Open-source projects in Desktop Software Reimplementations that exist because someone reverse engineered a closed product. Most-starred: PhotoCraft, vaultwarden, Proton, Winlator, ruffle.
Search and filter this category →Clean-room Photoshop-style photo editor written from scratch in pure Rust
Unofficial Bitwarden-compatible server written in Rust
A Flash Player emulator written in Rust
Open-source clean-room reimplementation of Microsoft Word in Rust
Winamp 2.9 reimplemented in HTML5/JS, including skin and playlist format support
Clean-room AutoCAD-style CAD and drafting application written in pure Rust
Open-source clean-room Excel-style spreadsheet in Rust
Patches the Notion desktop/Electron app to add themes and extensions
Open-source clean-room reimplementation of Microsoft PowerPoint in Rust
Open-source implementation of the uTools launcher and plugin platform
Valve's Wine-based compatibility tool for Steam Play
Android app running Windows x86 apps via Wine and Box86/Box64
Vulkan-based implementation of Direct3D 8/9/10/11 for Wine and Linux
Free Windows-compatible operating system reimplementing NT
Community Proton build with extra Wine/media patches
macOS GUI wrapper for running Windows apps with Wine
Darwin/macOS translation layer for Linux
Compatibility layer that runs Windows applications on Unix by reimplementing Win32
High-level emulator for early iPhone OS apps
Wrapper tool to port Windows software to macOS using Wine
Compatibility layer that reimplements newer Windows APIs on Windows XP/2003
DirectDraw and Direct3D 1-7 compatibility layer for modern Windows
Web rendering proxy that lets vintage browsers view modern websites
Pseudo-driver that converts Direct3D 8 calls and shaders to Direct3D 9
Emulator that runs 32-bit Windows programs on other platforms via Wine
Thunks that provide missing newer Win32 APIs so programs run on Windows XP/Vista
Software emulation of the Roland MT-32 and related MIDI synths, from reverse-engineered ROMs
Emulation of the Roland SC-55 sound module from decapped chip and firmware RE
HTTP 1.x proxy that makes old web browsers usable on the modern web
DirectSound DLL replacement that restores EAX and 3D audio via OpenAL Soft
Fast usermode x86/x86-64 emulator for ARM64 Linux
Tiny x86-64 Linux emulator that runs on many platforms
Linux userspace x86_64 emulator for ARM64, RISC-V and LoongArch with native lib wrapping
Linux userspace x86 emulator for ARM with native library wrapping
Runs Windows x86 apps in Termux on Android with Box64 and Wine
Runs Win32/Win64 x86 apps on ARM64 and other hosts using Wine with FEX/Box64
Xbox 360 executable to Windows executable static recompiler
x86-64 userspace emulator for RISC-V Linux
Binary to LLVM IR translator
Dynamic binary lifting and recompilation
Flash VM and runtime written in JavaScript (archived Mozilla project)
Open-source reimplementation of the Flash Player API for web, desktop and mobile
Open-source Flash Player implementation with ActionScript 3 support
Mono's open-source Silverlight implementation for Linux
Cartoon Cartoon Summer Resort Shockwave games ported to the modern web
Open reimplementation of the Scaleform in-game UI runtime
Clean-room reimplementation of NTT DoCoMo's DoJa 5.1 i-appli runtime
Flash SWF player for the web built on the Away3D/AwayJS stack
Player for Macromedia Director 4 movie files
GNU Flash movie player that reimplements the Adobe Flash Player (SWF up to v9)