r/freesoftware • • 28m ago

Discussion Experience with freeoffice?

• Upvotes

Has anyone experience with freeoffice? https://www.freeoffice.com/en/
It looks like a faster version of libreoffice, but with a better interface, fewer bugs and without all the bloat. I have been frustrated from and tired of libreoffice impress for years now, and it looks like I finally found a better alternative than this crap that is libreoffice (pardon my French).


r/freesoftware • • 1d ago

Article Open source in the AI era: protecting maintainers’ time from AI slop

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12 Upvotes

Anyone can open a PR. That used to be open source’s superpower. Now it’s becoming its biggest headache.

Low-quality AI-generated PRs are flooding projects, and volunteer maintainers are paying the price.

Here are a few practical ways to keep AI slop under control.


r/freesoftware • • 1d ago

Discussion Ask the KDE Goals champions

3 Upvotes

The champions of the new KDE Goals for the 2026-2028 cycle will be answering your questions live!

KDE for Enterprise and Deployments: Ask David Edmundson, Kevin Ottens, Neal Gompa, and Kai Uwe Broulik about how they plan to make KDE a viable choice for businesses and public institutions.

Better documentation: Check in with Nate Graham, Thiago Masato Costa Sueto, and Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss about improving KDE's documentation.

Next Generation Styling for KDE: Find out how Arjen Hiemstra, Akseli Lahtinen, and Andy Betts are working to implement a unified styling system.

Leave your questions in the comments or in the KDE Forum post!

The champions will answer them live on on Youtube and Peertube on October 29 at at 17:00 UTC.


r/freesoftware • • 1d ago

Software Submission help me find a free old drawing program

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2 Upvotes

in short: i can't find a safe link to download a very old drawing program. it's called "OpenCanvas 1.1"

please note that i am specifically looking for version 1.1. let me describe it in more detail:

as far as i know, this program was popular in fairly niche circles 15–20 years ago, since it was the last free version of OpenCanvas. it's pretty easy to use, and i guess it had some kind of multiplayer feature (?) which doesn't really interest me

absolutely all sources that provide a download link are flagged on VirusTotal

i checked wistinga - the first two links don't work, and the last one, labeled “original,” is unsafe

i checked flat2d - both links, the English version and the French version, simply don't work

as far as i remember, the other websites cite these two sources specifically, so the problem remains the same

yesterday i went through almost the entire blog of my favorite Korean artist, who has definitely been using this program for about 9 or 10 years. and when i found a link to her personal archive of brushes and the program itself, i thought a miracle had happened, but unfortunately, VirusTotal found as many as 20 malware warnings here, which, I think, was a record D:

deviantart - that site was my last hope, but even there it was out of date

anyway, my very last hope now is to find people with their own personal archives who may have used, or are still using this program and can safely share it with me. i swear, if this program were paid, I would buy it, but the thing is, it’s actually free, though it hasn’t been supported by the developers for a long time, and all the archives seem to be infected

please let me know if i'm posting in the right place, and if not, please tell me where i can take my problem. i'd really appreciate any feedback, whether it's your memories or knowledge of the program, or, as i'm really hoping, a working and secure download link or file.

i also apologize for my poor English, it's not my first language.


r/freesoftware • • 2d ago

Discussion ArtCraft is a point of no return for free software, "AI slop" or not

223 Upvotes

I’ve been following the discussions around ArtCraft lately, and I feel like a lot of people are completely missing the bigger picture here: people are massively underestimating how disruptive the ArtCraft experiment is for the free software world.

Even if Adobe eventually manages to weaponize their legal team and legally block the project, the open-source genie is already out of the bottle. The code that has been written will remain publicly available for everyone to fork, build upon, or integrate, regardless of whether the official ArtCraft project survives or dies.

Let’s look at the worst-case scenario:

  • "Illegal" UI elements? Fine. If a court decides the layout or graphics are too similar to Adobe's proprietary interface, the free software community will simply change the skin. The core engine, the underlying tools, and most importantly, the native file compatibility (like .psd or .ai) will still remain intact.

