Software I Like
Posted: September 15, 2025
Good software makes computing fun!
A list of software I like! I have a appreciation for free, libre and open source software. In particular I love Inkscape and Gimp, which open up a world of creativity at no cost. I also like Libre Office as an alternative to paying for an office suite, and I like Firefox as a way to avoid the cost of my personal data falling into the hands of infinite unseen data brokers harvesting every detail of our likely mundane lives. I also love Obsidian as a way to organize my digital brain. All of these applications allow you to be be free to be creative.
Web browsers
I have opinions about them since I make websites.
- Firefox (and especially Firefox Developer Edition) are IMO the best web browsers. I've been a Firefox user since the early days. When combined with the browser extensions listed below, you have the greatest control over your browsing experience and privacy (see browser extensions below). I was a very early adopter of Firefox when I first heard it recommended over Internet Explorer a LONG time ago when watching the long defunct TechTV (so probably around 2004ish). I learned a lot about web design just using the extension FireBug to debug websites.
- Zen Browser - I really liked the user experience of the Ark browser when that came out just a couple years ago, but it looks like development and innovation for that product is waning in favor or perusing an AI based browser. The Zen browser clearly takes it's user experience inspiration from Ark, but being built on Firefox code, and since it's open-source, I have confidence it will continue to innovate and provide a great user experience. Plus, since it's based on Firefox it can take advantage of the Firefox browser extensions listed below, like uBlock origin to block ads, which makes it much superior to to Arc in my opinion.
- Arc - I didn't like that I needed to have an account to use it, but when this browser launched it had hands-down the best user interface I'd seen in a browser. Unfortunately, it's makers seem to have shifted focus on it's AI-based successor. Still if you want a chromium-based excellent and novel browsing experience, it might still be worth a try. Initially only available for Mac users, it eventually made it's way to windows, but sadly never was available for Linux (but that's ok since Linux users are better off with Zen).
- Vivaldi - I think this browser came from some of the same team that was behind the Opera browser, this Chromium-based browser is probably one of the most customizable out of the box, and before Zen arrived it was one of the best alternative to Arc for Windows and Linux users.
- Chrome - Because it's not as geared for user privacy, and I can no longer add uBlock origin as an ad-blocker, it's not my first choice in browser; but it does have great developer tools (though I like Firefox a bit better; and furthermore, as a web designer I have found if you make something that works in Firefox without issue, then nine times out of ten you don't need to worry about it working in Chrome). I use Chrome mostly for streaming entertainment and the rare instance when something does not work in Firefox.
Firefox browser extensions
Now that I've made the case that Firefox (and it's derivatives) are the best browsers, which are the needed extensions for it?
- uBlock Origin - gets rid of invasive advertising, and makes your overall experience a lot better.
- Privacy Badger from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- HTTPS Everywhere (no longer usually needed, but I leave it here if you have an older browser that doesn't automatically look for the secure version of a page)
- NoScript - when turned on, blocks all JavaScript on a page.
- Facebook Container, from Mozilla, this extension blocks all Meta tracking cookies
- WAVE accessibility evaluation tool: Very useful for web developers to ensure their design is meeting accessibility requirements.
Writing and editing apps
- Obsidian - an elegant app for writing and organizing your thoughts in markdown files. It's a proprietary app, but free to use, and since all your data is stored as markdown you can easily port it anywhere you like. The paid option gives you access to sync your data in their cloud storage. It works across all desktop operating systems, and is available on mobile devices.
- Libre Office (and Open Office before it) - the last version of Microsoft Office that I bought was the academic discounted version of Office 2000 (and with my bookstore employee discount). Then I discovered Open Office could do everything I need (I just needed to set the default save formats to match the corresponding MS Office file formats).
- iA Writer - a nice little writing app that offers some unique features such as content syntax highlighting. Helps to like know when I'm using adjectives too much. I wish it was able to run on Linux.
Fun
A list of programs that make computing fun :)
- Celestia - travel the galaxy in a virtual planetarium that doesn't even require taking a nap in cryosleep! Want to see what our constellations looks like from Zeta Reticuli, you can with Celestia!
- RetroPie - turn a Raspberri Pi into the ultimate retro video game console!
- MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator) ) - the original arcade video game emulating software.
- Steam - I'm just a casual gamer, but I love to take advantage of the occasional sales on Steam to build up my library. A lot of steam games will run on Linux!
- GOG - I love the selection of classics, and knowing everything is DRM-free.
