Every Free App You Actually Need Explained in 20 Minutes

LibreOffice [00:00]

• Microsoft Office subscriptions can cost around $100 per year, accumulating to approximately $1,000 over a decade, with access to files potentially restricted after the subscription ends.
• LibreOffice, launched in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice, is maintained by The Document Foundation and offers a free suite including Writer (documents), Calc (spreadsheets), and Impress (presentations), along with tools for databases, diagrams, and equations.
• It supports opening and saving Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, functions fully offline, requires no account, and does not collect telemetry data.
• Governments, including parts of France's military and Italy's defense ministry, have adopted LibreOffice.
• The primary limitation of LibreOffice is potential differences in behavior with advanced Excel macros and complex PowerPoint animations.
• For students, freelancers, and small businesses, LibreOffice replaces an annual subscription cost with $0.

  "And honestly, for 99% of users, it does everything they actually need."

VLC Media Player [01:53]

• Default media players often fail with less common file formats, leading users to download potentially unsafe software.
• VLC Media Player, started in 2001 as a student project, plays a vast array of file formats, including obscure ones from older camcorders.
• It remains incredibly lightweight, with the entire program under 50 megabytes.
• VLC can convert files, stream media, sync subtitles, record screens, rip DVDs, and play YouTube links directly within the app.

  "If a file exists, VLC will probably play it. It's the cockroach of media players. Impossible to kill, works everywhere, and survives every format war humanity invents."

DaVinci Resolve [03:49]

• Professional video editing software like Adobe's used to require monthly payments, with crashes sometimes being an accepted part of the process.
• DaVinci Resolve, developed by Blackmagic Design, offers a powerful editing suite completely free, including professional video editing (similar to Premiere Pro), Fusion (motion graphics/VFX like After Effects), Fairlight (professional audio), and industry-standard color grading tools.
• Major Hollywood films like "John Wick," "La La Land," and "Deadpool" had their color graded in Resolve.
• The free version includes approximately 95% of features needed by most users; the paid studio version adds advanced noise reduction, AI features, and higher-end export options.
• The software requires a decent GPU and has a steep learning curve, often described as overwhelming for new users.

  "So, yes, technically you can download free software today and edit a movie with the same platform used in actual cinema productions, which feels slightly unfair to everyone still paying monthly subscriptions."

OBS Studio [05:31]

• OBS Studio, released in 2012, became the standard for streamers by providing professional video production capabilities without the cost of a TV studio.
• It uses a scene-based system allowing users to layer screen captures, webcams, browser tabs, overlays, alerts, images, and audio sources, and switch between them live.
• OBS Studio records in high quality, streams to most platforms, and has an extensive plugin ecosystem for various functionalities.
• It is used for streaming, tutorials, gameplay recording, podcasts, online classes, and virtual meetings via its virtual camera feature.
• The initial learning curve can be confusing due to the abundance of buttons, but it becomes powerful once understood.
• Compared to paid alternatives like XSplit, Streamlabs Ultra, or Camtasia, OBS Studio saves users anywhere from $60 to $300 annually.

  "It turns your computer into a realtime production studio instead of just the thing with Chrome open."

GIMP [07:27]

• Before subscription-based photo editing, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), launched in 1996, served as a free alternative.
• GIMP is a full raster graphics editor with tools for layers, masks, filters, brushes, selections, photo retouching, and digital painting, and can handle raw photo files and PSD projects.
• Its community has developed numerous plugins and upgrades, extending its capabilities beyond the default install.
• While not as polished as Photoshop, with a potentially dated interface and some limitations like the lack of native CMYK support for print designers, GIMP performs its core functions well.
• Photoshop costs around $260 per year, whereas GIMP is completely free with no subscription, login, or cloud integration.

  "Yes, the interface looks like it was designed in a Linux forum from 2004. But once you stop expecting it to be Photoshop and start treating it as its own thing, it does the job."

Audacity [09:11]

• Bad audio quality can drive viewers away more quickly than poor video, making Audacity's longevity (over 25 years) significant.
• Released in 2000, Audacity is a free, multi-track audio editor and recorder used for podcasts, YouTube voiceovers, music demos, and general audio cleanup.
• It allows users to cut clips, remove background noise, normalize volume, apply EQ and compression, add effects, and export to common formats like MP3, Wave, Flac, and OG.
• Audacity supports VST and LV2 plugins, allowing for expansion with professional audio tools.
• In 2021, Audacity faced controversy regarding telemetry and data collection, which were later clarified or scaled back.
• It replaces paid software like Adobe Audition or Hindenburg Pro, which can cost from $95 to $240, without paywalling basic audio cleanup.

