OpenShot™ was created in 2008, in an effort to build a free, simple, open-source video editor for Linux. It is now available on Linux, Mac, and Windows, has been downloaded millions of times, and continues to grow as a project! Free, dedicated Mac hosting for open source developers Encouraging innovation through collaboration is one of MacStadium’s core beliefs. We know that despite finite resources, a lack of hardware, and limited support, tremendously important innovation is happening through free and open source software (FOSS). Next on our list comes Audacity, which is an open-source digital audio editor available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and other Unix based operators. Audacity is initially developed by a bunch of teen volunteers, and the software comes loaded with all advanced features and tools needed for multi-track audio editing.
Aerial is completely free and open source. You can follow its development here on GitHub, and even participate if you want. You don't have to be a developer, we always need help when it comes to translations in various languages, check here for more information (it's easy!). Skim (Open Source PDF Editor for Mac) This free note taker and PDF editor are made for macOS. It functions similarly to Preview. This program lets you review PDFs with comment features allowing you to make snapshots for easy reference, highlight important text, and navigate pages easily using a table of contents with a visual history.
Opensource screen recorder can be a great option when you have the need to capture video or audio on computer. Considering that almost all open source tools are free and full-featured. However, some of open source screen capture software may produce low quality. Meanwhile, you are more likely to encounter a bug or error while using an open source screen recorder. So it’s quite necessary to select a good one for the screen recording.
With so many open source screen recording and editing software offered on the internet, which one you should use? We have tested more than 30 free screen recorders and selected 7 ones from them for you to use. You can get basic information of each open source screen recorder, and then pick your preferred one to capture videos on your Windows 7/8/10 PC or Mac.
Best Screen Recorder
- Record screen and sound on Windows 7/8/10 PC and Mac with high quality.
- Support 4K UHD video recording up to 3840 x 2160 resolution.
- Create a picture-in-picture recording while playing video game.
- Capture online live videos, 2D/3D gameplay, webcam, video/audio chats, music and more.
- Advanced hardware acceleration technology to record screen with low CPU, GPU and RAM.
- Powerful recording editing features and output captured content in any popular format.
It's very important to choose a right and stable video audio recorder, especially for some live contents. Surely you don’t want to capture your video gameplay or other activities from time to time.
Also, you should know that, different screen recorders will offer a range of differing features. So you need to choose the open source screen recorder depending on what you intend to do with the footage you capture. In the following parts, we will show you the top 7 free and open source screen recorders.
NO.1 Open Source Screen Recorder - ShareX
ShareX is our first recommendation for the open source screen recorder. It is very popular because of the fast screen recording function with unlimited features. This free screen recorder enables you to capture video with full screen, specific window or customized area. One cool feature is that, it carries an “Automated Capture” feature for screen recordings.
To ensure you get a really high quality output video, ShareX offers many useful settings to get customized results. You can get easy controls for effects, drawings and region. It is able to save the captured content as MP4 video or animated GIF file. One great feature of this open source screen recorder is that, it won’t place any watermark or duration limits on your recordings. After recording, you are allowed to directly upload recordings to YouTube or other platforms.
NO.2 Open Source Screen Recorder - OBS Studio
OBS Studio is one of most popular screen recording and live streaming software. As an open source screen recorder, OBS can help you make the video recordings on Windows, Mac and Linux. It enables you to capture your computer screen without any time limits. OBS Studio is mainly developed for live streamers and content creators. It allows you to record video and audio from webcam and microphone. In that case, it’s quite convenient to capture all useful contents at the same time.
This free open-source video audio recorder can help you record any area of your computer screen according to your need. Moreover, the settings panel makes it very simple for easy, quick configuration of broadcasts and recording. Similar to ShareX, this open source screen recorder also add no watermark to the captured video. For the streaming feature, OBS allows you to stream to YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Twitch, Hitbox, and more.
