Libre Recommendations

Note: This section began as FOSS recommendations, but has grown beyond software into hardware and more general advice.

Avoid PRISM & Other Surveillance

• The U.S. PRISM Surveillance program has now been laid bare, and we should all be worried about it. Many of the recommendations below provide relief from surveillance or at least some level of protection. For a nice graphical list of alternatives to avoid PRISM, see PRISM Break and Tactical Tech.
• Check out our recommendations for Privacy and Anonymity
• For more detailed guides to self-defense, see the SSD Project and Riseup.net's primer on security.

Social Media Alternatives

Federated Social networks

• Kolektiva is a leftist friendly Mastodon instance.
  
• Farcaster is a sufficiently decentralized social network built on Ethereum. $5 yearly fee.
  
• kolektiva.media collective offering video hosting to anarchist collectives and individuals
  
• social.edist.ro anarchists and antifascists everywhere
  
• Friendica is software to create a distributed social network. Diaspora and Hubzilla compatible .

PanQuake

• Join our BETA for Powerful, next generation messaging technology.
• Custom Blockchain, SMS support, Transparent moderation, and no timeline manipulation.
• No selling user data, advertising free, fee based.

Free Software

Definition

• These programs fit the free software definition (libre) and are also freeware (gratis).
• These programs fit the Debian Free Software Guidelines.
• You may see the acronym FOSS, meaning "free/open-source software".

Operating Systems

General

• It's not just a Windows and Mac world. Mac vs. PC is a marketing illusion, and Apple doesn't respect our freedom.
• Many of the programs listed below are developed on GNU/Linux, and then ported to Windows. As such, they're likely to work better on GNU/Linux. See the GNU/Linux options below if you'd like to try out a new and exciting operating system, and get out of the Mac vs. PC rut.
• Due to a malfunction in Diggity's reality distortion field, most of the individual apps listed below are for Windows. That awful proprietary OS is still widely installed, so it can be a starting point for FOSS users.
• Suggestions for Mac OSX programs are welcome, and this list will also grow to include phone/tablet platforms.
• Suggestions for software without Windows or Mac builds should have an accompanying note. GNU/Linux users generally don't need to search around the Web and download individual packages/tarballs/binaries, since modern distributions have package management systems.

Recommended Distros

If you would like to try a libre, gratis, and freedom-respecting (i.e. non-spying) operating system, please take a look at:

• Trisquel
• Debian
• Snow Linux
• Descent OS
• Pinguy OS
• Crunchbang
• Manjaro
• Elementary

Notes

• Most of these GNU/Linux distributions are Debian-based. See the Debian Social Contract to learn more about that excellent project.
• Video tutorial and review of Trisqel
• Other alternatives include Linux Mint, LXLE, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, OpenSuSE, and Chakra. These operating systems have a mix of libre and proprietary code, or other problems (e.g. Ubuntu's "lenses" send data to companies like Amazon).
• You don't have to be tied to your OS and should instead look at the huge variety of alternatives.
• More help installing/configuring a Debian-based or Ubuntu-based system (like Trisquel and Parsix):
  • The Official Ubuntu Book | EPUB | PDF | 7th Edition (2012), CC-BY-SA by Matthew Helmke and Amber Graner, with Kyle Rankin, Benjamin Mako Hill, and Jono Bacon.

GNU/Linux Pre-Installed

• To buy a computer that has GNU/Linux pre-installed, take a look at the long list of vendors at Linux Preloaded.
• For the most comprehensive database on compatible hardware, check out H-Node.

"Live" DVD/USB

• All of the operating systems listed above have a "try before you install" option, where you can run them as a LiveDVD/USB and not touch your local files or hard drives.
• HowTo Burn an ISO to a Live DVD/USB
• How try a LiveCD ISO in VirtualBox

Running Windows Apps in GNU/Linux

• Wine: Software compatibility layer for GNU/Linux that will run Windows software natively. Check the AppDB to see if your program will run on Wine, and how well.
  • A simple Wine tutorial
• PlayOnLinux and Crossover: Two options built upon Wine. Use Crossover's Compatibility DB to search for the program you're trying to run.
• VirtualBox: Run Windows inside a virtual machine. Also a great way to try out GNU/Linux and Unix distros!

