I was bored, so I compiled a list of 77 of my favorite open-source privacy-focused software. This ranges from Android apps to desktop apps to websites to operating systems. I scraped the programming languages used for each one from their respective repositories, and created a simple scoring system to score each programming language.
Obviously there is some bias, since Kotlin is very popular for Android apps and not much else, and it's not an exhaustive list, so some data might be off, but it was still fun to make! Just wanted to share it with all of you, in case anyone else finds it interesting.
The full ranking
Full ranking
- C++
- C
- Kotlin
- Java
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- Python
- Shell
- C#
- Dart
- PHP
- Ruby
- HTML
- Makefile
- Go
- QML
- Pascal
- CSS
- Clojure
- Blade
- Crystal
- Batchfile
- Swift
- Emacs Lisp
- Svelte
- Rust
- CMake
- Haskell
- Lua
- Vue
- Roff
- XSLT
- Assembly
- NSIS
- Objective-C
- SCSS
- Less
- PLpgSQL
- Objective-C++
- Inno Setup
- Meson
- WebAssembly
- ASL
- PowerShell
- Rich Text Format
- GLSL
- Common Lisp
- Haml
- Scheme
- Dockerfile
- Perl
- AIDL
- M4
- Mustache
- D
- MDX
- SourcePawn
- M
- Pug
- Lex
- EJS
Scores for each programming language
Language scores
C++: 13070
C: 11734
Kotlin: 7195
Java: 6727
JavaScript: 5356
TypeScript: 5002
Python: 4250
Shell: 1903
C#: 1873
Dart: 1872
PHP: 1844
Ruby: 1499
HTML: 1389
Makefile: 990
Go: 975
QML: 955
Pascal: 917
CSS: 888
Clojure: 878
Blade: 832
Crystal: 738
Batchfile: 708
Swift: 577
Emacs Lisp: 556
Svelte: 366
Rust: 351
CMake: 342
Haskell: 326
Lua: 300
Vue: 288
Roff: 268
XSLT: 176
Assembly: 167
NSIS: 130
Objective-C: 128
SCSS: 90
Less: 77
PLpgSQL: 66
Objective-C++: 61
Inno Setup: 59
Meson: 41
WebAssembly: 25
ASL: 22
PowerShell: 21
Rich Text Format: 21
GLSL: 18
Common Lisp: 16
Haml: 14
Scheme: 13
Dockerfile: 12
Perl: 12
AIDL: 11
M4: 7
Mustache: 7
D: 5
MDX: 5
SourcePawn: 2
M: 2
Pug: 2
Lex: 1
EJS: 1
The original data
(NOTE: I am NOT looking for criticism on any choices made here)
Original data
HuggingChat
TypeScript 62.1%
Svelte 36.6%
Dockerfile 0.4%
JavaScript 0.4%
HTML 0.2%
Shell 0.1%
Other 0.2%
GPT4ALL
C++ 48.2%
QML 32.3%
Python 8.5%
CMake 5.4%
JavaScript 3.9%
C 1.0%
Other 0.7%
Audacity
C 37.6%
C++ 35.3%
Python 18.1%
Shell 2.8%
Common Lisp 1.6%
QML 1.3%
Other 3.3%
Duplicati
C# 87.3%
JavaScript 5.7%
HTML 3.2%
Less 1.8%
Python 1.2%
Shell 0.4%
Other 0.4%
Vorta
Python 99.2%
Other 0.8%
Filen (Desktop)
TypeScript 96.3%
JavaScript 2.1%
HTML 1.2%
NSIS 0.4%
Monero
C++ 81.7%
C 11.7%
Python 3.2%
CMake 2.0%
Makefile 0.5%
Shell 0.4%
Other 0.5%
Ivy Wallet
Kotlin 99.7%
Other 0.3%
Brasero