  • Copyrighted code issues? If a judge strikes down a specific portion of the source code, it can always be rewritten from scratch in a way that is fully clean-room compliant and legally acceptable.

The real race right now is time. We just have to hope that the project reaches near-functional parity with Adobe's software before any major legal roadblocks hit. If ArtCraft manages to get close enough to the original suite before the lawyers step in, there won't be a judge in the world capable of stopping the momentum of the community.

In my humble opinion, whoever launched this initiative deserves a massive thank you from all of us. I don't care if people want to dismiss it as "AI-slop" or just an automated experiment; the long-term impact this could have on breaking corporate monopolies is real, and it's exactly what the free software ecosystem needed.

What do you guys think? Is ArtCraft a game-changer, or am I being too optimistic?


r/freesoftware • • 4d ago

Discussion What video player do you recommend?

1 Upvotes

I usually download YouTube courses, and most of them are 2+ hours long. I keep losing track of where I left off, and I'd love to have a way to add my own bookmarks or chapters so I can easily jump back to specific topics.

I'm looking for a free and preferably open-source video player that can remember my playback position and let me organize long videos better. Bonus points if it has good keyboard shortcuts and lets me add notes or timestamps.

What do you guys use?


r/freesoftware • • 5d ago

Software Submission I open sourced the two apps I use to run the Foundational Fitness week: no account, no server, GPL-3.0

6 Upvotes

I follow Huberman's Foundational Fitness week: three lifting days, three cardio days (long, medium, brief) and one rest day. I wanted apps that did exactly what I needed and nothing else, so I built two and released both under GPL-3.0.

PlateClimb -- lifting tracker

  • Ships one program: the 12-week Foundational Fitness plan, with every set prescribed (reps, RPE, rest, starting weight)
  • Fast set logging that pre-fills last session's weights
  • Rest timer, warm-up ramps, kg or lb with plate-sized steps
  • Two swaps per exercise, photos, and a link to a free form video
  • Offline-first, no account, no server

Source: https://github.com/likwiid/plateclimb

BaseMile -- heart rate running app

  • Pairs with any Bluetooth heart rate chest strap or arm band
  • You set a ceiling and floor HR. When you cross either boundary the app says so out loud -- "heart rate high, slow down" / "back in zone"
  • Voice cues use the phone's TTS engine, so they work offline and over any headphones
  • GPS run tracking, and the run track still draws with no signal

Source: https://github.com/likwiid/basemile

Both are React Native / Expo, run entirely on-device, and collect zero data. Built them because every app I tried either paywalled the features I actually needed or required creating an account to log a single workout.

Happy to answer questions about the stack or the licence choice (went with GPL over MIT so forks stay open).


r/freesoftware • • 5d ago

Software Submission I built and open-sourced StatusDrop to solve WhatsApp's blurry Status video compression problem

6 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I built StatusDrop (WAstatus) because WhatsApp aggressively compresses Status videos, often making even high-quality uploads look blurry.

StatusDrop processes videos with FFmpeg, optimizes them for WhatsApp Status, splits longer videos, and delivers the finished clips through WhatsApp.

What's new:

- Android app: Built with Flutter/Kotlin. Video compression happens locally on your phone.

- Web version: Cloud-based FFmpeg processing.

- Video quality: 1080p (29-second clips) or 720p (59-second clips).

- No account required: Uses a temporary activation code for WhatsApp delivery.

Tech stack: Flutter, Kotlin, Node.js, Express, FFmpeg, Cloudflare R2, Azure and Baileys.

The HD posting workflow was developed through real-device testing. Results can vary with WhatsApp updates. Delivery uses the unofficial Baileys library, which also carries account restriction risks.

- GitHub: https://github.com/Shamanthnp1/WAstatus

The project is licensed under GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later.

I'm a solo developer and would appreciate code reviews, suggestions, or contributions. Feedback is welcome!


r/freesoftware • • 6d ago

Discussion Note-taking program with good typing and stylus support?

