Post some of your favourite software/service/alternatives. For example, I’ve started using Red Reader now that Reddit requires me to be signed in in order to display entire threads.
Also, I got youtube-dl working on termux, an android app, via ‘pkg install python’ and then ‘pip install youtube-dl’.
What are your favourites and recent discoveries? Even if you think people have already heard of it, there’s a possibility they haven’t.
You must log in or register to comment.
I have a list of my fav apps and services here.
To post them:
Favorite apps and services
Goals
- Privacy conscious, end-to-end encrypted (E2EE).
- Decentralized, no reliance on cloud providers like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Spotify, Netflix Youtube, etc.
- Self-hosted and self-reliant.
- Simple files preferred over running services.
- Make sure no sites / services are US based.
Media
- Download all music / movies locally, using torrents behind a VPN. (Don’t use Tor for torrenting)
- Use AirVPN, Mullvad, NordVPN, ProtonVPN
- Use qbittorrent, deluge, or transmission for a torrent client.
- Use LibreTorrent on android.
- Use MPV or VLC, open source media players to play media.
- Use jellyfin or SFTP for streaming to other devices, but torrenting is preferred.
- Instead of centralized, hosted youtube alternatives with upload limits, use torrents, and find a platform to post and comment on the magnet links.
Documents and Coding
- Install Syncthing, and put all your documents in a synced folder.
- Write all documents and notes in markdown.
- Use vim with vimrc and coc.nvim for code.
- Do not use vscode, it’s difficult to impossible to turn off keylogging.. If you must, use VSCodium, which removes the built-in telemetry.
- Spreadsheets in Libreoffice.
Tasks / Todos
- Use a todo.txt file for a personal task list, synced with syncthing.
- QTodoTxt as a desktop client, Simpletask Cloudless for Android.
- For shared task lists, use Etherpad.
- No good solution yet for calendars, really wish there were good file-based calendar apps. Radicale is a server based solution.
Collaboration
Browsing
- Use Firefox or Tor Browser, with the addons:
- uBlock Origin
- Privacy Badger
- Facebook Container - Keeps all Facebook stuff in it’s own container.
- Google Container
- Startpage, Searx (onion service), as a search engine
- If using Tor, use onion services if possible.
Passwords
- Use KeePassXC.
- Install the Firefox KeePassXC plugin.
- Use a long master pass phrase, with at least 10 words.
- Sync your password file everywhere you need using Syncthing.
- Bitwarden if you want to host a server.
Chat
- Use Matrix / Riot, turn on e2ee in rooms.
- Use Thunderbird for email, e2ee with pgp if possible.
Social Media
- Twitter alternative : Mastodon
- Facebook : Friendica
- Reddit : Lemmy (made by me), PostMill, or Lobste.rs
- Medium : Plume, WriteFreely
- YouTube : Torrents, or peertube.
- Instagram : Pixelfed .
Operating system
- Use Linux. I like Arch Linux or its user friendlier variants, manjaro and antergos.