There are some excellent apps already listed that I won't repeat, but I'll add FFmpeg. Not sure it's quite what you're after, but it's incredible.
Windows
Android
Home Assistant, not only an App but it changed the way i look at IoT/Smarthome and in that way it brings me a lot of comfort.
Retroarch.
God awful complexity but once you figure out how it all works it’s incredible.
LocalSend, Immich, Signal, Aurora store, Radio Garden, Gray Jay, yt-dlp, and Bitwarden just to name a few
Librewolf, FFmpeg, Vim, Wine
May be a bit out there, but on Android, Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a rogue lite game that is free and extremely fun to play. No ads, not very demanding on your phone, still gets updates, and easy to pick up and play when you're out traveling.
Its a very hard game, where knowledge is very important, as well as experimentation.
I miss when apps were specific to phones and we kept desktop computers out of it.
OnlyOffice. Great office suite. Also any app from FUTO
VSCode. I don't get why Microsoft hasn't monetized it but I'm glad it is free. Has so many extensions and gets great updates, even if I don't understand half of the stuff in their patch notes when I open up the program.
Another one is a little program called Stacher that basically serves as GUI for yt-dlp. It's a very pretty one though! And all the settings and buttons are super great. I'm not very good with CLI stuff so I'm glad it exists for free, saves so much time.
you are the product 😉
Pretty much every major open source project at this point. I need to start looking into donating to the programs I use the most.
Apples
Edit: I steal my neighbours apples
It depends on how you define "app" and "free". But for free (as in beer) smartphone apps I really like.
audacity
neovim
calibre
mpv
Audacity is terrible.
REAPER is evaluationware akin to WinZip, and much more robust than Audacity. The trial and full version are the same. You can buy apropos licenses whenever you feel the desire.
KiCad. It's an electronics design tool on par with commercial options in the industry, which cost a ton of money. Ever since the UI facelift it got a few years ago, it has become my go-to option. They are even working on integrating circuit simulation and finite element analysis, which is just crazy.
Jellyfin.
Lichess :) (FOSS Chess server, no account needed to play, second biggest chess server overall)
The folks behind it are one of my admirations
Quite a few of my favorites have already been mentioned, so I'll add some that live on my toolbar:
Zim, a desktop wiki with markdown and a lot of plugins. Great for organizing all of your notes with links and a fast search function.
Heroic launcher, for organizing your Epic, GOG and Prime collection.
Geany, an extremely configurable and light editor that can be as simple or as full featured as you want, via plugins.
Terminator, a solid multi terminal emulator where I spend most of my time at work.
for windows:
for android:
for linux:
YouTube clients like NewPipe
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
