What apps would you love to have open-source alternatives for?
What apps would you love to have open-source alternatives for?
It seems like the FOSS community is continuing to grow, and FOSS apps keep getting better (Immich reallh blew my mind recently), which is a big win 😎 but there are still many apps I use that I would kill for an open source alternative. I am curious what you guys think? Are there any apps you'd love alternatives for?
FOSS CAD softwares. I know FreeCAD exists but it’s very unintuitive compared to the proprietary ones. I am thankful that it exists but it’s a long way apart to become a household name like Blender.
I wish I could start writing one but I don’t have a clear picture of requirements to plan and start writing one. If anyone is expert in this field please link some research papers and guidelines for someone to start fresh.
Spotify.
An open source music streaming service where I can financially support artists but where I'm not forced to put up with annoying advertisements (even when paying membership fees!), and which allows me to use whatever app I want to play the music I listen to. It is annoying AF that I need to switch between apps to listen to music because Spotify's shitty native app is inferior in every possible way with the single exception of offering more content.
Photoshop.
And yeah, no, please, don't come over and mention Gimp and Kryta and all the others. I get it, they're cool for the stuff they do. They just aren't the all in one package that Photoshop is or have as powerful tools specifically for photo editing. Photoshop would require a Blender-style major effort to replicate and Gimp just isn't up to it. I wish it were. Photoshop is at the perfect intersection of being uniquely capable and walled off behind the single crappiest ecosystem in software.
Nobody likes Adobe, nobody wants to work with Adobe. Nobody can avoid Photoshop. That's just the world we live in and I don't like it.
A decent language learning type app, like dulingo
Stylus/handwriting oriented note taking. Stuff like Samsung Notes or Goodnotes (or OneNote, though it does a lot more) in the Android space, or e-ink options like Remarkable's stock software.
If I just want to use a keyboard for everything I have great FOSS options like Joplin and Standard Notes, but when I want to use a pen instead it feels like no other freedom-respecting option seem to even remotely approach the usability of just sticking with real ink and moleskine-like paper notebooks.
Even someone willing to pay an upfront fee for proprietary apps will struggle to find good options that allow syncing and reading (let alone editing) your notes on other devices/platforms without resorting to a monthly subscription.
I would love to see a good Lightroom alternative in terms of ease of use.
Darktable is great and the results are good, but it's pretty complex to use and has a really steep learning curve. And it doesn't do photo management other than a few basics. Even after months of use I still struggle to replicate what I can do in Lightroom.
Swiping library and keyboard.
Yousician or similar entertaining musician motivator. One that has scoring or analysis, specifically. Not just a video/backing track player.
Some kind of buy/sell/auction/freecycle system service/app/front-end that isn't evil and it's simple enough for normos to use so it gets critical mass and makes it easy to buy/sell/give/recycle stuff locally.
Snapchat and Google Docs are the only two non-FOSS apps I can't shake off.
It would be cool to have a Snapchat clone based on Briar.
Google docs because I don't trust myself with my own data, I always end up delteting important documents cause I save them to random locations when cleaning house. Having it all in once place, with autosync, search and a nice powerful mobile interface is really convenient.
Dating websites
Tasker, Photopea, Perplexity.ai, Quick Cursor and A powerful alternative to Powerpoint. (I used to be a Powerpoint nerd)
I don't see anyone talking about it here but I'd dream of an open source alternative to AndroidTV/Apple Tv. Firstly because ATV is ultra-dependent on Google, and secondly because the interface is unclear and not really pretty.
Today I've switched to Apple TV, which is much better in terms of UX, but the OS is too closed and sideloading isn't possible...
So I hope to see some sort of CalyxOS / LineageOS for Tv arrive one day!
Canva.
Their feature set and functionality is great, but their vendor lock-in is really off-putting. Even just within their platform, it's really difficult to move assets around within workspaces.
Let alone edit graphics that you made on Canva and edit them elsewhere, say Penpot, for example.