Privacy & Anonymity

• TAILS: The Amnesiac Incognito Live System is a live GNU/Linux distribution. It will boot without leaving any traces on your hard drives, like any other GNU/Linux LiveDVD/USB. However, it also sends all network traffic through Tor for anonymity and has a suite of encryption tools pre-installed.
• Whonix: Designed to run in virtual machines, using software such as VirtualBox. Read more about this approach before trying.
• See our section on Web Browsers for private browsing options.

Graphics

Libre Graphics Magazine

• A great resource for artists, produced collaboratively under FOSS/free culture licenses. All issues are available in low and high res on a "payment optional" model.
  • Libre Graphics Asset page, Manifesto, and source code.

Photo Editors

• GIMP: Edits photos and creates raster graphics, as well as plugins for animation. Replaces Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Photo Editor.
• Paint.NET: A popular alternative. Requires an updated version of the .NET framework (i.e. an up-to-date version of Windows).
• Pinta: Simple multi-platform photo editor. Like Paint.NET but with a more basic interface.
• Xara Xtreme: Photo and graphic editor.
• LightZone: Manages photo collections and does basic editing, supports RAW.
• Raw Therapee: Advanced photo collection management.
• darktable: Photography workflow management and RAW editor.

Drawing

• Inkscape: Creates SVG vector graphics, exports to a variety of vector and raster graphics formats. Replaces Adobe Illustrator.

Animation

• Synfig: 2-D animation studio. Replaces Adobe Flash.

Fonts

• Open Font Library
• OSP Foundry

Misc

• MWsnap: Simple screenshot utility.
• Colorpic: Color picker (great for figuring out hex color codes in HTML/CSS!)
• Build-Your-Own Adobe Creative Suite using libre and/or gratis alternatives

Office & Publishing

• LibreOffice: Successor to OpenOffice.org. Replaces Microsoft Office, Microsoft Works.
• Scribus: Editor for complex layouts, such as those for print publishing. Replaces Quark Xpress, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Publisher.
• PDFedit: Manipulate and edit PDF files. Replaces Adobe Acrobat.
• Formulate Pro: Edit and annotate PDF documents.
• LyX: Modern, cross-platform LaTeX editor.
• Texmaker: Another graphical LaTeX editor for many platforms.
• WinEdt: Another LaTeX editor.
• Winefish: Editor for experienced LaTeX users, based on Bluefish.

Internet

Web Browsers

• Mozilla Firefox: Popular, freedom-respecting Web browser. Replaces Internet Explorer, Safari.
  • extensions: Adblock Edge, Beef Taco, HTTPS Everywhere, Do Not Track, DuckDuckGo Plus, ToS;DR, Self-Destructing Cookies, Web Developer
• Midori: Lightweight browser that uses the the Webkit rendering engine, so it will render pages like Chrome/Chromium and Safari (in most cases). We recommend this over other Webkit browsers, since it has privacy and ad-blocking tools built in.
• Chromium: Freedom-respecting version of Google Chrome.
  • plugins: Adblock Plus, HTTPS Everywhere, Do Not Track, DuckDuckGo, ToS;DR, Web Developer
• Other options include SeaMonkey, Camino, Konqueror, or Otter Browser.
• A new stripped-down "classic" version of Firefox is also available as Pale Moon.

Built for Privacy & Anonymity

• Tor Browser Bundle: Anonymous Web browsing. Your communications are bounced around the Tor anonymity network.
• Pirate Browser: A browser by TPB that bundles Tor, Firefox Portable, Foxy Proxy, and some custom configs that allows you to circumvent censorship that certain countries impose on their citizens (e.g. Iran, North Korea, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Ireland).
  • Note: It's unclear whether or not it gives you all the anonymity of the Tor Browser Bundle.

