Usually we try to choose open source alternatives whenever we recommend software. FossHub and GitHub are our "first stops" par excellence, and in the case of Android we can always explore the catalog of F-Droid, but if you want another option for your desktop system, then you shouldn't miss OSDN, which serves as home to more than 7,500 free and open source software projects.
I imagine you have your own "program selection" to configure and prepare your computer, combining different licenses. Personally, I use a good amount of proprietary freeware, however, I never rule out the possibility of finding an open source alternative. Fortunately, the web has done the heavy lifting, with a series of free and (almost) unlimited portals. We previously talked about FossHub, one of our favorites here at NeoTeo, but if you want to download more free and open source software, you should add OSDN to your list of sources.
How to download free and open source software on OSDN
At first glance, OSDN has a rather Spartan design. At the bottom you'll find a download ranking and a list of active projects, but the rest is hidden behind the Download button at the top. At the time of writing, OSDN offers hosting for a total of 7,611 projects with more than 70,000 registered users, and when we say hosting, it's not limited to downloads. In fact, it's the ideal place for any developer who needs repository features, bug tracking, mailing lists, and more.
The categories available on OSDN are very varied. From "Security" and "Desktop Environments" to "Games" and "Religion, Faith and Philosophy", there is a great deal of material to explore. Many projects are true classics and we recognize them immediately. For example, CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo are essential for checking the health and speed of your storage drives (hard drives and SSDs), FreeCiv is an open source equivalent of the inexhaustible Civilization, and we also find high-profile tools like 7-Zip (compression) and CloneZilla (disk cloning).
Some developers share all their releases on OSDN, while others just put links to their official pages (e.g., FreeCiv). Granted: OSDN doesn't have the most intuitive design in the world, but when it comes to downloading free and open source software, it definitely deserves a place in your bookmarks.
Official site: Click here
