yt-dlp is a free, open-source tool that lets users download videos and audio from thousands of websites — including YouTube, Vimeo, and many others — directly to their computer. It supports a wide range of formats and quality options, giving users full control over what they save and how.
Why it matters: With nearly 150,000 stars on GitHub, yt-dlp is one of the most popular open-source tools in existence, signaling massive demand for offline and flexible media consumption that major streaming platforms deliberately restrict. For founders and investors, this highlights a significant gap between what users want — ownership and portability of content — and what current media platforms offer, representing a potential opportunity in content management, archiving, or media workflow products.
Tasmota is a free, open-source software replacement that you can install on thousands of popular smart home devices — like smart plugs, light switches, and sensors — giving you full control over them without relying on the manufacturer's app or cloud servers. It lets these devices work entirely within your own home network, controlled through a simple web interface or connected to popular smart home platforms.
Why it matters: With nearly 25,000 stars and over 5,000 forks, Tasmota signals massive market demand for smart home products that prioritize privacy and independence from third-party cloud services — a growing consumer concern as companies shut down servers or get acquired. For founders and investors, this represents a clear product opportunity: customers are actively seeking connected devices that offer local control, long-term reliability, and freedom from subscription fees or data sharing.
RustDesk is a free, open-source alternative to TeamViewer that lets you remotely access and control computers from anywhere in the world, across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. Unlike paid competitors, it lets businesses host the software on their own servers, meaning all data stays under their control rather than passing through a third party's systems.
Why it matters: With over 107,000 stars on GitHub, RustDesk has massive market validation as a challenger to TeamViewer and AnyDesk — both of which carry significant licensing costs and have faced security controversies — signaling strong demand for a self-hosted, privacy-first alternative. For founders and investors, this represents a clear opportunity in the remote access market where enterprises are actively seeking tools that keep sensitive data in-house, either as a standalone product or a component to build upon.
Joplin is a free note-taking and to-do app that works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS, letting users organize notes into notebooks, search them, and attach files — all stored locally on their device so they're always accessible. Notes can be synced across devices using popular cloud storage services like Dropbox or OneDrive, with strong encryption to keep them private, and users can even import their entire Evernote history into it.
Why it matters: With over 53,000 stars and 434 contributors, Joplin represents massive market demand for a privacy-respecting alternative to dominant note-taking apps like Evernote and Notion, signaling that users are increasingly willing to switch tools over data ownership concerns. For founders and PMs, this is a clear signal that 'offline-first' and end-to-end encryption are no longer niche features but growing mainstream expectations in the productivity software market.
Win11Debloat is a free tool that automatically cleans up Windows computers by removing unwanted pre-installed apps (like games and trial software that Microsoft bundles with Windows), turning off data collection features, and tidying up the interface — all in one click instead of hours of manual settings changes. It works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, and nearly 40,000 people have starred it on GitHub, signaling very strong demand.
Why it matters: The massive popularity of this tool reveals a significant and largely unmet consumer pain point: Windows users broadly feel their operating system ships with too much unwanted software and invasive data tracking, which is a market signal that privacy and clean-slate computing experiences are highly valued. For product leaders, this suggests that software products emphasizing minimal footprint, user control, and transparency around data collection have a genuine competitive advantage in a market where users are increasingly skeptical of bundled, out-of-the-box experiences.
This project is a curated, community-maintained list of free university-level computer science courses that include video lectures, covering topics from basic programming to advanced areas like AI, robotics, and quantum computing. Think of it as a free, organized Netflix catalogue of top-tier CS education, pulling together courses from real colleges and universities in one easy-to-browse page.
Why it matters: With nearly 73,000 people starring this resource, it signals massive demand for self-directed technical upskilling, which is relevant for any company building EdTech products, developer tools, or talent platforms. For PMs and founders, it also serves as a living map of what skills the next generation of engineers are prioritizing, offering a free signal into where the tech talent market is heading.
This is Google's official library of over thousands of icons — small visual symbols like a 'home' button, a 'search' magnifying glass, or a 'share' arrow — that designers and developers can use to build apps and websites. Google maintains two sets: Material Symbols (the current, actively updated collection) and Material Icons (an older version no longer receiving new additions).
Why it matters: With nearly 53,000 stars and almost 10,000 forks, this is one of the most widely adopted icon libraries in the world, meaning a huge portion of apps and websites already share this visual language — giving products built with it an instantly familiar, polished look without custom design investment. For PMs and founders, leveraging this free, Google-backed resource can significantly reduce design costs and speed up development, though the strict contribution rules mean you can't simply add your own icons and must work within Google's roadmap.
Automa is a browser extension that lets you automate repetitive tasks in your web browser by visually connecting action blocks together — no coding required. You can use it to automatically fill out forms, scrape data from websites, take screenshots, and schedule these tasks to run on their own.
Why it matters: With over 21,000 stars on GitHub, Automa signals strong market demand for no-code browser automation tools that traditionally required expensive software like UiPath or Selenium expertise. For product teams, this highlights an opportunity in the 'citizen automation' space, where non-technical users want to eliminate repetitive workflows without relying on engineering resources.
Huginn lets you build personal automation bots that watch the web, monitor social media, and trigger actions automatically — like getting an alert when a competitor drops their price or receiving a digest of news on a specific topic. It works similarly to popular no-code tools like Zapier or IFTTT, but runs on your own server so you stay in full control of your data.
Why it matters: With nearly 49,000 stars on GitHub, Huginn signals massive demand for self-hosted, privacy-respecting automation — a direct challenge to subscription-based workflow tools like Zapier that charge heavily at scale. For founders and PMs, this represents a real market gap: users and businesses want powerful automation without giving up data ownership or paying per-task pricing.
Files is a free, community-built replacement for the default Windows File Explorer, designed to make organizing files and folders faster and more visually appealing. It offers features like working on multiple folders at once, color-coded file tags, and a clean modern look that feels more in line with Windows 11's design language.
Why it matters: With nearly 42,000 stars and 298 contributors, Files demonstrates massive unmet demand for a better file management experience on Windows — a signal that Microsoft's own native tools are leaving users frustrated. For founders and PMs, this is a case study in how a polished, user-driven open-source product can challenge a built-in platform feature and build a loyal community around a seemingly 'solved' problem.
Spotube is a free, open-source music streaming app that works on phones, desktops, and computers across all major operating systems, letting users listen to music without paying for a subscription service. It allows users to connect their own music sources and playlists through community-built add-ons, giving them more control over where their music comes from.
Why it matters: With over 44,000 stars on GitHub, Spotube signals strong consumer appetite for alternatives to locked-down, subscription-based music platforms like Spotify and Apple Music — a market worth tens of billions of dollars. For founders and investors, this highlights a real opportunity in user-controlled, flexible music experiences, particularly as audiences grow wary of rising subscription costs and platform restrictions.