LocalSend, a cross platform alternative to airdrop and nearby share.
My family uses it for almost all of our filesharing. IPhone to android, iPhone to windows PC, android to macbook, etc. Its works really, really well.
Just tried it - so simple, so good. Thanks for posting about this!
Syncthing, a peer to peer file synchronize that basically everyone needs, they just don’t know it.
It’s insane how many services sell file synchronisation as a premium feature when syncthing can do it for free and no one seems to use it
I mean, true…but I don’t think the average user is paying for the service rather than they’re paying for not having to worry about setting up everything needed to get syncthing working.
I don’t consider myself a luddite in any way, but within five seconds of reading syncthing’s install instructions even I basically just said, “yeah…no.” And I say that AS a nearly 12 year semi-advanced linux user. It’s not that it’s difficult. But difficult enough to not be worth it for the average person.
Can you explain a bit more about what file synchronization is?
You know Dropbox? Google drive? OneDrive? That’s file synchronisation. Files across multiple devices kept in sync by the software provider. Except in the named cases above, all your data is uploaded to their servers. With syncthing there’s no cloud server, just your devices operating over the internet. So you have some backup responsibility to cover.
Caveat: I’ve never used syncthing and I wrote the above with a total of 10 seconds of reading their website and so it is entirely possible I’m completely wrong about everything and so I emplore you to do your research.
linux, unironically. literally all local infrastructure is running on windows, despite the security risks this entails.
Immich. Just found out about it, still gotta try, but looks good, an app that allows you to configure a Google Photos like app locally hosted, with automatic phone backups
I personally just switched from Immich to Ente on my self hosted server, since it is E2EE and since sync doesn’t work that good for users on iOS with Immich right now. Also Ente just open sourced all their stuff including their server and supports self hosting. Very nice.
Can it sync with Google Photos so you could use both?
You can use both on your phone to sync with each of them, yes. Immich and Google Photos won’t communicate directly (and don’t need to).
It’s a good idea in case your Google account ever gets banned. (Say you issue a chargeback against Google Wallet or something.)
OpenStreetmap as an alternative to the closed source maps.
OrganicMaps or OsmAnd to navigate and StreetComplete or EveryDoor to improve it.
Ruffle: You may not know it but most old Flash games (and basically every anmiation) can be played again with this, modern and in a Browser sandbox. Website owners can include it in the backend with a few lines of code and all flash games work again automatically, and it’s also available as desktop app :D
Xournal - a great way to draw on pdfs
VSCodium is the open source part of VSCode, so I prefer to use that.
Mull is firefox on android without the proprietary parts. Heliboard is a good android keyboard.
Paperless-ngx that allows you to self host an easily browseable archive of your documents. Fully featured with OCR, ML-powered categorization and the works.
Bitwarden an open source, simple password manager it does it’s job very well
I would personally recommend KeepassXC foe PC and KeepassDX for Android phones, just having your Vault available locally is a lot better than relying on a server that can get a security breach in any moment, not to mention the Keepass’s Vaults are encrypted and no one can access them without the , key or physical key, with KeepassXC and KeepassDX, you only will need ONE password 😁
I get the thought, but your phone can also have a security breach at any moment, ESPECIALLY because normal user error is by far the weakest and most often exploited attack vector.
Bitwarden’s vaults are also encrypted with the option for even stronger argon2id encryption. Bitwarden themselves can’t access them or reset them. It is open source and most importantly, audited. KeypassXC has only had one audit ever. (Though that passed and I would also definitely recommend keypassXC, it is great software security-wise)
The database is stored, encrypted, once on their server and once to each device you sync to, so it is available locally.
Even if they had a security breach, by design the assailant couldn’t access your database any more than they could access your keypass database.
You can also self-host it which would bring it exactly to the level of keypassX variants as far as attack surface.
Not to mention with bitwarden, you will also only need one key. That is the whole point of a password manager.
“It is available locally and a lot better…” is simply untrue. They are both great options. Just whatever works best for the person. Bitwarden has a ton more QoL options and enterprise options, plus separate, shared password databases and such for families and companies. Again, just as secure.
I have a lot of experience with both. As a tech savvy user, I slightly prefer KeePass. Syncing between devices is slightly more painful, but I find it to be more reliable, and it doesn’t have the attack surface that Bitwarden does. (While encrypted, Bitwarden still really wants a web server and a local database connection.)
VaultWarden is probably better for those who can’t be bothered to move a file around and want direct browser integration. With KeePass when you need a password, you’ll make sure the username has focus and then alt+tab to KeePass and hit “autofill”. Some sites won’t take “username{tab}password{enter}” and you’ll have to customize the configuration.
VaultWarden is better at prompting you to add new passwords. I prefer the workflow that’s encouraged by KeePass, where you open the app first and use the app to open the URL. (You can do this in VaultWarden too, but it’s less obvious.)
KDEConnect - I use it on Windows and android phone. Very nice when you get security codes or links on phone, want to send files or when I want to control audio|video and I watch from the couch.
in general: Fdroid nearly always has a more feature rich and performant alternative
I am surprised that no one mentions this.
Firefly III this is an amazing financial tracking and budgeting tool that literally saves me so much time and money, I even donate monthly since it’s so good and essential to me that I think it’s only fair that the developer gets something back.
Openwrt is awesome! It has the gui with the best ratio of ease of use/features I ever used in a router. It can require some skills to be installed, but then it’s so smooth. I wish we had routers with openwrt straight from oems.
DietPi, for setting up an SBC (ie raspberry pi) with common server software. very good for a first-time self hoster like myself.
Can you share what most folks use DietPi for? I searched but found mostly only installation videos.
TLDR it’s a Debian/Linux image that comes preconfigured for raspberry pis and other small single board computers.
Firstly, it’s quite minimal for a “full featured” Linux distro, reducing RAM and CPU usage which are usually in high demand on SBCs. But it also doesn’t remove stuff that a typical linux user needs, so no weird configuration to get your regular suite of apps running.
Secondly, it has a library of utilities for managing your computer from the command line. Such as common raspberry pi configuration, setting up and managing cron jobs, services, DDNS, VPNs, disks, etc.
Thirdly, it has its own “repository” of applications, which are really just regular Debian packages but with extra scripts to configure said software for the typical user. Stuff like, installing and configuring a database, webserver, python, php are all done alongside your software setup, and it “just works”.
It’s usually used for hosting services like Plex, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, and other utilities with minimal effort but it’s really just like any other Linux and you can do whatever you like to it.
dietpi.com if you wanna read about it from the devs
Universal UnifiedPush support so we can manage our own push notifications through something like NextPush on your Nextcloud. At that point I could completely remove Google Play Services from my phone without much trouble.