1 Upvotes

Hello, I've been searching for a note-taking app that has a good typing experience, like a document editor, but also lets me draw on the page with a drawing tablet (because I prefer to type but can't be bothered to learn how to type every mathematical symbol like ∀ or Greek letter). Every FOSS note-taking program I've come across is either a glorified Markdown editor and thus lacks the ability to just draw on pages (some allow you to embed hand-drawn images, but that's a clunky workaround), or it goes all in on drawing and only has clunky typing support, like only allowing you to insert text boxes somewhere. I've also tried LibreOffice, but the drawing tool there is very bad. I hope someone can suggest a program or plugin.


r/freesoftware • • 6d ago

Discussion KDE: The Documentary — The Story of Free Software Underdogs

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40 Upvotes

r/freesoftware • • 7d ago

Software Submission I built a macOS app that turns YouTube videos into readable transcripts and PDFs. No cloud, no API keys

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14 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I made YtToPdf, a native macOS app that takes a YouTube link and gives you a clean, readable transcript you can export as a PDF, TXT, Markdown or SRT.

GitHub: https://github.com/MarinoBaric/YtToPdf

**How it works**

- Uses the video's own captions when they exist (manual first, auto second) and cleans them up into real sentences and paragraphs. No more repeated rolling-caption fragments or [Music] tags.

- If a video has no captions, it downloads just the audio and transcribes it locally with whisper.cpp.

- Everything runs on your Mac. No account, no analytics, no API keys, no subscription.

**Things I'm proud of**

- PDF export with an editorial layout, clickable timestamps and page headers.

- A "Speech Fingerprint" on every PDF: a pattern generated from when words are spoken across the video, so no two documents look the same.

- Searchable history, so you can reopen old transcripts instantly.

**Tech:** Swift 6, SwiftUI with Liquid Glass, SwiftData, Core Text for the PDF layout, plus yt-dlp, FFmpeg and whisper.cpp under the hood.

Heads up: it's source-only for now (not notarized), so you build it yourself with Xcode. It needs macOS 27 and an Apple silicon Mac. There's an install script that makes it pretty quick.

**I'd really like your feedback:**

- Would you actually use something like this? What for?

- Anything you'd add or change, in the app or the PDF design?

- Is building from source a dealbreaker, or is it fine for a tool like this?

MIT licensed, issues and PRs welcome. Thanks for checking it out!


r/freesoftware • • 10d ago

Discussion Looking for Free Movie Subtitle Sources for an Early-Stage Project

7 Upvotes

​

Hi everyone!

I'm working on an early-stage project that will need movie and TV-show subtitles, and I'm researching reliable sources before moving forward.

I'm looking for free subtitle sources or APIs that developers can use, ideally with:

\- A large collection of movie and TV-show subtitles across multiple languages.

\- Search by movie title, year, or IMDb/TMDB ID.

\- API access, if available.

\- Clear terms that permit use within an app.

\- Free usage limits suitable for a small project.

I'm not looking to bypass restrictions or misuse anyone's service. I want to understand which sources are genuinely available for permitted use.

Which sources or APIs would you recommend, and are there any licensing restrictions developers should know about?

Thanks for your help!


r/freesoftware • • 15d ago

Discussion Contributing to open source and guaranteeing safety

10 Upvotes

How can I contribute to open source projects when I don't fully trust the code in the project? Are there standard approaches? Do people usually just download the project to their local laptops?


r/freesoftware • • 16d ago

Software Submission Oryx 1.2.1 released: Fast cross-platform Markdown editor and viewer

14 Upvotes

Oryx is a (very) fast, keyboard-first Markdown editor and reader. It also edits code and opens EPUB ebooks and CBZ comics.

Instead of relying on webviews, Oryx uses a custom vector rendering pipeline: so now browser and no electron. It draws typography, code highlighting, and math directly to the screen. The workflow is modal and built for keyboard-driven navigation. It stays fast and lightweight on memory, even with heavy files. It doesn't rely on GPU acceleration and is optimized to run smoothly on virtually any (older) hardware.

