Tuesday, May 25, 2021
This article lists several free software applications which the names include the word libre or its variations including liberation or liberty. This article is hoped to be useful to you who are in study of free software and everything around it.
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Background
Free software intended by our community is the one defined by The GNU Project related to freedom unrelated to price. To avoid ambiguity and confusion, the word free is often omitted with libre, hence libre software, to explain that free software is free as in freedom not price. Please read Free Software Definition for further explanation. However, in reality there are many uses of libre in multiple projects and communities and even in the name of several free software applications. We will examine them in this list.
LibreOffice
The full featured, cross platform office suite. It is the office suite of all GNU/Linux operating systems. It is the most well known free software with libre in its name.
Document Liberation Project
The software development team who researches, develops, and makes efforts to make proprietary or closed digital document formats can be accessed by free software. Hence the name document liberation -- to make documents compatible with freedom. Thanks to this project, computer users can access documents originally can only be created/opened/edited with AutoCAD, CorelDRAW, MSOffice, Photoshop etc. by using software that is free.
LibreWolf, formerly Librefox
The purely free software version of Mozilla Firefox with trademark stuffs removed and emphasized in security. In this regard, LibreWolf is equal to Abrowser, IceCat, Iceweasel, and PureBrowser except they do not include libre in their names.
LibreCMC, formerly LibreWRT
The small GNU/Linux operating system for embedded computers originated from OpenWRT.
Liberation Fonts
Liberation Serif, Liberation Sans, and Liberation Mono are three parts of Liberation Fonts. These three are the standard fonts of free software users worldwide thanks to the inclusion by LibreOffice. It is a free font by Red Hat created as a full replacement to the nonfree fonts Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New respectively.
Colibre
github.com/rizmut/libreoffice-style-colibre
The modern, excellent icon theme for LibreOffice designed so it looks familiar to Microsoft Office 2016's users by Rizal Muttaqin -- the same designer who created another icon theme Sukapura. Notice the smart hack on its name that may sound like a mix of calibri and libre that will make sense for MSO users migrating to LibreOffice.
Linux-libre
fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre
The fully free software version of the world most popular kernel, Linux, with nonfree parts removed. Thanks to this free software, we now have fully free versions of common distros such as Trisquel and independent distro like GuixSD.
Libreboot
The free BIOS created as a replacement to BIOS in PCs and laptops. It is faster and more secure. This project is actually not a modification (fork) but a distro of another project called Coreboot, but with nonfree parts removed, hence the name Libreboot.
LibreTorrent
gitlab.com/proninyaroslav/libretorrent
The Android bittorrent client that is free software. It is available at F-Droid --the libre alternative to Google Play Store-- that provides many apps freely, secure from malware and without ads.
LibreELEC
The entertainment & home theater operating system based on GNU/Linux.
LibreCAD
The computer aided design software that can be obtained gratis and not some forty thousands dollar. LibreCAD is an independent program which can be used along with another free software, FreeCAD.
LibrePCB
The electronic design automation tool suite with schematics drawing and PCB design abilities. It is a good alternative to its fellow free software KiCAD and Geda and a replacement to the nonfree software EAGLE.
ProjectLibre
The project management program that can replace the nonfree software Microsoft Project. It is a very popular program that claims to be downloaded 5 million times in all around 200 countries of 7 continents in the world.
Libre.fm
The online radio service based on the free software GNU FM that can replace Last.fm.
LibertyBSD
A libre software, secure operating system. The fully free version of OpenBSD in same fashion Trisquel made as a fully free version of Ubuntu with nonfree software parts removed. It is the only one libre software with liberty in its name in this list.
LibreSignal
github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal
A modified version of popular secure messenger Signal with dependencies to nonfree software in Android removed.
LibrePlanet
The annual conference and world wide community of libre software. This conference represents free software movement and influences the whole free software community. Their latest conferences were 2019, 2020 and 2021 with all talks can be downloaded as video or audio.
Librem
The phone and laptop of Purism mass produced with libre software and libre operating system inside and sold world wide. Librem represents the whole computing of free software compared to Microsoft with their Windows computers and Apple with their MacOS Macintoshes.
BotLibre
The libre software chatbot and artificial intelligence platform. This kind of software is intended for businesses and corporations mainly to help online engagement with their customers.
Librera Reader
Ebook reader for Android that supports all formats. Users can read PDF as well as MOBI, DJVU, It is also available in F-Droid.
