FOSS Apps I Use
brieThis is a list of the free and open source software that I use. This isn't meant to be a neutral listing; the descriptions are based on my usage, rather than the software as a whole.
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Writing
Joplin (Notes)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidI haven't been using it for very long. I used to use Logseq, but I've been finding that the more document/page oriented style of note-taking works better in some cases.
LyX (Math & Documents)
Website • Source CodeLyX is, without a doubt the best writing program. That's probably an exaggeration, but I do really like LyX. It's great for math, and even generates HTML; the first version of this page was drafted in LyX.
Saber (Handwriting/Drawing)
Honestly, I don't use this that much, however it does come in handy for writing/drawing on PDFs and for quickly jotting down equations.
Reading
KOReader (PDF/Documents)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidKOReader has a fairly minimal interface, but is quite versatile. It supports a lot of different document formats (and can also be used as an image viewer).
Tachiyomi (Web Comics)
Not much to say, it reads comics. It even has xkcd.
App Management
App Manager
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidIt's rather aptly named.
Aurora Store (Google Play Store)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidSomewhat ironically, this is only useful for installing apps that aren't on this list. However, it does come in handy if you don't have the Google Play Store.
F-Droid (App Store)
Website • Source CodeThe quintessential FOSS software center for Android.
Termux (Android Terminal)
Not all software is packaged for Termux, but those that are can be quite handy. For example, Lyx is in the main repositories, and Code-OSS is available in the Termux User Repository
Audio/Video
PipePipe (YouTube)
Source Code • Get from F-DroidIt plays video from YouTube. The non-YouTube services it supports are different, but for those who only use YouTube, the primary differentiator I use it for is the ability to view comment replies.
ViMusic (YouTube Music)
Source Code • Get from F-DroidA straightforward YouTube Music client. It supports offline playback, though there is no way to get songs cached apart from playing through them. It can also be somewhat feature-bare at times.
VLC (Video Player)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidInternet
Fennec F-Droid / Firefox (Browser)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidThe quintessential FOSS browser. Well, maybe Chromium is, except everyone and their aunt has made their own proprietary spinoff of that.... On Android in particular, support for addons is a big plus.
K-9 Mail (E-Mail)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-Droid"Thunderbird for Android" shenanigans aside, it's a nice email client in its own right.
WG Tunnel (Wireguard Client)
Source Code • Get from F-DroidIt's a Wireguard client for Android. It is mostly quality-of-life features that make it nicer than the official Wireguard client, such as being able to put spaces in tunnel names, search in app exclusion, and being available on F-Droid.
Games
AAAAXY (Platformer)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidA "simple" platformer. I recommend just trying it and exploring how it works yourself.
Forkyz (Crossword Puzzles)
Source Code • Get from F-DroidYou can play crossword puzzles with this app.
Puzzles
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidA description is obviated by the name; it is a puzzle collection. I'm just going to be blunt and say I don't like most of the puzzles, however there are a few that I do quite like, and I recommend giving each of the sub-games a go.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidA fun roguelike. I'm not very good at the whole "stay alive" bit.
Programming
Code-OSS (Editor)
Source CodeIt's VSCode, but without proprietary bits. Telemetry may still be enabled by default, however.
Nim (Language)
Website • Source CodeNim is hands-down my favorite programming language. The documentation is admittedly not the greatest, but it combines a lot of interesting ideas, and it gives a lot of freedom in terms of programming style.
Nu (Language/Shell)
Website • Source CodeIt is a very heavily pipe-oriented programming language. I find that Zsh is a lot more generally applicable to shell scripting, due to being able to more easily work imperatively, but on the other hand when working with structured data, Nu can make things very simple. It also has insanely simple argument parsing; all you need is to fill out the function signature on the main function, and you get a help page for your command for free.
Zsh (Shell/Scripting Language)
Website • Source CodeIt's a shell. It's great as a Bash with better defaults. Yes, you can set up Bash with better behaviour, but with Zsh you don't need to beat it into compliance. For personal scripts, the loss of compatibility with Bash or Sh isn't a big issue.
Files
gdu (Disk Usage)
Source CodeIt's basically ncdu but in Go. I find that it works better than ncdu on Android/Termux; ncdu tends to complain about permissions on /sdcard.
Syncthing (File Sync)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidTechnically it is intended for file syncing, but I ended up using it for backups for the sake of convenience.
Miscellaneous
Arity (Calculator)
Source Code • Get from F-DroidIt's a calculator. Note: There are two applications on F-Droid. One is “Arity,” the original version, and the other is “ArityCalc,” an updated fork (which is listed here)
Barcode Scanner
Source Code • Get from F-DroidIn addition to the obvious capability of scanning barcodes, it can scan and produce QR codes, Aztec codes, Data Matrix codes, and many types of barcode. Admittedly, there's not much to scan QR codes for, but one (bad?) way I use it is as a lazy way to send a short string to another device.
Bitwarden (Password Manager)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidIt's a password manager.
i3 (Window Manager)
Website • Source CodeA fairly basic tiling window manager. It comes out of the box with fairly sane defaults. I mostly just use the workspace shortcuts, and leave the rest of navigation to the mouse/touch.
Krita (Drawing)
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidI must admit, I'm not much of an artist. However, it's pretty good for basic image editing.
Organic Maps
Website • Source Code • Get from F-DroidMaps are based on OpenStreetMap and can be downloaded for offline usage.
PDF Doc Scan
Source Code • GetSelf-explanatorily, it scans documents.
Simple Gallery
Source Code • Get from F-DroidIt's a gallery app. Unfortunately, SimpleMobileTools has been acquired by ZipoApps. Although the F-Droid version will probably not be affected, it doesn't seem likely that they will remain maintained. Hopefully one of the forks will be successful.
Unexpected Keyboard
Website • Get from F-DroidQuite a basic, no-nonsense keyboard. It can take some time to get used to the positioning of the symbols and how to swipe for them.