Browser Tips

• Set up your browser to be smart and secure by following these tips, no matter what browser you're using!
• Escape the Filter Bubble and avoid online tracking.
• Utilize DuckDuckGo, OpenStreetMap, Startpage, Ixquick, and Riseup.net's services instead of relying upon Google (and its much smaller "rivals").
  • Please read our page on DuckDuckGo for an overview of potential problems with the alternative search engines, including DuckDuckGo. The search engine waters are very murky, but the alternatives are still much better than Google, Bing, Yahoo!, et al.
• Check out RiseUp.net's Browser Privacy Scorecard to rate your browser.
• Don't use CryptoCat! CryptoCat, Hushmail, and other tools that utilize host-based security are full of false promises. Also, DeCryptoCat has proven the tool can't be trusted.

E-mail & Calendar

• Mozilla Thunderbird: E-mail client and RSS feed reader. Replaces Microsoft Outlook.
  • plugins: Lightning Calendar, EnigMail, Adblock Plus
• Sunbird: Stand-alone calendar program. Can also be combined with Mozilla Thunderbird as Lightning Calendar.
• Bitmessage: Private messaging software based on Bitcoin, intended for e-mail-like communication but with much more potential.

Hosting

• Private e-mail and calendar requires a privacy-respecting host. Lavabit and Silent Mail have closed down, and there aren't many options for third-party providers left. Consider the Riseup.net option (although you have to be invited to get an @riseup.net account) or paying for a service like MyKolab (it's recommended by pj at groklaw). If you're going to host your own e-mail, there are a lot of options and you may want to install Kolab yourself.

IM & Chat

• Pidgin: Instant Messaging client for (almost) all chat protocols, including IRC. Replaces AIM, Google Talk, Facebook Messenger, ICQ.
  • plugins: Off-the-Record messaging, Guifications
• SIP Video/Voice Calls: Jitsi and Ekiga are two choices to replace Skype and other VoIP clients.
• XChat: Allows you to join multiple IRC channels, chat one-on-one, and transfer files.
• Bitmessage: Private messaging software based on Bitcoin, intended for e-mail-like communication but with much more potential.
• BitTorrent Chat: Chat privately using decentralized hash tables and keys over Bittorrent.
• Tox: A secure messaging replacement for Skype, still in testing.
• QuickMSG: A text message app for Android that uses PGP-encrypted e-mail with IMAP/SMTP instead of SMS. It's like sending an e-mail with Enigmail, but it looks like SMS instead.

File Transfer & Sharing

• Filezilla: FTP and SFTP client for transferring files. Replaces CuteFTP.
• Deluge Torrent: Downloads via the Bittorrent protocol, for efficient downloading of large binary files. Perhaps best known from sites such as PirateBay (NSFW), but also may be used with legal torrents. Deluge includes advanced encryption settings.
  • Instructions for setting up Deluge.
• RetroShare: Peer-to-peer ("friend-2-friend"), and secure, decentralised sharing. Replaces Limewire.
  • Screenshots and instructions for set up
• SparkleShare: Simple file synchronization and cloud storage, using git as a backend. Replacement for Dropbox, Ubuntu One.
• OneSwarm: A file sharing program that utilizes Bittorrent for strong anonymity.
  • Still not sure what Bittorrent is? Familiarize yourself with it through this great paper, Why My Printer Received a DMCA Takedown Notice.

Bad Peers

• PeerGuardian and PeerBlock are firewalls to block known bad addresses from investigating you.
  • More info here
• MoBlock and PGL are alternatives for GNU/Linux.

