in light of recent vulnerabilities and xkcd #2347 there's a need for a central hub of important yet under supported FOSS projects to help users donate and contribute to the best places
I've generated this list below with the help of Chat-GPT, please report any errors found with either an issue or pull request.
| Project Name | Description | Project Page | Donation Link | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| alsa-lib | The user-space library for the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. | alsa-lib | Donate | Audio Library |
| Ansible | An open-source automation platform for configuration management. application deployment. and task automation. | Ansible | Donate | Automation Tool |
| Apache Airflow | A platform to programmatically author. schedule. and monitor workflows. built on top of Apache Kafka. | Apache Airflow | Donate | Workflow Management |
| Apache Arrow | A cross-language development platform for in-memory data that accelerates the performance of analytics by optimizing memory layout. | Apache Arrow | Donate | In-Memory Data |
| Apache Beam | An open-source. unified model for defining both batch and streaming data-parallel processing pipelines. | Apache Beam | Donate | Stream Processing |
| Apache Cassandra | A highly scalable and distributed NoSQL database management system designed to handle large amounts of data. | Apache Cassandra | Donate | NoSQL Database |
| Apache Flink | An open-source stream processing framework for distributed. high-performing. always-available. and accurate data streaming applications. | Apache Flink | Donate | Stream Processing |
| Apache Hadoop | A distributed processing framework and storage system designed to scale up from single servers to thousands of machines. | Apache Hadoop | Donate | Big Data Framework |
| Apache Kafka | A distributed event streaming platform used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming applications. | Apache Kafka | Donate | Streaming Platform |
| Apache Kafka Streams | A stream processing library built on top of Apache Kafka. providing higher-level stream processing capabilities. | Apache Kafka Streams | Donate | Stream Processing |
| Apache NiFi | An easy-to-use. powerful. and reliable system to process and distribute data. built on top of Apache Kafka. | Apache NiFi | Donate | Data Flow Management |
| Apache ORC | A self-describing. type-aware columnar storage file format optimized for Hadoop workloads. providing built-in support for nested data structures. | Apache ORC | Donate | Columnar Storage |
| Apache Parquet | A columnar storage file format available to any project in the Hadoop ecosystem. providing efficient data compression and encoding schemes. | Apache Parquet | Donate | Columnar Storage |
| Apache Spark | A unified analytics engine for large-scale data processing. providing high-level APIs in Java. Scala. Python. and R. | Apache Spark | Donate | Big Data Framework |
| Audacity | An open-source digital audio editor and recording application. available for Windows. macOS. Linux. and other Unix-like operating systems. | Audacity | Donate | Audio Editor |
| autofs | A kernel-based automounter for Linux. | autofs | Donate | Automounter |
| Bash | A Unix shell and command language used as the default login shell for most Linux distributions. | GNU Bash | Donate | Shell |
| Blender | An open-source 3D creation suite. featuring tools for modeling. sculpting. animation. rendering. and more. | Blender | Donate | 3D Graphics |
| btrfs-progs | Utilities for managing Btrfs. a modern copy-on-write file system for Linux. | btrfs-progs | Donate | File System Tools |
| BusyBox | A software suite that provides several Unix utilities in a single executable. commonly used in embedded systems. | BusyBox | Donate | System Utilities |
| Caffe | A deep learning framework developed by the Berkeley Vision and Learning Center (BVLC) and by community contributors. | Caffe | Donate | Deep Learning |
| c-ares | A C library that performs DNS requests and name resolutions asynchronously. | c-ares | Donate | DNS Library |
| CircleCI | A cloud-based continuous integration and continuous deployment platform that helps teams automate their software delivery process. | CircleCI | Donate | Continuous Integration |
| conntrack-tools | Tools for manipulating netfilter connection tracking tables in the Linux kernel. | conntrack-tools | Donate | Networking Tools |
