When Chrome starts eating memory, Microsoft Edge is the Chromium browser most people already have. What it costs you now that Copilot ships inside it.
The browser that came with your machine is fine until a site breaks. Google Chrome is what the web gets tested against, and what that costs in blocking and privacy.
Free, open source and funded by donations, Thunderbird is the email client for people who want mail, calendar and contacts kept on their own machine.
Webmail tabs and the built-in Mail app fall short once you're juggling several accounts. Mailspring answers with a native client and unlimited free accounts.
Cryptomator adds client-side encryption to any cloud folder you already sync. Free and complete on desktop, read-only on phones until you pay once.
Bitwarden is a free, open source password manager that stores unlimited logins across unlimited devices. One real question decides whether Premium is worth adding.
Notepad++ is the free, open-source text editor most Windows users install the day plain Notepad stops being enough. Fast, tiny, and endlessly extendable.
7-Zip is a free, open-source file archiver that opens almost everything and compresses tighter than most paid rivals. A plain interface is the only real cost.
WinRAR is Windows archiving software that compresses, encrypts, and repairs files, and its free trial never really shuts off. The real question is whether that beats 7-Zip.
CCleaner is a PC cleaner for junk files, browser traces, and uninstall leftovers on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. The free tier still does the real work.
One long read on the week's biggest shift, every Sunday.
