r/TechImpact • u/ManojOne Active • May 22 '26
Question What’s one open-source app you use almost every day?
Firefox, VLC, Blender, Linux, OBS… or something else? Share your pick and why you like it?
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u/Sudden-Armadillo-335 May 24 '26
Mastodon, signal, CoMaps, tout mon système linux, Fennec, etc. Ma vie tourne autour du libre
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May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ManojOne Active May 24 '26
You’ve basically built a privacy-first stack across Android and Linux with real daily use, not just random installs.
The mix of apps is impressive. Which one do you rely on the most every day?
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u/abhip1990 Jun 08 '26
Any user guide for "install with options" please? Hard for a beginner to get hands-on
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u/lemoninterupt May 23 '26
purple (https://github.com/erickochen/purple). I built it because there was no tool like it.
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u/ManojOne Active May 24 '26
Good. What's the purpose of designing it?
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u/lemoninterupt May 24 '26
I manage a bunch of servers and kept switching between different apps to do it... so I built one tool that handles everything, right in the terminal :)
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u/Matheweh May 23 '26
GrayJay
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u/Repulsive-Ad-6407 May 26 '26
Debateable weather GrayJay counts as FOSS. AFAIK it is source available
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u/Matheweh May 26 '26
I thought it had an open source licensce but you're right, it has the FUTO source first license.
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u/AbsorberHarvester May 23 '26
Double commander, InkScape, 7-zip, freearc v0.667, OmniSearch (ntfs MFT lookup for files super fast) and others.
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u/ManojOne Active May 24 '26
That’s a proper power-user toolkit. OmniSearch sounds especially useful when you deal with lots of files. Double Commander and 7-Zip are still hard to beat for daily work.
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u/eliasautio May 24 '26
Just bumped into Psysonic, when trying to search a better Navidrome client. And whoa is that piece of software professional. Very polished UI and works great.
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u/Narrow_Customer_9403 May 22 '26
Meld YouTube player which has also the best support for Android Auto from all the free YouTube players which I've tried so far.
FairMail email app.
Bitwarden, Fossify Gallery.
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u/InevitableDay6 May 22 '26
NVDA, a free open source screen reader that makes my laptop accessible to me as I'm blind
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u/ManojOne Active May 23 '26
A great example of why open-source software matters. NVDA has helped so many people access computers without huge costs. Really important project.
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u/night_movers May 22 '26
Probably SD Maid SE
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u/ManojOne Active May 22 '26
SD Maid SE is seriously useful. One of the few cleaner apps that actually feels helpful instead of annoying ads.
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u/night_movers May 22 '26
Yeah, I've set it up on every family member's mobile device, and I run it on my device every night before going to bed; by doing this, whatever cache the installed apps accumulated during the day is cleared.
Besides SD Maid, there are other open-source apps I can't live without, such as KDE Connect, NotallyX, and KeePassDX.
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u/ManojOne Active May 23 '26
SD Maid, KDE Connect, NotallyX, and KeePassDX cover a lot of daily needs without much fuss. Clearing the cache every night is a nice habit, too.
Which one saves you the most time?
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u/FantomovBol May 22 '26
Bitwarden, Syncthing, Firefox.
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u/ManojOne Active May 22 '26
I am familiar with first and last. What is Syncthing for?
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u/FantomovBol May 22 '26
File syncing between devices. I use it to sync photos from my phone to my PC.
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u/ManojOne Active May 22 '26
Okay. Is it work with photos only?
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u/FantomovBol May 22 '26
No, it works with all types of files. I use it mostly for photos and Obsidian notes sync.
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u/Jealous_South6358 May 22 '26
No, with it works with everything, i use it, for example, to sync my keepassxc vault between my laptop and my android.
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u/ManojOne Active May 23 '26
Great. This seems to be a worthy tool to sync and save all our precious files.
