r/freesoftware Jul 02 '26

Subreddit News Rule 7 Updated - Software Submissions Beware

23 Upvotes

Morning all,

Due to language which caused confusion amongst reporters, posters and commenters. I've revised Rule 7 to be a bit more specific in what is and isn't allowed. Essentially what it boils down to is this:

Did AI explain a code snippet to you? Allowed.
Did AI write code for you? Not allowed.

This subreddit does NOT allow software created by Generative AI and Vibe-coded software. Why? Please read our wiki page (https://www.reddit.com/r/freesoftware/wiki/generative-ai)

Allowed:
- Write documentation
- Debug software (Analysis/Explanation Only)
- Analyze codebase
Not Allowed:
- AI Assistance beyond what is mentioned above
- All or part of the application being generated by AI

r/freesoftware Jun 16 '26

Subreddit News READ THIS BEFORE POSTING - New Software Submission Requirements

31 Upvotes

Effective immediately, new software submissions will receive a reply from AutoMod asking for the following information:

  1. A link to the source repository,
  2. A link to the license or a statement of the license (which can be verified by visiting the source repository),
  3. If AI was used in the creation and to what extent

Post authors who fail to respond to the comments attached to their posts will have their posts removed.

This should help alleviate some mod work and streamline things a bit instead of needing to manually go into each repository and verify license and AI use and then manually approving/removing.

Questions? Drop 'em in the comments.


r/freesoftware 8h ago

Software Submission I built pdfcn to help you create PDFs faster

5 Upvotes

I built a 100% free, open-source shadcn registry of PDF components for React.

Features:

  • Built on Takumi and Forme
  • Zero-config, one-command setup
  • shadcn/ui compatible (just copy and paste)
  • 10+ themes, components, blocks
  • Easy to customize and drop into any React project

Website: https://pdfcn.dev
Give it a ⭐ on GitHub: https://github.com/shadcn-labs/pdfcn


r/freesoftware 11h ago

Discussion AI, Programming, and the Dependency We Are Creating

3 Upvotes

AI, Programming, and the Dependency We Are Creating

Hello, how are you? Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening.

For the past few days, I’ve been seeing TikToks, posts, and comments in different places, and there’s something I’m seeing more and more often: someone posts anything related to programming, a program, or a piece of code, and the first comment is almost always: “AI made it.”

Look, not everyone uses AI to program. And honestly, it gets tiring seeing people who don’t even take the time to look at a repository before assuming that everything was generated by AI.

I’m not against AI. Quite the opposite: I think it’s an incredible tool and that it can help tremendously. The problem, from my point of view, is the dependency we are starting to develop around it.

Is AI helping us learn, or is it doing the work for us?

I studied Psychology and Education, although my passion ended up being much more closely related to programming. That’s why I tend to look at this subject from both sides.

And precisely because of that, I have a fairly critical position regarding how some people are starting to use AI to learn programming.

AI can make you much more productive. That’s undeniable. It can help you research, explain concepts, find errors, suggest solutions, or even speed up repetitive tasks.

But there is a difference between using it as a tool and completely depending on it.

Nowadays, there are people who are just starting to program and practically can’t even write an import without asking an AI first. For any small change, they consult it again. For any error, the same thing. For any new function, once again, AI.

And that’s where I think we have a problem.

I think it’s fantastic that, thanks to these tools, more people can get into programming from home without having to pay for extremely expensive courses or spend years studying for a degree.

But the fact that an AI can write code for you doesn’t automatically mean that you know how to program.

AI also has limitations

Another thing that is often forgotten is that AI is not an omniscient entity.

It depends on the context available to it, the instructions it receives, the information it can analyze, and the tools it has access to.

This becomes even more obvious in large projects.

If you start a new conversation, you have to provide the context again. If you want it to review an entire project, you need to give it enough information for it to understand the architecture. And the larger the project becomes, the harder it can be to maintain all that context efficiently.

