Uses
Free and open-source software I use every day.
About this list
Everyday life – research included – works perfectly well without proprietary environments. Free and open-source software protects privacy, preserves data sovereignty and is built to last. To draw attention to such alternatives, this list shows the tools I rely on day to day. The hardware is listed to indicate compatibility. The list was inspired by the /uses tradition.
My Linux desktop
PC components
- Motherboard
- MSI B550 A-Pro
- Power supply
- Corsair RM750x
- Processor
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- Cooler
- Noctua NH-D15 Dual-tower air cooler; almost silent – durable and low-maintenance
- Graphics card
- XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT
- Memory
- Corsair Vengeance DDR4 RAM 32 GB
- Storage
- Samsung SSD 870 EVO 2 TB
- Crucial MX500 2 TB
- Western Digital WD50NDZM-598KS1 5 TB
- Monitor
- LG 32GK850F (2560 × 1440 at 32")
- DAC
- Khadas Tone Board External USB DAC on an open circuit board with an XMOS USB interface and an ESS ES9038Q2M; converts digital audio into an analogue signal. Housed in an aluminium case from Audiophonics.
- Keyboard
- Varmilo ‘Vintage Days’ VA109M ISO‑DE
- Switches
- Varmilo EC Sakura V2 switches Contactless keystroke detection via a change in capacitance (EC = electrostatic capacitive); since there is no metal contact to wear out, more durable than classic mechanical switches
Security
- Encryption
- LUKS2 Full disk encryption with TPM2 unlocking
- Passwords
- KeePassXC Store passwords securely and fill them in automatically (SSH agent integration)
- Antivirus
- ClamAV Detection of trojans, viruses and other malware
- Flatpak
- Flatseal View and adjust the permissions of Flatpak applications
- Privileges
- run0 Polkit-based privilege management (an alternative to sudo); see VanillaOS’s ‘Sudon’t’ approach
- Auditing
- Lynis Security audits, system hardening, compliance testing
- Access control
- SELinux Flexible mandatory access control (MAC)
- Firewall
- firewalld Dynamically managed firewall with support for network and firewall zones
- Identity
- GPG (Ed25519) Cryptographic proof of identity
Operating system
- Operating system
- Unwritten 44 My Fedora bootc image, hosted on GitHub
- Desktop
- GNOME 50 Linux desktop environment with horizontally arranged workspaces
- GNOME extensions
- AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support Show background applications as icons in the top bar
- Caffeine Quickly disable automatic suspend from the system menu (Quick Settings)
GUI applications
- Web browser
- Firefox Browsing with Mozilla’s Gecko engine; with uBlock Origin (ad blocker)
- Thunderbird Email client with calendar
- GUI text editors
- Geany The comprehensive one. More than a text editor: a whole IDE (integrated development environment).
- GNOME Text The pretty one. With mature tab handling.
- Comparison
- Text Compare Compare two versions of a text; very simple, with three columns
- Office
- LibreOffice Successor to the OpenOffice suite; opens Microsoft Office files (.docx etc.)
- Document Scanner Simple document scanning
- Papers Viewing and annotating PDF files; supports several formats
- PDF Arranger Splitting and rearranging PDF pages
- Dictionary
- GoldenDict-ng Dictionary lookup for online and, above all, offline dictionaries; supports many formats (e.g. StarDict, MDict, ABBYY Lingvo)
- Audio player
- DeaDBeeF Fast audio player with countless settings, written in C and C++; often compared with foobar2000. Can edit metadata. Plays to its strengths with a music collection in FLAC and the Khadas Tone Board.
