While Linux is a great OS, and getting better on the desktop all the time, you don’t have to run it to get the benefit of some great open-source apps. Many open-source programs that are popular on Linux distros have native Windows versions. Here are some of my favorites.
Firefox
Still the premier open-source browser
While it’s no longer my primary browser, Firefox is still a great browser on its own. It’s still the most common default browser in most major Linux distros, including on Ubuntu. While usage has slipped from Firefox’s heyday in the 2000s, Firefox has a loyal following as Mozilla continues to promote the open web, open source, and privacy.
As with Google Chrome, you can customize Firefox with lots of extensions. The full Ublock Origin is still available on Firefox.
LibreOffice
Who needs a Microsoft 365 subscription?
Microsoft Office is still the main productivity suite on Windows. Word, Excel, and others are still the main apps for powering through work and school tasks. I’m sure when the Apocalypse comes, it will have been prepared in an Excel workbook. Even AI probably won’t kill it.
While Office is ubiquitous, actually using it can cost you. It used to be that when you bought a copy of Office, it was yours, or rather, you had the license to it. A lot of people likely never felt the need to upgrade when newer verisons came out. Now Microsoft sells Office as a subscription called Microsoft 365.
LibreOffice, another Linux desktop staple, is also easily available for Windows. The best part is that it you can open and create common document formats like Word and Excel files, no subscription fees required.
WSL
A real Linux command line, in Windows
Linux distros include a powerful command-line interface by default. That was one of the distinguishing features of Linux against Windows. While there was a Command Prompt in Windows, it wasn’t as powerful even as it became a troubleshooting staple. Environments like Cygwin sprang up to offer Unix-like tools on Windows.
With the Windows Subsystem for Linux, you can run real Linux command-line and graphical apps on Windows 11. Installing WSL is a great way to get comfortable with the Linux command line.
VLC
If it exists, you can play it in VLC
While local media players aren’t as important as they used to be with the rise of streaming media, you’ll often find that you need to play some media. Or maybe you’ve dug out your physical DVDs. Windows no longer comes with DVD decoding by default, so VLC can fill the gap. VLC has long been an open-source favorite because it can play just about any digital media format in existence, including DVDs. For this reason, VLC is worth keeping around on your system.
Notepad++
A major upgrade from Notepad
Notepad has been a tool of choice for making quick changes to plain text configuration files because it’s available on every Windows system. It might be the most widely-used text editor in existence. By the numbers, it’s probably the most installed.
Notepad++ is a capable open-source replacement. I like it because it offers tabbed editing and syntax highlighting that aren’t part of the standard Notepad.
Vim
Wherever you go, Vim is there to edit your text
Vim is my editor of choice because if inherits the Vi keyboard navigation commands. It feels very comfortable for my fingers, especially on laptop “chiclet” keyboards.
On Windows, I tend to use it in the terminal under WSL, but a native version is available that supports the GUI. You might think of Vim as a Linux app, but it started life on the Amiga. It seems to be that wherever I go, Vim will be there.
Audacity
Free audio editing
Audio editing seems to be another basic app that’s fallen by the wayside on modern systems. I used to enjoy playing around with Sound Recorder on Windows. Sound Recorder still exists, but Audacity is a cross-platform app that has a loyal following. It’s simple to use but includes some powerful scripting options.
GIMP
A viable alternative to Photoshop
Microsoft Paint is still a ubiquitous program on Windows. Using it will automatically add an extra level of hilarity to your artwork. If you’re looking for serious image manipulation and don’t want to pay for a subscription to Adobe, GIMP is your best bet.
Despite its popularity on Linux distros, it will run happily as a native Windows program. I use it with my work for HTG, mainly for resizing and occasionally annotating screenshots that will appear in my articles.
qBittorrent
A BitTorrent client that gets out of the way
For downloading large files, you can’t beat the BitTorrent protocol. The biggest legitimate use of BitTorrent is probably downloading Linux distros. Because of the way BitTorrent works, the ISO download effectively verifies itself (ISO verification seems to be one of those things that everybody thinks you should do but nobody does).
Qbittorrent might be the best Bittorrent client for Windows. I use it all the time for downloading Linux ISOs for my HTG work.
7-Zip
Upgrade your file decompression
7-Zip is a compression and decompression utility that not only supports its native .7z file format, but also handles common formats like .tar and .zip files. It’s likely the latter that’ll be the main reason you’ll install it. While Windows Explorer can handle .zip files natively, 7-Zip has the advantage by handling more formats. It could be a file compression Swiss Army Knife. Unlike WinRAR, it’ll never nag you about registration, because you can’t “register” it even if you wanted to.
Upgrade your Windows with open-source apps
If you want to fix some of Windows’ annoyances but can’t or don’t want to leave Windows altogether, these open-source apps can help make life more pleasant on Windows. Since many of them run on Linux, if you do make the switch, you’ll be on familiar ground with these popular programs.
