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Software that anyone, anywhere on Earth, can use, for free.

Software we use in the Engineering Design Studio

The Engineering Design Studio adopts an approach of using globally-freely-available software, even when commercial software might be freely available under an educational license. Yes, Solidworks, Ansys, Matlab, COMSOL, and dozens of others make their software "free" for use in an academic setting. However, post-graduation, what's the strategy? (aside from piracy)

The list below is an ever-growing collection of tools that can be used both on a university campus as well as anywhere else on earth, and hopefully, on just about any computer or operating system.

Note: Much of the best, freely-available software requires flexibility and the ability to use multiple operating systems. Look into running virtual machines, dual-booting (preferably from a secondary storage device), running bare-metal-level hypervisors, and booting from external drives. Long-term, the ability to use the most appropriate software will be determined by an ability to comfortably access and boot systems running Windows, Linux, and (less often) MacOS.

Note: MacOS has become dramatic, beyond reason, about software coming from sources other than the Apple App Store (for financial and psychological reasons as much as purported "security" reasons). In Apple's view of the world, MacOS should be more like iOS, and, in the iOS mindset, you shouldn't ever "sideload" and app; that would cut Apple out of the equation. "Side-loading" apps has been the norm on computers since day one; only recently did Microsoft and Apple start forcing users into their walled-garden App Stores for the desktop - don't comply with this nonsense. Almost every piece of software on this page will trigger the Apple warning unless you turn it off. (To check files for viruses, before installing, use ClamAV or VirusTotal).

To stop Apple's warnings:

  1. Open Terminal
  2. Run sudo spctl --master-disable
  3. Open "System Settings > Privacy & Security > Security > Allow applications from"
  4. Choose the now unhidden "Anywhere"
  5. You will be traumatized one last time by a series of prompts and scary warnings.
  6. Carry on using open-source software.
Scientific / Numerical Computing
  1. SciLab + Xcos + Atoms - "Scilab is a free and open source software for engineers & scientists". Xcos is a graphical editor to design hybrid dynamical systems models.. ATOMS (Automatic TOolboxes Management for Scilab) is the repository for packaged extension Toolboxes.
  2. Octave - "GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It provides a convenient command line interface for solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically, and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly compatible with Matlab."
  3. Maxima - "Maxima is a system for the manipulation of symbolic and numerical expressions, including differentiation, integration, Taylor series, Laplace transforms, ordinary differential equations, systems of linear equations, polynomials, sets, lists, vectors, matrices and tensors."
  4. Mathics - "A free, open-source alternative to Mathematica®"
  5. SageMath - "SageMath is a free open-source mathematics software system licensed under the GPL. It builds on top of many existing open-source packages: NumPy, SciPy, matplotlib, Sympy, Maxima, GAP, FLINT, R and many more. Mission: Creating a viable free open source alternative to Magma, Maple, Mathematica and Matlab."
  6. Spyder IDE - "Spyder is an open source, community-developed scientific environment and IDE written in Python, for Python."
  7. Python (+venv)
  8. Conda (The open-source parts of Anaconda) - "A community supporting a language-agnostic, multi-platform package management ecosystem for projects of any size and complexity."
  9. Miniconda (The open-source parts of Anaconda) - "Miniconda is a free minimal installer for conda. It is a small bootstrap version of Anaconda that includes only conda, Python, the packages they both depend on, and a small number of other useful packages (like pip, zlib, and a few others)."
  10. NumFOCUS-sponsored projects. - "The mission of NumFOCUS is to promote open practices in research, data, and scientific computing by serving as a fiscal sponsor for open source projects and organizing community-driven educational programs."
  11. SciPy - "SciPy provides algorithms for optimization, integration, interpolation, eigenvalue problems, algebraic equations, differential equations, statistics and many other classes of problems."
  12. NumPy - "NumPy brings the computational power of languages like C and Fortran to Python, a language much easier to learn and use. With this power comes simplicity: a solution in NumPy is often clear and elegant."
  13. SimPy - "SimPy is a process-based discrete-event simulation framework based on standard Python."
  14. R - "R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS."
  15. Jupyter Notebooks - "JupyterLab is the latest web-based interactive development environment for notebooks, code, and data. Its flexible interface allows users to configure and arrange workflows in data science, scientific computing, computational journalism, and machine learning."
  16. OpenMDAO - "OpenMDAO is an open-source optimization framework and a platform for building new analysis tools with analytic derivatives."
Robotics and Vehicles
  1. WeBots - "Webots is an open source and multi-platform desktop application used to simulate robots. It provides a complete development environment to model, program and simulate robots."1. ROS + Gazebo
  2. CARLA - "CARLA has been developed from the ground up to support development, training, and validation of autonomous driving systems. In addition to open-source code and protocols, CARLA provides open digital assets (urban layouts, buildings, vehicles) that were created for this purpose and can be used freely. The simulation platform supports flexible specification of sensor suites, environmental conditions, full control of all static and dynamic actors, maps generation and much more."
  3. CommaAI openpilot - "openpilot is an operating system for robotics. Currently, it upgrades the driver assistance system in 300+ supported cars."
  4. AirSim - "Open source simulator for autonomous vehicles built on Unreal Engine / Unity, from Microsoft AI & Research"
  5. NVIDIA OmniVerse - "NVIDIA Omniverse™ is a platform of APIs, SDKs, and services that enable developers to integrate OpenUSD, NVIDIA RTX™ rendering technologies, and generative physical AI into existing software tools and simulation workflows for industrial and robotic use cases."
  6. Pycrash - "Pycrash is a 2D mathematical model for simulating vehicle motion and vehicular impacts using a variety of approaches based on fundamental physics and published accident reconstruction techniques."
  7. Eclipse openDUT - "Eclipse openDuT automates the testing and validation process for automotive software and applications. This includes offering a framework for the testing and validation process but also includes process descriptions of the intended use."
  8. Blender - Can be used to generate high-quality synthetic image data for training.
Computer-Aided Engineering for Mechanical Systems
  1. OnShape (Freemium) - "Onshape is a product development platform that brings together all the tools needed to develop a product from conception to production."
  2. FreeCAD - "Your own 3D parametric modeler". Challenging to get started but can (almost) be used as a full-fledged CAD tool (as of 2025).
  3. OpenCascade - "Open Cascade Technology is an object-oriented C++ class library for 3D computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, computer-aided engineering, etc."
  4. Cascade Studio - "Cascade Studio is an open-source full live-scripted CAD Kernel and IDE in the Browser."
  5. DeclaraCAD - "Make 3D models in python."
  6. OpenCascade.js - "Port of the OpenCascade CAD library to JavaScript and WebAssembly via Emscripten."
  7. OpenSCAD - "OpenSCAD is software for creating solid 3D CAD objects." The Graph Editor is an interesting way to interact with OpenSCAD.
  8. OpenJSCAD - "JSCAD is an open source set of modular, browser and command line tools for creating parametric 2D and 3D designs with JavaScript code. It provides a quick, precise and reproducible method for generating 3D models, and is especially useful for creating ready-to-print 3D designs."
  9. Blender - "Blender's comprehensive array of modeling tools make creating, transforming and editing your models a breeze."
  10. GMSH - "A three-dimensional finite element mesh generator with built-in pre- and post-processing facilities."
  11. MeshLab - "MeshLab is the open source system for processing and editing 3D triangular meshes. It provides a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering, texturing and converting meshes. It offers features for processing raw data produced by 3D digitization tools/devices and for preparing models for 3D printing."
  12. Polygonal (web) - "Polygonal is a web app for editing surface meshes. No signup. No subscription."
  13. BeeGraphy - "BeeGraphy is a cloud-based platform designed specifically for computational designers. It offers seamless, cross-platform compatibility and eliminates the need for any installations, so you can work on Windows, Mac, or Linux."
  14. SolveSpace - "SOLVESPACE is a free (GPLv3) parametric 3d CAD tool"
  15. Leap71 (formerly hyperganic) - "At LEAP 71 we build complex technical objects using Computational Engineering Models (CEM)."
Computer-Aided Engineering for Civil Systems
  1. Awesome Civil Engineering - "This is a list of softwares and resource used in civil engineering practice."
  2. xc - "Open source finite element analysis package for civil engineering structures."
  3. Estru3D - "Program for structural analisys using the Stiffness Matrix Method."
  4. PlenFrem - "PlenFrem is software for performing linear static analysis of 2D frame structures and trusses, suitable for civil/structural and mechanical engineering applications."
  5. FRAME3DD - "FRAME3DD is a program for the static and dynamic structural analysis of two- and three-dimensional frames and trusses with elastic and geometric stiffness."
  6. bars3d - "Linear and nonlinear finite element analysis of 3-dimensional frames, trusses and other such structures, designed for use in civil engineering."
  7. FEMTA - "Easy to use 3D truss analyzer using finite element methods."
  8. Fachwerk - "Fachwerk is aimed at structural engineers who analyse and design reinforced concrete structures. It intends to simplify the application of discontinuous stress fields and strut-and-tie models."
  9. calc4fem - "preadsheet Template for Structural Engineering (FEA Analysis for beams, trusses, 2D-frames). It makes possible to create your own parametric models.Templates for engineering calculation (fatigue, concrete plates, etc)"
  10. OSAFE workbench for FreeCAD - "A Workbench in FreeCAD for creating foundation model in CSI SAFE from CSI ETABS Model. It also can Import CSI SAFE model into FreeCAD and calculate Shear punching of columns according to ACI 318-19."
