VLC also works for streaming media such as podcasts and online radio stations. You can use VLC media player to open audio and video files in just about any format without having to hunt down extra codecs.

This video and media player has been leading the industry for years in terms of popularity, and it’s not hard to see why. VLC (or VideoLAN Client) media player is a lightweight application created by an open source development group known as the VideoLAN project. Recently, an online editing option has been added but it still requires some technical know-how to implement. The only downside to this awesome free office software (opens in new tab) is that editing documents collaboratively online is a bit tricky. In other words, your formatting won’t get screwed up if you need to modify a document originally written in Microsoft Word.

The reason that LibreOffice has taken the top spot today is that it is much better at preserving Microsoft file formats. For example, in the latest update, LibreOffice added a QR code generator tool so you can quickly create mobile-friendly links.Īn alternative well-known open source office tool is Open Office, which offers many similar features to LibreOffice.

Some would actually argue that LibreOffice is the more fully-featured of the two, thanks to its dedicated developer community which is adding new tools and tricks all the time. With support for documents, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, diagrams, and mathematical formulae, LibreOffice is essentially a free version of the world’s most popular office productivity suite, Microsoft 365 (opens in new tab).

Best freeware for mac