📑 Freeter

AwesomeFOSS Team

Jul 15, 2024 • 4 min read

Freeter (Code) is F/OSS application for organizing all the work you do on the computer. Most people have a TODO list tucked away somewhere or a task board or a note taking application they use, but Freeter promises to really help you get on top of things.

💡

In Japan, the term "Freeter" actually means someone is not full time employed. While we're not sure the creators of Freeter named it intentionally, it's an interesting coincidence.

Freeter helps you stay organized and on top of things by bundling a bunch of tools you need to stay productive – Timers, TODO lists, Notes, and more all into one place.

The idea is that you embed your applications that you need to use into the Freeter app, and it keeps you focused on the task at hand, and you can stay in-flow and productive.

Check out some examples of workflows that Freeter is great at:

🌠 Features

Freeter has a ton of features, and is really more of an all-encompassing productivity tool, but we'll try and boil it down here:

Integrated workspace for getting things done
Highly customizable widget and plugin system
Can be integrated with most outside websites via the Web plugin
Supports Mac, Linux and Windows
Desktop application
Does not send telemetry or usage data

🤖 As described by AI

Freeter is an open-source productivity application designed to streamline workflow management by bringing together all essential tools and resources into a single interface. It helps users organize their work by projects and workflows, enabling seamless switching between tasks with customizable widgets like file openers, to-do lists, timers, and more. Freeter supports Linux, Windows, and Mac OS, and prioritizes user privacy by not collecting telemetry or usage data.

The application boosts productivity through project-specific widgets and the ability to embed web apps, reducing the need to switch between different tools. Freeter's customizable interface, with options for light and dark themes and multiple workflow tabs, allows users to tailor their workspace to their preferences. As an open-source project under the GNU GPL license, Freeter is free and encourages community-driven development and continuous accessibility.

📺 Watch this

It's a bit hard to find (due to the name collision with "freeter" the other term) but there's a YouTube video introducing Freeter:

There's also a part 2:

👟 Getting started

Freeter is a desktop app, so it's really easy to get started with – you can take a look at the Downloads page and download the current version on the platform of your choice:

Building Freeter as a NodeJS project

Since Freeter is F/OSS you can also build it yourself, if you're familiar with the NodeJS toolchain.

Generally all you need to do is:

Download (git clone) the source code from GitHub
Build the project with NodeJS (ensure node, npm, yarn are installed)

Generally the NodeJS installation process looks like the following:

yarn install
yarn run prod
yarn run package

🧑‍💻 Want to contribute?

Freeter is an open source project (GPLv3 licensed 🎉), so you're always welcome to jump in and help make it even better. You can get started on their public issue tracker:

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