The Best Open Source Software in 2019 (Users’ Choice)

Ravi Saive posted a question on Linux Inside FaceBook page asking users to mention the best open-source software they found in 2019 and boy did the comments come in.

I have decided to compile the applications our followers mentioned into a list which since the mentions are still coming in, is non-exhaustive.

LibreOffice is a free and open-source office suite written in C++, Java, and Python. It was first released in January 2011 by The Document Foundation and has since known to be the most reliable open-source office suite.

Usually used as an alternative to Microsoft Office Suite, it is regularly updated and is also compatible withdoc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx files.

Nextcloud is an open-source, self-hosted file sharing platform with support for communicating and collaborating with teams.

Its functionality is similar to that of Dropbox and ownCloud, and you can use it to sync your files, calendars, and other data formats.

Adminer is a minimalist Database Management System (DBMS) in a single PHP file and it focuses on security, UX, performance, feature set, and size.

It ships with several inbuilt themes and features all the operations you can perform in phpMyAdmin with the promise of offering a tidier UI with high performance and better support for MySQL features.

Slim Framework is a PHP micro-framework that enables users to write powerful web applications and APIs in a simpler way.

Fundamentally, it works as a dispatcher that receives an HTTP request, invokes an appropriate callback routine, and then returns an HTTP response.

uniCenta is an open-source commercial-grade Point Of Sale dedicated to providing business owners with innovative POS applications.

Its features include modules for system control, sales, inventory, suppliers, employees, customers, and reports.

Bitwarden is a free and open-source password manager for keeping digital records away from the sight of unauthorized users.

It features a clean minimalist UI with several client applications including one for a web interface, desktop, mobile apps, etc. and can be used by individuals, teams, and organizations.

The Elastic Stack is made up of various open-source applications designed to enable users to collect data from any source irrespective of its format and type.

It also enables users to search, analyze, and visualize data in real-time and it can be distributed as Software as a Service (Saas) or installed on-premise.

Steam is not open-source but it is regarded as the ultimate online gaming platform, is an online community where you can easily search, install, and manage game collections for different OS platforms.

SteamOS + Linux on Steam is the best thing that has happened to gamers in the Linux community.

The cockpit is a user-friendly, integrated, glanceable, extendable, and web-based GUI for managing servers. It is designed to have a beautiful, modern UI with support for teams, integration with the terminal, multi-server administration, and built-introubleshootingtools.

The NET Core refers to the free and open-source general-purpose software development framework for Linux, macOS, and Windows Operating Systems. It contains the .NET Native runtime and CoreRTand it can be used in device, cloud, and embedded/IoT scenarios.

IPFire is a versatile open-source Linux-based firewall that is easy to use and offers high performance in any scenario. IPFire originally started as an IPCop fork but was rewritten from scratch in version 2.

Flameshot is a simple but powerful screenshot application for Linux, that you can use to interact with it via GUI or CLI and perform markup operations on a per-screenshot basis.

Brave Browser is a free and open-source Chromium-based browser that ships with more features than Chrom typically does. It is customizable, security-focused, user-friendly, and ships with an inbuilt adblocker and password manager among other features.

BRL-CAD is a free and open-source cross-platform solid modeling system that includes interactive geometry editing, a system performance analysis benchmark suite, geometry libraries for application developers, and high-performance ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis.

ssh-chat is a custom SSH server through which you can hold secure chats with a limited number of users over an ssh connection. It is specially designed to convert your SSH server into a chat service after which you get a chat prompt rather than a typical shell.

PhotoRec is a CLI utility software for data recovery capable of recovering files with over 480 extensions. It is compatible with various digital camera memory, hard disks, and CD-ROMs.

GParted is a GUI utility for managing disk partitions and is capable of resizing, moving, and copying partitions without data loss. It is excellent at manipulating file systems including xfs, ufs, ntfs, udf, fat16/fat32, ext2/ext3/ext4, btrfs, etc.

Restic is an open-source CLI-based utility for performing backups easily, securely, quickly, and efficiently for free. It uses Semantic Versioning to always allow for backward compatibility within one major version.

Rclone is a command line-based utility for synchronizing files and directories to and from several storage locations including Dropbox, FTP, Hubic, Dreamhost, OVH, Nextcloud, Yandex Disk, etc.

Rclones features include checking for file hash equality, timestamps preserved on files, one-way sync mode to directories, Union backend, etc.

Minio is a private cloud storage stack that provides scalable and persistent object storage for several infrastructures including Docker, Kubernetes, GCP, etc.

Cmus is a powerful but lightweight CLI-based music player app for playing audio files from the terminal on Unix-like Operating Systems.

Etcher is a cross-platform GUI utility for easily and safely flashing OS images to SD cards and USB drives.

Cargo is a package manager for the Rust programming language and it is efficient at downloading the necessary Rust dependencies for your project as well as compiling the packages into distributable packages that it then uploads to crates.io.

