Libre office, a great office option. I've been using it for 15 years. Foreshadowing
VLC, Plays media. It's a tank. Also Highways use VLC to mark many winter potholes.
Linux, It's not that hard to use anymore.( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
WINE, not just for one night stands! it's great for running Windows Stuff on Linux.
Also, and my personal favorite, your mom is free and open source. Mic Drop going to bed. With your mom. Wasn't expecting that twice were you? Well, neither was your mom. Got 'em.
Libre office, a great office option. I’ve been using it for 15 years. Foreshadowing
I love LO as well, it's perfect if you're used to old versions of MS Office and like to be in control of everything. A good open-source alternative for the new releases of MS Office is Onlyoffice.
Ublock Origin. The amount of people going through life exposing themselves to ads is tragic. It's so unhealthy and most people aren't aware that there is a simple and free way of protecting yourself from the psychological warfare that corpos use against society
I don't understand how people do not get blood red angry at advertising more often. Its the root of a lot of our problems with censorship and they flat out just exploit what little free time we all get.
By the time I get home I got 3 hours to chill. Then these ads take up 1/3 of that selling me shit I never asked for. They indirectly forced every platform I ever enjoyed to become these homogenous boring vanilla time sinks. That's because they pay one content safe creator and then the rest start to copy them. Now if I want to avoid ads, I have to pay extra fees which fuck it, the content creators circumvent by putting ads directly into the media.
We should all be more hostile to any encroachment of ads into our lives. Its weird that instead I see people embracing it like it isn't a cancer. We've lost the freedoms we had on thr internet to these ads and nobody seems to care.
Given that there is a lot of effort put into research into making advertisements more ‘effective’, I wouldn't be surprised if there is also some research put into influencing people to accept advertisements as a normal part of life, justifying it as a necessary evil, or even embracing it as an essential part of what makes the free market ‘work’.
This is what I use if I can't use Illustrator - it's also got some terrific conversion tools. Currently the only app i know that can open and convert old Fireworks files.
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an open-source (open data) project. OpenStreetMap is a collaborative mapping platform that allows users from around the world to contribute, edit, and use geographical data. The data and software behind OSM are open-source, which means they are freely available for anyone to view, use, modify, and distribute under open licenses.
The data contributed to OpenStreetMap islicensed under the Open Database License (ODbL). This license allows for the free use of the data as long as proper attribution is given and any derivative works are also made available under the same open license.
I got addicted to using and contributing on OSM daily and enjoy spending my time improving the map. In fact a lot of closed source maps such as Google Maps and Apple Maps pull from some of the OSM data, so everyone gets to benefit from contributions.
In case you're looking into this out of curiosity, check out the Beginner's Guide and try to verify that the data around your neighborhood is correct and maybe add a point of interest (PoI) or a street name or two. Beware, it gets addictive quite fast.
OSM is also used for humanitarian use thanks to the HOT tasking platform. For example the majority of relief effort in Turkey's February earthquake, Sri Lanka flooding, and the recent Marocco earthquake. Mapping can literally help save lives. It's fun and easy too!
I love OSM, I try to put notes to fix things when I see them (for example, one-way streets that aren't properly set up, or left turns that aren't allowed). One day I'll hopefully have the confidence to fix things myself.
I use Osmand mostly, as it allows me to easily have everything offline. (Plus I can sideload/back up the maps on android)
I love OSM and use it through OsmAnd. I also contributed in the past, creating the first mapping for the area I lived in back then. I want to contribute again. But I find that wherever I go, everything is already mapped to the finest detail. A good problem to have, I think.
That was very likely Street Complete which is self explanatory and a great way to start. You are adding all kinds of useful information about any kind of object or building with this.
There's also Vespucci which allows to alter the whole map (ie edit streets, POIs and so on) but takes a lot more to get familiar with.
Is there a decent option for using OSM with Android Auto? I want to move away from Google as much as possible, but Mapfactor's routing is... well, terrible.
