Best Free and Open Source Software

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Feb 01, 2026

• Best Free and Open Source Software: January 2026 Updates - LinuxLinks

  Here’s the newest scoop on our handpicked software recommendations! This month marks a record for us — we’ve published more roundups than ever before, and we’re excited about it. But our focus doesn’t end with software; our website is also brimming with fantastic hardware content.

  We’re dedicated to showcasing only free and open-source software, highlighting the best offerings from the open-source community.

• YuFi - lightweight Wi-Fi manager - LinuxLinks

  YuFi is a lightweight GTK4 Wi‑Fi manager for Linux.

  It focuses on a clean, minimal dashboard for quick toggles, scanning, and network management.

  This is free and open source software.

• wvkbd - on-screen keyboard for wlroots - LinuxLinks

  wvkbd aims to deliver a minimal but practically usable implementation of a wlroots on-screen keyboard in legible C. This will only be a keyboard, not a feedback buzzer, led blinker, or anything that requires more than what’s needed to input text quickly. The end product should be a static codebase that can be patched to add new features.

  This is free and open source software.

• Stratis - local storage management - LinuxLinks

  Linux has a number of storage technologies that provide advanced functionality to applications for accessing and storing data. Examples of some of these products that Stratis uses are:

  device-mapper – A framework for logical to physical mapping of data blocks LUKS – An on disk format for encryption that can securely manages multiple passwords XFS – A scalable, journaling, and performant filesystem Clevis – A framework for automated decryption

  Learning and gaining experience in a number of different storage technologies can take many years. Each of those technologies may have their own unique command-line syntax, APIs, options, and logging. Stratis simplifies volume and filesystem management by providing a single CLI and API for users to set up complex storage stacks without having to spend time learning each independent storage technology.

  This is free and open source software.

• qq - jq but an interoperable configuration format transcoder - LinuxLinks

  qq is an interoperable configuration format transcoder with jq query syntax powered by gojq.

  qq is multi modal, and can be used as a replacement for jq or be interacted with via a REPL with autocomplete and realtime rendering preview for building queries.

  This is free and open source software.

• Flow - static type checker - LinuxLinks

  Flow is a static type checker for your JavaScript code. It does a lot of work to make you more productive. Making you code faster, smarter, more confidently, and to a bigger scale.

  Flow checks your code for errors through static type annotations. These types allow you to tell Flow how you want your code to work, and Flow will make sure it does work that way.

  This is free and open source software.