Sayonara Player is a C++ audio player and library manager for Linux devices. It features several advanced functionalities including extending its features list with extensions, directory view, recording webstreams and podcasts, an inbuilt tag editor, crossfade, equalizer, etc.

Helm is a package manager created by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation for Kubernetes and it provides users with the easiest way to discover, share, and built Kubernetes applications.

Kubernetes also referred to as k8s, is an open-source system for automating application management, scaling, and deployment.

ClickHouse is an open-source column-oriented Database Management System for generating analytical data reports in real-time using SQL. It is linearly scalable, fault-tolerant, simple to use, and hardware efficient.

Shotcut is a free, cross-platform and open-source video editor with wide support for video formats, and a clean User Interface. It features network stream playback, IP stream, webcam and audio capture, support for 4K resolution, capture from SDI, etc.

Kdenlive is an advanced free and open-source video editing software with support for multi-track video editing, proxy editing, timeline preview, automatic backup, and audio and video scopes.

Kdenlive also features several online resources for users, a titler for creating 2D titles, a configurable UI, etc.

Rufus is a lightweight utility for creating bootable USB flash drives and flashing BIOS or other firmware from DOS. It can also be used to format drives and can be run directly from a memory stick as a portable app.

DSpace is a customizable open-source dynamic digital repository whose aim is to make information easy to access, use, and manage. It is used in several academic, commercial, and non-profit settings for building open digital repositories.

Stellarium is an open-source OpenGL-powered planetarium software that shows a 3D simulation of the night sky in real-time. It also contains details of all the planetary bodies and constellations with engaging visualizations.

Krita is a cross-platform open-source raster graphics editor for digital painting and creating animations. It is among the most popular digital painting tools with features like native support for CMYK, a clutter-free UI, efficient resource management, a pop-up color palette, etc.

Tvheadend (TVH) is a Linux recorder and TV streaming server with support for various streaming formats includingISDB-T, IPTV, SAT>IP, ATSC, DVB-S2, DVB-S, DVB-C, etc.

OpenShot is a free, cross-platform, and open-source video editor created to be incredibly simple, powerful, and efficient. It features unlimited tracks, animations & keyframes, a title editor, slow motion and time effects, support for 70+ languages, etc.

GSConnect is an implementation of KDE Connect especially for GNOME shell with Nautilus, Firefox, and Chrome integration. Like KDEConnect, GSConnect allows devices to connect and share notifications, SMS messages, files, etc. e.g. connecting an Android device to an Ubuntu PC.

Borg Backup (short, Borg) is a deduplicating backup program with optional support for compression and encryption. It was built with the main goal of providing an efficient way to securely back data up.

Visual Studio Code is Microsofts free, cross-platform, and open-source feature-rich code editor. It is in the list top 5 GUI text editors used by developers and that comes as no surprise given its seemingly unending capabilities.

KeePass Password Safe is a free and open-source password manager that secures all your passwords and files in a single encrypted database. It is lightweight, easy to use, and multi-platform.

Discord is a proprietary freeware digital distribution platform and VoIP application created for gamers. It is cross-platform and supports both single-user and group chats with a specialty in communication via text, image, audio, and video between users.

Wine, which stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator, is a compatibility layer which enables its users to run Windows applications on any POSIX-compliant OS.

Wine cleanly integrates Windows apps with Linux desktops by translating Windows API calls into POSIX calls in real-time which eliminates the performance and memory repercussions of other methods.

Apache Synapse is a high-performance, lightweight Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) powered by the fast and asynchronousmediation engine that gives it support for Web Services, XML, and REST. It has so many features that you are better of checking its features page out yourself.

Pix is an advanced image browser, viewer, organizer, and editor forBMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, TGA, ICO, XPM image formats and optional support for RAW and HDR images.

It has advanced tools for editing images by adding comments, scaling them, finding duplicates, tools for viewing and browsing images such as working with slideshows, performing lossless JPG transformations, etc.

Geany is a cross-platform GTK+ text editor with the basic features of an IDE. It is designed to have few dependencies on external libraries while offering its users a speedy and memory-friendly performance.

openLCA is a free feature-rich Life Cycle Assessment software created by GreenDelta in 2006. With it, you can model and assess any product for the whole duration of its life cycle from resource extraction to production, its usage and disposal.

Gophish is a free, robust cross-platform phishing framework that enables individuals and organizations to easily test their network for phishing attacks.

It contains customizable templates as well as the ability to import/export them, campaigns which you can schedule to launch and send emails in the background, a real-time results tracker, and a full REST API.

Flutter is a mobile app development SDK created and maintained by Google. It allows users to build sleek native applications on both Android and iOS from a single codebase.

Flutter is also compatible with code for the web, React Native, and Xamarin and it features built-in animations, widgets, and OS-specific designs that speed up the development process.

GIMP is a feature-rich cross-platform image editing software most commonly used as the Linux alternative for Adobe Photoshop.

