Best Free and Open Source Software

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Mar 15, 2026

• Blue Nebula - fork of Red Eclipse 1 - LinuxLinks

  Blue Nebula is a fast-paced arena shooter project derived from the Red Eclipse 1.x series. The base repository contains the core game code and infrastructure for the Blue Nebula engine and gameplay systems. The project is built on Cube Engine 2 and uses SDL and OpenGL, enabling portability across multiple platforms.

  While the Red Eclipse team have moved their game on to another engine for their latest release, 2.0, this also meant a total conversion of the gameplay, in the project’s opinion sacrificing some of the best aspects.

  Therefore a group of eager community members have started to fork off Red Eclipse from the last 1.x series release, setting up the necessary infrastructure to (re-)establish a community around Red Eclipse 1.5+.

  This is free and open source software.

• Packémon - generate packets of arbitrary input - LinuxLinks

  Packémon is a TUI tool for generating packets of arbitrary input and monitoring packets on any network interfaces (default: eth0). The list of interfaces to be specified is output when packemon interfaces is run.

  This tool works on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

  This is free and open source software.

• aim - CLI download/upload tool with resume - LinuxLinks

  aim is a command line download/upload tool with resume.

  This is free and open source software.

• wordplay - anagram finder - LinuxLinks

  wordplay is a command-line anagram finder. It takes an input string and searches a supplied word list to generate valid anagrams, while also offering controls for candidate word selection and output size.

  The program is intended for users who want a lightweight UNIX-style tool for exploring anagrams from words or phrases using custom dictionaries and filtering options.

  This is free and open source software.

• Pomotroid - simple and visually-pleasing Pomodoro timer - LinuxLinks

  Pomotroid is a simple and configurable Pomodoro timer. It aims to provide a visually-pleasing and reliable way to track productivity using the Pomodoro Technique.

  Built with Tauri 2, Rust, and Svelte 5.

  This is free and open source software.

• FCD - text based file manager - LinuxLinks

  The FCD File Manager (FranCommanDer) is a text based file manager for Linux.

  It is the continuation of rnr and is designed to combine the strengths of Midnight Commander and Ranger in a single executable. The project focuses on robust file copying, fast navigation, fuzzy filtering and finding, archive browsing, and efficient file operations from a terminal user interface.

  This is free and open source software.

• cmix - lossless data compression program - LinuxLinks

  cmix is a lossless data compression program aimed at optimizing compression ratio at the cost of high CPU/memory usage.

  The program is based on advanced context-mixing techniques similar to the PAQ family of compressors. It combines predictions from thousands of models and refines them using neural network techniques such as LSTM mixers and secondary symbol estimation.

  cmix is primarily intended for research and benchmarking rather than everyday archiving tasks. It performs compression one bit at a time, using probabilistic models and arithmetic coding to maximize compression effectiveness.

  At least 32GB of RAM is recommended to run cmix.

  This is free and open source software.

• Aer - high performance simulator for quantum circuits - LinuxLinks

  Qiskit Aer is a high performance quantum circuit simulator.

  The software is designed for simulating quantum circuits on classical hardware, with support for realistic noise models that help users study how circuits behave under non-ideal conditions. It includes fast simulation backends, primitives for modern Qiskit workflows, and optional GPU-enabled packages for accelerating selected simulator methods on supported Linux systems.

  Qiskit is a software stack for quantum computing and algorithms research.

  This is free and open source software.

• Gryt - self-hostable, WebRTC-based voice communication app - LinuxLinks

  Gryt is a self-hosted, open-source platform for voice, text, and video chat. Own your data. Host your server. Build your client.

  This is free and open source software.

• 8 Best Free and Open Source Linux Wi-Fi Terminal Managers - LinuxLinks

  NetworkManager is the standard networking stack on many Linux distributions, especially desktop-oriented systems such as Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and many others. It handles Ethernet, Wi-Fi, VPNs, mobile broadband, and a growing list of network-related tasks through a common service and API.

  If you prefer working in a terminal, NetworkManager gives you two main front ends: nmcli and nmtui. But there are many other terminal-based clients available for Linux which focus on managing Wi-Fi. We prefer tools which make Wi-Fi management fast, keyboard-friendly, and much nicer than raw CLI tools.

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

• BinauralPlayer - media player - LinuxLinks

  BinauralPlayer is a multimedia player that integrates traditional audio and video playback with tools for generating binaural beats and other brainwave-based audio signals.

  Written in C++ using the Qt framework, the application enables users to play common media formats while also producing customizable audio tones designed for relaxation, meditation, concentration, or sleep. The software combines a conventional media player interface with a real-time tone generator capable of producing different waveform types and adjustable frequencies.

  This is free and open source software.

• msgvault - archive a lifetime of email and chat - LinuxLinks

  msgvault is an offline email archive tool that exports and stores email data locally with full-text search capabilities.

  This is free and open source software.

• Outlet - application management client for Flatpak - LinuxLinks

  Outlet is a frontend for finding and managing your systems applications.

  Built with Flutter, Outlet aims to provide a unique user experience than your typical Linux GUI application. Outlet can be used on many Linux distributions as long as they provide libflatpak.

  This is free and open source software.

• Borg Backup Server - GUI Manager for Multiple Borg Endpoints - LinuxLinks

  Borg Backup Server is a self-hosted web application for centrally managing BorgBackup across multiple endpoints (Linux, Mac and Windows).

  A lightweight agent polls the server for tasks over HTTPS, backs up over SSH to the server, and reports progress back. No inbound connections to endpoints from the server — this works behind firewalls and NAT from where the server is providing easy provisioning. Includes a setup wizard for simple installation or a Docker image to start up in 30 seconds.

  This is free and open source software.

• OnePDFPlease - TUI for working with PDF files - LinuxLinks

  OnePDFPlease is a terminal-based PDF toolkit with vim keybindings providing a keyboard-driven interface for various PDF related tasks to ease the pain of working with PDFs.

  This is free and open source software.