C 98.1%
Makefile 1.5%
Other 0.4%
VSCodium
Shell 83.8%
XSLT 16.0%
PowerShell 0.2%
GNU Emacs
Emacs Lisp 55.6%
Roff 23.8%
C 16.4%
M4 0.7%
Objective-C 0.6%
C++ 0.5%
Other 2.4%
GitLab
Ruby 69.2%
JavaScript 17.3%
Vue 6.8%
PLpgSQL 2.9%
Haml 1.4%
HTML 0.9%
Other 1.5%
Codeberg
Clojure 87.8%
Shell 3.9%
CSS 2.3%
HTML 2.2%
Batchfile 2.2%
PowerShell 1.0%
Other 0.6%
Wikipedia (MediaWiki)
PHP 82.7%
JavaScript 15.3%
Less 1.1%
CSS 0.8%
HTML 0.1%
Vue 0.0%
7-Zip
C++ 79.3%
C 17.6%
Assembly 1.6%
Makefile 1.5%
PeaZip
Pascal 91.7%
Inno Setup 5.9%
Batchfile 1.8%
C++ 0.4%
Shell 0.1%
C 0.1%
qBittorrent
C++ 71.0%
JavaScript 14.1%
HTML 11.5%
Python 1.1%
CSS 0.8%
CMake 0.7%
Other 0.8%
osu!
C# 100.0%
2048
CSS 54.9%
JavaScript 38.1%
HTML 6.5%
Ruby 0.5%
Wireshark
C 95.2%
C++ 2.4%
Python 1.1%
Perl 0.3%
CMake 0.3%
SourcePawn 0.2%
Other 0.5%
nmap
C 38.0%
Lua 29.0%
C++ 17.3%
Shell 4.6%
Python 4.3%
Makefile 1.9%
Other 4.9%
VirtualBox
C 67.2%
C++ 25.2%
Python 2.8%
Objective-C 1.7%
Assembly 1.4%
D 0.5%
Other 1.2%
Docker
Go 97.5%
Shell 1.5%
Dockerfile 0.5%
PowerShell 0.3%
Makefile 0.1%
Python 0.1%
calibre
Python 79.2%
C 17.1%
C++ 2.8%
HTML 0.3%
Shell 0.2%
XSLT 0.1%
Other 0.3%
Thunderbird
JavaScript 60.5%
C++ 21.5%
HTML 6.6%
CSS 3.8%
C 1.8%
Java 1.7%
Other 4.1%
Betterbird
Batchfile 66.5%
C 18.3%
C++ 10.1%
Shell 5.1%
draw.io (Desktop)
JavaScript 96.0%
Shell 4.0%
Joplin
TypeScript 71.4%
JavaScript 22.3%
HTML 1.9%
CSS 1.3%
Java 1.2%
Mustache 0.7%
Other 1.2%
LibreOffice
C++ 86.6%
Java 5.5%
Python 1.8%
Makefile 1.6%
XSLT 1.5%
Rich Text Format 1.4%
Other 1.6%
Proton Mail (Web)
TypeScript 92.1%
JavaScript 5.2%
SCSS 1.5%
MDX 0.5%
Swift 0.4%
CSS 0.1%
Other 0.2%
F-Droid
Java 65.3%
Kotlin 33.1%
Other 1.6%
Aurora Store
Kotlin 96.8%
Java 2.8%
AIDL 0.4%
Neo-Store
Kotlin 100.0%
Obtainium
Dart 98.7%
Other 1.3%
Droid-ify
Kotlin 99.6%
Shell 0.4%
IzzyOnDroid
PHP 97.2%
Python 2.5%
Shell 0.3%
Accrescent
Kotlin 100.0%
GNOME Software
C 97.0%
Meson 1.2%
Python 1.1%
Other 0.7%
Flathub
TypeScript 74.0%
Python 24.2%
JavaScript 1.1%
Shell 0.4%
SCSS 0.2%
Dockerfile 0.1%
SearXNG
Python 74.7%
Shell 9.9%
HTML 6.1%
Less 4.8%
JavaScript 2.7%
CSS 0.9%
Other 0.9%
GrapheneOS
Makefile 87.1%
C++ 11.3%
Shell 1.6%
GNOME
C 97.3%
Meson 2.3%
Python 0.4%
KDE Plasma
C++ 45.6%
QML 41.2%
C 5.5%
CMake 2.3%
Python 2.2%
JavaScript 1.9%
Other 1.3%
Arch Linux
C 98.4%
Assembly 0.7%
Shell 0.4%
Python 0.2%
Makefile 0.2%
Perl 0.1%
HeliBoard
Java 45.4%
C++ 34.7%
Kotlin 19.2%
Other 0.7%
Blender
C++ 76.3%
Python 14.6%
C 5.0%
GLSL 1.8%
CMake 1.2%
Objective-C++ 1.0%
Other 0.1%
FreeCAD
C++ 52.7%
Python 44.5%
C 1.5%
CMake 0.8%
NSIS 0.2%
Lex 0.1%
Other 0.2%
Krita
C++ 90.2%
Python 3.0%