Design software
Alternatives to Adobe
When I worked at a computer store at a college bookstore there were two companies that dominated the graphic design world: Macromedia and Adobe. Now there is one...with an annoying subscription model. But increasingly there are some wonderful free and open source, and some lower cost proprietary alternatives, to nearly every Adobe tool; some of the best are listed in the table below:
| Adobe app | Alternative app | License | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illustrator | Affinity Designer | Proprietary* | The Affinity creative suite of apps from Serif (Affinty Designer, Photo, and Publisher) are the perfect paid alternatives to Adobe. They have a life-time license option (and eventually you'd pay if you want to get major version updates) which is similar to how it once was with Adobe. If it were available on Linux I would likely be a lifetime customer. |
| Illustrator | Inkscape | Open-source - GPL | Inkscape is one of my favorite apps of all time. It's a great vector editor that can do pretty much everything you could do with Illustrator. |
| Photoshop | Affinity Photo | Proprietary* | Just like Affinity Designer is to Illustrator, this app is the best professional alternative for Photoshop |
| Photoshop | GIMP | Open-source - GPL | GIMP, short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, has been the best raster image editor alternative to Photoshop for decades. The interface is a different for those comfortable in Photoshop, but I find that a few tweaks to the settings, and a couple remapped shorcuts gets me very close to the feel of Photoshop |
| Photoshop | Krita | Open-source - GPL | Another open-source option, but more suited for drawing/digital painting |
| InDesign | Affinity Publisher | Proprietary* | Like Affinity Designer and Photo, but intended as an alternative to InDesign. This is not one I've used extensively (nor have I used InDesign extensively), but it seems like it's well suited for providing the essentials needed for publishing |
| InDesign | Scribus | Open-source | Desktop publishing, the free and open-source way. I've used it minimally and it gets the job done. |
| Lightroom/LR Classic | Darktable | Open-source - GPL | Darktable is the best alternative to Lightroom |
| xD(Experience Designer) | Figma | Proprietary | Truth be told, Figma is where it's at, and what Adobe xD wishes it was. I've used both. (I also I've really loved Sketch on Mac OS, the original UI design app that stole web design away from Photoshop.) But Figma is really reasonable and offers a lot with the free base account. |
| xD(Experience Designer) | PenPot | Open-source | PenPot has had my attention for some time. It's got all the features I'd want in a UI design tool - the only issue is it's not easy to set up and run locally. You need to be comfortable using an app like Docket to host a local instance of PenPot. |
| Dreamweaver | VS Code/VS Codium | Open-source | Gone are the days of using a What-you-see-is-what-you-get web design tool like Dreamweaver. If you're looking to edit source code, then a text editor like VS Code/Codium is your best bet. |
* Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher are the best commercial alternatives to Adobe. I just wish they were available on Linux :(
If you're just looking for the open-source alternative to Adobe Creative Cloud software, look no further than the table below:
| Adobe Creative Cloud: | Illustrator | Photoshop | InDesign | xD | Lightroom Classic | Dreamweaver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source Alternative: | Inkscape | GIMP | Scribus | PenPot | Darktable | VS Code/VS Codium |
Other design apps I've used and appreciated over the years:
- Paint.NET (Windows only) - this was the first free software that helped me discover that Graphic Design is my passion.
- Balsamiq UI mockups (Windows or macOS) - not free, but I like the one-time license charge, and the simple approach it takes for basic UI mockups in a hurry!
Source-code editing/development
- Sublime Text
- VS Code and VS Codium
- NotePad++ (Windows only)
Text editing extensions/themes
VS Code/VS Codium extensions
- Emmet comes standard (if not it'd be the first one I installed - a great way to write web code quickly)
- Prettier (with a little configuration it's the best code formatter for me)
- Better Comments (color codes HTML comments)
- indent-rainbow (adds a bit of flare and order to your nested HTML tags)
- PHP Intelephense (really helpful when editing PHP files)
- Live Preview
VS Code/VS Codium themes
Sublime Text extensions
- Package Control...duh
- Emmet (as mentioned above, a very handy tool to quickly write HTML/CSS)
- MarkdownEditing a great plugin for editing markdown files in Sublime.
Mobile apps that make it worth having a smartphone
- Merlin Bird ID - identify birds by sight or sound.
- iNaturalist - identify/document plants and animals.
- Darkroom - powerful photo editor for iOS.
- ProCreate/ProCreate Pocket - a great digital drawing and painting tool for iOS.
Essential MacOS apps and utilities
Here are the Mac apps that are essential for Mac.
- Alfred - way better tool for searching for and launching files on your computer
- Rectangles - lets you easily drag and place application windows in regions on your screen.
RIP
Here lies a list of software I appreciated in the past that is sadly no longer with us (supported) :(
- KompoZer (and before it: Nvu) - these applications are what first let me explore creating websites for fun. They were in fact were an extension of the feature in Netscape Navigator named Composer. A similar application in the SeaMonkey suite of apps, is likewise based on Netscape Composer, but I find them not suited for modern web development.
- Atom text editor - Atom was the first text editor that I really enjoyed using. Before VS Code stole it's thunder it was a lot of fun and customizable. And before Microsoft acquired GitHub it was fully independent and may have had a longer future. It had lots of great plugins/extensions. I think it sort of paved the way for the creation of VS Code. This DevTips video was a great example with recommendations on customizing Atom. There is an ongoing project to keep it's legacy alive with a forked app named Pulsar.