Code & Text Editors

• Notepad++: Feature-rich text editor. Great for code editing. Replaces Notepad.
• Smultron: Multi-document text editor for Mac OSX. Replaces TextEdit.
• BlueGriffon: Graphical, "WYSIWYG" website editor. Successor to KompoZer. Replaces Macromedia/Adobe Dreamweaver.
  • plugins: FireFTP: for uploading edited files to a Web server.
  • EPUB Edition: For editing ePub books.
• Amaya: Another great WYSIWYG website editor, hosted by the W3C.
• Bluefish: Code editor that tries to be lean and clean, with tons of options. Not really a WYSIWYG editor, as it focuses on text output.
• Eclipse: The Eclipse IDE, originally geared toward Java, the language it's written in, but supports editing in almost any language.
  • PHPeclipse and Aptana: Eclipse plugins which also have stand-alone installers. Complex code editors, for those who are approaching websites as Web applications and have a strong programming background.

Multimedia

Audio Editors

• Ardour: Advanced Digital Audio Workstation, with tons of options and plugins. Replaces Fruity Loops.
• Audacity: Waveform editor, for editing WAV files and other audio directly. Replaces SoundForge and Adobe Audition.
• Giada: Loop machine, drum machine, sequencer, live sampler. Replaces SoundForge and Adobe Audition.
• Mixxx: DJ mixer, playlist, beat matcher, and beat juggler, with many input options.
• Jokosher: Multi-track audio editor with instrumental inputs.
• Rosegarden: MIDI sequencer, score editor, music composition studio.
• xwax: Play digital audio files as if they were on vinyl turntables, including scratch effects and other DJ sounds.
• WavShop: Bit-perfect WAV sound editor, which only edits the portion of the sound file that needs to change.

Audio Programming

• SuperCollider: Real-time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition. Basically, you program music.
• SoX: Command-line sound processing.

Video Editors

• AviDemux: Advanced video editor.
• Jahshaka: Media management and playback, compositing, editing and effects application.
• CamStudio: "Screencasting" screen recorder program.
• OpenShot: Simple video editor. Replaces Windows Movie Maker, iMovie.
• KdenLive: Mult-track video editor.
• avisynth: Single-track GUI for video editing.
• VLC Movie Creator: From the folks who brought us VLC Media Player. Replaces Windows Movie Maker, iMovie.

Animated GIFs

See our tutorial on creating high-quality GIFs.

• Should be edited by a photo editor like GIMP or one of the options above.
• LICEcap GIF recorder: for creating animated GIF "screencasts", alternative to GifCam

Digital Forensics

• Forevid: Video forensics software developed and used by Finland's National Bureau of Investigation.

Slideshows

• Imagination: Lightweight and simple DVD slide show maker.
• DVD Slideshow GUI: Slideshow maker for Windows systems.
  • Tutorial
• LibreOffice Impress: Replacement for PowerPoint.

Media Players

• Clementine: Feature-rich audio player. Replaces iTunes, WinAmp.
• NightingGale: Audio player, successor to Songbird. Replaces iTunes.
• VLC Media Player: The penultimate audio/video player. Replaces Windows Media Player, QuickTime.
• Jukes: Jukebox-like music player.
• Jajuk: Another player based around the jukebox concept.
• Bluemindo: Very simple music player, like Amarok without the plugins.
• Aqualung: Audio player with seamless playback, no space between files.

Media Centers

• MythTV: Software digital video recorder (DVR/PVR). Replaces Windows Media Center, TiVo.
  • Mythbuntu: GNU/Linux distro featuring MythTV for easy install.
• XBMC: Full-featured media center designed to turn any computer into a DVR/PVR device. Replaces Windows Media Center, TiVo.
  • OpenELEC: GNU/Linux distro featuring XMBC that "turns a blank PC into a media machine in less than 15 minutes."

Misc

• InfraRecorder: Audio CD and DVD burner. Replaces Nero.
• fre:ac: Audio converter from mp3 to ogg etc.
• WinFF: Video encoder for lots of formats.
• VirtualDub: Basic video capture, processing, and editing. An abandoned fork called VirtualDubMod has some features like MKV encoding.
• t@b Media Converter: Converts audio/video using sox and mencoder.
• MP3 Diags: Fixes a variety of problems with mp3 tags and mp3 files as well.