LibreSprite
A program to create animated sprites (artwork) based on former version of Aseprite when it was libre software.
Libreplan
A project management program. It is intended for organizations, businesses and everything that needs project management. If features resource planning, task allocation, gantt chart, and monte-carlo simulation. It is a good replacement to the nonfree software Microsoft Project aside from the fellow free software ProjectLibre. The difference is that LibrePlan is web based while ProjectLibre is desktop application.
Librevault
A file synchronization program to make files same between different computers in a local network. It is secured with AES and TLS encryption, serverless, and cross platform. It is still in alpha development stage for now.
LibreTranslate
https://github.com/uav4geo/LibreTranslate
A web based libre software which is same in purpose to Google Translate. User can input text in any language in one box and LibreTranslate will bring the translation in another language in the other box. The benefits and advantages are it is ready to use now, available for development in public, self-hostable for the users, and provide an API for programmers.
LibreSignage
github.com/eerotal/LibreSignage
A free, libre and open source digital signage solution. Digital signage is those multiple displays displaying certain information we see in public places like stores, restaurants, hospitals etc. LibreSignage can be used as a replacement to nonfree software digital signage solutions like DigitalSignage, SignageCloud, or Enplug. Fellow libre software alternative in this field is Xibo. LibreSignage is unmaintained since February 2021 and anyone is invited to help the development.
LibreSWAN
A kernel-level VPN software based on IPsec protocol. The software is a modified version of another software named Openswan but with Libre as its name (like saying "we're not open, we're libre").
LibreCRYPT
https://github.com/t-d-k/LibreCrypt
An encryption software for Windows with ability to open drives encrypted with LUKS on GNU/Linux.
LibreTime
https://github.com/LibreTime/libretime
Online radio broadcasting software developed by community as a modified version of another software named AirTime (nonfree after v2.5.2) by Sourcefabric.
LibreDWG
A free software C library to handle DWG files. It aims to be a free replacement for the OpenDWG libraries. DWG is the native file format of AutoCAD. Thanks to LibreDWG, we free software users can read and write DWG documents. LibreDWG is part of GNU operating system and is an official GNU Project.
Libre-Franklin Font
github.com/impallari/Libre-Franklin
A free font other than Liberation with Libre in its name.
LibrePilot
A remote control software for drones and mini helicopter computers.
LibreLingo
Language learning platform created after wiki concepts. Users can learn foreign languages visually with unique, interactive yet simple ways of learning.
LibreSilicon
"We develop a free (as in freedom, not as in free of charge) and open source semiconductor manufacturing process standard, including a full mixed signal PDK, and provide a quick, easy and inexpensive way for manufacturing."
LibreSOC
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libre-SOC
LibreSOC (formerly Libre-RISCV) is a hardware creation effort to create world first fully "open" computer processor with integrated graphic acceleration. It is funded by NLnet foundation -- the organization who since 1997 contributed to the establishment of the internet in the Europe and funding many libre software projects like GNU Projects, Jitsi and a lot more.
LibrEDA
libreda.org, codeberg.org/LibrEDA
nlnet.nl/project/ChipDesignFramework
LibrEDA is a young libre-software framework for the physical design of silicon chips. It is not to be confused with LibrePCB or similar tool which is intended to design PCBs. Similar to LibreSOC, LibrEDA is also funded by NLnet foundation.
LibriVox
A free read-aloud book readings project. In LibriVox, you can listen to a book like Sherlock Holmes being read aloud in downloadable audio formats. It is a non-software project which adopts principles similar to libre software for books. Its name can be translated BookSound (Latin: libri vox) and its FAQ says "might be interpreted as [...] 'free voice'. " Their book sources are the public domain ones and their providers are Internet Archive and Gutenberg Project.
LibreNMS
Do you know Cacti? To system administrators, LibreNMS, akin to it, is a fully featured network monitoring system with automation, mobile apps and billing features.
LibreSSL
An essential security software for computer users modified from another software, OpenSSL, by OpenBSD Project. Notice that the naming libre is also recognized by open source-centric project with Open in their name.
Afterwords
To sum it up, apparently there are many free software with libre as in names other than LibreOffice as the most popular one. These 30+ names are all I can collect for today and of course they may increase or decrease over the time. We can watch these projects growing, use the software or service, share, improve, or even fund and contribute to them.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Originally posted here: https://ift.tt/34daOT5
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