I believe that Open-Source is one of the strongest movements towards the long-term empowerment of everyday people. I now use Open-Source tooling throughout the entire production of my works. It is 100% possible + effective.
Currently in my Workflow
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) – Ardour, OpenMPT, Furnace, Bespoke Synth
Plugins – Vitalium (forked from Vital), Cardinal (forked from VCV Rack), AmiSampler
Sample Packs – MechSounds, Versilian Studios Freeware, Uni of Iowa Instrument Samples, Karoryfer Free Packs
Operating System – Ubuntu Studio
Website Framework – WordPress.org
Software Development – VSCodium, Godot
Code Hosting + Version Control – Codeberg (which runs on Forgejo)
Art – Pixelorama (Pixel Art), Krita (Albums / General), Inkscape (Vector / Icons)
Social Media – Mastodon, Bluesky, Lemmy
Video Hosting – MakerTube / PeerTube
Video Editor – Kdenlive
Screen Recorder – OBS
Synced Notetaking – Joplin
Time Tracking – Kimai
General Messaging – Signal
Web Search – SearXNG (find a local host here)
Browser – FireFox
My own bespoke tools – MechSounds, Audacity Nyquist Tools, Floral Sample Toolkit
Special Mentions / Previous
MIDI Sequencer – Helio
Plugins – SurgeXT
Operating System – Linux Mint
Team Communications – Element / Matrix
Browser – WaterFox
Document Editing – LibreOffice
For more
I strongly recommend checking out Switching.Software and LinuxDaw.org FOSS Search