Bossie Awards 2015: The best open source desktop and mobile software

Open source on the desktop has a long and distinguished history, and many of our Bossie winners in this category go back many years. Packed with features and still improving, some of these tools offer compelling alternatives to pricey commercial software. Others are utilities that we lean on daily for one reason or another — the can openers and potato peelers of desktop productivity. One or two of them either plug holes in Windows, or they go the distance where Windows falls short.

Trying to remember all of the passwords we need today is impossible, and creating new ones to meet stringent password policy requirements can be agonizing. A port of KeePass for Android, KeePassDroid brings sanity preserving password management to mobile devices. 

Like KeyPass, KeyPassDroid makes creating and accessing passwords easy, requiring you to recall only a single master password. It supports both DES and Twofish algorithms for encrypting all passwords, and it goes a step further by encrypting the entire password database, not only the password fields. Notes and other password pertinent information are encrypted too. 

While KeePassDroid’s interface is minimal — dated, some would say — it gets the job done with bare-bones efficiency. Need to generate passwords that have certain character sets and lengths? KeePassDroid can do that with ease. With more than a million downloads on the Google Play Store, you could say this app definitely fills a need.

— Victor R. Garza

Loss or theft of mobile devices is all too common these days. While there are many tools in the enterprise to manage and erase data either misplaced or stolen from an organization, Prey facilitates the recovery of the phone, laptop, or tablet, and not just the wiping of potentially sensitive information from the device.

Prey is a Web service that works with an open source installed agent for Linux, OS X, Windows, Android, and iOS devices. Prey tracks your lost or stolen device by using either the device’s GPS, the native geolocation provided by newer operating systems, or an associated Wi-Fi hotspot to home in on the location.

If your smartphone is lost or stolen, send a text message to the device to activate Prey. For stolen tablets or laptops, use the Prey Project’s cloud-based control panel to select the device as missing. The Prey agent on any device can then take a screenshot of the active applications, turn on the camera to catch a thief’s image, reset the device to the factory settings, or fully lock down the device.

Should you want to retrieve your lost items, the Prey Project strongly suggests you contact your local police to have them assist you.

— Victor R. Garza

The premiere proxy application for Android, Orbot leverages the volunteer-operated network of virtual tunnels called Tor (The Onion Router) to keep all communications private. Orbot works with companion applications Orweb for secure Web browsing and ChatSecure for secure chat. In fact, any Android app that allows its proxy settings to be changed can be secured with Orbot.

One thing to remember about the Tor network is that it’s designed for secure, lightweight communications, not for pulling down torrents or watching YouTube videos. Surfing media-rich sites like Facebook can be painfully slow. Your Orbot communications won’t be blazing fast, but they will stay private and confidential.

— Victor R. Garza

InfoWorld’s Best of Open Source Awards for 2014 celebrate more than 100 open source projects, from the bottom of the stack to the top. Follow these links to more open source winners:

Bossie Awards 2015: The best open source applications

Bossie Awards 2015: The best open source application development tools

Bossie Awards 2015: The best open source big data tools

Bossie Awards 2015: The best open source data center and cloud software

Bossie Awards 2015: The best open source desktop and mobile software

Bossie Awards 2015: The best open source networking and security software