  11. Google Earth (web) - The web version allows for collaboration and GIS-like actions without the headaches of QGIS.
Computer-Aided Engineering for Architecture
  1. OnShape (Freemium) - "Onshape is a product development platform that brings together all the tools needed to develop a product from conception to production."
  2. The OSArch Community is "creating a built environment with free software, increased transparency, and a more ethical approach." The OS Arch Wiki is full of guides for switching to open-source architectural tools.
  3. FreeCAD - "FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler made primarily to design real-life objects of any size." Not specifically designed for architecture, but it has a BIM Workbench that assists on architecure projects.
  4. SweetHome3D - "Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application which helps you draw the plan of your house, arrange furniture on it and visit the results in 3D." Can capture pretty detailed building designs, despite it being mainly targeted at interior design.
  5. Blender - Surprisingly, with some plug-ins and add-ons, Blender can begin to be useful for architecture. It also allows for Rhino/Grasshopper generative/computational design through its node editor and scripting.
  6. SketchUp (free version) - "SketchUp is a proprietary 3D modeling software that is used to create and manipulate 3D models. It is used in architecture and interior design."
  7. BlenderKit (Freemium) - "BlenderKit is a community‑driven 3D asset library integrated into Blender 3D."
  8. CAD Sketcher add-on for Blender - "At the core of it all, CAD Sketcher believes in facilitating precision modeling within blender. We are not looking to replace CAD programs. We just want to bring CAD-like functionality to the world of mesh modeling."
  9. Bonsai add-on for Blender - "An add-on for beautiful, detailed, and data-rich OpenBIM with Blender "
  10. Building Tools add-on for Blender - "Building Tool is a blender addon created with the purpose of simplifying and automating the process of creating building exteriors."
  11. Blender GIS - "Blender addons to make the bridge between Blender and geographic data."
  12. Mtree add-on for Blender - "Mtree (previously Modular Tree) is a library for making 3d trees. It comes as an addon for blender but the c++ library can be used separately."
  13. Sverchok (with Blender + Geometry Nodes) - "Sverchok is a parametric CAD tool for Blender built to help generate complex 3d shapes using a node system to control the flow of math and geometry. It is ideally suited to Architects and Designers, but anyone with highschool Math and Trigonometry will be able to produce results that are impossible to achieve unless you know text based programming languages such as Python or C."
  14. verb - "verb is a library for creating and manipulating NURBS surfaces and curves in many languages including JavaScript."
  15. Web-NURBS - "Web NURBS is light weight 3D modeling software designed to run in your browser."
  16. Ayam - "Ayam is a free 3D modelling environment for the RenderMan interface"
Computer-Aided Engineering for Biological Systems
  1. Software identified by the Open Source Imaging Initiative - "The Open Source Imaging Initiative (OSI²) e.V. is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting open-source medical imaging technology."
  2. Horos - "Horos is a free, open source medical image viewer. The goal of the Horos Project is to develop a fully functional, 64-bit medical image viewer for Mac OS X. Horos is based upon OsiriXTM and other open source medical imaging libraries."
  3. Weasis - "Weasis is a multipurpose standalone and web-based DICOM viewer designed with a highly modular architecture. It is a very popular clinical viewer used in healthcare by hospitals, health networks, multicenter research trials, and by patients."
  4. BioConda - "Bioconda is a distribution of bioinformatics software realized as a channel for the versatile Conda package manager."
Computer-Aided Engineering for Electrical Systems
  1. KiCAD - "KiCad is an open source software suite for Electronic Design Automation (EDA). The programs handle Schematic Capture, and PCB Layout with Gerber and IPC-2581 output. The suite runs on Windows, Linux and macOS and is licensed under GNU GPL v3." Has tons of plugins and libraries and drives many external tools.
  2. LibrePCB - "LibrePCB is a free, cross-platform, easy-to-use electronic design automation suite to draw schematics and design printed circuit boards – for makers, students and professionals, from beginners to experts."
  3. Ringdove EDA - "Ringdove is a free/open source Electronic Design Automation suite that offers a schematics editor, a PCB editor , a gerber/excellon viewer"
  4. EasyEDA - "EasyEDA is an easier and powerful online PCB design tool that allows electronics engineers, educators, students, makers, and enthusiasts to design and share their projects. This is a design tool integrated LCSC components catalog and JLCPCB PCB service that helps users to save time to make their ideas into real products."
  5. QUCS / QUCS-S - "Qucs is an integrated circuit simulator which means you are able to setup a circuit with a graphical user interface (GUI) and simulate the large-signal, small-signal and noise behaviour of the circuit."
  6. Logisim - "Logisim is a Java application that lets you design and simulate circuits using a graphical interface, truth tables, and a large component library. It runs on Linux, MacOS X, and Windows and is licensed under GPLv2."
  7. Logisim (web) - "Logisim is an educational tool for designing and simulating digital logic circuits. This web-based version of Logisim has been adapted to run in the browser, powered by WebAssembly."
  8. Logisim Evolution - "Logisim-evolution is educational software for designing and simulating digital logic circuits. Logisim-evolution is free, open-source, and cross-platform.
  9. Icarus Verilog - "Icarus Verilog is intended to compile ALL of the Verilog HDL, as described in the IEEE 1364 standard. Of course, it's not quite there yet."
  10. Verilator - "Verilator is a software programming tool which converts the hardware description language Verilog to a cycle-accurate behavioral model in the programming languages C++ or SystemC."
  11. GHDL - "GHDL is an open-source analyzer, compiler, simulator and (experimental) synthesizer for VHDL, a Hardware Description Language (HDL). GHDL is not an interpreter: it allows you to analyse and elaborate sources for generating machine code from your design."
  12. Fizzim - "Fizzim is a FREE, open-source GUI-based Finite-State-Machine design tool."
  13. OpenVAF - "OpenVAF is a Next-Generation Verilog-A compiler that empowers the open source silicon revolution."
  14. MaxFEM - "MaxFem is an open software package for electromagnetic simulation by using finite element methods. The package can solve problems in electrostatics, direct current, magnetostatics and eddy-currents."
  15. Palace - "Palace, for PArallel LArge-scale Computational Electromagnetics, is an open-source, parallel finite element code for full-wave 3D electromagnetic simulations in the frequency or time domain, using the MFEM finite element discretization library and libCEED library for efficient exascale discretizations."
  16. MEEP - "Meep is a free and open-source software package for electromagnetics simulation via the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method spanning a broad range of applications."
  17. gprMax - "gprMax is open source software that simulates electromagnetic wave propagation using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method for numerical modelling of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)"
  18. OpenEMS - "openEMS is a free and open-source electromagnetic field solver using the EC-FDTD method. "
2D Computer-Aided Design
  1. LibreCAD - "LibreCAD is a free Open Source CAD application for Windows, Apple and Linux. Support and documentation are free from our large, dedicated community of users, contributors and developers."
  2. QCAD - "QCAD is a free, open source application for computer aided drafting (CAD) in two dimensions (2D). With QCAD you can create technical drawings such as plans for buildings, interiors, mechanical parts or schematics and diagrams. QCAD works on Windows, macOS and Linux."
Rendering
  1. Cycles in Blender
  2. Twinmotion (free for individuals and small businesses)
  3. D5 Render (community version is free for all) - "Leading design & visualization solution with built-in AI capabilities."
  4. filament - "Filament is a real-time physically based rendering engine for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and WebGL. It is designed to be as small as possible and as efficient as possible on Android."
  5. LuxCore - "LuxCoreRender is a physically based and unbiased rendering engine. Based on state of the art algorithms, LuxCoreRender simulates the flow of light according to physical equations, thus producing realistic images of photographic quality."
  6. Mitsuba - "Mitsuba 3 is a research-oriented rendering system for forward and inverse light transport simulation developed at EPFL in Switzerland. It consists of a core library and a set of plugins that implement functionality ranging from materials and light sources to complete rendering algorithms."
  7. Panda3D - "The Open Source Framework for 3D Rendering and Games"
  8. MoonRay - "MoonRay is DreamWorks’ open-source, multi-award-winning, state-of-the-art production MCRT renderer, which has been used on feature films such as How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Bad Guys, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, the newest release, Kung Fu Panda 4, as well as future titles."
  9. Manta-Ray - "MantaRay is an advanced open-source renderer. It uses modern rendering techniques to generate photorealistic images of complex scenes."
  10. AppleSeed - "appleseed is an open source, physically-based global illumination rendering engine primarily designed for animation and visual effects. It provides individuals and small studios with a complete, reliable, fully open rendering package built with modern technologies."
Finite Element Simulation and Analysis
  1. OpenFoam
  2. ParaView
  3. FUN3D (NASA)
  4. Project Chrono
  5. GMSH
  6. Elmer
  7. SU2
  8. Salome
  9. Blender
  10. Kratos Multiphysics - "Kratos Multiphysics (A.K.A Kratos) is a framework for building parallel multi-disciplinary simulation software. "
  11. Impact Finite Element Program - "Impact is an explicit Finite Element Program Suite which simulates dynamic impact events. It has a range of elements, contact handling and different material laws."
