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24 of the best free alternatives to the most popular paid software
(www.xda-developers.com)
Avast? Bruh
I always recommend Windows Defender and a good sense of Internet security to anyone who uses a computer.
If you're dumb, no antivirus can protect you. If you're reasonably intelligent, any antivirus will protect you.
Avast should not be recommended.
In late 2019, Avast browser extensions were found to collect user data, including browsing behavior and history, and send it to a remote server. The discovery led to the extensions of the Avast and AVG brands being temporarily removed from the Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera extension stores, however, they returned a short time later as there was no concrete evidence that demonstrated a breach of private data of the users.
In January 2020, a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag found that the Avast Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free version were collecting user data, which was being resold to personalize advertising through a subsidiary, Jumpshot. The leaked documents showed that Jumpshot offered to provide its customers with "Every search. Every click. On every site." from more than 100 million compromised devices. In response, Avast announced on January 30, 2020, that it would immediately shut down Jumpshot and cease all operations due to the backlash of its users' data privacy.
On the basis of the information revealed, on 11 February 2020 the Czech Office for Personal Data Protection announced that it had initiated a preliminary investigation.
In February 2024, the Federal Trade Commission fined Avast $16.5 million for collecting user data and reselling that data. The collection was done under their program to ensure that such collection of user data was not happening.
Blender is hardly an alternative, it’s the clear #1
Avast is virus itself
Yeah, just use the one built-in to Windows, or don't use Windows.
I'd like to add KdenLive to the Video Editing point.
I successfully edited a video with it having never done so before, which I think speaks to how well it's designed. There's definitely a tiny learning curve, but it's a kiddy coaster.
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I recommend Okular for PDF reading. No ads, no upsells, no BS. It also has native dark mode
Gwenview has always worked well for me.
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I only discovered Krita recently, but holy shit does it fill the Photoshop void very well. The UI isn't the same as PS, obviously. But I find it much easier to navigate than Gimp's UI. And Krita is surprisingly feature-rich.
I like Krita. But to be honest, after years and years of using GIMP, I ironically have nothing but trouble trying to rewire my brain to do things any other way. The same problem that many people have when moving from Photoshop to GIMP.
Also, i fundamentally need DDS files, which Krita (AFAIK) doesn't handle.
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If you don't mind paid, Affinity is pretty nice too.
Desperately needs Linux support though.
Didn't they recently get bought by Canva? Not saying that's a good or bad thing, but it's something to keep in mind.
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*Tenacity, not Audacity
Doesn't that apply to every project hosted in America, too, though? Every project is subject to the jurisdiction in which it is hosted. And I know they're not the only project that accepts error reports and in-app updates. Unless there is more telemetry involved or tracking of out-of-app activity, I'm not seeing cause for alarm here. Though I'm open to evidence that there is.
From what I've seen on their site since is that they're saying they are now GDPR compliant. And I suppose, since they are still open source, that anyone finding anything seriously malicious would have pointed it out by now. Maybe just a bit of bad press and people jumping to conclusions because "Russia bad."
I do still plan to check out Tenacity though and see if it's a better project.
As someone who contributes to FOSS projects, I think you put too much trust in the ability of the community to police such things. There simply aren't enough people reviewing project code to ensure it's safety and compliance if a maintainer or team decide to follow bad local laws or act explicitly in a malicious way. Some things get caught but I'm sure there are things thst slip through.
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Some of us use FOSS because of access to the source and the benefits of an all FOSS system. Not because it's zero cost. This list is just zero cost and some happen to be FOSS.
Gratis rather than libre.
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you forgot linux as an alternative to windows and mac;)
2D/3D Simulation/Game creation Godot :)
Although not technically free, I would add Reaper to the list for audio editing. It gives you a pop-up asking if you want to buy the program, but it's not required. I know people who have been using it for years without actually purchasing it. (I have since purchased a license because I use it professionally). No features are locked behind the paid license.
Take CapCut off because it's more like TikTok editing than video editing.
Divinci has a learning curve but any curve is better than learning solely on a ByteDance owned product.
also, davinci is industry standard and highly respected
These are alternatives? This is essentially a list of software that I use.
I know it's not a category in this post, but I just want to mention Audacious as a the best open source music player and also to confuse people with Audacity and Tenacity.
You forgot vector-graphics stuff.
I believe Inkscape is the current leader of the open-source pack in that department.
Photo Editing: Gimp
I found "Darktable" so much more useful.
They serve completely different purposes.
I use Darktable for adjusting brightness, color, contrast, etc. and Gimp for actual editing (selection tools, brushes, filters, effects, etc.)
I have tried for very long time to do exactly what you describe here, without much success. Gimp was soo inconvenient to use.
Darktable is built for efficiency, like "Do these favorite filters on every picture at startup" or "Repeat my last editing steps on these 25 photos"
I think you're underselling Darktable somewhat. Being able to use drawn and parametric masks for basically all the tools, and the granularity at which you can adjust the variables across the entire image makes it incredibly powerful for non-destructive editing of photos. There are also numerous filters and tools which can be used artistically.
But yes, for "photo-shopping" as opposed to photo editing you probably will want GIMP as well.
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I see this is free as in price, definitely not free as in freedom. Should delete the anti virus section and replace it with Linux lol.
I've never been super happy with Ardour. Using the in-distro build used to crash some years back, and more recently wasn't able to get it using some audio interface. And I'm not in love with the interface. But my impression from what I've read is that it's more on-par with other DAWs than Audacity is, does stuff like non-destructive editing. Audacity is, as I understand it, considered something of a lightweight application. If someone is looking for something more on par with some other DAW that they're familiar with, Ardour might be preferable.
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this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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