Oblivion as there currently exists the Open Source Version of Morrowind
Fusion360
Tried out FreeCad/Ondsel, and just couldn't get it to cooperate. Trying to do even basic changes would constantly result in errors/crashes. I spent maybe two weeks trying to make a single model. Then I tried making the same model in Fusion360 and was done in an half an hour. Granted, there is a huge difference in experience level here between these pieces of software, but still.
So I think my best bet for now is a jailbroken copy of Fusion360.
It'd be nice to have some kind of FOSS business suite, aka point of sale, accounting, inventory etc. I'm not a fan of Intuit.
I've also not found journal software I really like. RedNotebook is about the closest. I tend to use my journal not only as a personal diary but also as a place to brainstorm and I would also like a checklist/to-do list system, and this I haven't found in any software free or proprietary. I may have to build it myself, with my rudimentary knowledge of qt.
- Parallel Desktop
- Arc Browser
- X
- Discord
- Copilot
- Vivaldi Browser
- Unread RSS Reader
Suicide booth
s/one/thing/
I sometimes needed something like powerquery from microsoft excel. To like quickly get specific data from a structured file.
Exchange and Outlook for business use.
No nothing else comes close.
It’s the last app in MS Office that does not have competition. LibreOffice fills ever other app well enough but nothing comes close to exchange and Outlook. Considering they are trying to kill it off with an always online website (OWA) we need foss competition asap.
personally for me it'd have to be remote desktop software, don't really need it myself, but being an SSH jockey, the day that i can do that but with remote desktop, and without it looking like a jpg, or needing to compile tigervnc specifically for it or some shit like that will be a good day for me.
I realize it's partially dependent on hardware, and that hardware sucks, so sometimes it just sucks. But SSH just works so well though.
A clean redshift application for Android, like redmoon. I found something but it's not quite there.
AirPlay projecting to other devices. I only see a tool to receive projections
Final Cut Pro. I know it’s asking a lot and I know a lot of talented people have tried and are trying to build NLEs and all my gratitude to them. But—no offense intended—none are there yet and actually accomplishing this would be #1 on my magical (no effort provided by me) wishlist.
Blender has spoiled us with unrealistic expectations.
Substance Painter. Material Maker will get there but its development has stalled quite a bit.
Krita & OpenToonz handle just about everything I need as an animator/artist, but I'm worried about OpenToonz continued development. I worry that there aren't enough people working on it.
MobaLiveCD its freeware but as far as I can tell it does not have a foss license.
I would love to see an Open Source alt to AlchemyRPG
I love using their scenes when playing DnD online, but their privacy policy leaves a lot to be desired
Two categories, broadly: any professional software, with deep features and professional quality.
I know theres audacity, but that's really not an acceptable saw.
I know theres a few cad apps, but no professional I've ever met finds the good enough.
I know gimp, and I use it, but no artist I know does; they all pirate Photoshop. Literally every one.
I like having audacity to record audio. I like having gimp to fuck with shit. I like having various cad apps to bang out organizational tools to print. These things do generally fit my use case. But I still have to help people pirate everything else and god the DRM is do fucking annoying.
Abd here's the more esoteric ask:
Not so much programs as features; Why aren't we really going all in on shit we can do that they can't? Features capitalists would never add, never support? Instead I find open source software always playing catch-up, and theres no reason it has to.
Partiful / evite. There’s not much out there that’s a good simple replacement.
All my installed apps are FOSS
Scrivener!
The frustrating thing is that, at least for me, there are no perfect word processors geared for novels and other scenarios where you manage large text masses.
Scrivener is one of those cases where you have a pretty excellent software that doesn't have a lot of problems OSS alternatives have. I have smooth time with it. But at the same time, the software always could be better.
Probably the best OSS novel writing software I've used is Org-Mode for Emacs. But, you know, it's based on Emacs, so it squeaks around the edges and gives the impression that it's a miracle it runs as brilliantly as it does.
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