  12. SimScale (not free)
  13. FEATool Multiphysics - "FEATool Multiphysics is a fully integrated, flexible and easy to use physics and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation toolbox." There is a free version available, but it's a really sketchy licensing situation. Avoid, if possible.
Video Production and Editing
  1. Davinci Resolve (freemium) - "DaVinci Resolve is the world’s only solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics and audio post production all in one software tool! Its elegant, modern interface is fast to learn and easy for new users, yet powerful for professionals." The Free version should be sufficient for most non-professional work.
  2. OpenShot Video Editor - "OpenShot Video Editor is a free, open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Easily cut, slice, and edit any video or film."
  3. KDEnlive - "Kdenlive is the acronym for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor. It works on Linux, Windows, macOS, and BSD."
  4. Shotcut - "Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor."
  5. Blender - Believe it or not, Blender is also a non-linear video editor.
  6. OBS Studio - "Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming." (Gone are the days of expensive tools like Wirecast!)
  7. FFMPEG - "A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video."
  8. Handbrake - "HandBrake is a open-source tool, built by volunteers, for converting video from nearly any format to a selection of modern, widely supported codecs."
  9. MakeMKV - "MakeMKV is your one-click solution to convert video that you own into free and patents-unencumbered format that can be played everywhere."
  10. MetaZ - "MetaZ is an mp4 metadata editor for macOS."
  11. Subtitld - "Transform your video content creation with Subtitld - the open source software that streamlines your video content creation process."
  12. Jubler - "Jubler is a free and open source subtitle editor for creating, editing, and converting text-based subtitles. It provides tools for authoring new subtitles and refining existing ones with video preview, quality validation, and extensive format support."
  13. Tero Subtitler - "Tero Subtitler is an open source, cross-platform, and free subtitle editing software."
  14. Aegisub - "Aegisub is a free, cross-platform open source tool for creating and modifying subtitles. Aegisub makes it quick and easy to time subtitles to audio, and features many powerful tools for styling them, including a built-in real-time video preview."
  15. Nebula - "Nebula is an open source broadcast automation and media asset management system for television, radio and VOD platforms."
Embedded Systems
  1. Visual Studio Code - "VS Code is a free code editor, which runs on the macOS, Linux, and Windows operating systems." There are many plugins to make it a full-fledged embedded IDE.
  2. PlatformIO - "The most loved IDE solution for Microsoft Visual Studio Code. A user-friendly and extensible integrated development environment with a set of professional development instruments, providing modern and powerful features to speed up yet simplify the creation and delivery of embedded products."
  3. M5Burner - "M5Burner is a firmware burning software that integrates firmware burning, exporting, publishing, sharing and other functions."
  4. Arduino IDE - Note: Arduino was sold to Qualcomm in 2025, so the quality of the open-sourcve experience will likely vary in the future.
Software Development
  1. Visual Studio Code - "VS Code is a free code editor, which runs on the macOS, Linux, and Windows operating systems." There are many language plugins to make it a full-fledged software development IDE.
  2. git - "Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency."
  3. GitHub / GitLab.
  4. GitHub Desktop - "The ultimate GUI Git client for streamlining and enhancing your local code management process"
  5. SourceTrail - "Sourcetrail is a free and open-source cross-platform source explorer that helps you get productive on unfamiliar source code."
  6. SourceTree - "Sourcetree simplifies how you interact with your Git repositories so you can focus on coding. Visualize and manage your repositories through Sourcetree's simple Git GUI."
  7. Eclipse IDE - "The Leading Open Platform for Professional Developers". This used to be a popular IDE before Atom and VS Code. It is still great for a wide range of plugins and projects built around the platform. Specifically, Capella for Model-Based Systems Engineering is interesting.
Creative Coding
  1. Processing - "Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code."
  2. OpenFrameworks - "openFrameworks is an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding."
  3. P5.js - "p5.js is a friendly tool for learning to code and make art."
  4. PureData - "Pure Data (or just "Pd") is an open source visual programming language for multimedia."
  5. Strudel REPL (web) - "strudel is a new live coding platform to write dynamic music pieces in the browser! It is free and open-source and made for beginners and experts alike."
  6. Sonic Pi - "Sonic Pi is your free code-based music creation and performance tool."
  7. Ryven - "Ryven lets you use the more diagram-like, dataflow inspired structure to represent data processing-centric functionality. Each node runs code, and Ryven provides a simple framework to create those and an editor to use them."
  8. NodeBox - "NodeBox is a node-based software application for generative design. It's built from the ground up by designers to be easy-to-use, efficient, and fast."
  9. Node-RED - "Node-RED is a flow-based programming tool, originally developed by IBM Emerging Technology Services team and now a part of the OpenJS Foundation."
Model-Based Systems Engineering
  1. OpenModelica - "OPENMODELICA is an open-source Modelica-based modeling and simulation environment intended for industrial and academic usage. Its long-term development is supported by a non-profit organization – the Open Source Modelica Consortium (OSMC)."
  2. Modelio - "Modelio is a modeling solution offering a wide range of functionality based on commonly used standards for enterprise architecture, software development and systems engineering."
  3. OpenMBEE - "OpenMBEE (Open Model Based Engineering Environment) is an open source collaborative engineering system. It enables engineers to work in the language of their choice and easily share and document their work across other tools."
  4. Capella - "Capella is an open-source solution for model-based systems engineering (MBSE)."
  5. Gaphor - "Gaphor is a UML, SysML, RAAML, and C4 modeling application. It is designed to be easy to use, while still being powerful. Gaphor implements a fully-compliant UML 2 data model, so it is much more than a picture drawing tool."
  6. Papyrus (Eclipse) - "Papyrus is an open-source UML 2 tool based on Eclipse and licensed under the EPL." They have an application-specific configuration for Robotics that adheres to the RobMoSys approach.
  7. Mermaid - "JavaScript based diagramming and charting tool that renders Markdown-inspired text definitions to create and modify diagrams dynamically."
  8. D2: Declarative Diagramming - "Create beautiful diagrams in minutes. Simple syntax. Endlessly customizable. D2 is the fastest and easiest way to get a mental model from your head onto the screen, then make edits with your team."
  9. PlantUML - "PlantUML is a highly versatile tool that facilitates the rapid and straightforward creation of a wide array of diagrams."
Large-Scale Modeling and Simulation
  1. NVIDIA OmniVerse - "NVIDIA Omniverse™ is a platform of APIs, SDKs, and services that enable developers to integrate OpenUSD, NVIDIA RTX™ rendering technologies, and generative physical AI into existing software tools and simulation workflows for industrial and robotic use cases."
  2. CityFlow - "CityFlow is a new designed open-source traffic simulator, which is much faster than SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility)."
  3. SUMO: Simulation of Urban MObility - "SUMO allows modelling of intermodal traffic systems including road vehicles, public transport and pedestrians. Included with SUMO is a wealth of supporting tools which handle tasks such as route finding, visualization, network import and emission calculation."
  4. OpenTrafficSim - "OpenTrafficSim aims to bring traffic simulation to a new level by: Combining micro-simulation, macro-simulation and meta-simulation in a single environment, Combining all traffic modes (private car, buses, bicycles, pedestrians, etc.) in a single simulator, and Providing options to link to external code, driving simulators, and data sources We bring together state of the art simulation techniques, software development techniques and the best people in the traffic, simulation and software fields."
  5. CARLA: Car Learning to Act - "CARLA has been developed from the ground up to support development, training, and validation of autonomous driving systems."
  6. A/B Street - "A/B Street is a traffic simulation game exploring how small changes to roads affect cyclists, transit users, pedestrians, and drivers. In other words, you can transform that street parking into a bus lane or fix that pesky left turn at a traffic signal, measure the effects, then propose actually making the change."
  7. StreetMix (web) - "Design, remix, and share your neighborhood street. Add trees or bike paths, widen sidewalks or traffic lanes, learn how your decisions can impact your community. Start by moving some segments around."
Desktop Publishing and Text Editing
  1. Google Suite - Google's Office Suite provides all the tools needed for most day-to-day content generation needs.
  2. Libre Office - "LibreOffice is a private, free and open source office suite – the successor project to OpenOffice. It's compatible with Microsoft Office/365 files (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx) and is backed by a non-profit organisation."
  3. Apache OpenOffice - "Apache OpenOffice is a leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more."
  4. Scribus - "Scribus is a libre page layout program for almost every operating system". Think of it as an open-source alternative to Adobe InDesign.
  5. Inkscape - "Inkscape is a Free and open source vector graphics editor for GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS. It offers a rich set of features and is widely used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagramming and flowcharting." Think of it as an open-source alternative to Illustrator.
  6. LaTeX - "LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents."
  7. TeXstudio - "TeXstudio is an integrated writing environment for creating LaTeX documents."
  8. TexShop - "TeXShop is a TeX previewer for Mac OS X, written in Cocoa."
  9. [Overleaf (self-hosted)]() - "A web-based collaborative LaTeX editor". Can be self-hosted using the Overleaf Toolkit.
  10. Trelby - "A free, multiplatform, feature-rich screenwriting program!"
  11. Fountain - "Fountain is a plain text markup language for screenwriting."
  12. novelWriter - "A markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents."
  13. ghostwriter - "Enjoy a distraction-free writing experience, including a full screen mode and a clean interface. With Markdown, you can write now, and format later."
  14. STARC: Story Architect (Free version) - "Reinventing the screenwriting software. Become an early user to get exclusive access to all features and get unlimited power to your creativity."