| cryptsetup | A utility used to conveniently set up disk encryption based on the Device Mapper. | cryptsetup | Donate | Disk Encryption |
| Docker | An open-source platform for developing. shipping. and running applications inside containers. | Docker | Donate | Containerization |
| dosfstools | Tools for creating and checking FAT file systems on various storage devices. | dosfstools | Donate | File System Tools |
| dropbear | A small SSH server and client designed for small memory environments. | dropbear | Donate | SSH Server & Client |
| e2fsprogs | Utilities for creating. checking. and managing ext2. ext3. and ext4 file systems. | e2fsprogs | Donate | File System Tools |
| ebtables | A utility for Linux that provides a framework for Ethernet frame filtering on a Linux bridge. | ebtables | Donate | Network Filtering |
| Elasticsearch | A distributed. RESTful search and analytics engine capable of solving a growing number of use cases. | Elasticsearch | Donate | Search Engine |
| ethtool | A utility for examining and modifying the Ethernet network interface controller settings. | ethtool | Donate | Networking Utilities |
| Evince | An open-source document viewer capable of displaying multiple document formats. including PDF. PostScript. DjVu. and more. | Evince | Donate | Document Viewer |
| Exim | A message transfer agent (MTA) developed at the University of Cambridge. | Exim | Donate | Email Server |
| F2FS-tools | Tools for creating. checking. and managing F2FS file systems. | F2FS-tools | Donate | File System Tools |
| Firefox | An open-source web browser developed by Mozilla Foundation. known for its speed. privacy features. and extensibility. | Firefox | Donate | Web Browser |
| Fluentd | An open-source data collector designed to unify logging infrastructure. used for log data aggregation and transformation. | Fluentd | Donate | Data Collector |
| GIMP | An open-source raster graphics editor used for tasks such as photo retouching. image composition. and image authoring. | GIMP | Donate | Graphics Editor |
| GitLab CI | A continuous integration and continuous deployment tool built into GitLab. providing a complete DevOps platform. | GitLab CI | Donate | Continuous Integration |
| glibc | The GNU project's implementation of the C standard library. used by nearly all C programs and most C libraries. | glibc | Donate | C Standard Library |
| GNOME Desktop | A desktop environment composed of free and open-source software that runs on Unix-like operating systems. | GNOME | Donate | Desktop Environment |
| GNU Core Utilities | A set of basic file. shell. and text manipulation tools for Unix-like operating systems. | GNU Core Utilities | Donate | System Utilities |
| GParted | A partition editor for graphically managing disk partitions. | GParted | Donate | Disk Partitioning |
| Grafana | An open-source platform for monitoring and observability. providing beautiful dashboards. analytics. and data visualization. | Grafana | Donate | Visualization Tool |
| GRUB | The Grand Unified Bootloader. a multiboot bootloader used for booting multiple operating systems. | GRUB | Donate | Bootloader |
| HAProxy | A free. open-source software providing high availability. load balancing. and proxying for TCP and HTTP-based applications. | HAProxy | Donate | Load Balancer |
| htop | An interactive process viewer for Unix-like systems. | htop | Donate | System Monitoring |
| Inkscape | An open-source vector graphics editor used for creating or editing vector graphics such as illustrations. diagrams. and logos. | Inkscape | Donate | Vector Graphics |
| IPRoute2 | A collection of utilities for controlling TCP/IP networking and traffic control in Linux. | IPRoute2 | Donate | Networking Utilities |
| iw | A command-line tool for configuring wireless devices on Linux. | iw | Donate | Wireless Networking |
| Jenkins | An open-source automation server used for building. testing. and deploying software projects continuously. | Jenkins | Donate | Continuous Integration |
| JFSutils | Utilities for creating. checking. and managing JFS file systems. | JFSutils | Donate | File System Tools |
| Jupyter | An open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents containing live code. equations. visualizations. and narrative text. | Jupyter | Donate | Data Science Tool |
| Kdenlive | An open-source video editing software based on the MLT Framework. offering a wide range of features for creating and editing videos. | Kdenlive | Donate | Video Editor |