  "If audio sounds bad, they're gone immediately. And that's why Audacity has survived for over 25 years."

Blender [11:00]

• Professional 3D software like Maya or Cinema 4D historically cost thousands of dollars, creating a barrier to entry for animation, VFX, and game development.
• Blender, originating in 1994 and becoming open-source in 2002 through a community crowdfunding of €100,000, offers a complete 3D production pipeline.
• It includes tools for modeling, sculpting, rigging, animation, simulations, rendering, video editing, and 2D animation via Grease Pencil.
• Blender has been used in productions such as "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" and the entirety of Netflix's "NextG."
• It features two powerful render engines: Cycles for realistic rendering and EEVEE for fast real-time previews.
• Blender has a very steep learning curve, described as overwhelming for beginners.
• It replaces software suites costing thousands annually, and its free nature still surprises many.

  "Blender replaces software suites that can cost thousands every year. And somehow the free part still surprises people."

Obsidian [12:42]

• Most modern note-taking apps require cloud storage, accounts, subscriptions, and AI integration, which Obsidian avoids.
• Released in 2020, Obsidian treats notes as local markdown text files, requiring no account or internet connection for basic access.
• Its key feature is bidirectional linking, enabling users to connect notes and visualize these relationships through a graph view.
• With over 1,500 plugins available, Obsidian can be customized for calendars, flashcards, task management, AI tools, and various productivity systems.
• Obsidian sync is an additional cost, otherwise manual setup with cloud storage like Dropbox or iCloud is needed.
• It replaces services like Notion, Evernote, and Rome Research while keeping user notes fully under their control.

  "And because the community is huge, the plug-in ecosystem exploded. There are now over 1,500 plugins for things like calendars, flashcards, task management, AI tools, writing workflows, and basically every productivity system humans have invented to avoid actually doing work."

Scratch [14:23]

• Scratch, developed by the MIT Media Lab and launched in 2007, teaches programming through visual blocks instead of typed code, making it accessible for children and beginners.
• Users drag and drop blocks to create animations, games, stories, and interactive projects, using fundamental programming concepts like loops, variables, and events.
• It runs directly in the browser, eliminating installation and setup issues.
• Scratch has over 100 million shared projects, making it one of the largest programming communities.
• It teaches computational thinking in an approachable way, serving as a free alternative to paid coding platforms.

  "It looks like a toy. It isn't. And honestly, a huge number of younger developers started here."

Godot Engine [15:55]

• Indie game development was traditionally dominated by Unity and Unreal Engine, but a 2023 controversy surrounding Unity's business decisions boosted attention towards Godot.
• Godot Engine, an open-source game engine with an MIT license, allows users to build and sell games without paying royalties or facing surprise fees.
• It supports both 2D and 3D development, using a scene and node system for organization, and offers GDScript (Python-like) and C++ as programming languages.
• Games like "Cassette Beasts," "Rot," and "Dome Keeper" were successfully made using Godot.
• While Godot's 3D tools and ecosystem may be smaller than Unity's or Unreal Engine's, the trade-off is significant for indie developers and studios due to its free, royalty-free nature.

  "Godot is the most quietly important project on this entire list. Not because it's the best at everything. It isn't, but because it's the only major engine where the people making games actually own what they make."

Honorable Mentions: Handbrake & 7zip [17:36]

• Handbrake is a free video converter and compressor that reduces large video file sizes while maintaining quality, supporting batch processing and various presets.
• 7-Zip is a file compression tool that handles numerous archive formats (ZIP, RAR, TAR, ISO) and its own 7z format, offering better compression and encryption, and is truly free, unlike some competitors.

  "And when you add all of this together, the numbers get kind of ridiculous."

Overall Savings and Trade-offs [18:54]

• The combined stack of free software for office, photo editing, video production, streaming, coding, game engines, and utilities replaces thousands of dollars in annual software costs for $0.
• The primary trade-off for using free software is the investment of time in learning, whereas paid software often offers simplicity at a cost.
• For most people, this time investment is considered a worthwhile exchange for the significant financial savings and greater control over their tools.

  "Free software usually asks you to learn a little more instead of paying to make things simpler. But honestly, for most people, that trade is completely worth it."

The Browser as a Free Tool [19:38]

• The video concludes by highlighting the web browser as a ubiquitous free app that is often overlooked, with its choice impacting privacy, speed, and data control.
• It teases a future discussion about different web browsers, their functionalities, target users, and which one is genuinely recommended for 2026.

  "But there's one free app sitting on every device you own that almost nobody picks intentionally. Your browser."