  15. Zotero - "Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research."
  16. PDFsam Basic - "Split, merge, rotate, mix and extract pages from PDF files with PDFsam Basic, free and open source, at home or at work."
  17. Visual Studio Code - "VS Code is a free code editor, which runs on the macOS, Linux, and Windows operating systems."
  18. gLabels - Still one of the best tools for doing "Mail Merge" of data into formatted labels. Same result can be done in OpenOffice and others, but gLabels makes it really easy.
  19. Google Fonts - fonts with open-licenses that allow free use.
  20. Install all Google Fonts. How-to for MacOS. Program for Windows. How-to for Linux.1. Open Foundry - "Open Foundry is a FREE platform for curated open-source typefaces; to highlight their beauty, activate ideas and encourage exploration."
  21. FontBase - "Font management. Perfected. All platforms. Professional features. Beautiful UI. Totally free. FontBase is the font manager of the new generation, built by designers, for designers."
  22. FontForge - "FontForge is a free and open source font editor brought to you by a community of fellow type lovers."
  23. Glyphr Studio - "The free & open source web-based font editor, made for hobbyists and typeface design beginners."
  24. PDF Metadata Editor - "Effortlessly edit PDF metadata online or with our downloadable version. Perfect for professionals and heavy document users."
  25. Skim (MacOS) - "Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for viewing any PDF file."
  26. Sumatra PDF - "PDF, eBook (epub, mobi), comic book (cbz/cbr), DjVu, XPS, CHM, image viewer for Windows. Fast, small, packed with features, customizable, free."
  27. Okular - "The Universal Document Viewer. Multi-platform, fast and packed with features, Okular allows you to read PDF documents, comics and EPub books, browse images, visualize Markdown documents, and much more."
  28. sozi - "Sozi is a zooming presentation editor and player."
Operating Systems
  1. Linux (most distros) - "Welcome to distrochooser.de! This test will help you choose a suitable Linux distribution."
  2. Pop_OS - "Unleash your potential on a Linux operating system made to be productive and personal." If considering switching to Linux as your default OS, Pop_OS is a good place to start.
  3. Xubuntu - "Xubuntu is a community developed, elegant and easy to use operating system." It is lightweight and tends to run well on older hardware.
  4. Ubuntu Server - "Ubuntu Server is a version of the Ubuntu operating system designed and engineered as a backbone for the internet." For systems that don't need a Desktop environment.
3D Polygon Sculpting (Digital Clay)
  1. Blender
  2. Blender for Artists - "Bforartists is a complete, free and opensource 3D suite to create CG content. It offers you the full 3D art pipeline to create game graphics, pre-rendered movies and stills. From modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering, up to post processing. "
  3. SculptGL (web, blocked in UAE) - "SculptGL is tiny sculpting application, powered by WebGL. It features dynamic subdivision, decimation, uniformisation and adaptive sculpting. You will find a few classical sculpting tools such as Brush, Inflate, Smooth and Flatten Beware of the adaptive option as it is not as safe as the others topological tools."
  4. Dust3D - "Dust3D is a cross-platform 3D modeling software that makes it easy to create low poly 3D models for video games, 3D printing, and more."
  5. MakeHuman - "MakeHuman is a tool designed to simplify the creation of virtual humans using a Graphical User Interface."
  6. Wings3D - "Wings 3D is an advanced subdivision modeler that is both powerful and easy to use."
  7. Polygonal (web) - "Polygonal is a web app for editing surface meshes. No signup. No subscription."
  8. MeshLab - "MeshLab is the open source system for processing and editing 3D triangular meshes. It provides a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering, texturing and converting meshes. It offers features for processing raw data produced by 3D digitization tools/devices and for preparing models for 3D printing."
  9. MeshMixer - "Meshmixer is a free 3D modelling software that helps you to edit, fix, and get 3D models for 3D printing. It has tools to make changes like hollowing out models, closing holes, and fixing mistakes."
  10. Three.js - "Three.js is a cross-browser JavaScript library and application programming interface (API) used to create and display animated 3D computer graphics in a web browser using WebGL." There is an interesting online Three.js Editor and Three.js Playground. The tools and outcomes of Three.js work best in browsers that supports the WebGPU library; as of 2025, Chrome-based browsers are the most reliably supported.
Audio Production and Editing
  1. Audacity - "Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. Audacity is free, open source software."
  2. MIXXX - "Mixxx integrates the tools DJs need to perform creative live mixes with digital music files."
  3. Ardour - "Ardour is a software for recording, editing, mixing and mastering audio and MIDI projects on Linux, macOS and Windows. It offers flexible signal routing, sync and external control, plugins, video timeline and more features for musicians, composers, podcasters and soundtrack editors."
  4. Signal MIDI Editor - "Fully Open-sourced Online MIDI Editor. Start creating music without installing anything"
  5. midi.city (web) - "midi.city is a free online synthesizer, built by Jack. midi.city has over 128 different instruments including: Pianos, Saxophones, Drums, Trumpets, Synth Pads, Guitar, Violins and all other instruments defined in the General Midi specification."
  6. LMMS - "LMMS (formerly Linux MultiMedia Studio) is a digital audio workstation application program. It allows music to be produced by arranging samples, synthesizing sounds, entering notes via computer keyboard or mouse (or other pointing device) or by playing on a MIDI keyboard, and combining the features of trackers and sequencers."
  7. Ubuntu Studio - "Ubuntu Studio is a free and open source operating system, and an official flavor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu Studio is the most widely used operating system specifically created for content creation in the world. It comes preinstalled with a selection of the most common free multimedia applications available, and is configured for best performance for various purposes: Audio, Graphics, Video, Photography and Publishing."
  8. Qtractor - "Qtractor is an Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application written in C++ with the Qt framework."
  9. RoseGarden - "Rosegarden is a music composition and editing environment based around a MIDI sequencer that features a rich understanding of music notation and includes basic support for digital audio. Rosegarden is an easy-to-learn, attractive application that runs on Linux, ideal for composers, musicians, music students, and small studio or home recording environments."
  10. Bespoke Synth - "A software modular synth"
  11. Hydrogen - Drum Machine
  12. Yoshimi - "Yoshimi is a software audio synthesizer, originally forked from ZynAddSubFX."
  13. MuseScore - "The World's Most Popular notation app"
  14. LilyPond - "LilyPond is a music engraving program, devoted to producing the highest-quality sheet music possible. It brings the aesthetics of traditionally engraved music to computer printouts."
  15. Power Tab Editor - "Power Tab Editor is an easy to use cross-platform guitar tablature editor and viewer. It is an open source, community-driven successor to the original Power Tab Editor 1.7."
  16. OpenSong - "OpenSong is a free, open-source software application created to manage lyrics, chords, lead sheets, overheads, computer projection, and more."
  17. TuxGuitar - "TuxGuitar is a multitrack guitar tablature editor and player written in Java-SWT, It can open GuitarPro, PowerTab and TablEdit files."
  18. Azuracast - "AzuraCast is a free and open-source, self-hosted web radio station in a box"
  19. Liquidsoap - "Liquidsoap is a powerful and flexible language for describing audio and video streams. It offers a rich collection of operators that you can combine at will, giving you more power than you need for creating or transforming streams."
  20. OpenBroadcaster - "OpenBroadcaser is an Open Source Broadcast platform, designed to offer a simple and secure solution for storing, managing, and sharing your media content."
  21. LibreTime - "LibreTime makes it easy to run your own online or terrestrial radio station. It is a community managed fork of the AirTime project."
  22. Rivendell - "Rivendell is a complete radio broadcast automation solution, with facilities for the acquisition, management, scheduling and playout of audio content."
  23. AudioBookConverter - "AudioBookConverter was originally designed as simple and lightweight application to convert a set of mp3 files to a single m4b (aac) file."
  24. Obi (Windows) - "Obi is an open source audio book production tool that produces digital talking books (DTBs) conforming to DAISY 3 (ANSI/NISO Z39.86), DAISY 2.02, W3C Audio Books and Accessible EPUB 3 standards."
  25. AudioBookBinder (retired) - "Audiobook Binder is a simple tool for converting your audiobooks from MP3 format to iPod-compatible M4B."
Mapping
  1. OpenStreetMap - "OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license."
  2. iD Editor - "The easy-to-use OpenStreetMap editor in JavaScript." This is the default editor for OpenStreetMap that pops up when you login and click "Edit".
  3. JOSM - "JOSM is an extensible editor for OpenStreetMap (OSM) written in Java 11+." This is a beloved OpenStreetMap editor by many. It is also a great way to boost your editing stats when gamifying OSM armchair-mapping; you can judge 10,000,000 nodes to gain god-level stats. It takes dedication to fall in love with JOSM.
  4. QGIS - "Spatial visualization and decision-making tools for everyone." This is the open-source alternative to ArcGIS.
  5. Google Earth Web
  6. Google MyMaps
  7. kepler.gl - "Kepler.gl is a powerful open source geospatial analysis tool for large-scale data sets."
Screen Recording and Live Streaming
  1. OBS Studio
  2. Twitch
Astronomy
  1. OpenSpace - "OpenSpace is open-source interactive data visualization software designed to visualize the entire known universe and portray our ongoing efforts to investigate the cosmos."
