Great Open Source Alternatives for paid products.
Tags: opensource, linux, gamedev, productivity
Published: 2021-03-19 16:21:24

# Why use legal products?
Before I suggest you great open source products, you might have questions like - "why do I care?"

Here's why you should care:

 - You don't receive support if your cracked software fails.
 - The Good Lord above might not be quite happy about stealing stuff without permission.
 - It's crazy expensive or comes with a catch if it's free :V (Like seriously ).

## Here's a List of Open Source Alternatives to proprietary  software

###Operating System:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/4hgllasruqyh0ti7lsyd.jpg)
If you did not install the anniversary edition of Windows 10 then hey there's a whole universe of free Linux Distributions. 
Why use Linux?
* Free
* Secure
* Used by a big community 
* You have a lot of control
* Not one is spying on you. 
* And it has a lot of Distros. Each distro is geared towards a specific community. Every distro is more or less the same OS with different components and advantages/disadvantages.
* Some popular distros are [Linux Mint](https://linuxmint.com/), [Ubuntu Mint](https://ubuntu.com/), 
[Kali](https://www.kali.org/), [Debian](https://www.debian.org/), [Arch](https://archlinux.org/), etc ... 

### Game Engine:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/d0n2iquu8amx3c78pk16.png)
A very good alternative to Unity and Unreal engine is Godot. I wouldn't say that Godot is catching up fast or anything. But here's why you should try out Godot:
* It's free and open source. You won't see the splash screen containing the Unity or Unreal Engine logo.
* It's thriving. It's growing fast and getting new updates.
* Uses OpenGL but soon it will start the use of Vulkan.
* You can edit the code to your liking. 
* Very light weight and runs on almost all devices.
* It has a C# and C++ variant. But using the default GDScript is pretty fun.
Get it. It's free.
[Godot Official Website](https://godotengine.org/)

### Image Manipulator:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/aoo4yz0g9w87hkk3xqqn.png)
Photoshop is a great tool but the subscription method is killing our wallets. Not everyone earns a fortune. So, if you want to get started with Photo editing then I recommend start with a free software. The terms might be different but if you learn the process then you can easily switch between software. Gimp is a great software and here's why you should try out Gimp:
* It's free!!
* It's light weight.
* You don't have to install any other software to download it unlike Photoshop you can download it directly from their website.
* Light weight and small installer size.
[Download Gimp today!](https://www.gimp.org/)

### Vector Graphics Software:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/2qu6e5vsr4aq8j59hzzh.png)
A good alternative to Adobe Illustrator is InkScape. It's available on Windows, Linux and MacOS.
You can great great vector art for your game, website or application.
Benefits of using this software:
* You don't have to pay.
* You don't have to steal if you don't want to pay.
* Professional Grade tool.
* Has good tutorials.

### 3D Modelling Application:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jq05ja3depbyo9xgrrfi.png)
Blender is not joke. If you tried it you know it. Industry standard application for free :D. 
Benefits you ask? 
* Free
* Powerful
* Light weight
* Open Source
 Download [Blender](https://www.blender.org/) Today!

### Video Editing Software:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xqpka5v814vj6ibt9ql9.jpg)
With new updates Blender is now pretty good in editing videos. So, you can count on Blender to do the editing stuff.
Other than that you can use [Flowblade](https://jliljebl.github.io/flowblade/) or [Kdenlive](https://kdenlive.org/en/) if you find Blender hard.

### Office Suite:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/a18bvqynnzhqgmiq6yc2.png)
LibreOffice is really great. From creating presentations to databases you have in all that Microsoft Office can do for free. [Download today](https://www.libreoffice.org/).

### Screen Recorder:
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b7lnjmplt7n7tqtkog9h.png)
OBS or Open Broadcaster Software is a open source screen recorder that you can use for capturing game play, tutorials,streaming etc. I've used it and it was great. Even though it's free it will compete well against most paid counterparts. 
[Download Today!](https://obsproject.com/)

### Honorable Mentions:
* [Audacity](https://www.audacityteam.org/) for editing Audio.
* [Apache OpenOffice](https://www.openoffice.org/) - Office Suite
* [Cam Studio](https://camstudio.org/) for recording your screen.

With that the article comes to an completion. Hope everyone lives a healthy and piracy free life ;).