| KDE Plasma | A free and open-source desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems. | KDE Plasma | Donate | Desktop Environment |
| KeePassXC | An open-source password manager that stores passwords securely encrypted databases and supports features like auto-type and strong password generation. | KeePassXC | Donate | Password Manager |
| Keras | An open-source deep learning framework for Python. providing a high-level neural networks API. capable of running on top of TensorFlow. Theano. or Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit. | Keras | Donate | Deep Learning |
| Kibana | A data visualization dashboard for Elasticsearch. providing visualization capabilities on top of the content indexed on an Elasticsearch cluster. | Kibana | Donate | Visualization Tool |
| Kubernetes | An open-source container orchestration platform for automating the deployment. scaling. and management of containerized applications. | Kubernetes | Donate | Container Orchestration |
| Less | A terminal pager program used to view (but not change) the contents of a text file one screen at a time. | Less | Donate | Terminal Utility |
| libcurl | A library used for transferring data with various protocols. supporting HTTP. HTTPS. FTP. FTPS. SCP. SFTP. LDAP. and more. | libcurl | Donate | Network Library |
| libevdev | A wrapper library for evdev devices. used to decode and manipulate input events on Linux. | libevdev | Donate | Input Device Library |
| libinput | A library to handle input devices in Wayland compositors and to provide a generic X.Org input driver. | libinput | Donate | Input Device Library |
| libjpeg | A library used for reading and writing JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. | libjpeg | Donate | Image Library |
| libpng | A library used for reading. writing. and manipulating PNG (Portable Network Graphics) image files. | libpng | Donate | Image Library |
| LibreCAD | An open-source 2D CAD application that supports industry-standard DWG file format. among others. for drafting and designing. | LibreCAD | Donate | CAD Software |
| LibreOffice | A free and open-source office suite. including word processing. spreadsheet. presentation. and database applications. | LibreOffice | Donate | Office Suite |
| libxml2 | A library used for parsing XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents. providing various functionalities for XML processing. | libxml2 | Donate | XML Parser |
| Lilo | A boot loader for Linux and other operating systems. | Lilo | Donate | Boot Loader |
| Logrotate | A utility for rotating log files to prevent them from becoming too large and consuming disk space. | Logrotate | Donate | Log Management |
| LVM2 | Logical Volume Manager 2. a userspace toolset that provides logical volume management facilities on Linux. | LVM2 | Donate | Volume Management |
| LXQt | A desktop environment designed for low-resource computers. combining the Qt toolkit with the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE). | LXQt | Donate | Desktop Environment |
| MariaDB | An open-source relational database management system. a fork of MySQL led by the original developers. | MariaDB | Donate | Database System |
| mcelog | A utility for decoding and logging machine check exceptions (MCEs) on x86 and x86-64 systems. | mcelog | Donate | System Monitoring |
| mdadm | A Linux utility used to manage and monitor software RAID devices. | mdadm | Donate | RAID Management |
| Memcached | A high-performance. distributed memory object caching system used to speed up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load. | Memcached | Donate | Caching System |
| MongoDB | A cross-platform document-oriented NoSQL database program. using a JSON-like document format for data storage. | MongoDB | Donate | NoSQL Database |
| msmtp | An SMTP client that can be used to send emails from Mutt and other programs. | msmtp | Donate | SMTP Client |
| Mutt | A text-based email client for Unix-like systems. | Mutt | Donate | Email Client |
| MXNet | An open-source deep learning framework used to train. and deploy deep neural networks efficiently. especially for image. text. and voice data. | MXNet | Donate | Deep Learning |
| NetworkManager | A utility for managing network connections in Linux. providing automatic detection and configuration of network devices. | NetworkManager | Donate | Network Management |
| NFS-Utils | Utilities for mounting and managing NFS (Network File System) exports on Linux. | NFS-Utils | Donate | File System Tools |
