that ensures your code remains clean and consistent.

  This is free and open source software.

• PHPLint - speed up linting PHP files - LinuxLinks

  Linting PHP source files should be as simple as running phplint with one or more source paths (no config required). It will however assume some defaults that you might want to change.

  PHPLint will by default be looking in order for the file .phplint.yml in the current working directory. You can use another filename by option: --configuration=FILENAME or -c FILENAME.

  This is free and open source software.

• gasroot - run a process as the root user - LinuxLinks

  gasroot asks for the user’s password, using a graphical interface, and runs the specified command with sanitised and updated environment variables.

  Only users in the wheel group are allowed to run the asroot utility, unless it is installed with non-standard permissions.

  This is free and open source software.

• mdq - select and render specific elements in a Markdown document - LinuxLinks

  mdq aims to do for Markdown what jq does for JSON: provide an easy way to zero in on specific parts of a document.

  This is free and open source software.

• Flay - analyzes code for structural similarities - LinuxLinks

  Flay analyzes code for structural similarities. Differences in literal values, variable, class, method names, whitespace, programming style, braces vs do/end, etc are all ignored.

  This is free and open source software.

• mlbt - TUI for the MLB Statcast API - LinuxLinks

  Check scores, standings, and stats. Even watch a live game using Gameday.

  A TUI and baseball data make a pretty natural combination, at least compared to other sports. The Gameday view allows you to “watch” a live game by polling the API every 10 seconds. This matches the poll rate at which the official Gameday operates at. The goal with the TUI version is to mimic the official version as closely as possible.

  This is free and open source software.