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%
The only program here I know is SearXNG. My experience with GUI Python apps was pretty bad but I guess it makes it easier for devs to make new apps so it has the right to exist as long as it’s not invasive or used in OS components.
python makes solid backends - especially ones that deal with things like 3rd party APIs and data munging, which makes it a pretty good choice for a lot of web-based privacy apps like alternative front-ends
How exactly is it good for backends except for simplicity of creation?
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.