definitive-opensource
A definitive list of the best open source applications
Note
A more efficient submission method is currently in development.
Why another list?
There's plenty of awesome lists on GitHub, many focusing on open source specifically. However I've found them to be either far too cluttered with long-deprecated apps or missing a lot of modern open source projects.
This list aims to be highly curated including only the best open source projects. This is, to some extent guaged with popularity. Only projects with over 10,000 stars are generally included, however there can be exceptions. There's plenty of extraordinary projects with just a couple thousand stars. Guaging the quality of software based on popularity alone is not the best way, I do admit, but to keep this list functioning at scale it is the most reliable method.
Other Information
There's an additional section at the end to shout out several closed-source applications that deserve a spot on this list despite being proprietary. Although a rare occurance, there are some app categories in which a proprietary application is truly the best of what's out there.
Contents
Applications
Terminal
| Name/Link | Description | Platform | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitty | Cross-platform, fast, feature-rich, GPU based terminal | Cross-platform | 24.2k |
| Wezterm | A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust | Cross-platform | 17.2k |
| Waveterm | An open-source, cross-platform terminal for seamless workflows | Cross-platform | 4.2k |
| Alacritty | A cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator. | Cross-platform | 56k |
| Hyper | A terminal built on web technologies | Cross-platform | 43.3k |
| Tabby | A terminal for a more modern age | Cross-platform | 58.8k |
Code-editor
| Name/Link | Description | Platform | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zed | Code at the speed of thought – Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter. | MacOS | 48.4k |
| Helix | A post-modern modal text editor. | Cross-platform | 33.4k |
| Lapce | Lightning-fast and Powerful Code Editor written in Rust | Cross-platform | 34.4k |
| Vim | The official Vim repository | Cross-platform | 36.4k |
| Neovim | Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability | Cross-platform | 82.5k |
| Lunarvim | 🌙 LunarVim is an IDE layer for Neovim. Completely free and community driven. | Cross-platform | 18.2k |
| Spacevim | A modular Vim/Neovim configuration | Cross-platform | 20.3k |
| Nvchad | Blazing fast Neovim config providing solid defaults and a beautiful UI, enhancing your neovim experience. | Cross-platform | 24.6k |
| VSCode | Visual Studio Code | Cross-platform | 163k |