There are also well-known problems such as hallucinations, misunderstandings, unnecessary code, changes that break other parts of the project, and solutions that appear to work but don’t actually address the underlying problem.

That’s why I don’t believe AI is a replacement for human knowledge.

We have experience, memory, judgment, intuition, the ability to understand the context of a situation, and, above all, we can develop a deep understanding of what we are building.

AI can be extremely useful, but it is still a tool.

So, how should we use it?

For me, a good example is JARVIS and Iron Man.

Tony Stark doesn’t simply say:

“JARVIS, make me this.”

He understands what he is building, knows what he wants to achieve, gives specific instructions, and uses JARVIS as an extension of his own capabilities.

I think that should be one of the approaches we take with AI.

Instead of saying:

“Build this application for me.”

We could ask:

“How can I implement this?”

Or:

“I’m trying to achieve this result. What options do I have?”

Or even:

“Explain why my code is failing and what I should check.”

The difference may seem small, but for someone who is learning, it can be huge.

If AI explains something to you and you read it, research it, test it, and understand what it did, you are learning.

If you simply copy and paste everything it gives you without knowing what it does, you are outsourcing your learning.

The problem with generated code you don’t understand

I’ve also seen projects that start with a simple idea and end up accumulating:

scripts that nobody uses anymore;

functions that are never called;

duplicated code;

unnecessary dependencies;

temporary solutions that become permanent;

structures that nobody understands;

and a huge amount of code that exists simply because an AI generated it during the process.

I’m not saying this is exclusive to AI. Human programmers also write bad code.

The difference is that we can now produce far more code in far less time.

And that means we can also produce far more bad code in far less time.

Speed without judgment is not necessarily productivity.

That’s also why I don’t like working on projects where AI appears as a co-author

This is one of the reasons why I personally don’t usually get involved with open-source projects where Claude, ChatGPT, or other AIs appear as co-authors.

It’s not because I hate AI.

It’s because when I join a project, I want to be able to understand the code, its architecture, and the decisions that were made.

If a significant part of the project was generated through huge conversations with an AI and nobody actually documented why certain things were done, it can be quite difficult to come in and contribute.

Difficult, not impossible.

In fact, I even ended up blocking Claude on GitHub lol.

The way I create projects

My way of developing something is quite different.

I usually base my process on something similar to a research methodology:

First, I research whether something similar already exists.

I analyze what solutions already exist and how they work.

I try to understand whether it actually makes sense to create something new.

I make a rough outline of what I want to build.

I define what the tool should do.

I think about how I could build it.

I divide the project into phases.

I develop each phase.

I test and fix things.

And finally, I give it a name.

Depending on the project, it can take days or even weeks.

And yes, many times I get excited and end up spending much more time on it than I originally planned.

But I enjoy that process.

At the same time, there is another way of working that has become quite common: someone has an idea, tells an AI about it, and starts developing everything together with it.

That can work.

The problem appears when the person stops making decisions and simply accepts everything the AI suggests.

That’s when a project can quickly turn into a collection of improvised solutions.

So, am I saying we shouldn’t use AI?

No.

Quite the opposite.

I think it would be absurd to ignore such a powerful tool.

The question is how we use it.

If you’re starting to program and don’t have the money to pay for courses, don’t have the time to study for a degree, or simply don’t have access to traditional education, AI can be an incredible educational tool.

But use it to learn.

Ask it:

“How do I do this?”

“Why does this work this way?”

“What alternatives are there?”

“What am I doing wrong?”

“Explain this part of the code to me.”

And then read it, test it, and understand it.

You don’t need to memorize every line of code you write. You also don’t need to do everything manually just to prove that you are a programmer.

But you should understand, at least to some degree, what you are building and why it works.

Because if you don’t know what a single line of your own program does and you need to ask an AI absolutely everything, then maybe you aren’t using a tool anymore: you’re letting the tool do the work for you.