Version 1.2.1 brings tighter rendering passes, stability fixes, and small UI polishes based on community feedback. On the roadmap for v1.3.0 focus mode, multi-pdf export and more stability on big files.

Please share your comments and if you find Oryx useful, please star it on GitHub so it can reach other. Thanks!

Code & Downloads: GitHub: https://github.com/wmahfoudh/oryx
Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/wmahfoudh/oryxOryx


r/freesoftware • • 17d ago

Software Submission Vrok Free OpenSource alternate to Ngrok and other file Sharing Tools

6 Upvotes

Sharing a file or a local project should take one command, not an upload and a sign-up.

That idea is what led me to build vrok, a free and open source command line tool that turns a file, a folder or a local development server into a temporary public link.

The problem

Sending a large video or a folder of files usually means waiting for an upload, hitting a size limit, and leaving a copy on someone else's server. Showing a teammate an app running on localhost usually means creating an account with a tunnelling service and configuring an auth token first.

How vrok works

You run a single command, such as vrok video.mp4, vrok photos or vrok localhost:3000, and you get a public HTTPS link that is copied to your clipboard.

Nothing is uploaded. The recipient downloads directly from your machine, and the link stops working as soon as you stop sharing it. The person on the other end does not need to install anything. They simply open the link in a browser.

What it offers

No account, no configuration and no file size limit.

Password protection, expiring links and one time download links.

In browser previews for video, images and PDFs, and full folders downloadable as a single zip.

Resumable downloads with a SHA-256 checksum for verification.

Local development servers shared with hot reload still working.

Support for macOS, Linux, Windows and FreeBSD.

Where it fits

vrok is a lightweight alternative to tools like ngrok and localtunnel for sharing a local app, and to services like WeTransfer and Google Drive for sending large files. It is designed for the everyday moment of "take a look at this", not for permanent hosting.

The project is MIT licensed and available on GitHub. I would genuinely value feedback from anyone who tries it, especially on what would make it part of your daily workflow.

Website: https://alijabbar034.github.io/vrok/

Source code: https://github.com/AliJabbar034/vrok


r/freesoftware • • 19d ago

Discussion Is there any free software for windows and linux(gnome) to keep blutooth speaker awake?

9 Upvotes

On win11 i tried KeepAwake but the issue is it interferes with other connected bluetooth audio devices bcz how it works it sends a very high frequency (non audible to human) sine wave to all bluetooth audio devices , but i only want to send that to a specific devices which i can't do in KeepAwake , also i didn't found anything for Linux(gnome). I would prefer a gui app rather than dealing with the terminal.


r/freesoftware • • 20d ago

Software Submission Use Zoxide to change Nemo file manager location

6 Upvotes

I like Zoxide too much that I missed it in the file manager. So I wrote a Nemo extension to allow changing location querying Zoxide.

When you select a location in the dialog its score is incremented, but there is no way, for now, to reach new locations: you must add them via Zoxide itself. So I was thinking to display, after Zoxide results, the results of fd, but I am still pondering over it.

https://gitlab.com/DPDmancul/nemo-zoxide


r/freesoftware • • 20d ago

Discussion Does anyone use Dragora GNU/Linux-libre?

1 Upvotes

Hi, I'm new to Dragora GNU/Linux-libre. Could someone explain how to install text editors like Emacs or Vis, or browsers like IceCat?


r/freesoftware • • 20d ago

Discussion Can anyone help! me find a free software witch has a Slides Section like powerpoint?

7 Upvotes

I switch from Microsoftoffice to Libreoffice and I am generally happy with it but Libreoffice Impress does not have collapsible sections/chapters, you can make named sections but they cannot be collapse.

I have looked into other popular free options like Google slides, softmaker freeoffice presentations and Apache OpenOffice Impress but they don't have the feature of the collapsible sections. I am trying to move away from Microsoft so I don't want to use the online version of PowerPoint.

