Annual Open Source Software I'm Using The Open Source Software I'm using in 2025 I have done an annual video about the open source software I use on a regular basis for the past several years, and in keeping with that tradition this is my current / updated list. I undoubtedly have some that I've missed, but I hope this list and the associated links will inspire you to find and try some new software you didn't know about, or have been curious about.  Timestamps 00:00 Beginning 00:40 Thank you to my patrons over at Patreon 01:40 Linux on the Desktop and Server 04:45 Homepage 06:05 Proxmox 08:30 Technitium DNS Server 09:50 Netbird VPN 12:10 OpenWRT 14:25 Beszel 15:50 Minarca Backup 17:20 LXConsole 18:35 RxResumes 19:17 Immicch 20:00 Wazuh (SIEM) 21:10 Uptime-Kuma 22:30 Get My 24:35 Invoice Ninja 25:15 NGinX Proxy Manager 27:05 Home Assistant 31:05 Authentik 33:40 Guacamole RDP SSH VNC 34:40 Nextcloud 41:40 Metabase 43:15 FluffyChat for Matrix 44:10 Evolution Email 44:35 FreeCAD 46:15 LibreOffice 49:30 Veloren 53:00 GIMP 53:15 RustDesk 54:50 Ghostwriter 55:25 VSCodium 56:55 OBS (Open Broadcast Studio) LInks Linux on the Desktop and Server An open source, freely available, full-featured operating system for any computer (seriously, any computer).  They have x86, x86_64/amd64, aarch64, armv7, and so many other variants available.  https://www.linux.org/ Homepage A dashboard to help you quickly access your homelab and self-hosted services, as well as to get a quick glance at stats for those services through their available APIs.  https://youtu.be/3Ux7zfCCM1A?si=hkxncm9EYLrA2Kvd https://gethomepage.dev/ Proxmox A virtual machine and container orchestration platform (think VMWare, ESXI, and so on), but free and open source. https://youtu.be/38G0ghc5RfM?si=q6HdflXATseS2LMa https://www.proxmox.com/en/ Technitium DNS Server A self hosted DNS server with a ton of features for controlling the DNS for all your domains. https://youtu.be/QWvVVheYCes?si=_fRPWGKkOItOpm7W https://technitium.com/ Netbird VPN A powerful Wireguard orchestration platform to create a robust network of machines and devices across the internet as though they were all on one local network. https://youtu.be/_-vfSgqmOUI?si=1ANs3PLztRgkSkB0 https://youtu.be/Vi2UqOFqDGU?si=oS7jxmPVJwJrDiLd https://youtu.be/ro7hbqLyv9M?si=IkxSYOJ9-83CXA33 https://youtu.be/FHiku2Lt3x8?si=HfDLzj2Q96YMJNgS https://netbird.io/ OpenWRT Powerful router firmware that can be installed on tons of off the shelf hardware, x86 machines, and even raspberry PI type single board computers. https://youtu.be/4zmo8RafBFg?si=cfRnGOW_ytNSDoau https://youtu.be/WMiSH7xsL6w?si=H67LFR8_OP-BIFzW https://openwrt.org/ Beszel An easy to setup, powerful system monitoring server.  https://youtu.be/xzI_uMaIND8?si=JskJs02XdqoeaAwd https://beszel.dev/ Minarca Backup An amazingly powerful and robust server-client backup system. https://youtu.be/JuM5AbrJgZQ?si=lIDIc0kOmq6tVhBG https://minarca.org/en_CA LXConsole Graphical web user interface for orchestrating your servers running Incus containers and KVM virtual machines. https://youtu.be/xGh_k4bUaUQ?si=Pqf9gIUePYzovN_- https://github.com/PenningLabs/lxconsole RxResumes A robust, easy to use, easy to setup Resume builder. https://rxresu.me/ Immicch Google Photos, Apple Photos, replacement.  