Chris Were's recommended apps and websites
A list of useful apps, games and web services. Items listed here are free and open source unless specified otherwise.
- Apps
- Games
- Web apps
- Online resources
- How-tos and fixes
- Mastodon and fediverse tools
Apps
Apps listed in this section are done so with Linux users in mind. Some may be available for other platforms but not all.
- Atom - code editor: lots of useful features for coding, electron-based, available as a Snap.
- Audacity - audio editor: looks ugly but has lots of features and isn't too difficult to use.
- Delta Chat - an email client for desktop and mobile which displays emails like instant messages, available as an AppImage.
- Etcher - burn IMG/ISO files to CD or USB, available as an AppImage.
- Firefox - my day-to-day browser of choice.
- GIMP - my photo and image editor of choice.
- Inkscape - design and edit vector graphics (e.g. SVG and PDF files).
- Kdenlive - video editor: reasonably advanced and full-featured, available as an AppImage.
- KeePassXC - one of the best password managers around, available as an AppImage and as a Snap.
- Krita - a really full featured photo and image editor, available as an AppImage.
- LibreOffice - office utils, available as a Snap, Flatpak or AppImage.
- LibreWolf - respin of FireFox with some tweaks. Available as an AppImage.
- OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) - screen recorder and livestreaming software.
- OpenShot - video editor: fine for basic video editing, available as an AppImage.
- SimpleScreenRecorder - screen recorder: not as full-featured as OBS but a useful recorder nevertheless.
- Scribus - desktop publisher. Available as an AppImage.
- RSS Guard - simple RSS reader available as an AppImage.
Games
- Battle for Wesnoth - a turn based fantasy stretegy game.
- Chromium BSU - fast paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter.
- Freedoom - free and open source FPS game based on the Doom engine.
- Minetest - free, open source voxel game engine and game, fun to build stuff in. Available as a Snap.
- OpenArena - community-produced deathmatch FPS based on GPL idTech3 technology.
- OpenMW - open source engine for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Original game files required.
- OpenTTD - Transport Tycoon Deluxe as imagined by FOSS.
- Red Eclipse - a fun Arena shooter, available as an AppImage.
- Widelands - a Settlers-esq strategy open source strategy game.
- Xonotic - free and fast arena shooter.
Web apps
Open source web apps
- dpaste - free and open source alternative to Pastebin that works without JavaScript.
- Diagrams.net - a simple drawing and chart making program, available as an AppImage.
- Hastebin - free and open source alternative to Pastebin.
- HTMLhouse - quick and easy webpage creation tool for people who like to code in HTML.
- Framapic - free and open source image hosting service.
- LibreSpeed - free and open source speedtest; no Flash, no Java, no websocket.
- Jitsi Meet - video chat and conferencing.
- MultiTwitch - view multiple Twitch streams side-by-side, great for watching multiplayer streams.
- Neocities - build simple websites with HTML (like this one).
- OpenStreetMap - FOSS's answer to Google Maps.
- Piskel - pixel art image editor.
- PrivateBin - open source Pastebin alternative with privacy enhancements.
- RSS Bridge - takes social media pages and builds a RSS for them - project page.
- Twitch stream RSS generator - generates a RSS feed for your Twitch channel.
- Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org - one of the world most popular website building tool.
Open source front ends
Closed source web apps
- Blogtrottr - delivers updates from RSS feeds to your email inbox.
- MailForSpam - receive email at a temporary address. Use it when signing up to certain websites to avoid spam.
- Temp Mail - receive email at a temporary address. Use it when signing up to certain websites to avoid spam.
- TweetDelete.net - lets you automatically delete Twitter posts that are older than a specified age.
Online resources
- Ambient Mixer - generate background audio to create your perfect environment using creative commons samples.
- DaFont - large collection of fonts, searchable by licence.
- Font Squirrel - large collection of fonts, searchable by licence.
- FreePD - large library of public domain music.
- Incompetech - large library of creative commons music.
- KissCC0 - a library of public domain images.
- PickUp Image - library of public domain images.
- Public Domain Pictures - library of public domain images.
How-tos and fixes
Mastodon and fediverse tools