| nftables | The successor to the iptables. ip6tables. arptables. and ebtables tools. | nftables | Donate | Firewall |
| Nginx | A high-performance. open-source web server and reverse proxy server used for serving web content and managing load balancing. | Nginx | Donate | Web Server |
| ntfs-3g | A stable. open-source. and freely available read-write NTFS driver for Linux. | ntfs-3g | Donate | File System Driver |
| NTP | Network Time Protocol. a protocol used to synchronize the clocks of computer systems over a network. | NTP | Donate | Time Synchronization |
| OBS Studio | An open-source software for live streaming and screen recording. commonly used by gamers. podcasters. and online content creators. | OBS Studio | Donate | Streaming & Recording., |
| OpenSSH | A suite of secure networking utilities based on the SSH protocol. providing encrypted remote login. file transfer. and more. | OpenSSH | Donate | Secure Networking |
| OpenSSL | A library used for secure communication over computer networks. providing implementations of various cryptographic protocols and algorithms. | OpenSSL | Donate | Cryptography Library., |
| OpenSSL | A robust. full-featured. and open-source toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols. | OpenSSL | Donate | Security Library |
| OpenStack | A cloud computing platform for infrastructure as a service (IaaS). providing a set of services for building and managing cloud environments. | OpenStack | Donate | Cloud Computing |
| openvpn | An open-source VPN (Virtual Private Network) implementation that creates secure point-to-point connections. | openvpn | Donate | VPN |
| OpenVPN | An open-source VPN (Virtual Private Network) implementation that creates secure point-to-point connections. | OpenVPN | Donate | VPN |
| parted | A partition editor for creating. destroying. resizing. and copying disk partitions. | parted | Donate | Disk Partitioning |
| Parted | A partition editor for creating. destroying. resizing. and copying disk partitions. | Parted | Donate | Disk Partitioning |
| Pidgin | A multi-platform instant messaging client compatible with AIM. ICQ. IRC. and many other protocols. | Pidgin | Donate | Instant Messaging |
| Pigz | A parallel implementation of gzip. significantly speeding up compression and decompression tasks. | Pigz | Donate | Compression Utility |
| PolicyKit | A framework for defining and handling policies for system-wide privileges. | PolicyKit | Donate | Authorization |
| PostgreSQL | A powerful. open-source object-relational database system known for its reliability. robustness. and performance. | PostgreSQL | Donate | Database System |
| procps | A set of command-line utilities that provide information about processes using the /proc file system. | procps | Donate | Process Utilities |
| Prometheus | A monitoring and alerting toolkit originally built at SoundCloud. now a standalone open-source project. | Prometheus | Donate | Monitoring Tool |
| PulseAudio | A sound system for POSIX OSes. providing a software abstraction layer between audio applications and the audio hardware. | PulseAudio | Donate | Audio System |
| PyTorch | An open-source machine learning library based on the Torch library. developed primarily by Facebook's AI Research lab. | PyTorch | Donate | Machine Learning |
| Quagga | A network routing software suite that provides implementations of various routing protocols. | Quagga | Donate | Routing Protocols |
| Redis | An in-memory data structure store used as a database. cache. and message broker. supporting various data structures. | Redis | Donate | In-Memory Database |
| rsync | A fast and versatile file-copying tool that can be used for remote backups and synchronization. | rsync | Donate | File Synchronization |
| Rsyslog | A reliable and scalable syslog implementation for Unix systems. | Rsyslog | Donate | System Logging |
| Samba | A software suite to enable interoperability between Unix-like systems and Windows environments. | Samba | Donate | File Sharing |
| scikit-learn | A machine learning library for the Python programming language. providing simple and efficient tools for data mining and analysis. | scikit-learn | Donate | Machine Learning |
| Shotcut | An open-source video editing software that supports a wide range of formats and provides a user-friendly interface for editing videos. | Shotcut | Donate | Video Editor |