  2. NASA's Eyes - "NASA's Eyes is a suite of 3D visualization applications that allows everyone to explore and understand real NASA data and imagery in a fun and interactive way. The apps are all run inside a regular web browser, so any device with an internet connection and a browser can run them."
  3. Celestia - "The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions."
  4. Stellarium - "Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope."
Photography
  1. GIMP - "GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows and more operating systems."
  2. DarkTable - "darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers."
  3. RawTherapee - "RawTherapee is a free, cross-platform raw image processing program"
  4. Hugin - "Hugin is an easy to use cross-platform panoramic imaging toolchain based on Panorama Tools. With Hugin you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more."
  5. Immich (self-hosted) - "Self-hosted photo and video management solution. Easily back up, organize, and manage your photos on your own server." Google / Apple Photos replacement.
  6. Unsplash - "The internet’s source for visuals. Powered by creators everywhere." Free-to-use photos, if you select the correct license filter.
  7. Converseen - "Converseen is a free cross-platform batch image processor for Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and other operating systems. It allows you to convert, resize, rotate, and flip an infinite number of images with a single mouse click."
Photogrammetry / Structure from Motion
  1. OpenDroneMap - "OpenDroneMap is an open source photogrammetry toolkit to process aerial imagery (usually from a drone) into maps and 3D models."
  2. TeleSculptor - "TeleSculptor is an open source, cross-platform desktop application for photogrammetry. It was designed specifically with a focus on aerial video processing leveraging video metadata standards (MISB 0601) for geolocation, but it can handle both images and video either with or without metadata. "
  3. Meshroom - "Meshroom is a free, open-source 3D Reconstruction Software based on the AliceVision framework." Can be used for photogrammetry.
  4. MicMac - "MicMac is a free open-source (Cecill-B licence) photogrammetric suite that can be used in a variety of 3D reconstruction scenarios."
  5. VisualSFM - "VisualSFM is a GUI application for 3D reconstruction using structure from motion (SFM). The reconstruction system integrates several of my previous projects: SIFT on GPU(SiftGPU), Multicore Bundle Adjustment, and Towards Linear-time Incremental Structure from Motion."
  6. Bundler Structure from Motion Toolkit - "Bundler is a structure-from-motion system for unordered image collections (for instance, images from the Internet). Bundler takes a set of images, image features, and image matches as input, and produces a 3D reconstruction of the camera and (sparse) scene geometry as output."
  7. COLMAP - "COLMAP is a general-purpose, end-to-end image-based 3D reconstruction pipeline (i.e., Structure-from-Motion (SfM) and Multi-View Stereo (MVS)) with a graphical and command-line interface."
  8. Regard3D - "Regard3D is a structure-from-motion program. That means, it can create 3D models from objects using a series of photographs taken of this object from different viewpoints."
  9. OpenSFM - "OpenSfM is a Structure from Motion library written in Python. The library serves as a processing pipeline for reconstructing camera poses and 3D scenes from multiple images."
  10. MVE -- The Multi-View Environment - "The Multi-View Environment, MVE, is an implementation of a complete end-to-end pipeline for image-based geometry reconstruction. It features Structure-from-Motion, Multi-View Stereo and Surface Reconstruction. "
  11. S2P - "S2P is a Python library and command line tool that implements a stereo pipeline which produces elevation models from images taken by high resolution optical satellites such as Pléiades, WorldView, QuickBird, Spot or Ikonos."
  12. OpenMVG - "OpenMVG provides an end-to-end 3D reconstruction from images framework compounded of libraries, binaries, and pipelines."
  13. Kalibr - "Kalibr is an open-source toolbox that addresses several critical sensor calibration challenges in robotics and computer vision. It provides a sophisticated framework for calibrating various sensor configurations with high precision and reliability."
  14. Accurate geometric camera calibration - "accurate geometric camera calibration, i.e., establishing a mapping between image pixels and the pixels' 3D observation directions respectively lines. In particular, it supports calibration with generic camera models, which fit nearly every camera and allow for highly accurate calibration. "
Pixel-based Graphics Editors
  1. GIMP - "GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows and more operating systems."
  2. Affinity by Canva - "The all-in-one creative app, with everything you need to craft designs, edit images, and lay it all out, without ever leaving your document or paying a thing."
  3. Krita - "Krita is a sketching and painting program designed for digital artists."
  4. Photalius (web) - "Photalius is a free and open-source image editor designed to be easy to use."
  5. OpenToonz - "Based on the software "Toonz", developed by Digital Video S.p.A. in Italy, OpenToonz has been customized by Studio Ghibli, and used for the creation of its works for many years."
  6. KumoWorks - "A Cloud Rendering Tool for Animation Production."
  7. Pencil2D - "An easy, intuitive tool to make 2D hand-drawn animations. Raster and Vector."
  8. ImageMagick - "ImageMagick® is a free, open-source software suite, used for editing and manipulating digital images. It can be used to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images, and supports a wide range of file formats, including JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and Ultra HDR."
  9. GraphicsMagick - "GraphicsMagick is the swiss army knife of image processing."
Vector-based Graphics
  1. Inkscape - "Inkscape is a Free and open source vector graphics editor for GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS. It offers a rich set of features and is widely used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagramming and flowcharting." Think of it as an open-source alternative to Illustrator.
  2. Graphite
  3. Pencil2D - "An easy, intuitive tool to make 2D hand-drawn animations. Raster and Vector."
  4. PenPot (self-hosted)
  5. Affinity by Canva
Free or Open-Source Simulation Games
  1. FlightGear - "FlightGear is an open-source flight simulator. It supports a variety of popular platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) and is developed by skilled volunteers from around the world. Source code for the entire project is available and licensed under the GNU General Public License."
  2. Space Nerds in Space - "An Open Source Multi-player Starship Bridge Simulator for Linux"
  3. TORCS - "TORCS, The Open Racing Car Simulator is a highly portable multi platform car racing simulation. It is used as ordinary car racing game, as AI racing game and as research platform. It runs on Linux (x86, AMD64 and PPC), FreeBSD, OpenSolaris and Windows."
  4. Speed Dreams - "Speed Dreams is a free and open source motorsport simulator. Originally a fork of the TORCS project, it has evolved into a higher level of maturity, featuring realistic physics with tens of high-quality cars and tracks to choose from."
  5. YS Flight - "YSFlight is a free flight simulator that places the user in control." Is is designed for systems with low graphical processing capabilities.
  6. Universal Paperclips (web) - "niversal Paperclips is a 2017 American incremental game created by Frank Lantz of New York University. The user plays the role of an AI programmed to produce paperclips." People have put source code on gitHub.
  7. Genetic Cars 2 - "The program uses a simple genetic algorithm to evolve random two-wheeled shapes into cars over generations. Loosely based on BoxCar2D, but written from scratch, only using the same physics engine (box2d)."
  8. Libre Trainsim - "Libre TrainSim is an open source project creating a completly new, fully free train simulator written in Godot Engine, released under GPLv3."
  9. OpenBVE - "OpenBVE, is a license-free, open source, free of charge train driving simulator." Developed as an open-source alternative to BVE Trainsim.
  10. CityBound - "A city building game that uses microscopic models to vividly simulate the organism of a city arising from the interactions of millions of individuals."
  11. Simutrans - "Simutrans is a freeware and open-source transportation simulator. Your goal is to establish a successful transport company. Transport passengers, mail and goods by rail, road, ship, and even air. Interconnect districts, cities, public buildings, industries and tourist attractions by building a transport network you always dreamed of."
  12. A/B Street - "A/B Street is a traffic simulation game exploring how small changes to roads affect cyclists, transit users, pedestrians, and drivers. In other words, you can transform that street parking into a bus lane or fix that pesky left turn at a traffic signal, measure the effects, then propose actually making the change."
  13. Rigs of Rods - "Rigs of Rods is a free and open source vehicle simulator that uses soft-body physics to simulate the motion destruction and deformation of vehicles." Many types of vehicle simulations available.
  14. Overte - "Overte is an open source virtual worlds and social VR software which enables you to create and share virtual worlds as virtual reality (VR) and desktop experiences. You can create and host your own virtual world, explore other worlds, meet and connect with other users, attend or host live VR events, and much more."
  15. Orbiter - "Orbiter is a spaceflight simulator based on Newtonian mechanics. Its playground is our solar system with many of its major bodies – the sun, planets and moons."
  16. SpaceEngine - "SpaceEngine is a realistic virtual Universe you can explore on your computer. You can travel from star to star, from galaxy to galaxy, landing on any planet, moon, or asteroid with the ability to explore its alien landscape."
  17. The Founder (web) - "The Founder ~Disrupt the world~ A dystopian business simulator by Francis Tseng."
  18. The Powder Toy - "The Powder Toy is a free physics sandbox game, which simulates air pressure and velocity, heat, gravity and a countless number of interactions between different substances!"
  19. Bridge Command - maritime ship simulator.
  20. Unknown Horizons - "A 2D realtime strategy simulation with an emphasis on economy and city building. Expand your small settlement to a strong and wealthy colony, collect taxes and supply your inhabitants with valuable goods. Increase your power with a well balanced economy and with strategic trade and diplomacy."
  21. Cytopia - "Cytopia is a free, open source retro pixel-art city building game with a big focus on mods. It utilizes a custom isometric rendering engine based on SDL2."