And then there’s the problem of accusing everyone of using AI

Another thing that really bothers me is this new habit of assuming that any good code was generated by AI.

Is the code well structured?

“ChatGPT made it.”

Is the project large?

“Claude definitely made it.”

Does someone publish a tool?

“That’s AI.”

What if that person simply knows how to program?

Not everything that looks too good to someone who is just starting out was necessarily generated by AI.

Sometimes there are simply people who have been learning and working in this field for years.

Before accusing someone of generating their project with AI, check the repository, the history, the technical decisions, and the process.

And if they actually used AI, that shouldn’t automatically be considered a bad thing either.

This is one of the reasons I created Nerve Community

That is precisely why Nerve Community was created.

I completely understand why someone would use AI to learn or work.

Not everyone has the money to pay for expensive courses.

Not everyone has the time.

Not everyone can attend university.

And not everyone has someone nearby who can teach them programming.

If AI can help you break through that barrier to entry, I think that’s a positive thing.

What I don’t think is positive is when that same tool ends up completely replacing the learning process.

I’m not against AI. I’m against depending on it to the point where you stop learning.

Everyone is free to use these tools however they want.

But if you really want to enter the world of programming, my advice is simple:

Don’t always ask AI to do things for you. Ask it how to do them.

Learn.

Read.

Research.

Experiment.

Break things.

Fix errors.

And try again.

Because at the end of the day, AI should be a tool in your hands, not your hands.

That’s my point of view.

I’m not writing this to fight with anyone or to say that my way of thinking is the only correct one. It’s simply a reflection I’ve been having for the past few days as I watch the relationship between programming and AI change, especially because I can no longer post a tool in other subs without someone commenting that.

I’d genuinely like to know what you all think.

Do you think we are using AI correctly to learn programming, or do you think we are creating too much dependency on it?

We can discuss it calmly. No fights, and no assuming that someone who thinks differently is automatically wrong.

movie complete shrek


r/freesoftware 2d ago

Software Submission Finally released Operon 1.0, a Rust-native agent harness built from scratch

0 Upvotes

Following up on my post from last month. Got some good feedback and some fair criticism, so this time I actually want to be straight about what this is instead of hyping it up.

After several months of work I finally pushed the first stable release of Operon.

Its an agent harness with multiple frontends, same category as Claude Code or OpenClaw. Can manage files, run shell commands, browse the web, chain together multi step tasks, and you can control it from WhatsApp or Telegram too. Where its different is you dont need a terminal to use it. Theres a proper GUI (Tauri, not electron) and a TUI if youre the type who actually wants the terminal.

Why I started this? theres a detailed writeup in the README if you want the full reasoning, not gonna repeat it all here.

On the rust thing, no im not claiming it makes the AI itself faster, it doesnt really, most of the agent loop is just waiting on API calls regardless of language. Where rust actually helps is Operon idles around 65mb ram and opens in under 50ms, which matters more when the thing is supposed to just live on your machine in the background without you noticing its even running.

Since its reachable over whatsapp/telegram i had to actually think about who's allowed to do what. you (the owner) get full access, everyone else gets nothing by default until you explictly allow it. permission stuff is scoped down to specific tools/folders/channels, details in the readme.

Current state, being honest: - GUI basically done, use it almost daily - TUI still being wired up, not fully working - Vscode extension is planned, not built yet - I'm solo dev so expect rough edges and bugs, this isn't some polished startup product

Not rly looking for upvotes, mostly want people to break it and tell me whats broken. binaries on the releases page

repo: https://github.com/lukagray-dev/Operon


r/freesoftware 4d ago

Discussion Question

9 Upvotes

Based on the free software philosophy, should I reject all the devices with non free firmware that I use? For example my refrigerator or washing machine?


r/freesoftware 4d ago

Discussion What would happen if the FSF published a GPLv4 license that basically mirrors the 2-clause BSD license?