I am currently using WPS Presentation even though I don't want to. It works surprisingly nice, Similar to PowerPoint it has collapsible sections but it tries to keep pushing you to buy a WPS Cloud subscription, constantly tries to run in the background whenever Iam using libreoffice and even when I use different applications to open certain file types. I have tried to turn off file type detection and Cloud Service but it continues doing it.

If anyone knows any alternatives please do tell!!

(or how to make wps feel less like malware)


r/freesoftware • • 21d ago

Discussion An open-source program, the equivalent of SketchUp, was launched this week.

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20 Upvotes

r/freesoftware • • 22d ago

Software Submission CRIE LEGENDAS ANIMADAS GRÁTIS PARA LINUX!

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1 Upvotes

r/freesoftware • • 22d ago

Software Submission Feedback/ built a private , offline doc-to-Markdown converter using Docling and MarkItDown (Desktop UI + Localhost REST API)

7 Upvotes

Hey r/freesoftware 👋

Sharing a new open-source project a friend built called InkDoc.

It is a cross-platform desktop tool (and local REST API) designed to convert messy everyday documents into clean Markdown entirely offline, without third-party cloud services or telemetry.

The repo is MIT licensed:

https://github.com/AbdoslamB/InkDoc

Why he built it:

Most online converters want you to upload sensitive files to their servers, while lightweight CLI scripts often completely mangle tables, multi-column layouts, and scanned pages.

How it is put together:

- Microsoft MarkItDown handles Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and HTML.

- IBM Docling handles complex PDFs (reading order layout analysis, OCR, and table extraction).

- Markit handles EPUBs, Jupyter notebooks, and similar formats.

- Everything runs on your own hardware (Windows, macOS, Linux).

- Includes both a drag-and-drop desktop UI and a headless mode with a localhost REST API for scripting.

It just hit v1.1.0. He is actively looking for community feedback on edge-case files, performance bottlenecks, and general feature requests.

Contributions and issues are welcome on GitHub, or feel free to leave your thoughts here!


r/freesoftware • • 23d ago

Software Submission No nonsense project management: Lucidplan v1.6.7 ✨ - powered by Lisp: now with native drag and drop in Backlog and Kanban - FLOSS Trello/Jira style software that is fast and easy to learn, self-host and privacy friendly

4 Upvotes

Hi community. It's been now a bit more than 2 years since I started to work on this "project management project", with many ideas and with a good vision of how to improve and be better than certain bespoke commercial tooling out there. I am happy to announce version v1.6.7 with a lot of polished aspects and new features that make it a joy to use (even if I say so myself)

LucidPlan is a simple, hackable, free and open source project management software that you can easily self-host, you only need something that runs Guile Scheme and a SQLite database. (Guix is recommended, not mandatory)

I spent years using things like Jira, Trello, Asana, GitHub projects and eventually became frustrated with how much complexity gets piled onto what should essentially be:

projects → tickets → priorities → workflow → done

I decided to build my own as a challenge, but also to create something blazingly fast and simple, that people can quickly learn (even applicable to non-tech projects). Also I aimed for ease of self-hosting, no SPA frameworks and no dependency on proprietary clouds or software.

LucidPlan is licensed under the GNU AGPLv3 or later. Source code:

https://codeberg.org/jjba23/lucidplan

You can also look at my running instance:

https://lucidplan.jointhefreeworld.org/

The project leverages the power of Lisp (Guile Scheme) by using SXML for front-end aspects, clean controllers with Artanis and a powerful repository pattern abstraction.

What does it do?

  • Manages your project backlogs with ticket priorities
  • Native drag-and-drop ticket reordering (priority)
  • Kanban boards with drag-and-drop status changes
  • Global/project search (still more work to be done)
  • Users, assignees and fine-grained permissions
  • Light/dark mode
  • Keyboard-accessible ticket and project lists
  • Org-mode syntax in ticket titles and descriptions
  • Org links and rich Org content rendered to HTML
  • Hackable/customizable with Scheme
  • Lightweight, and mobile-friendly
  • SQLite backend
  • Lightweight vanilla JavaScript on the frontend for some interactive enhancements

The Org-mode integration is particularly fun: you can write ticket descriptions using Org syntax and LucidPlan renders the result as HTML.