Self hosted, open source, and powerful features like face recognition, location grouping, timelines, memories, and so much more. https://youtu.be/0TX9cMQlOdY?si=EeNRN3LgcMrGJeQr https://immich.app/ Wazuh (SIEM) Endpoint intrusion and detection software, but also so much more. It can be setup to remove applications added to various protected locations, it can scan endpoints for viruses, and send out alerts of devices with issues such as security alerts, virus alerts, malware issues, and so much more. https://youtu.be/dwr-4CXtOso?si=1dAMXX3fR7XEs-_k https://wazuh.com/ Uptime-Kuma Service status uptime, monitoring, and alerting tool. https://youtu.be/ausjbvJrjFI?si=WnWVbmDloZhdnhME https://uptime.kuma.pet/ Get My A simple application for getting stuff done. Lists, to-do's, menus, and more. https://youtu.be/hbGNTzU24hI?si=uFXLSpi0_d55AN-o https://getmydocs.opensourceisawesome.com/ Invoice Ninja A powerful, open source invoicing, payment, expense tracking, estimation, and quoting system. https://youtu.be/Uv11VPP4XP4?si=sLdlcWeJ7tjZDQU6 https://invoiceninja.com/ NGinX Proxy Manager A reverse proxy to help direct traffic properly to all your self-hosted services. https://youtu.be/RBVcnxTiIL0?si=NA4Z2h0aTAsdFluT https://youtu.be/UfCkwlPIozw?si=ZMFADgx4P-u7gbuB https://youtu.be/cjJVmAI1Do4?si=ibr-UADuKO05c5tL https://nginxproxymanager.com/ Home Assistant Open source home automation under your control on your terms. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjLkaXQ35321UKMrpRp81_w2Hc_tcnshj https://www.home-assistant.io/ Authentik Self hosted, open source Single Sign On identity and authentication service. https://youtu.be/KlDJ4K45M_o?si=vFt-LYxGuLD6ckDD https://goauthentik.io/ Guacamole RDP SSH VNC Web portal for Remote Desktop access through RDP, VNC, and even terminal shell access as needed.  User and machine groups, roles, and permissions galore. https://youtu.be/DGw6P5Lkj-U?si=mhcw2v4xQqIdiCkI https://youtu.be/WIyAGuMbjmY?si=U99W6wuZYgRIM04z https://guacamole.apache.org/ Nextcloud Self hosted, open source Microsoft 365 replacement, with privacy first, ownership as top of mind, and federation that you approve. File Syncing and Sharing Email Calendars, events, meetings and notifications Notes Contacts To-do boards Team Chat, Voice, and Video calling External Voice, Chat, and Video calling Browser based office suite so much more https://youtu.be/OCLq62KOqNU?si=ltCD-7mwdNUmZod6 https://youtu.be/YZN2n0Wv0p4?si=Ne4iz3Q-UIUWD1M- https://nextcloud.com/ Metabase Open source data analytics platform made for the average person. https://youtu.be/eYUnfyq7KWU?si=s59BuUaJ-ft6PmhS https://www.metabase.com/ FluffyChat for Matrix Chat client for the Matrix protocol. https://fluffychat.im/ https://youtu.be/H-6kfIqPoI4?si=bQVz_g3dx2_wVt3O https://youtu.be/TFDFR6EBG3k?si=CwDDb1JDxM97I--N Evolution Email Email for the Linux Desktop https://help.gnome.org/users/evolution/stable/ FreeCAD Computer Aided Design for modeling and 3D printing designs. https://youtu.be/-Woz1q4iIKY?si=0sKzNUtHYsWQ_C5r https://www.freecad.org/ LibreOffice Open Source full office suite that is better than Microsoft office (seriously). https://youtu.be/q-PoKzTlJY8?si=x7Le-G12ZQl9sYq9 https://www.libreoffice.org/ Veloren Online game server that you can run yourself, or share with the world.  https://youtu.be/y8YrZ8QQCjg?si=YDVinGoP69ZzxAix https://veloren.net/ GIMP Photoshop replacement with incredible tools and power. https://www.gimp.org/ RustDesk Anydesk, Teamviewer, GoToAssist full replacement that's open source and self hostable. https://youtu.be/9nzHm3xGz2I?si=HOYo8bs7DucL6CSr https://youtu.be/EeFqj23jxMk?si=N3dXfSnrHgXFroxf https://rustdesk.com/ Ghostwriter Open Source Markdown editor https://youtu.be/O_yIPQOPQxA?si=mLPoW4LEyNnQSCU8 https://ghostwriter.kde.org/ VSCodium Full open source version of VSCode code editor. https://vscodium.com/ OBS (Open Broadcast Studio) Open Source, powerful recording and streaming orchestration software. https://obsproject.com/ The Open Source Software I'm Using in 2026   Authentik https://goauthentik.io/ https://youtu.be/KlDJ4K45M_o?si=B34xfPzxNCIPfTya Nextcloud https://nextcloud.com/ https://youtu.be/OCLq62KOqNU?si=sZELlsUMnziCcdAR Navidrome https://www.navidrome.org/ https://youtu.be/K3DtR3g2S8Y?si=tyAF0C5kMzqfR7Xw Jellyfin https://jellyfin.org/ https://youtu.be/psHLgVzjLhY?si=_4BY6hmpIZyLGKZB Metabase https://www.metabase.com/ https://www.metabase.com/ Beszel https://beszel.dev/ https://youtu.be/xzI_uMaIND8?si=47BznhPCYz1LHzSs Bookstack https://www.bookstackapp.com/ https://youtu.be/2izkat9tzoY?si=ct5bxujfGlrfba0s Vaultwarden https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden Pangolin https://pangolin.net/ https://youtu.be/zEBaXAu8zE0?si=AXhQYGzH0Wf5Wx69 Immich https://immich.app/ https://youtu.be/0TX9cMQlOdY?si=2J0zjWg9KPQsPqPJ Chhoto URL https://github.com/SinTan1729/chhoto-url https://youtu.be/ZUOmlHRaBow?si=WGI9ozXqwIkd7jMM LubeLogger https://lubelogger.com/ https://youtu.be/_eAsSytpwIw?si=bNWSG8Jb5tTNmKE- Quant-UX https://www.quant-ux.com/ https://youtu.be/liL0FyQOG-k?si=ViJwXDyUTuAqVgfv Netbird https://netbird.io/ https://youtu.be/_-vfSgqmOUI?si=zqy-0ygd8KCir-rM https://youtu.be/Vi2UqOFqDGU?si=5IXLMVESsuDODIjz Peertube https://joinpeertube.org/ https://youtu.be/lw9XQmlY0gU?si=Ga9UPriYdbLHzGYC Home Assistant https://www.home-assistant.io/ https://youtu.be/E2YXIArfJdE?si=nMIuzWoabMlvHhzo https://youtu.be/Km0CNQETPuM?si=4xw4F9IFSO5OEsTS Matomo https://matomo.org/ https://youtu.be/8iIAwAgAhpU?si=iJrUT_R19Z8vN2nO Nexterm https://nexterm.dev/ https://youtu.be/G4Q-vj_lHtA?si=C6lpYtBXXB6nUGvz Forgejo https://forgejo.org/ https://youtu.be/FPVpKCvFQr8?si=L6i-PHW_6H8BnpYK Guacamole https://guacamole.apache.org/ https://youtu.be/DGw6P5Lkj-U?si=SKN3o0scxKNpemGG https://youtu.be/WIyAGuMbjmY?si=iRnxXZwknRnqWYu- LXConsole https://github.com/PenningLabs/lxconsole https://youtu.be/xGh_k4bUaUQ?si=mFTVKiOKeUfalni2 Invoice Ninja https://invoiceninja.com/ https://youtu.be/Uv11VPP4XP4?si=NCFHpt5jL_jtTN6O OBS - Open Broadcast Studio https://obsproject.com/ Thunderbird https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ Nextcloud Talk https://nextcloud.com/talk/ https://youtu.be/mRbWNrR3_os?si=MoZjFB45hNse5hFL Ollama and Open-Web-UI https://ollama.com/ https://openwebui.com/ Ardour https://ardour.org/ FreeCAD https://www.freecad.org/ https://youtu.be/-Woz1q4iIKY?si=jb03Pbl6-nEOzkyX The Open Source Software I'm NOT Using Anymore MeshCentral - Reason - Lack of Wayland Support, but they are working on it. https://github.com/Ylianst/MeshCentral Crater Invoice - Reason -  Wnet Unmaintained, but was spit off to InvoiceShelf https://crater.financial/ RocketChat - Reason - Just became too hard to maintain, and little by little more features behind a paywall. https://rocket.chat BarrierKVM - Reason - No longer need, and unmaintained https://github.com/debauchee/barrier - Updated offering called Deskflow https://github.com/deskflow/deskflow Joplin Notes - Just grew out of it into Nextcloud Notes for convenience https://joplinapp.org/ PI-hole - Reason - Just moved on to more powerful tools over time https://pi-hole.net/ Discourse - Reason - No longer needed, very heavy on resource usage https://www.discourse.org/ Portainer - Reason - Moved on to other tools, slowly grew more to business instead of community https://www.portainer.io/ Ghost Blog - Reason - Moved to a more flexible platform that had better support https://ghost.org/ NGinX Proxy Manager - Reason - Found a purpose built reverse proxy that included the wireguard tunnel in it. https://nginxproxymanager.com/ TrueNAS - Reason - Just more than what I personally needed https://www.truenas.com/ FusionPBX - Reason - No longer needed it.  https://www.fusionpbx.com/ Remotely - Reason - Went mostly unmaintained (Immense/Remotely) https://github.com/immense/remotely URBackup - Reason - Went unmaintained and stopped working - possibly maintained again as of Feb / March 2026. https://www.urbackup.org/ Tabby - Reason - Just moved on https://github.com/eugeny/tabby Dashy - Reason - Just moved on to other dashboard https://dashy.to/ Mail-in-a-box - Reason - No longer wanted to run a mail server, and fell behind on linux base, and getting a VPS that isn't on a blocklist was painful due to spammeers. https://mailinabox.email/ QOwnNotes - Just an awkward, clunky interface https://www.qownnotes.org/ Cal.com - great, but found the same features built into Nextcloud https://cal.com/ If you check these out, and in particular for those that have been unmaintained, and you find a new version, fork, or whatever...let me know in the video comments, or drop me a message on Matrix @mickintx:discuss.opensourceisawesome.com.  The Open Source Software I'm Still Using in 2026 - Part 2   Software Description and Links WriteFreely https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely WriteFreely is a modern, clean, focused blogging and journaling software solution. Picsur! https://github.com/CaramelFur/Picsur Picsur! is a self hosted, open source solution for photo upload and linking. It's Imgur for the privacy focused individual. OpenWRT https://openwrt.org/ OpenWRT is open source firmware / software used on network equipment like routers, wifi routers and access points, switches, and more. I'ts the best way to take full control of your network. WLED  https://kno.wled.ge/ WLED is an incredibly powerful LED lighting control solution that runs on ESP32 and ESP8266 devices. It's incredible how much those little boards can do. I'm linking to ChrisMaher as wel, because he has an awesome channel almost solely focused on getting the most from WLED. https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisMaherDIY OpenSprinkler Pi https://opensprinkler.com/product/opensprinkler-pi/ This is a hardware and software project. The hardware is build as a sprinkler controller, and in the case of the Pi version it's an add-on to a raspberry Pi.  Connect them up, and install the software. You've get a fully functional, powerful, and actually usable sprinkler automation and control system.  Technitium https://technitium.com/dns/ Technitium is a self hosted DNS server with all the features adn power you can imagine.  Intended to be run as several different DNS servers for fall back, it uses a synchronization system so you setup DNS inone, and the rest inherit those changes. Block Ads, protect your privacy, and route like a pro. RustDesk https://rustdesk.com/ RustDesk is a fully open source, self hosted, encrypted remote desktop support system akin to AnyDesk, TeamViewer, and other popular proprietary solutions out there. It's extremely useful and powerful. KdenLive and Shotcut https://kdenlive.org/ https://www.shotcut.org/ These are two fully open source, and incredibly powerful video editing solutions.  Wave Terminal https://www.waveterm.dev/ This is a newer one for me, but I really like how it functions. It boasts a host of modern functions, and adds the option to utilize AI within it if you want to. Even without it, it has a ton of really nice features, is super easy to get into using, and even has some great features of it's own by utilizing their wsh command tools. Veloren https://veloren.net/ Self Hosted, Open Source, MMORPG. This is one of the greatest, funnest games to play with your family friends, or even on the public servers all over the world.  So many great features, and constant updates.