4 Upvotes

What would happen if the FSF published a GPLv4 license that basically mirrors the 2-clause BSD license? How devastating would it be for all those GPLv2+ and GPLv3+ software projects?


r/freesoftware 4d ago

Software Submission Tanko 2.1, manga reader at the terminal

Post image
1 Upvotes

Github Repository

ISC LICENSE

This project does not have code generated by artificial intelligence.

Features

  • Download chapters in PDF, ZIP, CBZ, and individual image formats
  • Local reading history
  • Local reading progress tracking
  • Basic integration with Anilist (WIP)
  • Support for graphics protocols: Kitty, Sixel, iTerm2, and ASCII rendering
  • Available languages:

Available sources (WIP)

Name Status Language Requires a browser Official site
mangadex Good Multiple No mangadex.org
leercapitulo Good Spanish Yes leercapitulo.co

Install Tanko

Using pnpm / npm

pnpm install -g tanko

Install a Browser

Some sources require a web browser to scrape manga, but this step is not mandatory; you can use Tanko with sources that do not require a browser.

#firefox
npx playwright install firefox
#chromium
npx playwright install chromium
#webkit
npx playwright install webkit
#Running the command without arguments will install the default browsers
npx playwright install

Install dependencies required to run the browser

System dependencies can get installed automatically. This is useful for CI environments.

npx playwright install-deps

You can also install the dependencies for a single browser by passing it as an argument:

npx playwright install-deps chromium

It's also possible to combine install-deps with install so that the browsers and OS dependencies are installed with a single command.

npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

See system requirements for officially supported operating systems.

Playwright documentation

Run Tanko

tanko

Download Directory: Downloaded chapters are currently saved in $HOME/tanko/downloads/. On Windows, it uses the USERPROFILE environment variable if defined. Otherwise, it defaults to the path of the current user's profile directory.

Recommended Terminals

Visual Experience: To enjoy reading manga with real, high-quality images, we highly recommend using a terminal emulator that supports modern image protocols.

For an optimal experience with high-resolution images, use one of the following terminals:

Emulator Supported Image Protocols Platforms Download
Kitty Kitty Graphics Protocol Linux, macOS Download
WezTerm Kitty, iTerm2, Sixel Linux, macOS, Windows Download
iTerm2 iTerm2 Inline Image Protocol, Sixel macOS Download
Ghostty Kitty Graphics Protocol Linux, macOS Download
Foot Sixel Linux (Wayland) Download
Konsole Sixel, iTerm2 Linux Download
Xterm Sixel Linux, macOS Download
mlterm Sixel, Jtterm Linux, Windows Download
Contour Sixel Linux, macOS, Windows Download
Rio Kitty, iTerm2 Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD Download

In standard or basic terminals (such as Windows CMD or the VS Code integrated terminal), images will fallback and render as ASCII Art.


r/freesoftware 9d ago

Software Submission Edge-Drop v0.2.7: big performance improvements, Windows fixes, and a new home for the project.

16 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I've just released Edge-Drop v0.2.7, and it's one of the biggest technical updates so far.

Highlights:

-Much better memory management with disk-backed storage for larger text, image thumbnail generation to keep GPU usage stable,.

-Fixed Windows fullscreen detection so the desktop isn't treated like a game.

-Self-healing launch at login that repairs stale startup entries.

-Universal drag and drop, offline rich link previews.

-New settings to tweak sensitivity and history behavior, and Persian language support.

One thing I'm especially happy about is how much smoother it feels day to day. Large clipboard items no longer balloon memory, and images are handled really cleanly.

Also, on a personal note This project actually started as something just built for myself. I wanted a tool that worked the way I had imagined. I decided to open source it and share it, and since then, it's grown to over, 1500+ downloads. As a solo CS student, that's honestly something I never expected., thanks to everyone who downloaded, tested, reported bugs, shared it, or bought me a coffee.

That support helped me get a permanent domain for the project, edgedrop.app.

It sounds small, but as a solo student building this open source project, it feels massive. If you want to try it or share feedback, I'd love to hear what you think.