NO.3 Open Source Screen Recorder - CamStudio
CamStudio is another popular open source screen recorder. This free video capture software has the capability to record any activities on your computer screen with industry standard. It enables you to place screen captions and overlay your webcam video on top of the content you are capturing. That means you can personalize the recorded content while introducing the picture in picture feature over desktop.
This open source screen capture can offer you high quality video recording experience. The captured video will be saved in AVI or SWF format based on your settings. But it doesn’t carry any editing features. Another thing you should concern is that, the output file is large in size.
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NO.4 Open Source Screen Recorder - Screencastify
Screencastify is an open source screen capture extension on Chrome browser. It provides you with a simple way to record anything happened on your Windows PC or Mac. The convenient part is, there is no downloading required. So you can navigate to the Chrome, find the extension and then start your video audio recording. What’s more, you can rely on it to record webcam video smoothly.
This free screen recorder enables you to capture screen with full screen, windows or customized area. The recordings will be saved and uploaded to Google Drive automatically. The free version of Screencastify only allows you to capture a 10-minute video. What’s worse, the output file will be added a watermark. You have to pay $24/year to remove the time limits and watermark.
NO.5 Open Source Screen Recorder - FlashBack Express
FlashBack Express is one kind of all-featured open source screen recorder. It has the capability to record screen from whole computer screen, a window, webcam or a selected area according to your need.
There is no any limitations of the recording time and length. More importantly, it won’t add any watermark onto the captured video. Flashback Express can output video in MP4, AVI, or WMV format as your settings. After the screen capturing, you are allowed to edit your recording. For instance, you can cut the video and only keep the useful part. And you can crop video to remove the black edge.
NO.6 Open Source Screen Recorder - Captura
Captura is an easy-to-use open source screen recorder which can help you capture screen from computer monitor and webcam. It allows you to capture specific regions, windows, or screens. Captura is designed with a concise interface that can give you a comfortable video and audio recording experience. This free screen recording software is completely ad-free. What’s more, it highly supports over 30 languages.
This open source screen recorder has the capability to do the demanded task of mixing microphone input audio and output speaker audio. Moreover, it offers hotkeys feature to ensure you to get full control of the recording. It also enables you to record DirectX Fullscreen games using the Desktop Duplication API. After recording, the captured video can be saved as MP4, AVI or GIF format based on your settings.
NO.7 Open Source Screen Recorder -JetScreenRecorder
JetScreenRecorder is the last open source screen capture in our list. This free video recorder can give a smooth and stable screen recording. It is designed with a user friendly GUI which can offer you a great user experience. JetScreenRecorder provides you with large choice of bit rate, from 50 kbit to 3000 kbit. In addition, it enables you to record full screen or selected area based on your need. You can capture video in MPEG4, WMV, FLV or other formats with ease.
The open source screen capture is totally no-ads. There won’t be any prompts bothering you while the screen recording process. One cool feature is that, you are allowed to change the fps number to fit your need. Whether you want to make a step-by-step tutorial, gameplay video, or e-Learning course, it can be a useful tool.
Conclusion
Here in this post, we mainly talked about 7 open source screen recorders. While the daily usage of your computer, you will frequently have the need to capture screen, whether for creating video tutorials or saving online videos. Considering that there are lots of recording tools offered on the market and it can be difficult to choose a right one, here we make a list of some great open source screen capture software for you.
You can get some basic features of each recorder and then find the one that best suits your needs. After reading this post, hope you can find one free video recorder that can fulfill your requirements. If you have any other awesome screen recording software, please share it in the comment part with us and other readers.
In this article, we are going to list top open-source software in 2020.
Our entire world is now digital, surrounded by a myriad of apps, and software and services. We’ve become so prone to gadgets and devices that we firmly believe we cannot live without them even for a day. (Yes, it’s true) From ordering food online to watching our favorite movies and TV shows, we certainly are dependent on technology.
Let’s get started.
