Free Software
Really dislike the subscription/cloud-based software control freaks at all the corporate software companies? If you’re tired of overpaying for subscription-based software and all the big brother spying and collecting your personal information and data then I encourage you to look into the following open source software, operating systems, and alternative search engines and web browsers listed on this page.
This is not an all-inclusive list by any means but it should be enough to get your workflow and freedom back up to speed.
Alternative Operating Systems
Arch Linux is a lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to keep it simple. You should be an experienced Linux user for this one.
Go get Arch
Debian, also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993.
Go get Debian
Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the community-supported Fedora Project which is sponsored primarily by Red Hat Inc. with minor support by other companies.
Go get Fedora
Linux Mint is a community-driven Linux distribution based on Ubuntu or Debian that strives to be a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system that is both powerful and easy to use.
Go get Linux Mint
Ubuntu is a free and open-source Linux distribution based on Debian. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: Desktop, Server, and Core for the internet of things devices and robots.
Go get Ubuntu
Alternative Web Browsers
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, Mozilla Corporation. Linux – MacOS – Windows – Android
Go get Firefox
Waterfox is an open-source web browser for x64, ARM64, and PPC64LE systems. It is intended to be speedy and ethical, and maintain support for legacy extensions dropped by Firefox, from which it is forked. There are official releases for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Android
Go get Waterfox
Opera is a freeware web browser for Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, and Linux operating systems.
Go get Opera
Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. Linux – MacOS – Windows – Android – IOS
Go get Brave
Vivaldi is a freeware, cross-platform web browser developed by Vivaldi Technologies. Linux – MacOS – Windows – Android
Go get Vavaldi
Tor is free and open-source browser software for enabling anonymous communication. Linux – MacOS – Windows – Android
Go get Tor
Alternative Search Engines:
Office Software
LibreOffice is a free and the leading open-source office suite, a project of The Document Foundation. Linux – MacOS – Windows
Apache OpenOffice is an open-source office software suite for word (not been updated since 2014 but still a great option).
Image Editing
Gimp is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks. – Linux – MacOS – Windows – Gimp
Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor. – Linux – MacOS – Windows – Inkscape
Video Editors
Open Broadcaster Software is a free and open-source cross-platform streaming and recording program built with Qt and maintained by the OBS Project. As of 2016, the software is now referred to as OBS Studio. Linux – MacOS – Windows
OBS
Olive is a free non-linear video editor aiming to provide a fully-featured alternative to high-end professional video editing software. Linux – MacOS – Windows
Olive
Bootable USB Drive
Rufus is a free and open-source portable application for Microsoft Windows that can be used to format and create bootable USB flash drives or Live USBs. Windows Only – Rufus
balenaEtcher is a free and open-source utility used for writing image files such as .iso and .img files, as well as zipped folders onto storage media to create live SD cards and USB flash drives. It is developed by balena, and licensed under Apache License 2.0. Linux – MacOS – Windows – Balena