Throughout the years, we have been relying on big companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta and others to give us access to their products to use our computers and phones, communicate on the online web, and store our files. However, as things have gotten worse with the years and the rise of gen-AI only making things worse, people are starting to question if they can even move to new services. However, the journey can be hard and there are so many options that non-tech savvy people are going lose patience and give up.
That is why I made this long and comprehensive list of mostly open-source alternatives to different things from computer OS, social media, to even TV. Many things are easy to move to, others are for more tech-savvy people, and this list doesn't even have all of the available options in any category! However, this is a great first step into trying new things and to slowly move away from big tech. You don't need to do it all at once, go step by step, decide if there are some services you can't stop using and which ones could use a switch and have fun!
osu! is a rhythm game based on the gameplay of a variety of popular commercial rhythm games. While aiming to keep authentic gameplay and scoring, osu! increases the epic factor through online rankings, multiplayer, replay exchange, and a huge community following.
osu! is a rhythm game based on the gameplay of a variety of popular commercial rhythm games. While aiming to keep authentic gameplay and scoring, osu! increases the epic factor through online rankings, multiplayer, replay exchange, and a huge community following.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
Flash games.
Waydroid uses Linux namespaces (user, pid, uts, net, mount, ipc) to run a full Android system in a container and provide Android applications on any GNU/Linux-based platform.
A portable, fast, and lightweight emulator frontend supporting classic and modern gaming systems with features like real-time rewinding and shader support.
Emulator for multiple consoles.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
ares is a multi-system emulator that began development on October 14th, 2004. It is a descendent of higan and bsnes, and focuses on accuracy and preservation.
Emulator for multiple consoles.
Snes9x is a portable, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator. It allows you to play most games designed for the SNES and Super Famicom Nintendo game systems on your PC.
SNES emulator.
RMG (Rosalie's Mupen GUI) is an open-source, plugin-based Mupen64Plus Nintendo 64 emulator front-end maintained by Rosalie241 which focused on simplistic sleek GUI design and paid homage to the look and feel of Project64.
N64 emulator.
Dolphin is an emulator for two recent Nintendo video game consoles: the GameCube and the Wii. It allows PC gamers to enjoy games for these two consoles in full HD (1080p) with several enhancements: compatibility with all PC controllers, turbo speed, networked multiplayer, and...
GameCube and Wii emulator.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
Wii U emulator.
Experimental open-source emulator for Nintendo Switch, multi-platform, supporting AArch64/x86_64, advanced userspace emulation, and controller compatibility.
Switch emulator.
An open-source Nintendo Switch emulator, Ryujinx was originally created by gdkchan in C# for accuracy and performance before being forked by GreemDev.
Switch emulator.
GB, GBC and GBA emulator.
DS emulator.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
3DS emulator.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
Genesis Plus GX is an open-source Sega 8/16 bit emulator focused on accuracy and portability. Initially ported and developped on Gamecube / Wii consoles through libogc / devkitPPC, this emulator is now available on many other platforms through various frontends such as:
Sega 8/16 bit emulator.
Flycast is a SEGA Dreamcast, NAOMI and AtomisWave emulator, forked from reicast, and made by flyinghead. This guide will focus exclusively on the standalone version of flycast, and won't cover anything related to the Retroarch core of flycast (though most information may...
Dreamcast emulator.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
ePSXe (enhanced PSX emulator) is an emulator of the PlayStation video game console for x86-based PC hardware. ePSXe makes use of a plugin system to emulate GPU, SPU, and CD drive functions, similar to the model first introduced in PSEmu Pro.
PS1 emulator.
PS2 emulator.
RPCS3 is an experimental open-source Sony PlayStation 3 emulator and debugger written in C++ for Windows, Mac and Linux. RPCS3 began development in May of 2011 by its founders, DH and Hykem.
PS3 emulator.
Emulates PlayStation 4 titles on Windows and Linux systems using C++20, open-source codebase, features Vulkan graphics, SDL3, and ImGui integration.
PS4 emulator.
Play PSP games on multiple devices with HD resolution, texture upscaling, save state support, customizable controls, and transfer of saves from hardware.
