#free-software

#free-software

What started in 2019 as a couple of utilities for things like window and shortcut management has gradually expanded to nearly 30 useful tools, including a keyboard shortcut creator, an image-to-text extractor, and a better search bar than the one that's built into Windows proper. PowerToys has become wildly popular among Windows power users, with more than 70 million downloads to date, but it's also completely free, with no ads, Office upsells, or ham-fisted Copilot integrations.

In 2022, Debian developers decided to include some much-needed but non-free firmware to enhance their distribution's compatibility with a wider range of hardware. There were several reasons for this, including the state of open-source firmware for Nvidia GPUs. Given the importance of graphics devices in relation to AI, having firmware and drivers that are fully capable can mean the difference between them working properly and not.

VLC started out in 1996 as a student project at ECP - École Centrale Paris (now merged into CentraleSupélec). Libération has some of the early history. This includes some gems: French telco Bouygues offered to sponsor faster site-to-site links, if the students worked out a way to stream Télévision Française 1 over them. The students, predictably, also wanted to play Doom over the new links.

The biggest gotcha is that the free version is locked in the cloud (aka Microsoft 365), meaning you must always be connected to the internet to use it.

Ripping audio from a DVD using Blu-ray Master Free DVD Ripper allows users to extract high-quality soundtracks and store them in accessible formats like MP3.

The new executive director Steven Deobald aims to improve accessibility within GNOME, spotlighting the need for better tools for individuals with disabilities in the Free Software community.

"Now it's back in the market, reflecting the increased need for entry-level virtualization solutions as businesses and individuals explore modern infrastructure management."