Best Free and Open Source Software

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Dec 24, 2025

• lux - package manager for Lua - LinuxLinks

  lux is a luxurious package manager for Lua.

  This is free and open source software.

• Dove - configuration and modifications for Mozilla Thunderbird - LinuxLinks

  Dove’s settings & changes to Thunderbird are carefully considered based on extensive research & studying of Thunderbird’s inner workings. For an incomplete, non-exhaustive list of Dove’s features & enhancements, see here.

  Dove is designed to maintain compatibility with email providers and to avoid breakage as much as possible, while still substantially improving privacy & security compared to vanilla Thunderbird & most other email clients.

  This is free and open source software.

• kirill - JSON validator - LinuxLinks

  kirill scans projects large and small for JSON correctness:

  Check for basic JSON(5) syntactical validity Identify JSON(5) files recursively in large project directories Verify compliance with a JSON Schema

  This is free and open source software.

• xLights - sequencer for lights - LinuxLinks

  xLights has usb and E1.31 drivers. You can create sequences in this object oriented program. You can create playlists, schedule them, test your hardware, convert between different sequencers.

  This is free and open source software.

• Redress - tool for analyzing stripped binaries - LinuxLinks

  It has two operation modes. The first is a standalone mode where the binary is executed on its own. The second mode is used when the binary is executed from within radare2 via r2pipe. The binary is aware of its environment and behaves accordingly.

  This is free and open source software.

• Stryde - application launcher - LinuxLinks

  Stryde is an application launcher that’s in an early stage of development.

  This is free and open source software.

• ck - semantic code search - LinuxLinks

  ck (seek) finds code by meaning, not just keywords. It’s grep that understands what you’re looking for — search for “error handling” and find try/catch blocks, error returns, and exception handling code even when those exact words aren’t present.

  This is free and open source software.

• Prog8 - structured programming language - LinuxLinks

  It aims to provide many conveniences over raw assembly code (even when using a macro assembler), while still being low level enough to create high performance programs.

  Supported target systems are Commodores (C64, C128, PET), Commander X16, and others.

  This is free and open source software.

• termframe - terminal output SVG screenshot tool - LinuxLinks

  termframe is a terminal output SVG screenshot tool.

  This tool is a non-interactive terminal emulator that executes a single command, renders its output in an internal virtual session, and exports a screenshot as an SVG file.

  This is free and open source software.

• buf - flash ISOs to create bootable USB drives - LinuxLinks

  buf is a command-line utility for flashing ISOs to create bootable USB drives.

  This is free and open source software.

• 9 Best Free and Open Source IDEs for Kubernetes - LinuxLinks

  Kubernetes (also known as K8s) is a powerful open-source platform designed to streamline the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

  Think of it as the “operating system for the cloud,” expertly orchestrating containers — such as those from Docker — across clusters of machines. It simplifies the management of complex microservices, ensures that applications are always available, efficiently manages resource allocation, and creates consistent environments from development to production. This makes Kubernetes the go-to solution for running applications at scale in the industry.

• demongrep - fast, local semantic code search - LinuxLinks

  Search your codebase using natural language queries like “where do we handle authentication?” — all running locally with no API calls.

  This is free and open source software.

• Austin TUI - Top-like Interface for Austin - LinuxLinks

  Austin TUI is a top-like text-based user interface for Austin, the frame stack sampler for CPython.

  This is free and open source software.

• Websitino - lightweight static file server - LinuxLinks

  Websitino is a lightweight static file server for local development. It’s designed for testing static websites and serving files with minimal setup.

  This is free and open source software.

• Fingwit - configure fingerprint authentication - LinuxLinks

  Fingwit is used to configure fingerprint authentication. Fingwit relies on Fprintd.

  It’s an X App so it can work in any distribution and many desktop environments.

  This is free and open source software.