Give OsmAnd a try. Organic Maps are also working on the integration, but its not yet there and fully refined, though it is my preferred map for navigation while driving.
You can start light, just by verifying that the data is up to date or adding some information eg. wheelchairs facilities or payment methods accepted. I use a tool called Every Door (Android) and it makes this surveying really simple and quick.
Jellyfin, it's pretty simple and if you have a spare computer, a decent connection (and by decent I don't mean even a decent one by 21th century standards, I still have a 100/10mbps ADSL) and a 2/4tb Hdd, you can host your own FOSS Netflix/Hulu with all the shows you want, if you're in a county where "sailing the seven seas" is a huge deal, the only subscription would be a cheap VPN or even better something like real debrid.
Literally, and I mean literally, just downloaded this yesterday because I was tired of using Syncthing to pass media files back and forth between my phone and my NAS.
Plex is a shit show, charging you to view remote files.
Got any recommendations on where to put together a decent setup? The documentation seems a bit sparse.
I run Jellyfin in Docker on a Pi4 and it works great. The only problem are x265 files, because Jellyfin tries to transcode them and the Pi cannot handle that.
Do you use the flatpak version on Linux? I'm a bit of a noob but I think due to flatpak sandboxing it can't access your home folder or something, so I had this problem where it could only access my /media/ external HDD.
Aside from that, I just make folders named something unambiguous like "jellyfin documentaries", make a jellyfin directory from the control panel, name it something like "documentaries" link the two and then add the documentaries and then scan the libraries. (i may have misunderstood your question lol sry, English is my 2nd Lang)
The "best" setup (simplest to maintain, not to set up), is using docker to host jellyfin, sonarr, radarr, lidarr, transmission with wireguard VPN, and prowlarr for all of your media needs. Jellyfin plays stuff, sonarr manages shows, radarr: movies, lidarr: music, prowlarr: your sources for said media. Transmission + wireguard VPN for the downloading.
But then you are getting into self hosting stuff which opens up a whole good, but time consuming rabbit hole
https://perfectmediaserver.com/
Check that out, one of the guys who is a main personality of the self-hosted podcast made that website. It's all about setting up automations to download movies and TV shows automatically and stuff.
I tried to use Emby and Plex since both were available bydefault on my NAS, good lord they both suck ass and charge for the most basic functions. Switched to Jellyfin, so much smoother and completely free.
Wow, I've just downloaded and set up Jellyfin based on your post. It took literally 20 minutes and looks like it will immediately replace the awkward DLNA Serviio setup I had running. Amazing
Just so you know, there are custom CSS themes aviable on some official page I don't remember, but if you look up "jellyfin custom CSS" an official jellyfin page should come up, they look so much better.
Home Assistant. If you ever want to do home automation properly, this is the way. Works with pretty much anything—Zigbee, zWave, BT LE, MQTT—while keeping things manufacturer agnostic, local, private and highly responsive (your commands don't need to go through some server 3000 km away and won't have ugly 1 second latency as a result).
DAVx⁵ and Radicale to sync contacts and calendars between devices without snooping middle-men.
Syncthing to sync any files between devices. Works remotely, too, thanks to Syncthing relays.
Navidrome for your personal music streaming service.
Debian, Docker, Docker Compose and Portainer as the backbone to run all your services.
One of the best things about HASS is the counterweight it applies to the home automation industry.
When everyone is trying to lock people in to proprietary systems, the hass community is keen to find alternatives.
"To use this temperature sensor, you must use our hub and app"
2 days later: 'Good news everyone, it's manchester coding on 433Mhz, and I've written a direct integration for rtl_433'
I was searching for some nice way to keep my KeePass files in sync across my phone + pc. Tried Syncthing as soon as I saw your comment and it's a life saver :D Thanks so much!
(I only own older Tuya devices that I flashed with Tasmota before setting them up with Home-Assistant. But I think what they sell nowadays can't be flashed with a free and open-source firmware. So the Tuya integration should work. But I haven't tried it.)