  22. LinCity-NG - "LinCity-NG is a city simulation game. It is a polished and improved version of the classic LinCity game. In the game, you are required to build and maintain a city. You can win the game either by building a sustainable economy or by evacuating all citizens with spaceships."
  23. OpenSSN (aka subsim) - "OpenSSN is a submarine simulation (subsim) which tries to emulate the behaviour of modern submarines. The player is placed in command of a submarine and is able to move about in a deep ocean environment."
  24. Open Rails - "Our Open Rails project provides a free train simulator for the largest collection of digital content in the world - routes, rolling stock, activities and timetables."
  25. OpenRCT2 - "Open source re-implementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2"
  26. OpenTTD - "OpenTTD is an open source simulation game based upon the popular Microprose game "Transport Tycoon Deluxe", written by Chris Sawyer. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features."
  27. Travle.earth - test your geography knowledge in getting from point A to B.
  28. Almost anything on Neal.fun, especially the Absurd Trolley Problems.
  29. Games like GeoGuessr. There are a number of free alternatives, since the original requires a subscription. Geotastic is free; if you donate, you can create maps. FreeGuessr is free. WorldGuessr is free. OpenGuessr is free.
Free or Open-Source Games
  1. OpenSurge - "Surge the Rabbit. If you dream of making a retro game, you're good to go. It's easy to get started: download the engine and get creative! Similar to Sonic the Hedgehog."
  2. mari0 - "Two genre defining games from completely different eras: Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. and Valve's Portal. These two games managed to give Platformers and First-Person Puzzle Games a solid place in the video game world. But what if Nintendo teamed up with Valve and recreated the famous Mario game with Portal gun mechanics?"
  3. SuperTuxKart - "SuperTuxKart is an open source Kart racing game for Linux, PC, Mac and Android. You can play offline and online against other players. It features many different game modes with a variety of different tracks and arenas."
  4. Extreme Tux Racer - "High speed arctic racing game based on Tux Racer."
  5. SuperTux - SuperTux is an open-source classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game in a style similar to the original Super Mario games.
  6. Pingus - "Pingus is a free Lemmings™ clone for GNU/Linux, Win32 and other operating systems supported by SDL2. It is licensed under the GPLv3+."
  7. SuperTuxParty - "A free/libre and open-source party game that is meant to replicate the feel of games such as Mario Party."
  8. Unciv - "Unciv is an open source, mod-friendly Android and Desktop remake of Civ V, made with LibGDX. Build your civilization, research technologies, expand your cities and defeat your foes!"
  9. FreeSIMS, Simitone, FreeSO - Many games that are clones of "The SIMS"
  10. Terasology - "The Terasology project was born from a Minecraft-inspired tech demo in 2011. Over the years it has been a playground for different kinds of technical experiments and proof of concepts. The community strives to make Terasology a stable platform for various types of gameplay settings in a voxel world."
  11. OpenRW - "OpenRW is an open-source game engine that attempts to re-implement the engine used in the classic video game Grand Theft Auto III (GTA III), first released in 2001."
  12. Hurry Curry! - "Hurry Curry! is a cooperative multiplayer game about cooking. You work at a restaurant accepting orders, cooking various dishes and serving meals to customers. But don’t take too long, as customers might get impatient. The game is free software, licensed under the AGPL 3.0 only."
  13. Stunt Rally - "Stunt Rally is a 3D racing game, including Sci-Fi elements and own Track Editor. Works on GNU/Linux and Windows."
  14. Trigger Rally - "Trigger Rally is a fast-paced single-player racing game for Linux and Windows."
  15. VDrift - "VDrift is a cross-platform, open source driving simulation made with drift racing in mind. The driving physics engine was recently re-written from scratch but was inspired and owes much to the Vamos physics engine. It is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v2. It is currently available for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Windows."
Folding / Origami
  1. ORIPA - "ORIPA is a drawing software dedicated to designing the crease patterns of origami. The unique feature of ORIPA is a calculation of the folded shape from the pattern. The first version of ORIPA was released in 2005." The source code is on gitHub.
  2. Origami Simulator (web) - "This app allows you to simulate how any origami crease pattern will fold." The source code is on gitHub.
  3. Oriedita - "Oriedita is a computer program used for drawing origami crease patterns. It comes with a wide range of tools to help you draw crease patterns. Oriedita can simulate folding a crease pattern and show if a crease pattern is flat-foldable, and if it is, show a folded version of the crease pattern."
  4. FOLD File Specification - This is the emerging standard in the folding community for how to capture designs.
  5. Origami Editor 3D - "Origami Editor 3D is an advanced paper folding simulator. It uses a what-you-see-is-what-you-get interface and operates with a geometric abstraction of the Yoshizawa-Randlett system. Anything from a simple airplane to John Montroll's omega star can be folded in this editor."
  6. FreeForm Origami - "This software is a design software that allows users to interact with origami forms while altering the crease pattern of the model."
Aero/Astro Flight and Mission Simulators
  1. OpenRocket - "OpenRocket is a free, fully featured model rocket simulator that allows you to design and simulate your rockets before building and flying them."
  2. RocketPy - "RocketPy is an innovative rocket trajectory simulator that includes features never seen before in the state-of-the-art rocket trajectory simulators."
  3. OpenMotor - "openMotor is an open-source internal ballistics simulator for rocket motor experimenters. The software estimates a rocket motor's chamber pressure and thrust based on propellant properties, grain geometry, and nozzle specifications."
  4. BurnSim (Not Free, unless EDU) - "Solid Propellant Internal Ballistics Simulation Research Rocket Motor Design Software"
  5. ORLEG - "ORLEG is a program/toolbox designed for simulating liquid (hybrid not implemented yet) rocket propulsion systems and generating engine files for the use in OpenRocket and other commercial simulation software."
  6. MecoRocketSimulator - "Meco Rocket Simulator is a gamified engineering tool that allows you to simulate rocket engines hands-on. You can design engine cooling, injectors, nozzles, and more. We verify Meco’s accuracy with data from real-life rocket engines."
  7. OpenVSP - "OpenVSP is a parametric aircraft geometry tool. OpenVSP allows the user to create a 3D model of an aircraft defined by common engineering parameters. This model can be processed into formats suitable for engineering analysis."
  8. FlightGear - "FlightGear is an open-source flight simulator. It supports a variety of popular platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) and is developed by skilled volunteers from around the world."
  9. NASA General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) - "The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is the worlds only enterprise, multi-mission, open source software system for space mission design, optimization, and navigation."
  10. NASA Java Astrodynamics Toolkit (JAT) - "The Java Astrodynamics Toolkit (JAT) is a collection of Java components that aid flight dynamics engineers in performing space mission design; trajectory optimization; and spacecraft navigation, attitude-determination, and control systems analysis."
  11. Libre.space - "Our Mission is to promote, advance and develop libre (free and open source) technologies and knowledge for space."
  12. AltosUI (Linux, MacOS, Windows) - "AltOS is the name of Keith's firmware "operating system" for Altus Metrum products. AltosUI provides for flight monitoring, post-flight analysis, device configuration and firmware updating."
Networking
  1. SSH - A protocol that practically does it all. Should be installed by default on MacOS, Windows 10+, and Linux. On Windows, PuTTY works but is ugly and a bit bloated, KiTTY is a fork of PuTTY that is meant to be less bloated.
  2. Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) - "" GUI for MacOS and Windows: CyberDuck. GUI for Windows: WinSCP.
  3. rsync - "rsync (remote sync) is a utility for transferring and synchronizing files between a computer and a storage drive and across networked computers."
  4. Angry IP Scanner - "Angry IP Scanner (or simply ipscan) is an open-source and cross-platform network scanner designed to be fast and simple to use. It scans IP addresses and ports as well as has many other features."
  5. TripMode (MacOS) - "Easily control your Mac's data usage on slow or expensive networks. Stop wasting money on limited data plans."
  6. Zenmap - "Zenmap is the official Nmap Security Scanner GUI. It is a multi-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, etc.) free and open source application which aims to make Nmap easy for beginners to use while providing advanced features for experienced Nmap users."
  7. Wireshark - "Wireshark lets you dive deep into your network traffic - free and open source."
  8. OpenWRT - "The OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. Instead of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt provides a fully writable filesystem with package management." OpenWRT is one of the most reliable ways to get high quality firmware onto just about any networking device.
  9. Secure Pipes (MacOS) - "Secure Pipes makes managing SSH tunnels simple and robust. It's made for people who love and understand UNIX technology, but also love the simplicity and convenience of Mac OS X."
  10. SSH Tunnel Manager (MacOS) - "SSH Tunnel Manager is a macOS application to manage your SSH tunnels."
  11. Tailscale - "A Zero Trust identity-based connectivity platform that replaces your legacy VPN, SASE, and PAM and connects remote teams, multi-cloud environments, CI/CD pipelines, Edge & IoT devices, and AI workloads." Free for up to 100 devices, 3 users.
  12. ZeroTier - "Next-generation connectivity and cybersecurity." Mainly useful for creating quick VPNs. Free for up to 10 devices. Essentially, it's Wireguard-like but without the need to setup a wireguard server.
  13. Vistumbler - "Vistumbler is wireless network scanner written in AutoIT for Windows."
  14. Tor Browser - "Browse Privately. Explore Freely. Defend yourself against tracking and surveillance. Circumvent censorship."
  15. OpenConnect GUI - "The goal is to have a simple / minimalistic interface to access enterprise VPN services. Non technical audience is the focus; anyone should be able to use it."