Apart from GIMP being capable of doing almost everything Photoshop can, its features are extensible via plugins thanks to its integration with several programming languages, and its files can be used with other media editing software like Inkscape, SwatchBooker, and Scribus.

Clementine is a feature-rich music player and library organizer and it is among the most popular music players for Linux. Its features include being cross-platform, a queue manager, remote control using a Wii remote, CLI or MPRIS, Android device, visualisations from projectM, etc.

Mailcow is an open source mail server that makes use of other smaller open source services to provide users with an enjoyable mailing experience.

It features a UI that enables users to complete administrativetasks, use temporaryspam aliases, work with KIM and ARC, reset SOGo ActiveSync devices caches, and integrate with Fail2ban-like software, among others.

DBeaver is a robust free multi-platform GUI database tool for developers, analysts, DB administrators, and SQL programmers. It has support for all popular databases not excluding MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, MS Access, Teradata, Sybase, Firebird, and Derby.

ONLYOFFICE is an open source office suite that is 100% compatible with the Microsoft Office suite. Its features include an online platform for creating and managing documents, team collaboration, calendar, and project and mail management tools.

ONLYOFFICE can integrate with your Saas or on-premise solution to provide your clients with a branded UI/UX, and web services like Nextcloud, SharePoint, Alfresco, etc.

Mailspring is a customizable cross-platform and open-source mail client created to boost users productivity and provide them with a more pleasant mailing experience.

It features a beautiful modern UI with several keyboard shortcuts and out of the box with features like click tracking, etc. and tons of other features that users can shell out some cash for.

Thunderbird is a free and open-source email client brought to you with love from the makers of Firefox. It was designed to be easy to set up and customize and it is among the most used email clients in the Linux community because of its rich feature set and it usually comes bundled with several distros.

VLC is a free, portable, multi-platform and open-source media player created by the VideoLAN project. It has maintained its rank as one of the most reliable media players you can use given the fact that it can play with almost any media format you throw at it. And for formats that it doesnt support out of the box, you can obtain the codecs.

VLC is also a streaming app so you can stream audio and video content online as you would in a browser without leaving the app.

Stacer is one of the coolest Linux system monitoring and optimizing software. It features a clean modern and intuitive interface with an informative dashboard and sleek icons.

You can use it to manage system services, startup processes, applications, script, files, etc. and you can work in different modes, limit its CPU and memory usage, customize its look, etc.

Godot Engine is a free and open-source game engine whose aim is to make the developers be creative with the games they make without reinventing the wheel or strings attached e.g. no royalties.

It is team-friendly, ships with a wide set of common tools to speed up game development. It features sleek 2D and 3D graphics and has its usage simplified. With Godot Engine, the games you build are 100% yours.

Inkscape is a professional free, cross-platform vector graphics editor for anybody with an interest in digital drawing. You can use it to create illustrations, icons, maps, web graphics, diagrams, etc.

Blender is a free and open-source professional 3D creation suite created with support for the entire 3D pipeline i.e. modeling, simulation, rigging, compositing, motion tracking, game creation, rendering, and video editing.

Cinelerrais a free and open-source software for professionally editing videos on Linux platforms. Its features include compositing, motion tracking, rendering, transitions, customizable text, effects, etc.

Mailspringis a freemium open-source email client application for Linux, Mac, and Windows computers. It is extensible with tons of add-ons with a feature set that includes link click tracking, open tracking, contacts enrichment data, a beautiful UI, etc.

Calibreis a free and cross-platform one-stop solution for electronic documents especially ebooks, comics, and PDFs. Its features include a robust ebook viewer, a built-in news/magazine downloader, advanced management options for ebook organization, and metadata update, to mention a few.

TexMaker is a free, cross-platform, and open-source LaTeX editor that enables users to create, edit, and manage LaTeX documents elegantly. It has a long feature including code folding, syntax highlighting, code completion, find in folders, unlimited number of snippets, and support for regular expressions, to mention a few.

FileZillais a free and open-source FTP solution that also has support for SFTP and FTP over TLS (FTPS). It features everything necessary for performing file operations from remote locations. Nevertheless, it offers enterprise-class users a paid package which bundles extra features such as additional protocol support for Dropbox, Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure Blob, and WebDAV, to name a few.

Kodi is a beautiful, free, open-source, and multi-platform media center software from which you can manage and play music, movies, TV shows, and photo slideshows. It has good integration support and an awesome community.

Iris is a community-driven multi-platform web framework written in Go. It is easy to use and has now come to be among the fastest web frameworks housing several features including automatic HTTPS with Public Domain, caching, sessions, WebSocket, versioning API, dependency injection, MVC, and compatibility with 3rd-party packages and standard libraries.

Psiphon3 is a free and open-source network software designed for Windows and Android users to circumnavigate censorship while maintaining their optimal browsing and download speeds. It makes use of open-source components for SSH, VPN, and HTTP Proxy technology to provide users with uncensored online content.

Did you find any cool Linux apps in 2019 that are not on the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The Best Open Source Software in 2019 (Users' Choice)