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Shivam Chhuneja for Middleware

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12 Open Source tools that Developers would give up Pizza forπŸ‘‹πŸ•

It's Open Source tool time!

There is more to open source tools than the top 3 that everyone knows about.

Heck, you might actually know all the 12 in this list already(in which case: "slow clap"), but most of us don't.

developer open source slow clap

And when it comes to tools to help devs do their jobs, open source makes for a convincing argument!

That's why we launched our own Open Source tool for developer productivity as well.πŸ˜‰

So, here’s a curated list of 12 open source tools that can become indispensable in your toolkit.

Let’s go!

Note: We found some inconsistencies in the projects, rephrased and added new projects based on suggestions from the community.

1. Theia

Think of Theia when you're looking for a truly Open Source alternative to VSCode.

It's a flexible IDE that works on both the cloud and desktop. It’s built in TypeScript and comes with lots of add-ons you can use.

  • Key Features:

    • Cloud & desktop IDE capabilities
    • Extensible plugin system: Accepts VSCode plugins/extensions
    • Multi-language support
  • Theia Website

  • Theia Github

2. Postman

A lot of us would already know about Postman.

No no, not the guy who delivers your Amazon packages.

Postman Open Source

This Postman makes it easier to work with APIs by letting you chain requests together, automate tasks, and collaborate with others.

So, if you're not a fan of cURL, Postman comes to rescue.

3. Hoppscotch

Hoppscotch is a free, lightweight, fast, and a pretty API request builder tool to create and test your APIs relatively quickly.

  • Key Features:

    • HTTP request methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, etc.)
    • Built-in support for GraphQL
    • Collection management and environment variables
  • Website: Hoppscotch

  • GitHub: Hoppscotch GitHub

4. Pocketbase

Pocketbase is an open source realtime backend in one file that can be used in your Flutter, Vue, React & Angular applications.

Think of a no fuss & a simple SQL database for developers written in Go.

5. cURL

I guess there is no developer who wouldn't know cURL.

cURL is a simple command-line tool that is used for calling APIs. In fact, cURL is included by default in most operating system distributions like Linux & MacOS.

  • Key Features:

    • Support for multiple protocols (HTTP, FTP, etc.)
    • Scriptable command-line tool
  • cURL Website

  • cURL Github

6. Waveterm

Waveterm is an open-source AI-native terminal.

Waveterm ties command line with open web to help developers be more productive.

  • Key Features:

    • Persistent sessions across network disconnections and reboots
    • Searchable contextual command history
    • CodeEdit, to edit local and remote files with a VSCode-like inline editor
    • AI Integration with ChatGPT (or ChatGPT compatible APIs) to help write commands and get answers inline
  • Waveterm Website

  • Waveterm Github

7. Ollama

AI is all the rage and a developer who doesn't play around with local LLMs isn't a developer at all in 2024, right?😜

Ollama is all about experimenting with Large Language Models locally.

It's like Docker Desktop for LLMs.

Ollama Open Source

  • Key Features:

    • Local experimentation with LLMs
    • Development environment for large language models
    • OpenAI compatible API
  • Ollama Website

  • Ollama Github

8. LM-Studio

LM-Studio is also like Docker Desktop & a competitor to Ollama.

9. VS Code

Tell me you knew VS Code is Open Source. Tell me please.

VS Code is a more or less the first code editor that most developers start with these days. Unless you use Vim on Linux. I use Arch btw.

Extensions for VSCode are available in unimaginable quantities.

10. Docker Compose

Everyone uses Docker these days, right?

Docker Compose makes it easier to set up multiple connected Docker applications by using a simple compose.yaml file.

11. ESLint

ESLint is a great tool for JavaScript and TypeScript that enforces coding standards and enhances code quality through customizable linting rules and plugins.

ESLint in combination with Prettier and other such tools help JavaScript developers at large.

12. Oh My Zsh

Oh My Zsh is like a supercharged upgrade for your Zsh shell setup, it's got cool themes and plugins that put your terminal experience on steroids.

Of course, getting a proper Zsh resource file tends to be a bit difficult for some.


Did I miss some important ones?

What do you think?

GitHub logo middlewarehq / middleware

✨ Open-source dev productivity platform for engineering teams ✨

Middleware Logo

Open-source engineering management that unlocks developer potential

continuous integration Commit activity per month contributors
license Stars

Middleware Opensource

Introduction

Middleware is an open-source tool designed to help engineering leaders measure and analyze the effectiveness of their teams using the DORA metrics. The DORA metrics are a set of four key values that provide insights into software delivery performance and operational efficiency.

They are:

  • Deployment Frequency: The frequency of code deployments to production or an operational environment.
  • Lead Time for Changes: The time it takes for a commit to make it into production.
  • Mean Time to Restore: The time it takes to restore service after an incident or failure.
  • Change Failure Rate: The percentage of deployments that result in failures or require remediation.