  16. SpeedTest - "Test your internet speed at any time, on any device"
  17. Discovery (MacOS) - "Discovery is a utility that displays all the Bonjour (mDNS) services on your local network or on Wide-Area Bonjour domains."
  18. mdns-explorer - "See all devices on your local network that advertises services through mDNS (multicast DNS)."
Audio / Video Playback
  1. Cog - "A free and open source audio player for macOS."
  2. Dopamine - "Dopamine is an elegant audio player which tries to make organizing and listening to music as simple and pretty as possible."
  3. Harmonoid - "Plays & manages your music library. Looks beautiful & juicy."
  4. nuclear - "Nuclear is free (as in freedom), open-source, and has no ads or tracking. It lets you stream from multiple sources in one place, with a modern interface and plugin system."
  5. VLC Media Player - "VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols."
  6. Strawberry - "Strawberry is a cross-platform music player and music collection organizer. It is aimed at music collectors and audiophiles."
  7. IINA - "The modern media player for macOS"
  8. mpv.io
  9. JellyFin
eBooks
  1. Readest - Modern, multi-platform, open-source eBook reader.
  2. Calibre - Multi-platform, open-source eBook reader. Definitively not modern.
Computer Virtualization
  1. VirtualBox
  2. Docker
Communication
  1. Ferdium - "Add all your services in one place for quick and easy access and never search your tabs or bookmarks again! You can also add the same service twice or more to be able to login into multiple accounts!"
  2. Discord - "Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out." Sorry, no, you shouldn't use Slack.
Serial Communications
  1. XCTU
  2. screen
Torrenting (legal content only)
  1. Transmission - "A Fast, Easy and Free Bittorrent Client for macOS, Windows and Linux"
Utilities
  1. 7-Zip - "7-Zip is a file un/archiver with a high compression ratio. Opens: APFS, AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VHDX, VMDK, XAR and Z"
  2. The Unarchiver - "The Unarchiver is the only app you need to open RAR on Mac. It’s times more powerful than the native macOS utility and supports infinitely more archive formats."
  3. nameChanger - "Rename a list of files quickly and easily. See how the names will change as you type."
  4. EXIFrenamer - "ExifRenamer is a tool for renaming digital photos, movie- and audio-clips of almost every camera vendor."
  5. ExifTool - "ExifTool is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing meta information in a wide variety of files."
  6. CPU-z - "CPU-Z for Windows® x86/x64 is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system."
  7. MacTracker - "Mactracker provides detailed information on every Apple Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro ever made, including items such as processor speed, memory, graphic cards, supported OS versions, price, storage, and expansion options."
  8. XLD: X Lossless Decoder (MacOS) - "X Lossless Decoder(XLD) is a tool for Mac OS X that is able to decode/convert/play various 'lossless' audio files."
  9. EAC: Exact Audio Copy (Windows) - "Exact Audio Copy is a so called audio grabber for audio CDs using standard CD and DVD-ROM drives."
  10. kid3 - "If you want to easily tag multiple MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, FLAC, Monkey's Audio, MPC, MP4/AAC, MP2, Opus, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA/WMV, WAV and AIFF files (e.g. full albums) without typing the same information again and again and have control over both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags, then Kid3 is the program you are looking for."
  11. Ventoy - "Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly."
  12. Rufus - "Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc." This is an amazing tool for creating "Windows ToGo" Installations; can even download windows ISO file from the program.
  13. MusicBrainz Picard - "Picard is a cross-platform music tagger powered by the MusicBrainz database."
  14. Jaikoz (Not FREE) - "Jaikoz is a powerful music tagger application that can automatically fix your music collection, and with powerful spreadsheet like editing as well" This is one of the few non-free tools that is worth paying for, if you're in the mood to organize audio files with the correct tags and filenames.
  15. MKVToolNix - "MKVToolNix is a set of tools to create, alter and inspect Matroska files under Linux, other Unices and Windows."
  16. DiskInventoryX (MacOS) - "Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X. It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called treemaps."
  17. WinDirStat (Windows) - "WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup assistant for Microsoft Windows clients and servers."
  18. Disk Usage Analyzer (Linux) (formerly Baobab) - "Disk Usage Analyzer can scan specific folders, storage devices and online accounts. It provides both a tree and a graphical representation showing the size of each folder, making it easy to identify where disk space is wasted."
  19. dupeGuru - "dupeGuru is a cross-platform (Linux, OS X, Windows) GUI tool to find duplicate files in a system."
  20. Balena Etcher - "Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily."
  21. Raspberry Pi Imager - "Raspberry Pi Imager is the quick and easy way to install Raspberry Pi OS and other operating systems to a microSD card, ready to use with your Raspberry Pi."
  22. Clonezilla - "Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program similar to True Image® or Norton Ghost®. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery."
  23. BlackMagic Disk Speed Test - "Disk Speed Test is an easy to use tool to quickly measure and certify your disk performance for working with high quality video."
  24. Color Blind Pal - "Color Blind Pal for iOS and Android helps people who are color blind see the colors around them. It also lets people with normal vision see what it's like to be color blind."
  25. MenuMeters - "MenuMeters is a set of CPU, memory, disk, and network monitoring tools for Mac OS X. " Originally developed by Raging Menace, abandoned in 2015, and open-sourced.
  26. XMeters - "Taskbar System Stats for Windows. Keep tabs on your vital system information"
  27. MonitorControl (MacOS) - "Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs."
  28. Dimmer (Windows) - "Dimmer is a small and free application for Windows, designed to help you adjust the brightness of your computer screen, monitor or display."
  29. Brightness Controller (Linux) - "Using Brightness Controller, you can control brightness of both primary and external displays in Linux."
  30. Paparazzi! (MacOS) - "Paparazzi! is a small utility for macOS that makes screenshots of webpages."
  31. Pock (Intel Mac with Touchbar) - "Pock is a free, open-source tool that gives you quick access to your favorite controls and services while maximizing your on-screen real estate." This is the app that Apple forgot to write.
  32. QLC+ - "With QLC+, creating spectacular lighting designs is easier than ever. Our software is designed to streamline and simplify the process of controlling DMX or analog lighting systems. Whether you're a professional lighting designer, a DJ, or a hobbyist, QLC+ is the perfect tool to make your vision come to life."
  33. QuickHash - "QuickHash-GUI is an open-source graphical interface data hashing tool for Linux, Windows, and Apple Mac OSX. Originally designed for Linux, but also available for Windows and Apple Mac OSX."
  34. PiBakery - "The easiest way to setup a Raspberry Pi."
  35. Stacher - "A modern GUI for yt-dlp (and other youtube-dl forks)."
  36. There (MacOS) - "Local time of your friends, teammates or family in menubar." (If you find an equivalent for Linux or Windows, let me know!)
  37. CineBench - "Evaluate your computer's hardware capabilities"
  38. LocalSend - "LocalSend is a free, open-source app that allows you to securely share files and messages with nearby devices over your local network without needing an internet connection. An open-source cross-platform alternative to AirDrop."
  39. CDBurnerXP (Windows) - "CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface." This is a blast from the past for anyone still writing data to CDs and DVDs.
  40. InfraRecorder - "InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows." Another blast-from-the-past.
  41. Burn (MacOS) - "There are a lot of ways to approach burning discs. Burn keeps it simple, but still offers a lot of advanced options." Another blast-from-the-past.
  42. DVD Styler - "DVDStyler is a cross-platform free DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs. It allows not only burning of video files on DVD that can be played practically on any standalone DVD player, but also creation of individually designed DVD menus." Another blast-from-the-past.
  43. FuzzyTime - "FuzzyTime is a simple, human readable clock in your menubar, that can be used instead of your computer’s built in clock. Instead of 16:40, you would see “twenty to five”."
  44. Hex Fiend - "A fast and clever open source hex editor for macOS."
  45. TigerVNC - "High performance, multi-platform VNC client and server"
  46. Session Scrounger for Firefox - "Firefox creates various session history files as you browse, and then at shutdown creates sessionstore.jsonlz4. In Firefox 56+, the files are compressed using Mozilla's flavor of LZ4 compression (.jsonlz4 or .baklz4 file extension). The JSON data contains rich detail about your session, but this page is targeted toward extracting just the page URLs." This can be useful it, for whatever reason (e.g 200 windows open), Firefox is crashing while trying to restore a previous session. Export the previous session from the .jsonlz4 file and then delete the session file so Firefox will start-up cleanly.
  47. Chrome Session Viewer - "Extract and view tabs from Chrome session files". This can be useful it, for whatever reason (e.g 200 windows open), Chrome is crashing while trying to restore a previous session. Export the previous session and then delete the Session file so Chrome will start-up cleanly.
3D Printing Tools
  1. Polygonal (web) - "Polygonal is a web app for editing surface meshes. No signup. No subscription."
  2. MeshLab - "MeshLab is the open source system for processing and editing 3D triangular meshes. It provides a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering, texturing and converting meshes. It offers features for processing raw data produced by 3D digitization tools/devices and for preparing models for 3D printing."
  3. MeshMixer - "Meshmixer is a free 3D modelling software that helps you to edit, fix, and get 3D models for 3D printing. It has tools to make changes like hollowing out models, closing holes, and fixing mistakes."
