January 2026 updates to the largest compilation of recommended free and open source software available for Linux.
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Author: Steve Emms
11 Best Free and Open Source Virtual Keyboards
The software displays a visual keyboard with all the standard keys.
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YuFi – lightweight Wi-Fi manager
YuFi is a lightweight GTK4 Wi‑Fi manager. It focuses on a clean, minimal dashboard for quick toggles, scanning, and network management.
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wvkbd – on-screen keyboard for wlroots
wvkbd aims to deliver a minimal but practically usable implementation of a wlroots on-screen keyboard in legible C.
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Stratis – local storage management
Stratis is a tool to easily configure pools and filesystems with enhanced storage functionality.
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12 Best Free and Open Source Digital Audio Workstations
A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files.
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Alternatives to popular CLI tools: jq – JSON processor
This article spotlights alternative tools to jq, a command-line JSON processor.
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qq – jq but an interoperable configuration format transcoder
qq is multi modal, and can be used as a replacement for jq or be interacted with via a REPL.
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11 Best Free and Open Source Ray Tracing Software
Ray tracing is a technique for modeling light transport for use in a wide variety of rendering algorithms for generating digital images.
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s3fs – mount an S3 bucket via FUSE
s3fs allows Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD to mount an S3 bucket via FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace).
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Scalene – memory profiler
Scalene is a high-performance, high-precision CPU, GPU, and memory profiler for Python with AI-powered optimization proposals.
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haskeline – CLI for user input
Haskeline provides a user interface for line input in command-line programs. This library is similar in purpose to readline
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ZLint – opinionated linter
ZLint is an opinionated linter for the Zig programming language.
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luffy – watch movies and TV from the command-line
luffy is billed as a spiritual successor of flix-cli and mov-cli. It’s cross-platform software written in the Go language.
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NoxDir – visualize file system usage
NoxDir is a high-performance, cross-platform command-line tool for visualizing and exploring your file system usage.
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VisiGrid – local-first spreadsheet
VisiGrid prioritizes speed, correctness, and keyboard-driven workflows over cloud lock-in and opaque automation.
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5 Useful Free and Open Source Rust TUI frameworks
The software featured in this roundup helps developers create TUI programs. All the software featured is written in Rust.
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colorstorm – TUI to generate color themes for Vim, VSCode, and Sublime
colorstorm is a command line TUI to generate color themes for Vim, VSCode, and Sublime.
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9 Best Free and Open Interactive Whiteboard Software
An interactive whiteboard is an instructional tool consisting of a large interactive display in the form factor of a whiteboard.
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Geist – typeface designed for developers and designers
Geist embodies design principles of simplicity, minimalism, and speed, drawing inspiration from the renowned Swiss design movement.
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