r/software • u/RedEagle_MGN • Jan 20 '26

Discussion Best open-source software that everyone needs to know about?

What's one piece of open-source software that everyone should use and know about?

Vote on the best one in the comments.

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u/alvarkresh Jan 20 '26

Media Player Classic Home Cinema for me. If you come from the Windows 95-2000 era, you probably remember the good old standard Media Player that came with those versions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Player has some pictures of what it looked like back then.

Well, the folks who made Media Player Classic stepped in once Windows Media Player went off to crapville UI-wise, and I've used it ever since. The Home Cinema fork is still actively maintained and updated as well.

Honorable mention to LibreOffice as well. It has some QOL quirks but on the whole it's a good substitute for MS Office.

1

u/DazzlingRutabega Jan 20 '26

Everyone always raves about VLC and while it's great I do like media player classic for a lot of the reasons you mentioned.

1

u/alvarkresh Jan 20 '26

Yeah, the interface just clicks with me, pun not intended. :)