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What proprietary tool do you wish had an open source alternative?
What proprietary tool do you wish had an open source alternative?
Most of us have at least one tool we want to ditch but just can't. What's yours?
Image credits :
TeroVesalainen via Pixabay CC0
Whether it's that one program that's keeping you from making the switch over to using the Linux desktop, a phone app that keeps pestering you with needless notifications, a terrible web interface that looks like it came straight out of the 90s, or something else, there's probably some closed-source proprietary tool out that that you'd love to rid your life of.
The truth is, almost all of us have at least a small handful of proprietary tools hanging around that we'd love to ditch if only we could find a way to make that happen. Maybe the barrier is the lack of an open source alternative providing the same functionality. Maybe there's a good open source equivalent out there, but your school or workplace mandates the closed-source option instead. Or maybe you're stuck working with client files that are only available in a locked-up format.
Whatever the reason, we feel your pain, and we'd love to hear what irks you the most. What proprietary tool do you most want to rid your life of, but just haven't found the way to do so yet? And don't worry, there's hope. The open source community has built great alternatives to everything from AutoCAD to Minecraft, from Trello to Gmail, and from Slack to Acrobat.
Let us know in the comments below. And while we too are passionate about making the switch to open, do try to keep your comments civil!
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12 Comments
I'd like to have free and open source business process simulation program such as Bizagi Modeler (free as in beer, proprietary, Windows-only, does not work under Wine) or Visual Paradigm (proprietary, multi-platform).
Bonita BPM used to have business process simulation, but it was weak and ultimately dropped.
There are many FOSS tools for business process modeling, such as Activiti and its fork Camunda, but those tools do not support business process simulation.
Sirportly (customer support system). Most open source solutions seems like a downgrade, they look dated/lacks features/or their future depends on a single developer (way too risky), but I have bearly looked at Zammad and it might be a good OS solution. It would be nice if you gave it a thorough review (both the good and bad parts) as it would help in the decision making.
TomTom MyDrive Connect, to update my TomTom sat nav. It's the only Windows application I've not been able to find an alternative to. It's particularly infuriating given the TomTom device is running Linux!
Srsly? Tom Tom is Tivoized tech?
Better alternatives to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign would be greatly appreciated.
However, the thing really keeping me from switching fully to Linux is the fact that Blizzard games only run on Windows (and Mac, sort of).
Decent remote support software. TeamViewer and AnyDesk are proprietary, and VNC is absolutely terrible. X2Go is good, but it requires an open firewall port and credentials to the PC. :(
AutoCAD. Nothing open source that I've seen comes anywhere close for user ergonomics. Reverse engineering the full product is of course a big ask, but it would be a great day in the history of open source software if someone could graft onto one of the open source CADs the point selection features of AutoCAD, namely osnaps, relative coordinates, and especially the .x type point selection where you can combine (say) the x-coordinate of an osnap point with the y (and/or z) coordinate from a point input some other way (direct numeric entry, a different osnap point, etc.)
Check out "draftsight"
I've been using Linux for my desktop and day-to-day tasks since 1999. I lived with this fact and I didn't need any other piece of non OSS since I joined my current employer.
We use Microsoft Lync (Skype for Business) heavily, and it's the only reason I have a Windows VM on my laptop. And every time I have to go in a meeting I have to start the Windows machine fire up Lync (Skype for Business).
Device drivers: Especially for video cards and sound cards. The MAFIAA seems to have a lock on multimedia technologies in general, for the obvious-enough reasons.
Here's some irony for ya. SuperTuxKart, the motorsports-themed game, with a very FOSS-themed cast of characters, that is in most respects a loving celebration of all things open source, but on my GNU/Linux system all the reflective surfaces render as pixellated noise unless I switch from the open-source Nouveau driver to the proprietary driver from Nvidia.
It would be great if I could have an open source tool where I can read and edit Filemaker Pro files.