- Video player
- mpv Lean video player, configurable in detail via the text file mpv.conf; extensions available, such as uosc, a full-featured user interface, or thumbfast, thumbnail previews on the timeline
- Tagger
- MusicBrainz Picard Editing audio file metadata (‘tagging’), with automatic matching against the MusicBrainz online database
- Media info
- MediaInfo Reading the metadata of audio and video files; also available for the terminal
- Image viewer
- gThumb Viewing and managing image files, including simple edits (e.g. rotating images)
- Image converter
- Switcheroo Convert images between formats; especially handy for quickly reducing file sizes
- Drawing
- Krita Painting program with an extensive brush engine, layers, vector graphics and animation support – for digital art
- Image editing
- GIMP Image editor, roughly equivalent to Photoshop
- Vector graphics
- Inkscape Editing 2D vector graphics
- Colour picker
- Eyedropper Pick colours from the screen
- BorgBackup
- Pika Backup Graphical interface for BorgBackup, see borg; minimalist, blends seamlessly into the GNOME desktop
- Vorta Offers more features than Pika
- Settings
- Extension Manager Download, manage and configure GNOME extensions
- Refine Additional settings for the GNOME desktop; at its core a user interface for GNOME’s dconf database
- Rewaita More colours for the GNOME desktop
CLI tools
- Shell
- zsh Extended Bourne shell with many improvements
- Shell history
- Atuin Shell history with an excellent search function
- Prompt
- Starship Minimal, fast and customisable prompt
- Terminal
- Ptyxis Terminal for GNOME with container support
- foot Fast, Wayland-native terminal; can display images
- CLI text editor
- Micro The fast one. A text editor for the terminal – uses keyboard shortcuts everyone knows (e.g. Ctrl + S to save).
- Backup
- borg Deduplicated, encrypted backups, stored much like Git – ‘Resistance is futile’
- btrbk Automated Btrfs snapshots with configurable retention policies
- chezmoi Managing dotfiles and syncing them with a Git remote
- rsync Data synchronisation
My Android smartphone
Device
- Phone
- Google Pixel 7 Pro Google makes it easy to de-Google Google devices
Mobile operating system
- Operating system
- GrapheneOS An operating system for Google Pixel devices, focused on privacy and security – recommended by Edward Snowden
Apps
- App store
- F-Droid Store for free and open-source Android apps
- Browser
- Vanadium Hardened Chromium-based browser, shipped with GrapheneOS
- Thunderbird Email client for Android (formerly K-9 Mail)
- Messaging
- Signal End-to-end encrypted messaging, installed via the self-updating APK. Recommended for secure communication by the EU’s Computer Emergency Response Team: CERT-EU Security Guidance.
- Passwords
- KeePassDX KeePass-compatible password manager for Android
- 2FA
- Aegis Two-factor authentication for online services
- E-book reader
- Librera FD Read any book format, with plenty of customisation options
- Notes
- NotallyX Note-taking when you are in a hurry
- Markor A Markdown editor for longer, structured texts
- Podcasts
- AntennaPod Streaming or downloading and managing podcasts
- Media player
- VLC Reliable video playback for every format
- Navigation
- OsmAnd~ Offline maps based on OpenStreetMap data; a great many settings and a steep learning curve
- CoMaps Also based on OpenStreetMap data; fewer settings, but faster and easier to use. A community-run, not-for-profit fork of Organic Maps, created in 2025 in response to criticism of a lack of transparency and participation in the original project (background at LWN.net).
- Outdoor
- Trail Sense A digital Swiss Army knife with many tools for survival in the wild: from compass to SOS whistle
- OpenTracks GPS track recording – no cloud, no account, simply offline; useful for seeing the trail you have walked
- Loyalty cards
- Catima Store and scan QR codes offline (loyalty cards, tickets, memberships and so on)
- Birthdays
- Birday Birthday reminders without syncing
My jailbroken Kindle
- Kindle
- Kindle Paperwhite 6 SE SE = Signature Edition, 12th generation, 2024
- Jailbreak
- WinterBreak A way to jailbreak the Kindle so that you can install your own apps. Important: jailbreaking voids the manufacturer’s warranty.
- Reader
- KOReader The e-book reader for E Ink devices. Supports EPUB and many other formats; countless settings. Lets you collect words in an sqlite3 database – I recommend copying the database to your PC regularly for further use; over time, it grows into a personal word list.