Here is a list of some of the best free or open-source, cross-platform software I love using. Why pay high prices or recurring subscriptions when there are alternatives that are every bit as good as their expensive commercial counterparts? Many are web-driven and work great on Chromebooks too.

Office

• Google Docs and Drive
• LibreOffice

Graphics

• Photopea online Photoshop clone, runs completely in a browser.
• Affinity is now free! It does it all; Vector like Illustrator, raster like Photoshop, and desktop publishing / layout like Indesign. The best replacement for Adobe.
• Canva
• Gimp
• Inkscape (Illustrator replacement for vector graphics)

Video Editing

• Davinci Resolve actually blows Adobe Premiere and After Effects away!
• Capcut is super easy and geared toward social media, but the future may be unknown since it is owned by Bytedance and may go the way of Tiktok.

Music Creation

• Cakewalk DAW and sequencing

Software Design / Development

• Figma
• VSCode