Software

Contents

1. Linux
2. Android
3. Windows

This page contains a list of all the software I use and recommend to other people. Almost everything is free software.

Linux #

Distributions #

• Arch Linux - Great if you want to experiment with Linux and like to tinker with stuff. Also so you can say: 'I have Arch, btw'
• NixOS - Reproducible setups, for the perfectionists

Desktop #

• Sway - Wayland replacement for I3.
• Hyprland - Dynamic tiling window manager for Wayland with the good looks
• Waybar - Status bar for Wayland
• greetd - Minimal login daemon for Wayland

Terminal #

• Alacritty - GPU Terminal emulator
• foot - Wayland Terminal emulator
• starship - Nice shell prompt

Command line tools #

• ripgrep - Better grep, works on directories and respects gitignore
• bat - Better cat, syntax highlighted output
• fzf - Fuzzy finder for files, shell history etc.

Graphical programs #

• Firefox, with add-ons:
  • uBlock Origin
  • Vimium
  • LibRedirect
  • SponsorBlock
• Thunderbird - Email, contacts & calendar client
• GIMP - Bitmap image editor
• KeePassXC - Very good local password manager

Multimedia #

• NewsBoat - TUI RSS reader
• MPV - The only media player you need
• MPD - Music Player Daemon, integrable in desktop environment so you can control music using shortcuts
• yt-dlp - Download music from everywhere
• beets - Automatic music tagger using MusicBrains

IDE #

• Neovim - Fork of Vim with a good Lua plugin ecosystem
• VSCodium - VSCode without Microsoft spying on you.

File sync #

• rsync - Transferring files over SSH
• Syncthing - Continuous file synchronization. Why do people think we need a cloud?

Documents #

• LibreOffice - Open source office suite
• zathura - Minimal document reader with Vi shortcuts
• pandoc - Document converter, generate PDF files from markdown, LaTeX etc.
• LaTeX - Typesetting system
  • Tectonic - Easy XeLaTeX compiler and installation

Server #

• Webservers
  • NGINX - Good and advanced web server
  • Caddy - Easy to configure and automatic HTTPS
• Docker (Compose) - Easily deploy software using containers
• WireGuard - VPN protocol & software
• Tailscale - WireGuard-based VPN to easily setup private networks + a lot of extras

Android #

Android privacy sucks on most phones by default, however depending on your manufacturer there have quite some ways to customize it. If you have a Google Pixel, you can use GrapheneOS. Otherwise LineageOS which supports more devices. If the bootloader of your device is locked or 3rd party ROMs are unsupported you can do a rootless debloat using ADB with Universal-Android-Debloater.

• App stores
  • F-Droid - FOSS apps on Android
  • Aurora Store - Download apps from Google Play without a Google account
• Launcher: Niagara Launcher (not FOSS) but very good
• Web browser: Firefox for Android
• Email, calendar contatcs
  • K-9 Mail - Email client
  • Etar - Calendar app
  • Simple Calendar - Calendar app
  • DavX5 - WebCAV sync
  • ICSX5 - ICS calendars
• Communication
  • QSMS - SMS / default message app
  • Signal - Instant messaging
  • Element(X) - Matrix client
• Multimedia
  • Auxio - Good FOSS music app
  • AthennaPod - Good FOSS podcast app
  • NewPipe - YouTube client
  • LibreTube - YouTube client
• Navigation (OSM clients)
  • OsmAnd+ - most advanced navigation app
  • OrganicMaps - easier to use
• File sync
  • Syncthing android - Syncthing client for android
• Documents
  • Libera Pro - Advanced PDF reader
  • ONLYOFFICE Documents - Office suite for mobile
• OTP authenticator: Aegis
• Keyboard: Simple Keyboard
• File Manager: Material Files
• QR Scanner: Binary Eye

Windows #

I wouldn't recommend this insecure bloated spyware operating system to anyone but in many cases you simply have no choice... To massively improve your experience though, I highly recommend winutil an amazing tool from Chris Titus to debloat your Windows install. Lots of popular free software mentioned above is also available on Windows like LibreOffice, Thunderbird and 7Zip.