C 2.3%
CMake 1.6%
HTML 0.7%
Rich Text Format 0.7%
Other 1.5%
GIMP
C 95.5%
Scheme 1.3%
Python 1.1%
C++ 0.7%
Meson 0.6%
Perl 0.4%
Other 0.4%
Flameshot
C++ 87.8%
CMake 5.8%
Shell 3.3%
Python 1.7%
Roff 1.1%
C 0.2%
Other 0.1%
Inkscape
C++ 94.1%
C 1.7%
CMake 1.5%
HTML 1.4%
Python 0.3%
Aegis
Java 96.0%
HTML 2.1%
Roff 1.9%
VeraCrypt
C 68.8%
C++ 19.0%
Assembly 10.0%
Shell 1.1%
Makefile 0.5%
Batchfile 0.3%
Other 0.3%
KeePassXC
C++ 95.1%
CMake 2.2%
Shell 1.5%
PowerShell 0.6%
Objective-C++ 0.4%
Python 0.1%
Other 0.1%
KeePassDX
Kotlin 79.0%
C 14.0%
Java 4.1%
Assembly 2.6%
C++ 0.2%
Ruby 0.1%
addy.io
Blade 83.2%
JavaScript 5.2%
Vue 4.8%
PHP 4.5%
CSS 2.3%
Mullvad VPN
Rust 35.1%
Swift 26.2%
Kotlin 19.5%
TypeScript 13.2%
C++ 2.8%
Shell 1.8%
Other 1.4%
Alovoa
Java 82.7%
HTML 9.8%
JavaScript 3.6%
CSS 2.8%
Other 1.1%
Briar
Java 98.0%
Kotlin 1.9%
Other 0.1%
SimpleX Chat
Haskell 32.6%
Kotlin 32.3%
Swift 26.9%
HTML 2.2%
TypeScript 1.4%
JavaScript 1.1%
Other 3.5%
Medito
Dart 88.5%
Kotlin 8.0%
Ruby 2.0%
Swift 0.7%
CMake 0.2%
C++ 0.2%
Other 0.4%
coreboot
C 94.4%
ASL 2.2%
Makefile 1.0%
C++ 0.7%
Assembly 0.4%
Perl 0.4%
Other 0.9%
Libreboot
Shell 51.5%
Python 25.1%
C 22.2%
Makefile 1.2%
OpenStreetMap
Ruby 78.1%
HTML 8.7%
JavaScript 6.9%
PLpgSQL 3.7%
SCSS 1.2%
C++ 0.7%
Other 0.7%
OsmAnd
Java 95.3%
Kotlin 3.9%
AIDL 0.7%
CSS 0.1%
Shell 0.0%
XSLT 0.0%
Organic Maps
C++ 71.0%
C 7.5%
Java 6.1%
Swift 3.5%
Objective-C++ 3.1%
Python 2.9%
Other 5.9%
VLC Media Player
C 62.6%
C++ 18.9%
Objective-C 8.3%
QML 3.1%
Makefile 1.6%
Lua 1.0%
Other 4.5%
Stremio (Desktop)
C++ 36.7%
QML 17.6%
NSIS 12.4%
JavaScript 10.7%
Shell 9.1%
CMake 4.1%
Other 9.4%
OBS Studio
C 54.6%
C++ 34.7%
CMake 6.1%
Objective-C 2.2%
Objective-C++ 1.6%
M 0.2%
Other 0.6%
NewPipe
Java 84.0%
Kotlin 13.5%
HTML 2.5%
FreeTube
JavaScript 68.5%
Vue 17.2%
CSS 11.2%
SCSS 3.0%
EJS 0.1%
Invidious
Crystal 73.8%
HTML 13.9%
JavaScript 8.2%
CSS 2.6%
Shell 1.1%
Makefile 0.2%
Dockerfile 0.2%
PeerTube
TypeScript 89.7%
HTML 6.5%
SCSS 3.1%
Shell 0.4%
Pug 0.2%
JavaScript 0.1%
Tubular
Java 84.6%
Kotlin 13.0%
HTML 2.4%
Mullvad Browser
JavaScript 28.1%
C++ 25.7%
HTML 22.3%
C 12.4%
Python 2.8%
Tor Browser
JavaScript 28.2%
C++ 25.6%
HTML 22.3%
C 12.4%
Python 2.9%
uBlock Origin
JavaScript 88.4%
CSS 4.9%
HTML 3.4%
WebAssembly 2.5%
Shell 0.6%
Python 0.1%
Makefile 0.1%
Simplicity of maintenance, and these help with good security.
This makes some sense but the performance sacrifice is too big imo.
performance is basically irrelevant… when you’re a professional software engineer, ease of maintenance - adding new features, bug fixes, keeping bugs out of the code base - is paramount… you can always throw more servers at it, because they’re cheap compared to labour and mistakes