Yeah, you don't need a VPN as their is also a relay component that forms a sorta sync thing network. While the data is always encrypted, with the relaying you are using external servers to route the traffic. The relaying also isn't required, but ensures data can be synced even when a direct connection isn't possible (e.g. You arent home and aren't on your VPN).
I know it might not be in the spirit of the thread because it's not something you download and use as it's own thing but it has allowed me to exclusively run Linux on my gaming PC. I think more folks should try it to slowly tip the scales more on Linux.
Using it with steam or without. I personally use it with steam as well, it's amazing. Hopefully we reach a point where publishers are incentivised to make sure their games run smoothly on Linux at launch through proton.
Blender is my favorite open source tool I wish I knew how to use :)
I’d love to use it for creating my own designs and took several attempts at learning it. But I always end up giving up on it due to lack of time and energy.
Did you use the youtube tutorials from the doughnut guy?
I tried to learn blender by just using it and googling the issues but gave up several times. Then I bit the bullet and went trough a proper video tutorial. Most of them run at increments of 10-20 minutes and each one reaches enough to be useful on its own.
Another tip is to do lots of tiny things you can reasonably make in a weekend before doing big things.
I prefer to use tutorials I can read and reference. But I’m willing to give videos a try if you say it’s a good one for a total beginner.
Could you give me a link?
Blender has one of the hardest learning curves I have experienced so far. It simply does so much and there is so much to remember. It's worth it, but man, it's intense.
For anyone doing academic writing, I use a combination of Logseq, Zotero, and Zettlr. All open source. Collect articles in Zotero. Annotate and take notes on those articles in Logseq with absolutely amazing PDF annotation tools. Write draft in Zettlr which allows me to enter Zotero citations and reference Logseq notes.
Bonus shoutout to LibreOffice for exporting and formatting the final draft. And that’s your recipe for one all-natural, organic, FOSS thesis!
Zotero is such a lifesaver. I started using it to allow for easier citations and reference lists but I've loved being able to keep my sources organized and saved in one place while doing research. The browser extensions are also super convenient to save everything to sort later on.
Libreoffice -- the best, most customisable and powerful office software available
Onlyoffice -- alternative for less-advanced users who are used to the UI of contemporary MSO
Zotero -- great bibliography manager useful when writing scientific papers: lets you collect books, journal articles and all other types of sources, automatically finds full text PDFs online, fills in metadata and then inserts dynamic citations in thousands of different, customisable styles. Also generates bibliographies. Works with LO, MSO and GDocs
TeXStudio -- my LATeX editor of choice; integral (ha!) when formatting maths-heavy documents
Android:
Cloudstream --- free streaming app, works with SFlix, Sodastream, PH and other legally dubious streaming providers. Takes some trickery to set up though.
Osmand --- OpenStreetMap client with offline (optional online) navigation and plenty of plugins; loads of customisation
Material Files --- nicest file manager, especially for rooted devices
Showly --- freemium open-source TV and film tracker. Syncs with Trakt.tv
Simple Gallery --- out of all Simple Apps by this developer, this is the only one which is in fact superior to its alternatives. Highly customisable, powerful, lightweight gallery app
Thanks for spreading the good word on OpenData mapping solutions! In case you find Osmand's interface confusing, check out Organic Maps as well. FOSS and offline features are naturally part of the offering.
Good list I make use of a lot of these too. Keep both LibreOffice and OnlyOffice around depending on how I feel that day but been leaning towards LO quite a bit recently.
I will say I had Caprine for a while but my god it uses so much memory, it has an absolutely massive footprint on my laptop. I find a nice compromise is using messenger.com as that way I can still send and read messages without delving into the horrors of FB, plus can keep it in a container.
Question about zotero, I just started using it and I can't seem to find a way to direct it to PDFs I have already downloaded? Is there a way to do that or does it only have the PDF finding feature? The citation thing is pretty cool though, it's gonna make my writing class easier and I won't have to use mybib anymore.
