infosec/privacy

guides/tips

• privacy guides aimed at beginners
• the new oil also aimed at beginners
• hitchhiker's guide to online anonymity extremely in depth
• prism break recommendations
• simple opt out guides to turning off excess data sharing
• how to protect yourself from your ISP

tools/software

• bitwarden cloud-based password manager
• keepassXC local-only password manager
• exifcleaner remove metadata from files
• bleachbit drive cleaning
• fawkes edits photos in a way that confuses facial recognition AI
• have i been pwned data breach tracker
• terms of service; didn't read human-readable TOS's and privacy policies

operating systems

• distrowatch open source operating system info/comparisons/news
• distrochooser tool to help you pick an open source operating system
• linux mint commonly recommended to people new to linux
• pop!_os also recommended to people new to linux
• fedora a bit of an older distro. pretty well-established and popular.
• arch a popular distro for powerusers.
• endeavour an arch-based distro.

networks

• tor onion router. most popular alt network.
• invisible internet project P2P network layer
• retroshare focused on social communication between friends and family

vpn

• mullvad no personal info needed to use. flat $5/mo rate.

storage

cloud

• nextcloud self-hosted cloud drive with enterprise features.
• mega free or paid.
• protondrive tied to protonmail account. free or paid.
• cozy aimed at europeans (but not a requirement).
• ente photo and video storage. paid only.

browsing

• fuck google chrome all my homies hate google chrome
• firefox daily driver. widely supported, highly customizable, and can be hardened depending on your security/privacy needs.
• tor for anonymous browsing and accessing the tor network
• librewolf firefox fork. basically just arkenfox.js added by default.
• icecat firefox fork that doesn't push nonfree plugins or features.
• min minimalist browser
• bromite android browser

add-ons/extensions

• ublock origin powerful but lightweight adblocker (and more!)
• violentmonkey userscript manager
• stylus userstyle manager
• containers isolates cookies to specific tabs
• dont accept webp / save webp as jpg/png
• simple translate highlight + right click translate
• sponsorblock autoskips annoying segements in youtube videos
• unhook customize youtube's layout
• wikibuddy redirect to non-fandom wiki's or through breezewiki on fandom.com sites
• streetpass social automatically finds mastodon profiles while browsing

userscripts/userstyles

• greasyfork userscripts
• userstyles.world created as a replacement of userstyles.org
• USO archive archive of userstyles.org

communication/social

email

• thunderbird email client
• protonmail email provider (+more). free or paid.
• tutanota email provider (+more). free or paid.
• posteo email provider (+more). paid only.
• mailbox email provider (+more). paid only.
• disroot email provider (+more) aimed at activists. selective.
• riseup email provider (+more) aimed at activists. invite only.
• autistici email provider (+more) aimed at activists. selective.

• simplelogin email aliasing

instant messaging

• fuck discord all my homies hate discord
• IRC / XMPP oldskool IM protocols. well-established and widely supported
• matrix decentralized messenger protocol
• revolt discord-like, but open source. a bit janky as it's still in early development.
• guilded discord-like. has more features aimed at pro gamers. not open source.
• session doesnt require info for an account
• briar useful for those with spotty/restricted internet access
• mattermost slack alternative

social media

• cohost tumblr-esque blogging
• pillowfort tumblr alternative
• dreamwidth livejournal alternative

fediverse

oss

what's the fediverse?

• mastodon microblogging
• calckey/misskey microblogging
• pleroma microblogging
• akkoma microblogging
• pixelfed instagram alternative
• peertube youtube alternative

all of the software above can communicate with each other seamlessly. for example, someone with an account on a mastodon server can follow someone using pleroma, and subscribe to peertube channels.

• fedi tips in-depth guide to using mastodon and the fediverse
• fedi.garden fediverse servers you can sign up for
• fedi directory/fediverse info directory/trunk people to follow

office/productivity

• libreoffice office suite
• etherpad real-time document collaboration (like in google docs)

notes

• obsidian
  free/proprietary
  customizable notebook that uses markdown
• turtl notebook with collaboration features
• notesnook
  paid/oss
  notetaking
• joplin notetaking
• simplenote notetaking

development

text editors

• vscodium vscode, but with microsoft's telemetry shit removed
• notepad++ lightweight text editor

art / creative

illustration

• clip studio
  paid/proprietary
  windows/mac/android/ios
  extremely powerful japanese painting software with an active community creating assets likes brushes, 3d models, etc.
• krita
  foss
  windows/mac/linux
  foss illustration software. similar to CSP.
• paint tool SAI
  paid/proprietary
  windows
  lightweight japanese illustration software. not as popular today, but was the go-to for indie internet artists a decade ago and still has lots of custom assets floating around as a result.
• aesprite
  paid/oss
  windows/mac/linux
  sprite editor

3d

• blender
  foss
  windows/mac/linux
  3d modelling and rendering
• F3D
  free
  windows/mac/linux
  lightweight 3d model viewer

health/wellness

• commonhealth manage your personal health info
• euki sexual health/education. also has a period tracker.
• drip period tracker. designed to be private, secure, and inclusive.
• loop habit tracker
• stretchly periodically reminds you to take a break while on your PC
• workrave set limits for screentime

idfk where to put these

• open street map map of the world. alternative to google and apple's maps.
• osmand offline maps and navigation, powered by OSM.
• organic maps hiking/walking maps, powered by OSM.
• raven desktop RSS reader

entertainment

audio/music

players

• wacup winamp, but without cringe corporate garbage and cryptoshit
• foobar2000 customizable and in-development since 2002
• aimp customizable. designed to be winamp's spiritual successor.

streaming

• stealing bandwidth from spotify is morally correct
• spotX modded spotify desktop client with unlocked premium features
• xmanager android app that mods spotify
• nuclear stream music from multiple free sources, in one app

downloads

• yt-dl/yt-dlp - download videos from youtube (and other sites). use yt-dlg if you don't want to use the command line.
• soulseek - p2p music sharing (download soulseek NS, not Qt). if you don't like the UI, nicotine+ is a modern alternative.

• vgm: khinsider / zophar's domain
• asian: sitting on clouds / openings.moe

video/movies/tv

streaming

• multihost: crocovid
• movies & tv: soap2day / m4ufree / ask4movie / c1ne / lookmovie
• cartoons: kimcartoon / kisscartoon / wco / watchcartoononline
• asian dramas: dramacool / kissasian