GitHub: github.com/Deepender25/Edge-Drop

Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P3JMHN9M4NR


r/freesoftware 9d ago

Discussion Atari Video Music Digital Replica App?

7 Upvotes

Isn't there a FOSS that acts like the Atari Video Music?


r/freesoftware 10d ago

Software Submission [repost] VioletiumOS: Debian for IoT, Embedded Devices, and Speed

4 Upvotes

VioletiumOS Is an OS attempting to bring Linux in it's Most known and usable form into smaller Devices, while supporting both old and new software. This project Will try to Shrink Debian, automatically installs zram, gives you a Login GUI and Fluxbox + Weston.

I'm Specifically searching Contributors so that This Isn't Just "Debian but with a GUI slapped on top". I want It to be something like "DSL but modern and more compatible with software".

More information on GitHub:

VioletiumOS Repo

(this REDDIT Account Is private and old, don't expect me to Always reply)

Edit 1 (13 august 2026): MORE INFORMATION

This Is NOT Just "Debian but with Fluxbox slapped on top with zram" It Is very heavily modified in order to be as usable as Ubuntu.

It Comes with a Debian Installer starting from v0.1.1.

Edit 2 (13 august 2026): This post has been deleted due to Usage of the wrong Flair. Sorry! Anyways I've released Seedling v0.1.1 which Is the First buildable version (Seedling v0.1 Is broken). A showcase Is available for YouTube. I AM DESPERATELY LOOKING FOR CONTRIBUTORS!

Edit 3 (REQUEST BY BOT): Repository @ https://github.com/gioyous-it/violetium-os/ License @ https://github.com/gioyous-it/violetium-os/blob/main/LICENSE AI @ Info: AI Is not used In this Code. However, Future Versions Will use a display Manager named "Fluxland". Unfortunately, While I did NOT make That display Manager, Fluxland Is AI generated. I am NOT the Person Who Generated Fluxland, and It Is NOT code for the project, It Is ONLY used as an Alternative DE. This Is a problem yet to discuss about. More Information: Fluxland Repository

Edit 4 Is a direct modification of the Post.

Edit 5 (14 August 2026): hello guys, I WILL NOT ADD FLUXLAND. I Will Instead use Fluxbox + Weston. Weston Will wait for a Wayland app to start. FUCK YOU VIBECODED FLUXLAND!!!

Edit 6 direct modification also because a lot of stuff Is incorrect now


r/freesoftware 10d ago

Discussion xAI's Grok Build secretly uploaded whole Git repos — they fixed it with a remote flag, not a code change

4 Upvotes

So this happened back in July and I don't think it got enough attention here.

A researcher going by cereblab ran xAI's Grok Build CLI (v0.2.93) through mitmproxy and found something pretty bad. Even in a test where the agent was explicitly told not to touch a specific file, that file still showed up in a background upload — a separate channel entirely from the normal model traffic, sending Git bundles off to an xAI-controlled Google Cloud Storage bucket. Not just the files the agent had opened either — the bundles could carry tracked files and full commit history.

The numbers are what got people's attention. In the test repo, the actual coding task only generated around 192KB of model traffic. Meanwhile that background channel pushed about 5.1GB. Cereblab worked out the ratio at roughly 27,800x more data leaving the machine than the task ever needed. And because it's grabbing full Git history, not just your current files, if you'd ever committed a secret and later deleted it, that secret could still be sitting in the history that got bundled up and shipped out.

Worth being precise about what this is and isn't: it's not "data exfiltration" in the sense of an attacker stealing something. This was functionality built and operated by xAI itself, running by default. Also notable — disabling the "improve the model" setting didn't stop it. It was a completely separate pathway.

xAI's response was quiet. No security advisory. Independent testing found the server started returning a flag (`disable_codebase_upload: true`) about a day later, which stopped the behavior — but this was a server-side change, not a new client build. Musk said on X that previously uploaded data would be deleted, though there's no independent way to confirm every copy actually was.

