Honorable Mentions
Two open-source apps I'm not covering in this list — but only because better alternatives (for me, at least) exist.
Kdenlive
Why would I use Kdenlive when DaVinci Resolve is already free? It's old, tried, and tested — and I don't hate it. I just personally prefer DaVinci and I'm more habitual with it.
GIMP
Since Canva made Affinity free last year, that makes it the better free option overall — unless you strictly want to follow the open-source ideology, or you're worried it might become paid someday. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. For now, it's free.
Because the honest version of this list includes the things I've consciously tried and moved away from. Not every open-source app makes the cut — and that's fine.
Helium
Helium is based on ungoogled Chromium — so basically it's like Chrome, but all of Google's tracking and telemetry are stripped out. A clean, lightweight browser.
It's extremely fast and supports most websites. It blocks all browser cookies by default and works with uBlock Origin, at least for now. That last part matters: if you want to block ads and trackers with uBlock Origin on Chrome, you can't — the extension is no longer supported there because of Chrome's manifest changes. Helium still supports it, and comes pre-installed with uBlock Origin.
Zen Browser
Zen is a Firefox fork — so it's built on Firefox, not Chromium. The cool thing is the insanely modern UI. Its website also absolutely mogs every other browser website, which is worth noting.
What sets Zen apart is vertical tabs. In most browsers the tabs sit on top; in Zen they're organized vertically on the side. You can actually do this on Helium too — right-click the top bar, go to Browser Layout, and choose Vertical Tabs.
This is pretty clearly inspired by Arc browser, which got insanely popular a few years ago on macOS but whose Windows version was kind of a mess. I think that gap played a big role in the rise of Zen.
Audacity
The main audio editor here. Free, cross-platform, and it does basically everything a beginner-to-intermediate user needs without needing to learn a DAW.
Tenacity
If you want a more privacy-focused audio editor, Tenacity is a fork of Audacity that removes all the telemetry and gives you a clean UI. Because Tenacity focuses on privacy and stability rather than chasing every new Audacity feature, it may not always have the latest tools — but that's the trade-off.
Obsidian
I'll be honest: there are great open-source and free note takers out there, and I know that. I use Obsidian anyway, and I'm including it here because it's closely related to the open-source ideology — even though it isn't strictly open source.
In open-source ideology you want the thing to be free, private, and for you to own your data. Obsidian does all three. All your notes are stored as local markdown files — so if Obsidian becomes paid someday, you can just take your files and switch to something else. It's also free for basically anything you want to do with it, and it has tons of community plugins that make it a genuinely better experience.
Logseq
If you want a completely open-source note-taking app similar to Obsidian, check out Logseq. Same outliner-style workflow, no license ambiguity.
AppFlowy
Want an open-source alternative to Notion? AppFlowy is exactly that, with a beautiful UI and the same block-based feel. Worth a look if you've ever wanted to leave Notion.
Obsidian is not open source. I'm including it because it acts like it — local files, no lock-in, free. If that distinction matters to you, Logseq and AppFlowy are the genuinely open-source answers.
LibreOffice
A few years ago in IT class we were taken to the computer lab and taught about OpenOffice. It's sad to see it's largely dead now, but we have an alternative that's even better and still gets new features: LibreOffice. That's what I currently use.
Even the script of the original video was written in LibreOffice Writer — that's the level of daily-driver it is for me.
Writer
A writing app. Documents, scripts, essays, letters — the whole thing.
Calc
A spreadsheet app. Formulas, tables, and everything Excel does that you actually use.
Impress
A presentation app. Slides, transitions, and speaker notes.
Draw
A drawing app. Diagrams, flowcharts, and vector graphics.
Math
A formula-writing app. For equations you'd normally have to fight with in a text editor.
Base
A database app. Yes — a full database app, included for free.
Six apps, one install, absolutely free on their website. Basically everything you'd want from an office suite — including databases.
This is what's giving my taskbar that smooth macOS-style animation. WindHawk is a Windows modding app — it lets you make small but meaningful tweaks to how Windows looks and feels.
Taskbar animation
The reason I'm showing this on screen — smooth, macOS-like animations applied to the Windows taskbar via a community mod.
Transparency everywhere
Make the Start menu, taskbar, notification area, and File Explorer transparent.
And a lot more
There are many other mods that let you make your Windows experience better — the ones above are just what I actually use. If you've read the Windows Apps guide, this is the same app I flagged there — the caveat still applies.
These mods are built by random developers. Not all mods inside WindHawk are created by the person who built WindHawk itself — so it's reasonable to assume some mods may carry malware.
I'm not saying skip it. I'm saying take precautions when installing a mod. Check the author, understand what it does, and don't install anything you don't understand.
You heard that right. Not Notepad — Notepads, with an S. A cool, extremely lightweight notepad app that doesn't have any of the bloat the new Windows Notepad shipped with. It's a clean replacement for the built-in one, and it doesn't get in the way.
It's extremely customizable, and — yes — you can also make it transparent.
Notepad is a thing you open fifty times a day. When the built-in version bloats up, that tax compounds. Notepads resets it back to what a notepad should be: open, type, close.
An alternative to apps like Raycast. Flow Launcher is an app launcher and file search tool that you can open with a simple shortcut. The cool thing is the plugin ecosystem — it does a lot more than launch apps.
Obsidian vault search My Setup
I have an Obsidian plugin set up that lets me search across all my vaults and find the notes I need extremely quickly — from the launcher, without opening Obsidian.
Quick calculations
Extremely important calculations like 1 + 1, done without breaking focus.
Instant web search
Search the web without opening a browser. Type potato and you get a POTATO — no tab, no ceremony.
Everything Search integration
The plugin that makes this whole thing sing. See below.
Flow Launcher integrates with another tool called Everything Search. This searches quite literally any file on your computer and finds it basically instantly. I have a brain dump file stored somewhere on my machine — I can search "brain dump keypoints" and BAM, the file is there.
Compare that to Windows search. There's no comparison. With a plugin that comes pre-installed with Flow Launcher, I can search any file directly from the Flow Launcher interface itself.
Note: Everything Search itself is not fully open source — it's a freeware app, meaning you can use it without paying a penny, but the code isn't open.
If you have Apple devices, you probably regularly use AirDrop. If not, you might remember apps like Xender that let you share files between devices. LocalSend is like those — but it's open source, ad-free, and it works between different device types.
Works everywhere
Share from iPhone to Android, PC to iPhone, MacBook to Android. The idea is: cross-platform by design, not as an afterthought.
Runs on your Wi-Fi
Your data stays on your local network and never touches a server. Because it's local, it's also pretty fast.
Plug-and-play
Download the app on the devices you want to share between, and share. That's the whole process. No accounts, no pairing codes you have to look up, no subscription.
I have a bad habit of creating a new email address every once in a while — for the most useless tasks — and managing those accounts becomes a mess. Even now I have like five or six active emails, and that's after deleting three or four of them. Thunderbird is the app that finally made that manageable.
One inbox for everything
A desktop email app that lets you check all your emails from all your accounts in one place. No more switching between browsers.
Easy setup
You just log in with your Google or email account and it starts working right away. No manual IMAP config required.
The Supernova redesign
Thunderbird recently got a redesign called Supernova. It didn't make it the most modern app in the world — but it made it much more usable than it was before, especially compared to apps like the new Outlook. For me, that's enough.
The Full List
Nine apps across both parts, one line each. Everything here is something I actually use — not a listicle of things I've never opened.
Almost everything on this list shares three properties: it's free, it's private, and it doesn't hold your data hostage. That's not an accident — it's the whole reason I use open-source software.