PSP emulator.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
Vita3K is the world's first functional experimental open-source PlayStation Vita emulator for Windows, Linux and macOS.
PSPVita emulator.
A free and open-source application that emulates the original Microsoft Xbox game console, enabling people to play their original Xbox games on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.
XBox emulator.
Xenia is an experimental Xbox 360 emulator, and the very first to achieve the feat of running a commercial Xbox 360 game, Frogger 2.
XBox 360 emulator.
DOSBox is an emulator program which emulates an IBM PC compatible computer running a DOS operating system. Many IBM PC compatible graphics and sound cards are also emulated. This means that original DOS programs (including PC games) are provided with an environment in which they...
Old computer game emulator.
ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files.
ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
Supermodel emulates Sega's Model 3 arcade platform, allowing you to play a number of ground-breaking arcade classics on your PC. It uses OpenGL and the SDL library, and can run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Arcade emulator.
MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. When used in conjunction with images of the original arcade game's ROM and disk data, MAME attempts to reproduce that game as faithfully as possible on a more modern general-purpose computer.
Arcade emulator.
Dedicated to nostalgia for many of the greatest game consoles ever made. Thousands of games, full-color manual scans, ratings and reviews, and much more. Whether you’re looking for some videogame nostalgia or just curious, you’re sure to find everything you need.
Source of roms.
*Not open-sourced.
Rom Hustler offers free rom downloads, information, visuals and screenshots. A true rom-wiki. Relive all your old gaming experiences!
Source of roms.
*Not open-sourced.
ROMhacking.net is home to classic video game modifications, fan translations, console homebrew, utilities, and learning resources.
ROMhacking.net is home to classic video game modifications, fan translations, console homebrew, utilities, and learning resources.
*Not open-sourced.
These free and open-sourced programs are amazing for game development.
Godot Engine is a feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface. It provides a comprehensive set of common tools, so that users can focus on making games without having to reinvent the wheel.
Godot Engine is a feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface.
Available on Android phones and tablets.
The Blender Game Engine (BGE) is a component of Blender, a free and open-source 3D production suite, used for making real-time interactive content. The game engine was written from scratch in C++ as a mostly independent component, and includes support for features such as Python...
a visual novel engine that helps you use words, images, and sounds to tell interactive stories that run on computers, mobile devices, and the web.
Find alternatives to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and other services along with Linux tools to help move movie discs into the computer.
Media center supporting movies, series, YouTube, and smartTV casting via DLNA/Chromecast. Offers HD, subtitles, add-ons, with no registration needed. Notice of new episodes.
Media center supporting movies, series, YouTube, and smartTV casting via DLNA/Chromecast. Offers HD, subtitles, add-ons, with no registration needed. Notice of new episodes.
Available on Android phones and tablets and TVs.
See anime on your phone.
Only on Android phones and tablets.
Watch videos together with friends. Chat and react in real time to a synchronized stream, with multiple ways of watching video, including screenshare, VM, and YouTube.
Cross-platform, free media player supports multimedia files, DVDs, streaming, offers hardware acceleration, 4K, lossless audio, and more.
Cross-platform, free media player supports multimedia files, DVDs, streaming, offers hardware acceleration, 4K, lossless audio, and more.
Available on Android phones and tablets and TVs.
Open-source, ad-free torrent client offering a polished user interface, integrated multi-site search, RSS support, remote web control, and cross-platform availability.
K3b is a CD and DVD authoring application for the KDE desktop environment for Unix-like computer operating systems. It provides a graphical user interface to perform most CD/DVD burning tasks like creating an Audio CD from a set of audio files or copying a CD/DVD, as well as...
An open-source multithreaded video transcoder, HandBrake compresses and converts digital media, supporting MP4, MKV formats, and offers hardware-accelerated conversion.
Replace Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music with these options.
Platform for exploring a vast global music catalog, with direct artist support, instant streaming and download of DRM-free purchases, and physical merchandise.
Music store for more indie musicians.
*Not open-sourced.
Thank you so much for going through this list! I know this list is huge and all-encompising. As I said, this doesn't have all available options, so you could explore out there. What is important is to slowly learn to rely less on big tech companies and work on finding and supporting projects that respect our privacy. If you have any other recommendations, please let me know. Have a great day!
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