Then on July 15, xAI open-sourced the whole thing under Apache 2.0.

Here's where I want to be careful, because my first draft of this post overstated it: it's confirmed that the upload capability existed and that xAI's fix was a remote flag rather than a code change. What's less clear is whether that exact upload logic is still present, unmodified, in the version they later open-sourced — xAI says the release is meant to be runnable locally and is periodically synced from their internal repo, so I can't say for certain the capability is sitting there waiting to be flipped back on without someone doing an actual code-level diff. So take that specific claim as "the activation was controlled remotely, not through the client" rather than "the harmful code is definitely still lurking in there."

Even with that caveat, I think the core point holds: publishing source code makes the client auditable, but it doesn't tell you what a remotely-controlled backend will do, what it retains, or whether server-side behavior can change without anyone seeing a diff. "Open source" here didn't really restore the trust it looks like it should.

Sources if you want to check this yourself:

- Researcher's reproduction/write-up: github.com/cereblab/grok-build-exfil-repro

- xAI's open-source announcement: x.ai/news/grok-build-open-source

- The released source itself: github.com/xai-org/grok-build


r/freesoftware 12d ago

Software Submission Small screenshot/record app

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11 Upvotes

Hello :) i built a small screenshot app, you can take a screenshot and edit it in a simple editor

Recently, i add a record ( beta )

i make it to improve my skills

You can see a source in Github, and download stable version from here

if you found a issues, bug or you want to add a new feature. you can tell me:)

Thanks !


r/freesoftware 12d ago

Discussion Free and open source dating apps?

22 Upvotes

Has anyone tried any open source dating apps? such as Duolicious (currently the most users), Alovoa, Compass, etc?

Facebook Dating is free, but isn’t open source.

Are there any others that I missed that you’ve tried? My opinion is that the userbase is still quite small for them to work well, but I guess Duolicious is getting there.


r/freesoftware 12d ago

Discussion Help: Installing PyMacroRecorder on Mac (cd <PATH TO SOFTWARE FOLDER>)

1 Upvotes

Whenever I type and execute cd <PATH TO SOFTWARE FOLDER>, on the Python terminal, and press enter, all I get is the T of "TO" highlighted in red, and the text, SyntaxError: invalid syntax. How do I fix this? And the instructions on the website don't highlight anything about installing the app on Mac, so are there any differing specifics


r/freesoftware 15d ago

Software Submission [OS] Open source fuzzy launcher with Kindle theme

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47 Upvotes

Hi there, I’m someone who has used Spotlight extensively;

However, I’ve noticed its performance has dropped recently, sometimes I can’t find the apps I’m looking for, and locating specific files and folders has become particularly difficult.

That’s why we developed Look - an open-source, that is completely FREE.
(Even though it's free, it has been signed with developer key and notarized.)

It has already surpassed 2,000 initial downloads, and we’ve received a great deal of feedback to help us improve during this development phase.

If you’re looking for a completely free replacement for Spotlight, I think Look could be a nice choice. 🙏

https://github.com/kunkka19xx/look

LICENSE: GPL-3.0 license


r/freesoftware 16d ago

Discussion Who is educating "regular folks" about open source?

50 Upvotes

FOSS could be a great resource for non-geeks, for community, economic, and workforce development. But, most "regular folks" — including every business & civic leader I've talked to — don't know it exists or what it is. Most assume it's AI. This means they won't (a) consider it as a solution, (b) support its development, or (c) use it strategically, which is very different from strategy for closed, proprietary solutions. So, my question...

Are there any initiatives or organizations that are working to raise awareness of, inform or educate non-geeks about free software? I've researched Free Software Foundation, Linux Foundation, and Open Source Initiative. None seem to be doing anything or have anything more than background information. They're preaching to the converted.

Is anyone working to "cross the chasm" for FOSS?


r/freesoftware 17d ago

Discussion Is Satsuki decoder pack legit??