For example, your ticket can contain things like:

* Investigate weird bug

The problem seems to happen when [[https://example.org][this thing]] is enabled.

- Check configuration
- Reproduce the problem
- Fix it

…and LucidPlan renders that into the ticket as pretty styled HTML. (see orgwebalchemy post: https://www.reddit.com/r/lisp/comments/1wox8h4/parsing_org_mode_with_parsing_expression_grammars/ ).

There is still plenty to improve, and I'd genuinely love feedback from people who actually use project-management software daily. I think you'll find LucidPlan as a refreshing take.

Especially interested in hearing from the community:

  • What do you hate about existing project-management tools?
  • What features do you consider essential?
  • Would you use a Lisp/Guile-based project-management system?
  • What would make LucidPlan useful for your own projects? What killer feature can I work next?

Happy hacking :-)


r/freesoftware • • 25d ago

Software Submission Aniloader Open Beta. A free open source (mainly) Anime downloader

5 Upvotes

A mainly Anime downloader for various websites and language options:
https://github.com/NINJAMINEBRO/Aniloader_public/blob/main/Supported_Websites_Languages.md
Completely free and open source under Apache 2.0 License
It is a full rework of the previous version "Aniworld Downloader"

Open Source: https://github.com/NINJAMINEBRO/Aniloader_public/tree/main
Download: https://ninjaminebro.itch.io/aniloader


r/freesoftware • • 27d ago

Article Finally ditched Google Photos. My replacement is a $60 board sitting in my closet lol

68 Upvotes

6 years on Reddit, zero posts, all lurking. Figured if anything was worth breaking that streak, it's this.

So this started because Google kept nagging me about storage. Every single week. And I did the math on paying for Google One forever and just got annoyed.

Those are MY photos. Why am I paying rent on my own memories?

Anyway, I had a spare ARM board lying around (the cheap 4-core / 8GB kind) and a long weekend, so I went for it.

It's been running for a bit now and honestly... it's great.

Photos auto-upload from my phone, there's a timeline, a map view, sharing links for family. Everything I actually used Google Photos for.

What I'm running

Nextcloud — their Android app is the main reason; auto-upload just works.

Nginx instead of Apache — because this board has 8GB of RAM and I'm not made of memory.

PostgreSQL over MariaDB — Nextcloud recommends it, and file locking is less cursed.

Redis + APCu for caching.

128GB USB drive for the actual data. Do NOT use the SD card for this. SD cards die fast under DB + thumbnail writes.

Cloudflare Tunnel for remote access/HTTPS. No ports open on my router, my home IP isn't floating around. Done.

Things that bit me, so they don't bite you

  1. Fresh Ubuntu boot + apt = dpkg lock held hostage.

Just wait a few minutes. Don't panic like I did.

  1. CHECK the PHP version compatibility with Nextcloud before you install anything.

My distro shipped PHP 8.5, which works. Older distros will make you suffer with PPAs.

  1. Put nofail in fstab for the USB drive.

Otherwise, the board won't boot if the drive is unplugged.

Ask me how I know.

  1. PHP tuning: copy the ini to cli/conf.d as well, not just FPM.

occ was behaving completely differently from the web app, and it took me way too long to figure out why.

  1. Thumbnails are HEAVY on little boards.

Run Preview Generator from cron at night, or the first time you open your gallery you'll think it's broken.

Real talk on performance

For 1–3 people, it's totally fine.

The web UI is snappy once you get OPcache + Redis sorted, and phone uploads on LAN are basically instant.

You won't get Google's face recognition magic (there are apps for it, but they're slow on ARM). For me, that's a fine trade.

My photos. My hardware. ~5 watts of electricity. No monthly email from Google.

I wrote up the whole thing with all the configs and a script that does the install for you, if anyone wants it:

https://clinerds.com/article/self-host-nextcloud-google-photos-alternative

Be gentle on my first post lol. Happy to answer questions.