| SonarQube | An open-source platform for continuous inspection of code quality. providing static code analysis and automatic code reviews. | SonarQube | Donate | Code Quality |
| SQLite | A self-contained. serverless. zero-configuration. transactional SQL database engine. | SQLite | Donate | Database System |
| Squashfs-tools | Tools for creating and extracting SquashFS file systems. a compressed read-only filesystem for Linux. | Squashfs-tools | Donate | File System Tools |
| Squid | A caching and forwarding HTTP web proxy used to reduce bandwidth usage. improve response times. and control access to web content. | Squid | Donate | Web Proxy |
| Strace | A diagnostic. debugging. and instructional userspace utility for Linux. | Strace | Donate | System Tracing |
| Sysstat | A collection of performance monitoring tools for Linux. | Sysstat | Donate | System Monitoring |
| tar | A utility used to collect many files into one archive file. often compressed with gzip or bzip2. | tar | Donate | Archiving Utility |
| TensorFlow | An open-source machine learning framework for building and training neural networks. developed by Google Brain. | TensorFlow | Donate | Machine Learning |
| Terraform | An open-source infrastructure as code software tool for building. changing. and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently. | Terraform | Donate | Infrastructure as Code |
| Thunderbird | An open-source email client developed by Mozilla Foundation. offering features such as email encryption. message filtering. and more. | Thunderbird | Donate | Email Client |
| Transmission | An open-source BitTorrent client with a simple and easy-to-use interface. available for various operating systems. | Transmission | Donate | BitTorrent Client |
| Travis CI | A hosted continuous integration service used to build and test software projects hosted at GitHub and Bitbucket. | Travis CI | Donate | Continuous Integration |
| udev | A device manager for the Linux kernel. | udev | Donate | Device Management |
| UFW | Uncomplicated Firewall. a user-friendly interface for managing netfilter firewall rules on Linux systems. | UFW | Donate | Firewall |
| UPower | A system daemon for managing power devices and batteries on Linux. | UPower | Donate | Power Management |
| V4L-utils | Utilities for the Video4Linux kernel subsystem. used for controlling video devices on Linux. | V4L-utils | Donate | Video Utilities |
| Varnish | An HTTP accelerator designed for content-heavy dynamic web sites. caching HTTP reverse proxy. or content delivery network (CDN). | Varnish | Donate | HTTP Accelerator |
| VLC Media Player | An open-source multimedia player capable of playing various audio and video formats. streaming protocols. and more. | VLC | Donate | Media Player |
| Wget | A command-line utility to download files from the web. | Wget | Donate | Download Utility |
| WPA Supplicant | A software implementation of the WPA security protocol for IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs. | WPA Supplicant | Donate | Wireless Security |
| X11 | The X Window System. a windowing system for bitmap displays. common on Unix-like operating systems. | X11 | Donate | Windowing System |
| Xfce | A lightweight desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems. known for its simplicity and performance. | Xfce | Donate | Desktop Environment |
| XFS | A high-performance journaling file system created by Silicon Graphics. now part of the Linux kernel. | XFS | Donate | File System |
| YUM | A package manager for Red Hat and CentOS Linux distributions. used to install. update. and remove software packages. | YUM | Donate | Package Management |
| ZFS | A combined file system and logical volume manager designed by Sun Microsystems. later acquired by Oracle. | ZFS | Donate | File System |
| Zlib | A compression library used to perform lossless data compression. widely used in various software applications. | Zlib | Donate | Compression Library |
| zlib | A software library used for data compression. providing functions for compression and decompression of data using the DEFLATE algorithm. | zlib | Donate | Compression Library |
| ZRAM | A Linux kernel feature that provides a compressed block device in RAM. improving performance on systems with limited memory. | ZRAM | Donate | Memory Management |
| Zstd | A fast lossless compression algorithm and tool for compressing files in the .zst format. | Zstd | Donate | Compression Algorithm |