But how about desktops? You're just creating e-waste with that ideas.
it’s still better than electron?
performance of the underlying programming language is basically the least of our concerns
we don’t get new computers because things become less efficient - we get new computers because we demand new features and software gets more complex… e-waste isn’t created because software is using python - e-waste is created because consumers demand fancy animations and gestures and things that programmers have to add, and it’s inefficient to pay a human to write those things in a low level language
This is 100% not true. Most users don't care about fancy animations and stuff like that. I hope you will understand it at some point and if not, I just hope you stop creating software and spreading these ridiculous Big Tech inspired ideas.
users care about a polished product and don’t actually give a shit about privacy TBH - it’s not a fact that is particularly fun, but it’s the truth… users don’t care about technology as long as their thing does what they want and makes them feel good for doing it. animations are intended to guide the user between actions - show that A action led to B state… users don’t care about animations, but animations often make software easier to use, and users DO care about that in UX test after UX test
Bruh I didn't say anything about privacy but optimization for older devices. I suggest you see a doctor because you seem to have quite noticeable issues with understanding what you read. Also a product can be polished and optimized at the same time.
no; i’m simply saying that users like us are not the typical users. it’s irrelevant what you’d like to be true - engineering concerns and “good products” - users don’t care about that… usability and features are more important by far than performance and efficiency and this has been shown time and time again in UX research
and i’m not the 1 resorting to personal attacks, so perhaps reevaluate your position if it’s so weak that that’s all you can muster in response
I don't think there's a point in arguing with you. Unfortunately some people are just too rich to understand the issues with planned obsolescence.
Also I knew that my previous reply could be considered a personal offense. However it was not. Your behavior seems concerning and doesn't seem related to any obvious reasons such as limited language knowledge. This is why I suggested you to check on your health. Most illnesses are much easier to treat before they go really far.