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
this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy
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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.
PC:
- 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
- Caprine -- clean Facebook Messenger client (web wrapper based)
- TeXStudio -- my L^A^T~e~X editor of choice; integral (ha!) when formatting maths-heavy documents
Android:
free streaming app, works with SFlix, Sodastream, PH and other legally dubious streaming providers. Takes some trickery to set up though. 2. Osmand
OpenStreetMap client with offline (optional online) navigation and plenty of plugins; loads of customisation 3. Material Files
nicest file manager, especially for rooted devices 4. Showly
freemium open-source TV and film tracker. Syncs with Trakt.tv 5. 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
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.
Obsidian for Knowledge base, note taking. https://obsidian.md
Edit: TIL not open source. sorry. They even had a Github and all. I wasn't paying attention. I have to move now :(
Yeah seconded that itβs 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.
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.( Ν‘Β° ΝΚ Ν‘Β°)
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.
Also Highways use VLC to mark many winter potholes
I was searching for some kind of VLC based image / video processing algorithm to detect potholes
Was this a joke about how the logo is a traffic cone
VLC: Very Large Cone
Yes. Very much so.
Termux: A terminal emulator for Android.
Blender is my favorite open source tool I wish I knew how to use :)
Iβd 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.
From the top of my head, I would name Okular. No other FOSS pdf reader is as complete and easy to use.
sshfs
Seriously, it will change your life.
What is it?
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.
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 once saw a comment about an app that made it easier to contribute to OSM. Do you know which one that might be?
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.
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.
Try F-Droid instead.
F-Droid has many security vulnerabilities and has many issues such as:
- Hosting an outdated APK client.
- Utilizes an obsolete installation method.
- Does not take advantage of modern appstore features.
- Has no moderation.
- Has no old app deletion.
- Has an arbitrary FOSS only rule.
- Does all building and signing themselves.
If you want more details about these issues read this:
#2 can be solved by using one of several alternative clients with root permissions. Yes, manual APK install is tedious but not inherently insecure, and the only option for nonroot devices without an ADB host.
#4 is not really true. They are just very lenient, mostly just flagging apps with problems (known vulnerabilities, telemetry, non-FOSS services/assets/libs, ads).
#5, #6 and #7 are actually advantages. It's nice to know that all apps are FOSS and correspond to source, and I can install old apps / earlier versions on old phones β as opposed to Google Play, which denies an appβs existence if your device is incompatible, resulting in shady alternatives and adware typosquatters topping search results.
2 - Manual installation methods can be insecure because a lot of people don't update their apps all the time. Obviously rooting a phone is insecure, but having no auto updates in 2023 is crazy.
4 - It is very true, having zero quality control on new apps. The flagging of apps with problems is just following the FOSS philosophy. Any FOSS app can be added to F-Droid.
5 - Not sure why you would want to install abandoned apps on F-Droid, let alone use an EOL device. A lot of people don't check if apps are maintained because they trust their app store.
6 - FOSS doesn't automatically mean its secure or private. Also, why is it that I have to install proprietary apps only on the Google Play Store?
7 - FDroid signing keys isn't an advantage because it requires an extra layer of trust. I'm already trusting the developer by installing their app, so the developer should be signing the keys. This is a reason why Signal is not on F-Droid.
The point of free software isn't security, but freedom. For people who want control of their computing, this is not an "arbitrary restriction" but rather a basic requirement. Just because you don't particularly care about a concern doesn't make it "arbitrary." I'm not a vegan or vegetarian but I don't complain about the "arbitrary restriction" of a plant-based diet.
I think your thinking im against FOSS but you're not understanding. Many people in the FOSS community only care about privacy and ignore security. A developer can implement security benefits to FOSS but many people don't care to do it.
Accrescent is FOSS and it has much higher security benefits than F-Droid. Accrescent allows both open and closed sourced apps because there's no benefit being exclusive to having FOSS apps in their catalog.
If the user chooses to not use proprietary apps on Accrescent, they don't have to install them.
It's a misconception to say that free software is "about privacy." Many people in the free software community care about having the four freedoms (the freedom to use, share, modify, and share modified copies). We don't like free software because we think it's more secure, we like it because it's free software. Freedom doesn't need a justification other than freedom itself.
For us, a catalogue offering only free software isn't an "arbitrary rule" that's the whole point. If F-Droid carries an app I know I have the four freedoms with that app, because they put in the work to verify that, by building the app according to their (relatively strict, not strict enough IMO) standards. Accrescent and Obtainium fans have different priorities, which is okay, but I don't understand why they spend so much time shitting on F-Droid and the free software movement.
Security is important in free software, but security in proprietary software is often user-hostile (for example, DRM and WEI). Often times the only way to regain freedom in a proprietary environment is to exploit a security hole, so sometimes we prefer that proprietary software actually not be very secure.
As for F-Droid's and the free software's community towards "old" apps, we understand that software does not lose value simply by being unmaintained. Of course, if something is particularly security-critical and/or has a large attack surface (for example an operating system or a web browser). I would stay away from anything unmaintained. That doesn't apply to all software, though.
Home Assistant. If you ever want to do home automation properly, this is the way. Works with pretty much anythingβZigbee, zWave, BT LE, MQTTβwhile 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).
DAVxβ΅ 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.
And many others.
I'd actually recommend Podman over Docker nowadays. It's basically a drop in replacement and embraces open source while Docker's moving more in the direction of a closed monetized model.
I really want to use podman, but the compose part in it is still a bit too far behind
I guess I'm pretty basic with my compose files, what did you end up running into with that?
- Xonotic is an open source FPS with an active community. If you liked Quake 3 and Unreal, then I can highly recommend checking it out. It's got lots of active servers, and perfectly captures old school FPS vibes.
- Calibre is a great way to manage ebooks
- Logseq is a great way to organize notes and ideas