  4. OctoPrint - "The snappy web interface for your 3D printer."
  5. Slic3r - "Slic3r is the tool you need to convert a 3D model into printing instructions for your 3D printer."
  6. Orca Slicer - "Orca Slicer is a free 3D printing slicer created by SoftFever, based on Bambu Studio. It translates the printing instruction into G-code to produce high quality prints."
  7. Ultimaker Cura - "Its powerful open-source slicing engine and 400+ customizable settings take the guesswork out of printing."
  8. Kiri:Moto - "Kiri:Moto is a unique browser-based slicer for 3D printing and a tool-path generator for CNC mills and laser cutters. It is completely free and open-source with a focus on privacy and ease-of-use. It is actively being developed and updated."
  9. Prusa Slicer - "PrusaSlicer (formerly known as Slic3r Prusa Edition or Slic3r PE) is our own in-house developed slicer software based on the open-source project Slic3r. PrusaSlicer is an open-source, feature-rich, frequently updated tool that contains everything you need to export the perfect print files for (not only) your Original Prusa 3D printer."
LEGO®
  1. Bricklink Studio - "Digital brick building software, powered by the LEGO Group."
  2. LeoCAD - "Design virtual models you can build with LEGO® bricks"
  3. LDraw - "LDraw™ is an open standard for LEGO® CAD programs that allow the user to create virtual LEGO models and scenes. You can use it to document models you have physically built, create building instructions just like LEGO®, render 3D photo realistic images of your virtual models and even make animations."
  4. pyBricks - "Pybricks is Python and Block coding for smart LEGO® hubs. Run programs directly on the hub, and get full control of your motors and sensors."
  5. Mecabricks - "Online LEGO Modeling"
  6. openSDraw - "A CAD program similar to OpenSCAD but for LEGO®."
  7. LDCad - "LDCad is a multiplatform LDraw (virtual LEGO) editor that lets you edit LDraw model documents in real-time"
  8. LPub3D - "LPub3D is an Open Source WYSIWYG editing application for creating LEGO® style digital building instructions."
  9. BrickSmith - "Bricksmith allows you to create virtual instructions for your Lego creations on your Mac. The magic is based on the LDraw library, a collection of 3D models of Lego building blocks created by enthusiasts from around the world."
  10. Lego Digital Designer (retired)
Autonomous Systems
  1. QGroundControl - "QGroundControl provides full flight control and mission planning for any MAVLink enabled drone. Its primary goal is ease of use for professional users and developers."
  2. Ardupilot
  3. OpenDroneMap - "OpenDroneMap is an open source photogrammetry toolkit to process aerial imagery (usually from a drone) into maps and 3D models."
  4. DroneCode.org Projects
  5. AirSim - "Open source simulator for autonomous vehicles built on Unreal Engine / Unity, from Microsoft AI & Research"
  6. WeBots - "Webots is an open source and multi-platform desktop application used to simulate robots. It provides a complete development environment to model, program and simulate robots."
Solar Energy
  1. NREL Energy+ - "EnergyPlus™ is a whole building energy simulation program that engineers, architects, and researchers use to model both energy consumption and water use in buildings."
  2. OpenStudio - "OpenStudio® is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) collection of software tools to support whole building energy modeling using EnergyPlus and advanced daylight analysis using Radiance."
Digital Textile Design
  1. Seamscape - "Free Digital Pattern Drafting Software for Modern Garment Design. SeamScape is the pattern drafting software that empowers apparel teams with parametric, online pattern making tools to launch perfect-fit styles faster."
  2. Seamly2D - This is a fork of Valentina. Though they require a sign-in to download the software (download link sent by email), the binaries of the software are available for free.
  3. Valentina - Note: This "Open Source" project (a former guiding light in this category) has taken it upon itself to become a vile actor in the open source community. The only way to download pre-compiled binaries of Valentina is to sign up for a monthly subscription. The best approach with this project is to avoid it. If you need to use it, set up a Linux virtual machine and compile it from source.
  4. InkStitch - "Ink/Stitch aims to be a full-fledged, cross-platform embroidery digitizing platform based entirely on free, open-source software. Our goal is to be approachable for hobbyists while also providing the power needed by professional digitizers." Learn how to set the correct tension on a sewing machine.
  5. Sticth-sync - "Stitch-sync is an automated directory watcher and embroidery file converter. It watches for design files in a specified directory, and copies them to a connected USB drive."
  6. Blender Embroidery - "This is a Blender extension that allows you to import files to be used with embroidery machines as curves with optional geometry (thickness) via a bevel or geometry nodes. It also detects and displays the color of your threads."
  7. embrowser - "Design professional embroidery patterns with Embrowser's free online software. Edit PES files, create custom designs, and export for any embroidery machine."
  8. AdaCAD - "AdaCAD is an experimental workspace that applies parametric design to the domain of weave drafting. It supports algorithmic and playful approaches to developing woven structures and cloth, for shaft, dobby, and jacquard looms."
  9. Embroidermodder - (Work in Progress) "Embroidermodder is a free machine embroidery software program."
  10. Treadl - "Treadl is built and maintained by a solo developer as a way to give back to the technology and arts communities. Initially it was built in order to help family weavers organise, store, and share their weaving projects, as well as plan and design new patterns."
  11. TurtleStitch - "A community driven platform turning your coded designs into embroidered works of art"
  12. PEmbroider - "PEmbroider is an open library for computational embroidery with Processing."
  13. Cstitch - "A free and open source program for creating cross stitch patterns from images"
  14. FlossCross - Free online cross stitch pattern maker.
  15. Crochet Parade - "CrochetPARADE: Crochet PAttern Renderer, Analyzer and DEbugger. CrochetPARADE uses a custom language grammar that allows users to define stitches and stitch patterns."
  16. pyembroidery - "Python library for the reading and writing of embroidery files."
  17. EmbroidePy - "wxPython embroidery viewer based on pyembroidery. Loads up and natively accesses the embroidery."
  18. pyembroidery-convert - "This Python script provides a command-line interface for converting embroidery files between different formats using the pyembroidery library."
  19. libpes - "libpes is a portable C library for encoding, decoding and transcoding the PES and SVG based machine embroidery formats. The PES format is a machine embroidery file format for Brother Industries and Bernina International series of embroidery machines, among others. PES files contain sewing coordinates for stitches and corresponding thread colors."
  20. Embroiderly - "A free, open-source, cross-platform desktop application for designing cross-stitch patterns."
  21. stitch.js - "Stitch.js is an open library for computational embroidery with Javascript. It differs from other libraries in its focus on creating embroidery patterns which are resolution agnostic."
  22. stitch - "A web-based GUI for cross-stitch design"
  23. EmbroideryViewer.xyz - "Embroidery Viewer is a free, browser-based tool that supports multiple embroidery file formats. View your designs quickly and securely, right in your browser."
  24. The State of Open Source Knitting from FOSS Asia.
  25. Embroidery Floss Converter - "In this responsive HTML, CSS and JavaScript application I created a chart conversion used by embroidery professionals to convert floss (a.k.a. threads) from one brand to another. It can also be used to find a specific color and look for the code companies use for them."
  26. ccl-cross - "Convert image to cross-stitch pattern and create shopping list". On GitHub
  27. Embricad - "Embricad is a powerful, modern desktop application for viewing embroidery files. Built with Tauri, React, and Rust, it provides a fast, efficient, and feature-rich alternative to proprietary embroidery software like Wilcom TrueSizer."
Game Development
  1. Blender Game Engine
  2. UnReal Engine
  3. BlockBench
  4. Dust3D - "Dust3D is a cross-platform 3D modeling software that makes it easy to create low poly 3D models for video games, 3D printing, and more."
Note Taking
  1. Google Keep
  2. NextCloud Notes
  3. Lorien - "Lorien is an infinite canvas drawing/note-taking app that is focused on performance, small savefiles and simplicity. It's not based on bitmap images like Krita, Gimp or Photoshop; it rather saves brush strokes as a collection of points and renders them at runtime (kind of like SVG)."
  4. GraphViz - Graphviz is open source graph visualization software. Graph visualization is a way of representing structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks. It has important applications in networking, bioinformatics, software engineering, database and web design, machine learning, and in visual interfaces for other technical domains.
Chemistry
  1. Avogardro
  2. DWSIM
  3. MoleQueue
Self-Hosting
  1. Jellyfin
  2. Fleet
Machining
  1. LinuxCNC - "LinuxCNC controls CNC machines. It can drive milling machines, lathes, 3D printers, laser cutters, plasma cutters, robot arms, hexapods, and more."
  2. CAMotics - "With CAMotics, you can simulate 3-axis GCode programs for CNCs and visualize the results in 3D. CAMotics runs on Linux, OS-X or Windows. It's fast, easy to use and best of all Open-Source and free."
  3. BlenderCAM - "BlenderCAM is a free open source project actively developed which combines several algorithms for gcode generation usable by CNC machines with the potential of the famous Blender 3D modeling software."
  4. pyCAM - "PyCAM is a toolpath generator for 3-axis CNC machining. It loads 3D models in STL format or 2D contour models from DXF or SVG files. The resulting G-Code can be used with LinuxCNC or any other machine controller."
  5. Kiri:Moto - "Kiri:Moto is a unique browser-based slicer for 3D printing and a tool-path generator for CNC mills and laser cutters. It is completely free and open-source with a focus on privacy and ease-of-use. It is actively being developed and updated."

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