Also, is there a way to make it always use the classic interface when adding a citation? I keep having to click "show classic interface" or whatever the button is, and it's a tad annoying.
Question about zotero, I just started using it and I can’t seem to find a way to direct it to PDFs I have already downloaded? Is there a way to do that or does it only have the PDF finding feature?
You can just drag and drop PDFs. Either to the list to create a new item or to an existing item if you already have it there.
Also, is there a way to make it always use the classic interface when adding a citation? I keep having to click “show classic interface” or whatever the button is, and it’s a tad annoying.
Zotero: Edit: Preferences: Cite: Word processors: Use classic Add Citation dialog [X]
Bitwarden is very good. And it is not getting hacked every year as Lastpass... (another free password manager).
I also saw that proton has launched proton pass as a password manager.
Seems to also be free, but only the app, I think is open source, and not the server. It also works less well than bitwarden, being new it can be expected.
I was a Bitwarden user for 2yrs and recently moved away to ProtonPass. Primary reason for me was native mobile apps and email alias feature. Although it doesn't have a web version yet (which is planned and would be coming in future), browser add-ons and native apps cover what I need and migration was mostly seamless as well
For what it's worth, there's several static site generators that use WordPress as a backend but generate static HTML files. You might be interested if some of those WordPress sites are client sites, as the clients could still use the WordPress admin panel but the actual site will be static.
Aegis is good but I personally prefer Authenticator Pro. It's also open source, and supports watches. It's so much more convenient getting 2FA codes on my Samsung watch. Aegis is very principled and refuse to use non-open-source libraries. I really appreciate that stance, but unfortunately some of Google's libraries for building WearOS apps are closed-source.
I use it, but I don't understand the auto update feature. When it's closed the app shows a number of updates and when I open it I have to click on every update manually, it never auto updates, even though it's enabled in the options. Does it work for you?
Floris board has the best swipe amongst foss options Ive tried. And Ive tried a few. But unfortunately google/ samsung swipe keyboards were super convenient.
Actually keypass2android, my password managaer has a keyboard thats the best (but its really ugly) so I cant use that.
openboard, awesome keyboard without tracking software
I have tried to use Openboard, but Gboard really spoiled me with the quick language auto detection... I have even tried using the iOS stock keyboard and it sucks balls compared to Gboard...
MPV player. Super lightweight, minimalist, literally runs anything you throw at it, keyboard focused, hyper customizable, loads of plugins for anything you can think of, supports all the meme filters and best of all, multiple frontends available.
I'm not as well versed in FOSS as other posters but FOSS Android apps that I learned about on Lemmy/kbin and am enjoying:
AntennaPod (podcast player)
Inoreader (RSS reader)
Newpipe (YT player)
Bitwarden (password manager)
LibreraFD (PDF and other format reader, substitute for OverDrive)
kbin (I subscribe to Lwmmy communities thru kbin, also)
And I rely in Firefox with UBO, as other posters have mentioned.
Because why not! Easy way to SCP files over, run scripts. Repurpose old devices as always on, low power servers. It ties in nicely with Tasker so if you want to extend functionality it's easy.
Firefox+uBlock (web browser)
MEncoder (video encoder)
OBS (screen recording and streaming software)
Inkscape (vector illustration software)
Mumble (VoIP chat room server/client/protocol)
Julia (programming language great for scripting and mathematics)
For Unix systems:
Wezterm (terminal multiplexor)
i3 (window manager)
Over a decade ago when I was big into gaming it was the best option over competition like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak. Still have a server to this day even though many gamers seem to have moved onto talking over Discord voice calls or channels.
It is a markdown editor and has a lot of features i didn't know I wanted. Like you can mark in PDFs and those marks will be made into notes with shortcuts to that place right into your other notes.
