We often use software for creative work. The Adobe suite is a set of popular software that is often associated with creative work. Of course, like any corporation, they have their share of shitty practices, particularly around subscription models.
Adobe Controversy
Adobe used to offer perpetual licenses to its creative software, known as the Creative Suite (CS). However, they dropped the perpetual licensing model and adopted a subscription-based model, known as Creative Cloud (CC). Users that installed CC were unable to migrate back to their CS licences because Adobe shut down the CS licence activation servers, bringing into question the honesty of the word "perpetual". This also caused users to be unable to reinstall their perpetual licences on newer computers.
Recording and Streaming - OBS Studio
Getting an easy one out of the way. Plenty of content creators record what they do on the computer and upload it - either edited into a coherent video, or as an unedited livestream. Gaming channels are the prime example, of course, but there are a few other channels that also get into the business of sharing what's on their screen with an audience.
A lot of them use OBS Studio. It's free-as-in-beer, free-as-in-freedom, and it's also easy to use. It's already the industry standard in recording what's happening on your screen, if you ever need to.
Audio Editing - Audacity
Another industry standard, Audacity is hard for beginners to pick up but is one of the best audio editors out there.
3D Modelling and Animation - Blender
Yet another FOSS app that's already the industry standard in its field, Blender is widely used for creating 3D worlds and "recording" videos in them.
Photo Editing - GIMP
The first in the list that's not an industry standard - Photoshop is the standard. However, it requires a subscription. Photopea is a browser-based alternative, but I don't trust the data privacy on browser-based apps at all.
GIMP has all the simple editing features that one needs, but lacks the more complex features (especially AI features) that Photoshop provides. Intuitiveness takes a hit, though, as I needed a tutorial to figure out how to draw a rectangle in GIMP.
Drawing - Krita, MyPaint
This section was written in collaboration with Siri - you can find her on Instagram as @what.the.artt
Most hobby digital art these days is done on iPads, using Procreate. Apple is famously good on privacy and security. However, we do not know when that will change - tech companies pulling the rug has been a frequent occurence of late. Sketchbook and Fresco are available for both Android and Apple tablets. Those on computers use Illustrator or Corel Draw - the latter being offered for free with some Wacom tablets.
Krita and MyPaint are open source drawing apps, with Krita being available for Androids as well. MyPaint is more intuitive to use in my opinion, but Krita tends to be the favourite among the more professional artists that value open-source software.
Video Editing - Kdenlive
KDE Non LInear Video Editor - or kdenlive (yes, quite the reach for an acronym) is the most popular open-source video editor. I've used Windows Movie Maker and kdenlive is as good. The Windows Photos app comes with a movie maker which is very user-friendly and has great effects, but is not good for non-linear video editing. DaVinci Resolve is non-linear and has professional effects, but isn't open source.
Vector Graphics - Inkscape
Illustrator is probably the industry standard here, but Inkscape isn't far behind in terms of features. Jacqui uses Inkscape for her vector drawing needs.
Photography - Darktable
I hadn't known RAW image editing needed something different from Photoshop or GIMP, but here we are. Lightroom (by Adobe) is the most popular option, with Darktable (FOSS) being faster and more performant, but lacking some features - notably photo organisation.