Table of Contents

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Top comments (35)

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programmist profile image
Tony Childs

I'd recommend Bruno over Postman any day. Postman was a handy tool when it first came out a decade ago, but as it has moved to a paid platform the free version has been crippled. Aside from being an innovative and easy-to-use tool, Bruno is truly free and doesn't limit you.

usebruno.com/manifesto
usebruno.com/compare/bruno-vs-postman

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Don't know this one, will have a look for sure

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jayantbh profile image
Jayant Bhawal

Oh yeah! Bruno is pretty cool!
Does bruno have something equivalent to how postman can save a request and response for a given saved request?

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alexk profile image
Alex Kaul

Thanks for sharing the FOSS tools!
One more FOSS tool to improve dev productivity: Freeter. It allows to organize web apps, files & folders, urls, etc by projects and workflows and stay focused on what matters at any given moment.
Here is a post on how I boosted my productivity with it: dev.to/alexk/how-i-boosted-my-prod...

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Thanks for the suggestion, will definitely look at it.

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jayantbh profile image
Jayant Bhawal

Freeter is pretty damn cool! Thanks!

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emil_ksenzovski profile image
Emil Ksenzovski • Edited

AI made article, the author didn't even bother to check if the content is correct.

  1. Everyone who knows Postman knows that its not FOSS except chatgpt.
  2. Hopscotch site is dead and GitHub repo archived since 2021.
  3. Warp is not only not an open source but it is designed to communicate with remote proprietary server, the company claims that the UI and the client will eventually be open sourced but not the server.

I didn't bother to continue reading the other tools.

Articles like this only mislead and lower the level for us, and sure it not add credibility neither to the author nor to the dev.to site.

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Yes, I used Grammarly, but it is not AI-generated.

I'm learning the differences between Source-available and FOSS. I got to know a few tools from my colleagues and dropped the links.
My bad; I did not double-check. I'm continuously learning and improving.

However, I used Postman, Ollama, cURL, and VSCode.

I updated the article with your suggestions and highlighted the comments.

Our co-founders have written genuine opinions on dev.to. Please consider taking a look. Happy to get on a call if you have more questions!

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programmist profile image
Tony Childs

Also note that your Sol links are dead.

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

appreciate this - will see what happened here

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daveparr profile image
Dave Parr

Bodhi and lm studio kinks are also dead

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Hey, I have updated and made corrections in the article.

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litlyx profile image
Antonio | CEO at Litlyx.com

I would love if in your next post on FOSS you can show Litlyx we are an Open Source alternative to Google Analytics, but with steroids.
I've found your list highly informative. thanks for sharing.

Sharing love from italy!

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Noted Antonio - will have a look for sure :)

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scottgoettepnc profile image
scottgoettepnc

Ollama is great for experimenting with local LLMs. Doesn't seem to match the description in your article though.

Might you have meant to highlight prometheus? Jaeger? Or another free monitoring/observability framework/platform?

Am interested/curious which one

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sqlrob profile image
Robert Myers

Are the Warp links correct? Those appear to be an AI assisted terminal, not a deployment tool.

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

I realized after your comment that Warp wasn't technically OpenSource, which I was under the impression of from their GH repo.

I've now updated Warp to Waveterm which they themselves seem to recommend as well.

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thesimpledev profile image
Steven Stanton

Yea this one lost me when recommending Postman. I would highly recommend Bruno for a true open source alternative to Postman.

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Another reader, Tony also mentioned Bruno in the comments earlier, will check it out for sure :)

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leob profile image
leob

Eh 12 tools? 13 tools? First thing I noticed about this article (nobody else is mentioning it) :D

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Oops, point taken, thanks for pointing this out

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nick_mcavoy_8fcb40ca82389 profile image
Nick McAvoy

There's also oh-my-bash for bash, but I much prefer oh-my-posh because it works on bash, zsh, fish, and even powershell. So your native windows cli can get in the fancy terminal experience

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

appreciate the input - will check these out too!

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rk042 profile image
rathod ketan

I think Jenkins is open source and best for creating CI CD pipeline

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samadyarkhan profile image
Samad Yar Khan

VS Code FTW

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

🫑

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enoch91 profile image
Enoch Osarenren

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well. I recently launched an open-source project called GraphQLPlaceholder, and I'd love your support. Please check it out and give it a star on GitHub github.com/enochval/graphql-placeh.... Your support would mean a lot to me and help immensely in the project's growth.

Thank you.

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isabella_stanton profile image
Isabella Stanton

ESLint is fantastic for improving JavaScript and TypeScript code quality with customizable rules. Combining it with tools like Prettier is a game-changer. Just like MyMathLab Help has streamlined my study routine, ESLint ensures clean and efficient coding. Thanks for sharing its key features!

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click2install profile image
click2install

Another list in the long list of waste of time lists.

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shivamchhuneja profile image
Shivam Chhuneja

Thank you for your comment, just want to blog about what me and our team find useful in our own dev productivity journeys.

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