I use a lot of note apps partially for school partially for fun but man Logseq PDF annotation is incredible. That plus native Zotero integration is a game changer for anything academic.
I've been using Linux Mint for almost a year and a half now: would recommend it to anyone ready to make a jump into Linux and away from Windows. It's quite friendly.
I'm also quite enjoying Sonarr to keep track of some older television shows that I enjoy.
Over the years I got bored of repirating photoshop and now I just use GIMP.
I'm not exactly a graphic designer by any means but there's very little I can't do with GIMP. Seems to just run better and more intuitive than photoshop for me too.
Ardour. Great digital audio workstation. It's on par with the proprietary options, would choose it any day over Cubase or Reaper. Listen to some music I made in it!
Eternal Terminal is a good alternative to tmux too, it you're just using it to run stuff in the background / reconnect after losing connection. Things like scrollback work normally.
Really going to plug KeePassXC. I think there are several forks for different platforms/slightly different implementations of the KeePass family of password managers, but I prefer the "app that creates a file" paradigm of KeePass to Bitwarden's "server that hosts a database" paradigm.
RedNotebook. It's not 100% what I was looking for in journal software, but it's the closest I tried. For the longest time I kept a journal in plaintext using basically any text editor that fell to hand, but RedNotebook lets me use some formatting and rich text (apparently via YAML or similar markup notation?) and adding pictures/links etc. I do sometimes use my journal to kind of stream-of-conscious-brainstorm, and checklist functionality would be handy for that but any app I've found that provides that is also incomprehensible. I also like that RedNotebook respects my system theme.
AutoKey. You're aware of AutoHotKey for Windows? Well AutoKey runs on Linux, and it uses Python for its scripting language instead of its own proprietary weirdness. I use it all the time.
Gonna mention FreeCAD. FreeCAD probably has the worst case of FOSS disease I'm aware of; it's UI is a klunky mess, it's perpetually unfinished, but if you can survive the utter pain in the ass it is to live with it's extremely powerful. Just the fact that it's a CAD program with a built-in spreadsheet is a total game changer. There's a lot to dislike here, but I honestly don't know what I'd do without it.
Firefox. Everyone reading this already knows everything I'm going to say.
Thonny. A pretty basic Python editor/IDE aimed at beginners and students, but I'm quite fond of it, especially when playing with Micropython on various little microcontrollers.
Any cloud server, any linux server on your network, any virtual machine... is a network hard drive. No need to mess around with shares, permissions or server side settings (caveat: Your ssh user on the remote server DOES need to have the access you want to the files you want... but also duh). Want to edit config files on a remote server in your local text editor? You can. Want to mount your media server in your home directory on your Ubuntu laptop and watch your videos in VLC? You can. Want to just open Finder windows where one is your working directory on a cloud server and one is your home directory on your local machine and just drag files between them? You can. Want to share a hard drive between your Mac, your Windows machine and your Linux Mint laptop and just open the network share with one simple line in the terminal? You can.
The remote server just needs to be running SSH (that's it! You don't need ANY OTHER SERVER SIDE code) and you can mount ANY PART OF IT'S FILE SYSTEM like a network drive. It's file system agnostic on the server side as well. Implementations for Mac and Windows in addition to Linux. Although, admittedly, the non-Linux implementations are a bit janky... but I'm almost a pure Linux user, so that doesn't affect me... I DO have it running on my MacBook and my Mac Mini, but I barely use those.
Yeah I've been a uTorrent person for years, but I think two years ago or so I just went "fuck it!" Because the constant ads (and also horny af ads) were doing my head in. So highly recommend Qbittorrent.
Battle for Wesnoth really needs more love. I know it's popular in the open source gaming community, but seriously, it's sooooo good. Mainstream gamers really ought to jump on board.
I don't know if you've heard of Unciv, but it's another really well done open source game that needs more love:
+1 for Navidrome. I have just set it up in a docker for serving grateful dead shows. I may set up a second navidrome for other assorted music. I am experimenting with Clementine, also free, as a front end for playing the music.