3D Modeling & CAD

• Blender: 3D graphics suite for modeling, animation, rendering, and more.
• QCAD: Full-featured CAD software that reads DWG and has a CAM plugin. Replaces AutoCAD.
• FreeCAD: Free software CAD suite.
• Sweet Home 3D: Architectural design tool. Helps you place your furniture on a house 2D plan, with a 3D preview.
• BRL-CAD: Modeling system with raytracing, geometric analysis, and more.

Beer & Wine Brewing

• BrewTarget: Reads and writes recipes in BeerXML, automatically calculates color, bitterness, etc. Replaces BeerSmith.
  • Overview and Comparison with other brewing software.
• QBrew: Calculate the gravity, color and bitterness of your recipe as you add in grains, extracts, adjuncts and hops.
  • Add more recipe databases
• Brewnix: Beer brewing software for Unix-like systems (last updated 2002).

Astronomy & Stargazing

• Celestia: 3D real-time space simulator used by NASA, with a model of our solar system and plugins for other systems, planets, and stars.
• Stellarium: Planetarium for your desktop, with real-time sky maps.
• Kstars: Another great planetarium application.

Utilities

• PeaZIP: Archiving and unarchiving utility. Replaces WinZip, WinRAR, and many others.
• 7-zip: Classic and simple archiver/unarchiver.
• PDFtk: PDF Toolkit. Allows for complex manipulation of PDF files.
• VirtualBox: Run virtual machines inside your operating system (e.g. for testing).
• CC PDF Converter: Convert document into PDF files, while embedding a Creative Commons license.
• HTTrack: Website copier, mirrors websites.
• Xournal: Annotate and highlight PDFs and text files.

Security

• KeePass and KeePassX: Password and keyring manager with encrypted storage.
• Password Gorilla: Another password manager, more info here.
• ClamAV/ClamWin Antivirus: Free antivirus for Windows.

• Clam Sentinel: Adds a real-time scanner to ClamWin, *highly-recommended addition*.

• WinPooch: Aggressively detects filesystem modifications, to guard against trojans and malware.
• Moon Secure Antivirus: A complete antivirus suite for Windows, with real-time scanner and firewall.
• BleachBit: Frees cache, delete cookies, clears Internet history, shreds temporary files, etc.

Plugins & Viewers

• Evince: PDF viewer. Replaces Adobe Reader.
• OpenJDK: Java plugin. *Usually* less targeted than the Sun/Oracle Java JRE/JVM but please read up before installing (Java is a common attack vector).

eBooks

• Calibre: free e-book reader, with support for collections and coversion. Supported formats.
  • Calibre DRM-free library
• FBReader: free e-book reader. Supported formats.
• BlueGriffon EPUB Edition: Graphical editor for ePub books.
• CBR: Originally a Comic Book Reader, but also supports other eBook formats (EPUB, XPS, archives like RAR, ZIP).

Formats & DRM

• ePub and .mobi are the preferred eBook formats. They usually contain no Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).
• Amazon .azw is basically the same as .mobi + DRM.
• Apple iBooks is a proprietary version of ePub.
• Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple all support some degree of DRM. In some cases, they've failed at pushing their DRM eBooks and we need to keep up that trend.
• How to remove ePub DRM
• Comparison of eBook Formats
• eBook guide for the perplexed
• Read why a Kindle Fire is bad for freedom.

Free eBooks

• Project Gutenberg: 42K+ free eBooks (and counting!).
• Baen eBooks
• Story Bundle
• Humble Bundle

Candidates for Inclusion

• Place candidates here whose status as free/open-source software has been unverified (or the programs have mixed codebases).
• These programs may not fit the free software definition (libre), or are only freeware (gratis).