List Of 21 Best Open Source Software in 2020
List of Contents
1. VLC Media Player
Yes, we’ve all heard of this one for sure! VLC Media Player is one of the best open source software used by a mass audience around the globe. Agree or not, but there’s a sense of comfort in VLC’s environment that nothing won’t ever go wrong by using it. The VLC media player supports almost all video file formats, and is undoubtedly one of the most popular cross-platform (Windows, macOS, iOS and Android) media players one can rely upon. Every now and then, VLC Media player keeps on offering new updates and performance improvements, which makes this media player best from the rest.
2. Audacity
Next on our list comes Audacity, which is an open-source digital audio editor available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and other Unix based operators. Audacity is initially developed by a bunch of teen volunteers, and the software comes loaded with all advanced features and tools needed for multi-track audio editing. Audacity supports almost all major audio file formats, including MP3, WAV, FLAC, MP2, and more. So, whether you want to record live audio, make changes to an existing soundtrack, Audacity open-source editor can get the job done for you effortlessly.
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3. Avidemux
Avidemux is a light-weighted video editing tool that is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It is one of the best open-source tools for video editing supporting a variety of file formats, including AVI, DVD, MPEG, MP4, and many more. So, whether you’re newly stepping into the image or video editing or if you’re a professional editor, Avidemux can be your ideal companion.
4. GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is next to pop on our open source software list. GIMP is a popular image editing platform that comes loaded with a bunch of advanced editing toolset. If you’re looking for a decent Adobe Photoshop alternative, GIMP can be your pick. Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP is equally ideal for beginners as well as creative professionals from any background.
5. Amarok
Rediscovering new music with Amarok is a whole new experience. Amarok is a powerful open-source audio editing tool where you can not just play or edit audio tracks but also explore new music of different genres. Amarok is more like an iTunes alternative available for Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms.
6. TOR Web Browser
Looking for an open-source web browser? Well, TOR is the first name that will strike your mind. TOR is an intuitive web browser that keeps your privacy intact and allows you to surf the Internet without being tracked. As more and more cybercriminal cases are occurring around us, using the TOR web browser can help you in keeping your identity concealed from hackers. TOR offers multi-layer encryption that strictly prevents you against any kind of surveillance and tracking, so you got nothing to worry about.
7. Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is a free and open-source office productivity package that offers you various programs, including Writer like MS Word, Calc like MS Excel. Impress like MS PowerPoint and many other productivity tools. Apache OpenOffice can serve as an MS Office alternative and is used by a majority of users worldwide, not just because it comes free of cost but because it includes an advanced set of tools, features, and functions.
8. LibreOffice
Almost similar to MS Office and Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice is another open-source office utility tool available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. LibreOffice has a huge user community who are continually working on it to make this product better with each new update. LibreOffice includes all basic and additional features and extensions that are a must in any office suite utility.
9. Inkscape
Inkscape is an open-source professional vector graphics editor available for Windows, macOS, and Linux OS. If you’re looking for an Adobe Illustrator alternative, Inkscape can be your fresh change of choice. Inkscape offers you a bunch of flexible drawing tools, supports a majority of file formats, powerful and advanced image editing tools, and many other useful features that are suitable for both beginners and professionals.
10. Blender Graphics Tool
Blender is an amazing 3D creation tool that supports modeling, rendering, motion tracking, compositing, and all possible tasks that can be tagged under the 3D pipeline. If you’ve heard of Autodesk Maya, then Blender Graphics tool can compete as a strong contender alternative for 3D animation. On Blender, you can easily create full-length animation films to VFX effects, all for free.
11. KeePass
KeePass is a decent open-source password manager pick that is not just easy to use but keeps your security on utmost priority. KeePass comes free of cost, and you can easily rely on this tool for trusting with your passwords. KeePass carefully binds all your passwords in one safe place. So, now you just have to remember one password (master password) to access KeePass. Cool, isn’t it?
