Asklemmy

VLC! No ads ever, that's insane!

Bitwarden is one I use several times a day. They do have a support plan for like $10 a year that gives a couple extra features like TOTP support, but the base level is incredibly robust. It’s open source, too. I know a lot of folks also host their own servers with Vaultwarden, but that’s a little beyond my skill level.

7-zip

Bitwarden and firefox

I don't use it but blender is another one

Linux

Linux.

Firefox, ppsspp, termux, VLC, Tachiyomi(SY), and KeypassXC/DX are coming to my mind. Probably there are a lot more. These are for android. Although they do apply to desktop except termux and Tachiyomi.

Edit: I haven't added the various FOSS tools as they don't really come in "App" Category. Some of them:

• Linux kernel
• git
• gcc

Blender

Genuinely free? VSCode

Freemium: Discord

You pay with your data: Google Maps

Jellyfin, it's literally free Netflix if you own even just an old computer and some storage. Also open source that is another huge plus

LibreOffice for word processing and spreadsheets.

Home Assistant. It is an incredibly powerful smart home solution that is far more capable than any other solution one needs to pay for.

Weawow is a completly (also ad-)free weather forecast app run basically solo by a Japanese guy. I was surprised when I found this app that it was so good in every aspect that I had to donate the guy. It has has more than half a Mio. reviews on google play with an average of 4.9 . Idk of any free app with that many reviews having this kind of rating, well deserved.

Further honorable mentions:

• Vivaldi browser
• Joplin notes app
• nextcloud
• wikipedia (obviously)
• Öffi
• Signal
• keepass
• rif for reddit (R.I.P)

OpenStreetMap (OSM)

OpenStreetMap is a free, editable map of the world, created and maintained by millions of volunteers. It includes data about roads, buildings, shops, points of interest, and more.

Many of the benefits of Google Maps without all its spying and advertising.

Bonus in line with this: OsmAnd.

Edit: a more lightweight, but fully FOSS OSM client: Organic Maps. Blazing fast and under constant development.

Edit 2: Here is a Lemmy community dedicated to OsmAnd: !osmand@lemmy.ml

Taking the opportunity to get on my soapbox and remind everyone that free software still requires someone's time and effort to maintain. If you've been using a free app for a while and you and you enjoy it (and you have the means to do so), consider sending a donation to the developers/maintainers! It's a good way to help ensure that the great, free app you enjoy stays great and free.

Krita

Syncthing, Joplin, and Libreoffice are programs I use on a daily basis.

I use KeePass every single day

Syncthing. I get so much use out of it yet it's probably the least naggy thing on my computer.

ffmpeg

99% of open source apps and tools

Krita. I don't use it at a professional level so I don't know if it's missing important features, but as far as I know it's also used by skilled artists. Also, the documentation is great.

Others have mentioned most of my favorite tools. One thing I'd like to add is SageMath. It's a mathematical software that's comparable/better than commercial offerings like Mathematica and MatLab. I've rarely seen anyone in the academia using anything else these days. If someone does use something else, it's just because they're more used to it. SageMath is by far the best tool for most things math.

Also, while typing about Sage, I was reminded of how great of a tool LaTeX is. If you want to write anything that'll be more than a single page, LaTeX is probably the best way to do it.

Maps. Gives me accurate directions,live traffic data and anything else I need on the road e.g restaurants,hotels,petrol stations etc.

🔥🦊

Blender. The leap from 2.79 to 2.8 and beyond was astonishing

Obsidian - fantastic Markdown editor with rich base functionality and a huge garden of plugins.

I can't believe Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/) is free. It has nearly all the same features as Photoshop and works in just the same way. But it runs in the browser! Super quick, regularly updated, and free. Amazing.

GNU!

Just had to give a shout out to Stallman & GNU. I've seen a lot of mentions of thanks to Linux on here, but Richard will never let us forget that Linux ain't shit w/o GNU software to interact with it.

Just think of the number of GNU programs you've used, just in a typical day on the terminal.

My hat is off to you, Richard.

• OsmAnd. Navigated me through numerous countries on holiday. Found us places to eat. So useful it persuaded me to start updating the map locally to help any fellow travelers

• Joplin notes. Use this every day without fail

• Nextcloud. Self hosted cloud that Ive come to rely on

Obsidian

Signal and Telegram

Darktable photo editing software. It has an awesome suite of features and functionality and supports almost every digital camera raw format.

DaVinci Resolve was the last app to really surprise me. It's a fantastic app for video editing with a ton of functionality. Most of the paid functions seem like composite fuctions of the free functions or overly professional tools, but for getting started with simple 2D- or 3D-animations or short film editing, it's beyond amazing.

I don't know if this will show up or is already in the list, but: Rufus. I burn all my thumb drives for os installs with Rufus. It also lets me bypass a lot of the windows garbage that they've tracked on to the installer, like making you sign in to a Microsoft account to install. Also, Ventoy. It's a multiple OS installer, so one big thumb drive lets me install any number of OSes from it.

While I'm setting up those OSes, ninite gets me my windows programs, and Snappy Driver Installer Origin gets me my drivers. No more laptops with pre-installed bloat for me!

Limiting myself to free as in freedom (no ads, not free to use because you are the product): KeePass/KeePassXC, GnuCash, Firefox, LibreOffice, digiKam, GIMP.

FreeCAD. All the CAD you need without the subscription and blocked off features.

Audacity.