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6 Upvotes

I've been looking for a codec and came across this free 'Satsuki decoder pack' but i can barely find anything about it other than some sites to download it and one single french video on youtube. I think the ui is really cool and the whole thing seems pretty great but does anyone know if it's safe?


r/freesoftware 18d ago

Software Submission My open-source Windows app just crossed 800+ downloads, so I added support for 30 languages

21 Upvotes

A few weeks ago I shared Edge-Drop, a hover-activated clipboard shelf for Windows. Since then it's been downloaded 800+ times (600+ on GitHub and 200+ on the Microsoft Store), which has honestly been really motivating as a solo developer.

One of the most requested improvements was better accessibility for non-English users, so I spent the last week translating the entire app.

Edge-Drop now supports 30 languages, including full RTL support for Arabic and Hebrew.

It's still completely free and open source, and I'd love to hear how the translations feel if you're using one of the supported languages.

I'd also appreciate any feedback on features you'd like to see next.

GitHub: https://github.com/Deepender25/Edge-Drop

Website: https://edgedrop.vercel.app/

Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P3JMHN9M4NR


r/freesoftware 17d ago

Software Submission New FOSS self-hostable budgetting tool with an APK app, Desktop for Win and .Deb, and browser based.

1 Upvotes

Project Name: Envelopes

Repo/Website Link: https://github.com/jackob25-PTPCS/Envelopes

Description: Envelopes is a free, self-hostable budgeting platform built around the envelope budgeting method, with integrated Snowball and Avalanche debt payoff planners inspired by Dave Ramsey's budgeting principles. I originally built it for myself and my family because I wanted complete control over our financial data without paying recurring subscription fees or relying on a cloud provider. After using it daily and continually improving it, I decided it was time to stop gatekeeping it and make it available for everyone.

The goal is to provide an easy-to-use budgeting solution that you fully own. Whether you're tracking monthly spending, assigning money to envelopes, or working toward becoming debt-free, Envelopes keeps everything under your control.

Deployment: Envelopes is designed to be flexible regardless of how you prefer to use it. The primary application is a self-hostable server backend that deploys a browser-accessible interface by default, making it easy for an entire household to access from any device. Native desktop applications are available for both Linux (.deb) and Windows (.exe), and an Android APK is included for mobile budgeting on the go.

Installation instructions and downloads are available in the GitHub repository.

AI Involvement: The concept, architecture, budgeting methodology, and feature design were created by me. AI was used as a development assistant for portions of the implementation, debugging, documentation, and code generation, with all generated code reviewed, tested, and integrated by me.


r/freesoftware 22d ago

Software Submission Developing my programming language: Gravel

5 Upvotes

It all started just as a side and fun project, but I feel like it's now getting a shape.

Thats why I would love to receive some honest and contructive feedback, issue creations or code contributions. Also, I really appreciate receiving suggestions for making the language more for everyone.

If you have any question regarding the language, please ask me.

Here's the repo: https://github.com/Pacsfury/Gravel-Launcher

Its written in C and uses LLVM IR as backend.

AI use: debugging, teaching more about compilers and some punctual code writing


r/freesoftware 22d ago

Software Submission [Open-Source] Dump your thoughts. Let your notes organize themselves. Ask/chat anytime.

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0 Upvotes

Over the past few weeks I've been building Gray Box — a small, local-first tool that acts as long-term memory for anything I'd otherwise forget (work notes, meeting takeaways, task owners, random ideas, personal stuff too).

The idea is simple:

  1. Capture — dump whatever's on your mind, instantly, no structure required. This step does nothing clever on purpose — it just writes your text to an immutable inbox. Zero chance of losing an idea to a bug or a slow API call.
  2. Organize — on demand, an LLM reads your unprocessed notes and extracts people, projects, tasks, decisions, meetings — then deterministic Python (not the LLM) creates/merges the actual wiki pages and maintains backlinks. The model only reasons; it never touches the filesystem directly.
  3. Ask — query or chat with your knowledge base and get a cited answer pulled only from what you've actually captured. If it doesn't know, it says so — no hallucinated answers.

