Best Free Software Everyone Should Have Installed: The Essential List

[Nomad22]

Free software has never been better. Genuinely excellent tools exist at zero cost across every category of use. The challenge is knowing which free options are actually good versus which are free because they're monetising you in other ways. Ad-supported free software that sells your data is not really free in any meaningful sense.

What free software do you actually use daily and would recommend without hesitation? What's on every machine you set up? What did you not know existed until someone pointed you at it and immediately became essential?

[Cass81]

Bitwarden for password management. Open source. Can self-host. The free tier is complete and functional. No reason to pay for a closed-source alternative

[DeepCourier]

Obsidian for notes. Local markdown files. No subscription. Works offline. Your notes are yours. The linking between notes changes how you organise information

[VacantTundra]

KeePassXC if you want an offline-only password manager with no cloud component whatsoever. More setup required but complete local control

[Finley_19]

HandBrake for video conversion. Every format in. Sensible format out. Free and has been reliable for years

[Voyager43]

LibreOffice for document editing when Microsoft Office isn't available. Not identical but handles the formats and is completely free without subscription

[HeartbreakKidStinger64]

Thunderbird for email if you don't want your mail in a browser. Recently redesigned. Actually good now in a way it wasn't for years

[NeonSpectre]

Everything by Voidtools on Windows. Instant search of your entire file system. Finds anything in milliseconds. No indexing wait. Changes how you manage files