Free Essential Software

This is my personal list of free software and; free & open-source software (FOSS) that are essential for most people. Updated 2021-07-28.

Art

Photo: GIMP
Painting: Krita and Medibang Paint
Vector: Inkscape
3D and more: Blender
Audio: REAPER (Audacity was replaced due to security reasons)

Viewer

Explorer: Double Commander or MultiCommander
Image Viewer: IrfanView
Music Player: foobar2000
Video Player: VLC media player
E-Book reader: SumatraPDF

Productivity

Browser: Firefox
Browser extension: uBlock Origin, Dark Reader, Enhancer for YouTube
Communication: Discord and/or Slack
Markdown Editor: Typora
Screenshot: ShareX
Screen Recorder: OBS Studio
Sticky Notes: Stickies
Text Editor: Notepad++

Utilities

Archive: 7-Zip or PeaZip
Backup: FreeFileSync
Clock: T-Clock 
Encryption: Veracrypt
Equalizer: Equalizer APO + Peace GUI + EACS
Firewall: TinyWall
Hosts Editor: HostsMan
Macro: AutoHotkey
Password Manager: KeePass 2
Windows 10 Tweaker: Winaero Tweaker

Downloader

Downloader: jDownloader 2
Torrent client: qBittorrent

This post took me a hour to write.