12. 7-Zip
We’ve all used WinZip at some point in our lives or other, right? Well, if you’re bored of WinZip or looking for a decent alternative, then 7-Zip can impress you with its sharp features and compression tools. 7-Zip is a cross-platform compression tool available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
13. Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is one of the best open source software which serves as an email client for users. Mozilla Thunderbird can act as an Outlook alternative and comes loaded with a bunch of useful features. On Mozilla Thunderbird, you can manage your entire inbox, chat with your clients, receive RSS feeds, and more. Thunderbird is highly secure and keeps all your emails preserved so that you can have peace of mind.
14. ClamWin
Looking for a free open-source antivirus security tool for Windows? Well, you’ll be pleased to download ClamWin on your system. ClamWin is an open-source anti-virus utility tool for Windows that can keep your machine safe from viruses and malware of any kind. ClamWin regularly offers new updates that protect your system for any kind of spyware or viruses.
15. Clonezilla
Clonezilla is a free open-source disk cloning and data recovery utility tool available for Windows and Linux OS. Clonezilla can easily get you through with system backup and restore disk cloning, image restoring, and more. Also, to secure all your data backup and restore sessions, Clonezilla uses AES-256 encryption as a security measure.
16. BRL-CAD
Yes, you guessed that right. BRL-CAD is an AutoCAD alternative available for Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. BRL-CAD is a powerful application development tool that supports high-performance ray tracing, rendering, geometry editing, and other interactive features that you find on AutoCAD.
17. Bluefish
Next on our open-source software list comes Bluefish that is an ultimate website creation tool for both beginners and professionals. Bluefish is used by a majority of web developers around the world for writing pieces of code and scripts. Bluefish is available for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, Windows, OpenBSD, and Solaris.
18. NixNote
Taking notes is something that we love to do, whether it’s about creating a grocery list, penning down an important phone number, or any piece of information. Well, NixNote is a light-weighted open-source note-taking tool for Windows and Linux, which you can use for creating and managing your day to day notes. On NixNote, you can not only create notes but also save pictures, documents, audio tracks in a well-organized space.
19. Bleach Bit
We’re all aware what CCleaner does, right? Well, Bleach Bit is an open-source alternative almost similar to CC cleaner that quickly scans your system and frees up disk space by deleting junk files, temp files, cleaning browsing history, cached data and more to optimize your system’s performance.
20. Octave
Octave is an open-source educational tool available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. It allows you to perform numeric computations in an easy to use, the interactive platform just like MATLAB.
21. PDF Creator
PDF creator is an ideal PDF creation and reader tool for Windows that comes loaded with exceptional features and tools. On PDF creator, you can compress and resize images, encrypt your PDF docs with AES security, customize and tighten security settings, and more.
What is Open source Software?
So, what is open-source software? And how is it different from “closed source software” or any other software? You can think of open-source software as a collaborative initiative where anyone can make changes in the code to make it better.
Unlike a closed or proprietary software where only the owners are exclusively allowed to make changes in the source code, open-source can be easily altered by anyone. When an open source software is designed, the authors or developers make the code available to anyone where people can use it to enhance the existing software, study it, or use it; however, they like.
Whether you want to use a media player, create a document, edit a soundtrack or video, there’s an open source software available for almost anything. Using an open-source tool has numerous benefits, which include better control over the code, collaboration, stability for initiating long-term projects, and more. Open source software can be of any type, including open source software for Windows, open-source web browser, open source software for Android, or for any platform or requirement.
So is open source Software Free of Cost?
Well, that entirely depends on the author or initial developers of the program whether they want to roll out the product on a free of cost basis or if they want to charge users for the usage. But yes, a majority of people have a false impression of thinking that all open-source tools are free of charge, and that’s not true.
Some of the most common open source software include VLC Player, Libre Office, Audacity, and more. Open-source tools are available for various platforms, including Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, and more. So, in this post, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best open source software of 2020 that can make our lives simpler.
Also Read: Don’t forget to check out the 8 best open-source apps for Android that are worth your attention.
So, fellas, this wraps our open source software list of 2020. Here were some of the best open source software of various categories and genres. And yes, do let us know which one is your most favorite open-source tool from this list. We’d be more than happy to hear from you.