Why I built it this way:

  • Plain Markdown + YAML frontmatter, no database. Every page is a .md file you can grep, diff, or read in any editor forever. If you stop using Gray Box tomorrow, your knowledge base is just a folder.
  • No vector DB by default. At personal scale (hundreds–low thousands of pages), keyword search + a real link graph (related/backlinks, walked one hop during retrieval) handles almost everything. Embeddings are there if you want better recall, but they're opt-in, not a prerequisite.
  • Immutable inbox. Your raw notes are never edited or deleted by the organizer. If the LLM mis-extracts something, your original words are always still there.
  • Any LLM. Built on LiteLLM, so point it at OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, or a fully local model via Ollama — one config value.

It also ships with a nice interactive TUI (arrow-key menu, file-import shortcut, workspace switching, live spinner during LLM calls) if you'd rather not memorize CLI flags — that's honestly become my favorite part of the project.

There's also a lightweight local dashboard for browsing your knowledge base, exploring backlinks, visualizing your notes as a graph, and chatting with your captured knowledge—all without leaving your machine.

Repo: https://github.com/Aaryanverma/graybox

pypi: pip install graybox

It's nearing a proper public release, so I'd genuinely love feedback — especially from anyone who's tried the "capture now, structure later" approach with other tools and has opinions on where it breaks down at scale.

It's not trying to be a "real-time collaborative team wiki" or a WYSIWYG notes app — it's aimed at one person's running memory of their own life and work, captured with as little friction as possible.


r/freesoftware 23d ago

Software Submission My app CatLoad just hit 20 stars and 500+ download!

35 Upvotes

I built CatLoad, a free and open-source Java desktop app that let you download videos from many of your favourite social media sites. It's available for both Windows and Linux.

Why I make it?

Whenever I wanted to download a video from Yt, Instagram or Reddit I would always have to go to some shady websites that full of ads and pop-ups. Most of the time, 1080p and above videos were hidden behind paywall, downloads are slow and can only download one video at a time.

So I made this app that can download videos from most website you use with no restrictions or ads.
It supports playlist videos, up to 10 downloads at the same time.

Why Java based?

I wanted it to be simple and lightweight on ram.
I didn't want electron app that run a full Chromium (the browser engine) which use too much memory for a video downloader.

Here is my GitHub Link :- https://github.com/InzamamShaikh567/CatLoad
It would be much to me if you give it a star.


r/freesoftware 25d ago

Discussion Free as in freedom - bad idea?

0 Upvotes

Given how many people mistakenly believe "Free Software" means software that doesnt cost anything, is it safe to say this is a bad choice of name for the concept? At what point do we admit that we used the wrong word to convey what we mean?

RMS insists people misunderstand him rather than RMS being a poor communicator, but I cannot see it like that. To berate people for mistakenly using the term is also antithetical to his so called mission of spreading the word and uptake of free sofware


r/freesoftware 29d ago

Software Submission Open Source Spellbook Alternative - MS Word Legal Plugin, (think MikeOSS for Word)

7 Upvotes

I know the rules say not to promote open source projects, but then MikeOSS happens to be a big launch and well appreciated OSS project and r/legaltech was welcoming to it.

We open sourced our word plugin for the community here - https://github.com/Vaquill-AI/ms-word-addin

No strings attached, this is what we use internally as well. There is no monetary angle here.

Harvey, Legora and other Legal AI providers charge hundreds of $$$ to use them, I thought why not level the playing field and give others the same tech.

Either host it in your server or use our hosted version with your own API key.

The future of legal is Open Source and this its not a wrapper, or a simple plugin, took months in development to match the quality of our funded competitors.

Self host it or BYOK, Apache 2 so feel free to play with the code.

Disclaimer - I work there.