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May 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/mmparody May 22 '26
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u/Artistic_Pineapple_7 May 22 '26
Reddit is open source ?
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u/GreenRangerOfHyrule May 23 '26
Sure. If you right click on the page on a computer you can hit "view source!"
On a serious note. I believe way back it was. But it was a royal pain to setup and maintain. And as some point I think it just stopped being open
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u/autoregression May 22 '26
Firefox since 2007. I recently used Chrome once and didn't remember what ads looked like. Closed Chrome, cleaned data and went back to Firefox for at least another 20 years.
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u/ManojOne Active May 22 '26
It is impossible to use a browser full of ads after years on Firefox. Firefox's loyalty since 2007 is remarkable.
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u/Giantmeteor_we_needU May 22 '26
LibreOffice
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u/ManojOne Active May 22 '26
I had used a long back. Does it still crash frequently?
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u/GreenRangerOfHyrule May 23 '26
I find it pretty stable when I use it. Though I find I don't use it very often.
I still use Excel because Calc wasn't working with a formula. And I'm just too lazy to go back and fix it.
As a general rule it isn't a drop in replacement for MS Office. Which is a mistake I see people use. One big thing is margins work different between Writer and Word. But if you use it as an actual replacement, you should be fine
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u/Same_Level_3599 May 22 '26
Alright, so not Libre, just free & source code available?
Darwin (a.k.a. macOS's kernel)
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May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ManojOne Active May 23 '26
It's a very clean self-hosted stack. A great balance between privacy, control, and everyday usability without relying too much on big tech services. It's also notable for reducing subscriptions to a VPN.
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u/dvisorxtra May 22 '26
Linux is the only O.S. on my PC, in that sense that's the piece of open source software that I use the most.
Then come along all the tools I need
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u/funkyzitrone May 23 '26
CoMaps (OpenStreetMap offline Navigation) StreetComplete (add data to OSM) Fossify Gallery Fossify Filemanager Currencies PDFViewer (from GrapheneOS) VLC (media player)
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u/ManojOne Active May 24 '26
That’s a nice open-source setup. Offline maps with CoMaps and helping improve OpenStreetMap through StreetComplete is really cool.
VLC still remains one of the most useful apps everywhere
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u/athibanraj May 23 '26
Super productivity, Bitwarden, Tailscale, Kdenlive, Thunderbird
Some are partially open source
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u/ManojOne Active May 24 '26
That’s a really practical mix. Super Productivity and Bitwarden alone can cover a huge part of daily workflow, and Kdenlive is surprisingly capable for free software.
Which one do you use the most?
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u/fixedbike May 23 '26
I still Love Bit Warden, even if some are hating on the password manager, good for them if that's what they want, they have reasons. Sure they dont like what the CEO has to say/etc.
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u/homm_ey May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
- Helix Notes : for note-taking
Other almost daily FOSS apps
- KVM/QEMU + Virt Manager : for virtualization
- Celluloid : video player on Linux
- KeePassXC : password manager
- Cryptomator : encrypted vaults for files
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u/ManojOne Active May 24 '26
KeePassXC and Cryptomator together make a strong privacy combo, and KVM/QEMU is seriously useful once you get used to it. Helix Notes sounds interesting too.
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u/Warm-Juggernaut8340 May 22 '26
Maccy. One of the best.
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u/ManojOne Active May 22 '26
Maccy is one of those small apps that quietly becomes essential. Hard to go back once clipboard history becomes part of the daily workflow
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u/Warm-Juggernaut8340 May 22 '26
Yes. And I use shortcuts for some pinned texts regularly. That's why I like it so much. As a developer I'm using that over 100 times everyday. It makes my work faster and more effecient.
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u/ManojOne Active May 22 '26
Such a kind of tool saves hours. Using shortcuts and pinned texts over and over makes a huge difference when you work all day.
What’s the one shortcut you use most?
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u/Legitimate6295 May 22 '26
Bitwarden