6d ago

What app is so useful, you can’t believe it’s free?

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Practically every single FOSS application I use is highly useful to me, and of course, free, so I'll just list them all here.
Immich - A full-featured replacement for Google Photos, has a sleek UI, face detection, albums, a timeline, etc.
Paperless-ngx - Document management system, saves me a ton of paper hoarding, and makes everything easily searchable with OCR.
Syncthing - Simple file synchronization between my devices, on my terms. Doesn't share data with big tech companies about my files, and hooks up extremely fast P2P connections that beat cloud-based services by a long shot.
Metube & Seal - Simple interfaces for downloading with yt-dlp, can download from YouTube, but also many other sites. Doesn't spam you with popup ads or junk redirects like those "youtube downloader" type sites. Seal is my favorite of the two, but is only on Android.
Image Toolbox - Insanely feature-packed app for doing practically anything you could want to an image. Converting formats, clearing EXIF data, removing backgrounds, feature-packed editing, OCR, convert to SVG, create color palettes, converting PDFs to images, decode and encode Base64 to and from images, extract frames from gifs, encrypt & decrypt files, make zip files, and a lot more. All local.
Rustdesk - No-nonsense remote desktop, tons of features, simple file transfer, cross-platform compatibility, and P2P communication without needing a third party server if you so choose.
LibreOffice - Essentially everything you'd get with Office 365 (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint) but without the $150 price point. Compatible with the same file formats, and has the same functionality.
Cashew - Feature rich financial app for budgeting, tracking purchases, saving for goals, etc. Doesn't have automatic import, but I find that manually putting every transaction in keeps me aware of my spending much better than before, so for me it's quite worth it. Install directly from the APK, or use on web though. The version on the app stores has some features locked behind a paywall.
Linkwarden - Bookmark manager with cross-platform support, a web interface, automatic tagging, automatic archiving of any saved links in multiple formats, collaborative sharing capabilities, and more. It's free, but you can also pay $3/mo if you want them to host it for you.
Edit: And Umbrel (on Raspberry Pi) if you want to host things more easily. Basically just a much more hands-off, user-friendly docker for people who don't want to tinker as much.
Edit 2: Non-FOSS, but Obsidian is the best note taking app I've ever used. Great selection of community-made plugins (which are FOSS) for additional functionality, and all notes are in standard cross-software-compatible Markdown. No locked-in proprietary formats.
- I can suggest LogSeq as a nice alternative for Obsidian. Notes are all in Markdown too!
  
  It's good, but it does not allow for a free file structure. Used it for months but now back to obsidian. Also plugins
  
  For free file structure you could also checkout Silverbullet.
  
  Plugins are also keeping me on Obsidian as opposed to using LogSeq, but I'm essentially keeping it in my back pocket as a "fire exit" in the case of Obsidian enshittifying, since of course all Obsidian notes are in markdown and cross-compatible.
- Came here to recommend those first two exactly
- Some of your data flows through Syncthing servers (but I agree that's a great product, I use it myself) LibreOffice works for entry-level users, but it does not have the same functionality as MSOffice. And the UI sucks as much as MSOffice.
- Syncthing is awesome for home devices backups like phone pictures and videos and computer documents that can be version controlled. I also use Local Send app to share files between phones and computers in the house.
- You can buy office separately these days again. Not sure if Libreoffice is feature complete these days, but last time I tried it, it was missing a lot of the more advanced featureslike Solver/Powerquery/certain advanced formulas.
  I recommend it for everybody and if it is not for you, you wil realise it in a couple of minutes of working with it if you are a oower user
- Cashew - Feature rich financial app
  How does Cashew compare to GnuCash?
- Nice I'll definately check those out. For office I use OnlyOffice
- I use near the same stuff. But I don't like these all-in-one centers like umbrel and Casa. I simply use dockge.
  And happy cake day.
- Great list, post saved

440 comments