List

• Reaper: Full-featured Digital Audio Workstation.
• Vectorian Giotto: Advanced Vector animation studio, creates Flash/SWF movies.
• AoA Audio Extractor: Rips high-quality audio from videos.
• DVDshrink: Shrinks DVDs to fit on DVDs < 4.7GB.
• Avast!: Anti-virus, also available on cellphones.
• AVG Anti-Virus: Freeware anti-virus.
• t@b ZS4: Video editor.
• Awesome Animator: Create vector animations.
• Foxit Reader: PDF reader and browser plugin to replace Adobe Reader.
• PDF Xchange: PDF viewer, editor, and OCR.
• Soulseek: Filesharing network, with direct P2P queues.
• MalwareBytes Anti-Malware: Malware/spyware scanner.
• CutePDF Writer: Creates PDFs as a PDF printer driver. Uses GNU GPL Ghostscript.
• IZarc: Archive utility for practically every archive format out there.
• VirtualCloneDrive: Allows you to mount ISOs as if they were native CD/DVD drives in Windows.
• Secunia PSI: A suite of tools, including one that automatically downloads security patches for installed software on the system. Brings something a little like package management to Windows.
• IOBIT: Security program, registry cleaner, and a host of other system tweaks.
• SpyBot Search & Destroy: Malware/spyware scanner.
• Wink: Screen capture and tutorial program.
• CyanogenMod: The most popular alternative firmware for Android. See Replicant for the 100% free software alternative, as well as the F-Droid package manager.

Hardware

• We know it can be difficult to find freedom-respecting hardware, and usually we have to "hack what we've got". The list of hardware that is FOSS-compatible is increasing, however.
• To buy a computer that has GNU/Linux pre-installed, take a look at the long list of vendors at Linux Preloaded.
• For the most comprehensive database on compatible hardware, check out H-Node.

Router Firmware

• DD-WRT: Probably the most diverse FOSS firmware out there, with support for a ton of devices. Look up your router and follow the instructions.
  • DD-WRT Privacy is a great tool by the same devs.
• There are many other router firmware projects, such as Tomato.

Recommended Web Hosts

This is a list of Web hosts for LAMP servers. These hosts make it easy to run WordPress, MediaWiki, and other free software Content Management Systems (CMS).

• DreamHost
• BlueHost
• 1and1
• GreenGeeks

Keep in mind, when you take out a hosting account you are signing up for space and a service on a company's computer, somewhere "out there" on the Web. You should read through the Web host's privacy policy, terms of service, and any other agreements before you sign up. Get Libre runs on DreamHost.

Local Web Hosting

These Apache-based options will install a Web server on your local machine.

• XAMPP for Windows
• MAMP for Mac OSX.
• On GNU/Linux systems, please see your package manager (such as Synaptic) or use options in the command line like tasksel.

Turnkey Linux

• LAMP Appliance: Turnkey Linux offers excellent, compact versions of Ubuntu Server that are tailored for hosting specific Web apps. You can install them by burning a .iso file, or just running as a virtual machine (VM).
• Help with VM networking in VirtualBox

Riseup.net

Riseup.net offers services such as e-mail and chat which are guaranteed to be safe and private. Their services are designed specifically for activists. You have to request an account for most of their services, but it's worth the wait if you're an organizer (or just value your privacy!). Recommend services:

• E-mail: You have to request a mailbox @riseup.net, which may take time.
• Mail Lists: Easily administered with Sympa. You can also check the directory and join lists that might interest you.
• Chat: Jabber/XMPP IM service.
• Etherpad: Group collaboration on text documents.
• Crabgrass Network: A social network/organizing platform.
  • Skillshares and Trainings from NEanarchists on Crabgrass

Communication Security

• Riseup.net also has a great primer on security.
• Please consider donating to RiseUp.net if you find their resources useful.
• We're building a section based upon RiseUp.net's resources, please send substantial text contributions to that section back to waxwing@riseup.net. Also, check out the projects they're working on and see if you can help out.