Tools I Enjoy
Software
I try to use free and open source software wherever possible
- Parabola GNU/Linux-libre as an operating system on my laptop. My less libre-friendly workstation PC runs Arch Linux
- Libreboot as BIOS on my laptop
- i3 window manager is the first tiling window manager I tried, and I have not yet found the need to look for an alternative.
Desktop Applications
| Terminal Emulator | Suckless Terminal | you can find my version with various patches here |
| Shell | zsh | a lightweight, but very extendable shell |
| Terminal Multiplexer | tmux | I use it inside all of my terminal sessions. I know that's a bit overkill, but it provides me with tabs, simple splits and a scroll buffer. (Also, you can make the splits work very well with vim splits) |
| Text Editor | vim | Recently, I switched to the more modern re-write neovim which provides all features of vim7, but can do multithreading and supports plugins written in languages other than vim script. |
| Browser | iceweasel (on Parabola) or Firefox | Check PrivacyGuide's tutorial on important notes about it's configuration. I use the plugins |
| Browser | Brave Browser | as an alternative to Firefox, which does not need to be configured as much. The drawback is that it's yet another Chromium based browser. |
| Password Manager | KeePassXC | Don't bother with anything proprietary to save your valuable credentials. A KeePass database can be saved as a local file on your PC, transferred with USB drives, synced with tools like SyncThing etc. I like to automatically open an instance of KeePassXC in an i3 scratchpad on login, and use it's browser plugins to enter my credentials wherever needed. If you are on another platform, check the list of KeePass ports. |
| Torrent client | qBittorrent | It's not exactly minimal, but offers some very convenient search plugins. |
| Document viewer | zathura | |
| Background file synchronization | Syncthing | to locally synchronize directories between devices whenever the find each other in the same network. This can potentially make private document clouds obsolete. |
| Spaced Repetition | Anki | |
| Personal accounting | GnuCash | |
| Static Site Generator | HUGO |
Cli utilities
For many basic use cases there are some simple command line utilities with vim-like keybindings. You can find my configuration in the dotfiles repository - it’s very similar to Luke Smith’s configuration, though.
| File browser | lf | |
| E-mail client | neomutt | I use mutt-wizard to automatically configure it, as well as isync and msmtp. |
| Audio Playback | mpd and ncmpcpp | |
| Video Playback | mpv | |
| RSS Reader | newsboat | |
| Calendar | khal | |
| To do list | todoman | |
| Calendar and contact sync | vdirsyncer | (I’m looking into local-sync alternatives) |
Mobile
At the moment I am using CalyxOS. It strikes a nice balance between privacy and usability, being de-googled, but offering basic notification and location services through microG. Also, as opposed to most other custom ROMs, it allows you to re-lock the bootloader after installation. A list of recommended apps:
| The F-Droid store. | It only lists open-source apps, and many of them are great at what they are supposed to do (without doing anything you don’t want them to do, like e.g. tracking). | |
| Messaging and Video Calls | Signal | It’s very user-friendly - people who are able to use WhatsApp will most likely have no problem using Signal. |
| Notes | Markor | my notes are all simple text documents, most of them written in Markdown. |
| To do list | Tasks.org | |
| Calendar and contact sync | DAVx5 | (I’m looking into local-sync alternatives) |
| Maps | OrganicMaps | displays OpenStreetMaps quite beautifully - it’s navigation functionality is still lacking, though. |
| E-mail client | K-9 Mail | |
| Camera | OpenCamera | |
| QR-scanner | BinaryEye | |
| Keyboard | FlorisBoard | |
| Video streaming | NewPipe | for the free (as in freedom) YouTube Premium experience |
| PassAndroid | for boarding passes and such | |
| One time passwords (2FA) | FreeOTPPlus |
Money
Bank transactions always use proprietary systems, and can be surveyed by third parties. To avoid those, cash is still king. If you can’t meet in person for a transaction the best solution is using cryptocurrencies, although most of them are neither private nor fungible. Currently Monero is the most widely adopted privacy coin. It’s easy to use, has low transaction fees, and privacy built in per default.
Markup languages
- Markdown for most shorter text documents, and to write the contents of this website.
- LaTeX for everything that needs more elaborate typesetting or structure.
- LilyPond for music scores. When I have a MIDI keyboard at hand, I like to write the documents in VSCodium with the VSLilyPond plugin.