Yunohost! If you want to get started self-hosting some services, check out Yunohost. It's super easy to setup and run, active development and community, and just awesome. I found it so much easier than docker-based projects. I used to have it running on an old eeepc netbook, but now I have a dedicated tower server for it.
I'll second Openstreetmap, I use it exclusively. There's also a set of lightweight versions that are locally hosted, so I use osmap.nl if I want to quickly look at where something is. It also forces the names to the language of the server, so you can use it to improve a second language.
I use an adblocker on my phone called Blokada. It blocks adverts in apps as well as on websites, so I don't get adverts if I play something like Words With Friends for example. Also blocks adverts on Youtube which is an absolute godsend. Advertising is one of the few things I get irrationally upset about.
I make music using LMMS. It has its limitations but it's quite versatile if you're handy with it. This song was made in it for example: https://on.soundcloud.com/dTqgb
I use Betterbird for email on my PC. It's Spartan in design, which is what I'm into, and you can sign in with multiple addresses. I use K-9 Mail on my phone which has the same advantages.
I use an app called Saisonkalender to look at what veg is in season. Quite niche but it's handy for ordering ingredients for soup of the day in work.
I have a game on my phone called Lexica which is basically Boggle. It's good fun.
I also love OSM, but I often heavily rely on Satellite imagery for orientation.
For example, when I explore an area, I‘m going to travel to, I almost exclusively look to the city‘s satellite imagery beforehand to identify landmarks and use them for orientation. Unfortunately that doesn’t work well with OSM.
Has anyone an OSM equivalent for satellite imagery?
I use OsmAnd on Android and it has a feature to overlay (or underlay) map tiles from multiple sources. I use the OSM tiles as my default and overlay Microsoft's satellite imagery over them, which I can turn on and off (or even adjust opacity with a slider).
You can look at routes and stops on it and that's about it, but I maintain that Google Maps is awful for public transport. I used to work on the railway and I have some anecdotes about it.
Oobabooga Textgen Webui - because offline open source AI is the biggest force multiplier and most powerful game changer in the last 20 years. It will reshape everything in the next couple of years. This will be bigger than the revolution of capacitive touch screens. Oobabooga is easy, and it makes playing with AI easy even if you don't have the best hardware. Get it on github, then go to Hugging Face for models. Look for prequantized models by The Bloke, read the model card. His models tell you the minimum requirements and what you need to do.
Equalizer APO + Peace equalizer (as the interface) + AutoEq (for the automatic equalization).
It allows to change do advanced and automatic equalization on audio devices, being audio outputs or inputs as mics.
AutoEq is the automatic part. It is more focused on Headphones/earbuds/iems presets.
It's an automatic tool trying to equalize measured (by a compatible reviewer source, which is already in the database) headset to match the target the user wants, Then export a file for the software someone uses (peace for example).
As a common preset, the harman over-ear 2018/in-ear (depending on the device) is pretty good, but other presets are available too.
There is no such thing as "hardly open source". Either the source is open or it isn't, and the source of Android definitely is. I think what you mean is "community driven", which is not the same thing. But open source always enables community driven forks and derivatives, which there are plenty of for Android.
Its very cool and I love the minimalism. I love, that I have so many choices. I can choose what OS I want, I can choose which Watchface I wanna flash and so on.
Yeah seconded that it’s not FOSS but still a great app. Logseq is a good FOSS alternative for a knowledge base, and I really like Zettlr for long form md writing and note taking too.
This app isn't fully ready yet but Accrescent is a secure and private app store for Android. It aims to be a better alternative app store on Android rather than using the Google Play Store. It currently has 11 apps right now and more to come soon.
Highly recommend to check out and support this project cuz this appstore is the best out there right now security and privacy wise.
Oops, I mentally skipped the "open source" part. It's definitely free as long as you don't need the premium features. But maybe that doesn't qualify as free?