Note that these are not all FOSS.
-
Photo Editing:
- GIMP
- Krita
- Paint.NET
-
Video Editing:
- DaVinci Resolve
- CapCut
- Shotcut
-
Audio Editing:
- Audacity
- Cakewalk
- GarageBand
-
3D Graphics:
- Blender
- Spline
- Rumba
-
Office Software:
- LibreOffice
- Microsoft 365 Free Apps
- WPS Office
-
Antivirus Software:
- Windows Security
- Avast Free Antivirus
- Malwarebytes
-
Productivity Tools:
- Bitwarden
- VSCodium
- PDF-XChange Editor
- 7-Zip
- OBS Studio
- LanguageTool
Avast? Bruh
I always recommend Windows Defender and a good sense of Internet security to anyone who uses a computer.
If you’re dumb, no antivirus can protect you. If you’re reasonably intelligent, any antivirus will protect you.
Avast should not be recommended.
In late 2019, Avast browser extensions were found to collect user data, including browsing behavior and history, and send it to a remote server. The discovery led to the extensions of the Avast and AVG brands being temporarily removed from the Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera extension stores, however, they returned a short time later as there was no concrete evidence that demonstrated a breach of private data of the users.
In January 2020, a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag found that the Avast Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free version were collecting user data, which was being resold to personalize advertising through a subsidiary, Jumpshot. The leaked documents showed that Jumpshot offered to provide its customers with “Every search. Every click. On every site.” from more than 100 million compromised devices. In response, Avast announced on January 30, 2020, that it would immediately shut down Jumpshot and cease all operations due to the backlash of its users’ data privacy.
On the basis of the information revealed, on 11 February 2020 the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection announced that it had initiated a preliminary investigation.
In February 2024, the Federal Trade Commission fined Avast $16.5 million for collecting user data and reselling that data. The collection was done under their program to ensure that such collection of user data was not happening.
Avast is virus itself
Yeah, just use the one built-in to Windows, or don’t use Windows.
Blender is hardly an alternative, it’s the clear #1
I recommend Okular for PDF reading. No ads, no upsells, no BS. It also has native dark mode
Gwenview has always worked well for me.
I like Atril too. It has easier and more fluid zoom in/out capabilities than Okular but Okular has a dark mode. I keep both installed because they’re both really good.
I only discovered Krita recently, but holy shit does it fill the Photoshop void very well. The UI isn’t the same as PS, obviously. But I find it much easier to navigate than Gimp’s UI. And Krita is surprisingly feature-rich.
If you don’t mind paid, Affinity is pretty nice too.
Didn’t they recently get bought by Canva? Not saying that’s a good or bad thing, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Yeah but it’s also a one time purchase
…for now.
Desperately needs Linux support though.
I like Krita. But to be honest, after years and years of using GIMP, I ironically have nothing but trouble trying to rewire my brain to do things any other way. The same problem that many people have when moving from Photoshop to GIMP.
Also, i fundamentally need DDS files, which Krita (AFAIK) doesn’t handle.
You should totally get on some PS forums and start bitching about its UI being ‘backward and unusable’ compared to GIMP :)
*Tenacity, not Audacity
Doesn’t that apply to every project hosted in America, too, though? Every project is subject to the jurisdiction in which it is hosted. And I know they’re not the only project that accepts error reports and in-app updates. Unless there is more telemetry involved or tracking of out-of-app activity, I’m not seeing cause for alarm here. Though I’m open to evidence that there is.
Throw in KDEnlive for video editors.
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2D/3D Simulation/Game creation Godot :)
you forgot linux as an alternative to windows and mac;)
Take CapCut off because it’s more like TikTok editing than video editing.
Divinci has a learning curve but any curve is better than learning solely on a ByteDance owned product.
also, davinci is industry standard and highly respected
Although not technically free, I would add Reaper to the list for audio editing. It gives you a pop-up asking if you want to buy the program, but it’s not required. I know people who have been using it for years without actually purchasing it. (I have since purchased a license because I use it professionally). No features are locked behind the paid license.
Reminder than Tenacity is an open-source fork of Audacity.
Audacity isn’t open source? I thought I installed it from the Debian free repo…
It is open source, but had some controversy. Most prominently the addition of telemetry a few years ago, which was never included in the builds managed by Debian or most other distro maintainers. They also added a Contributor License Agreement which lets the Audacity project change its own license (even to a non-foss one, though they promise they won’t) without needing to have the change approved by any individual developers.
Ah, monkey business…
Just to know, how do you disable telemetry, if it isn’t off by default?
I’m not completely sure but I think they removed it at some point after the public backlash (which was 3 years ago now). For the Windows version at least, there apparently used to be an option during the installation wizard for setting whether telemetry is enabled or not. Most Linux distros never had the telemetry at all. I don’t know about Mac.
You forgot vector-graphics stuff.
I believe Inkscape is the current leader of the open-source pack in that department.
I’d like to add OpenShot to the video editing category
These are alternatives? This is essentially a list of software that I use.
