Software is like sex: It’s better when it’s free.
– Linus Torvalds
With that being said, I do still use the occasional proprietary software, but I try to avoid it as much as possible.
Basics
OS/Distro
I daily drive Fedora. It’s fast, stable, and I already have it installed, so why bother changing it?
However, when I need to use Microsoft tools like Access (for school), I have to use Windows 10.
Window Manager
i3wm. It’s fast, simple, came pre-installed with Fedora, and serves all my basic needs.
Web Browser
Firefox with the Betterfox user.js (a mixture of improvements to Firefox’s privacy, security and speed (and some other QoL things)). As per extensions, I use a ton of them, but the most notable ones are:
- uBlock Origin to block ads, trackers and other annoyances (like cookie notices)
- Dark Reader to get dark mode everywhere
- Bitwarden as my password manager
Text Editor
Neovim or Visual Studio Code, depending on the project.
Terminal
Alacritty with bash. At some point I might try zsh, but as of now, I don’t need it. I also use tmux to keep terminal sessions and powerline-shell to make my terminal look fancy.
Utilities
File Manager
Thunar or lf (if I want to look fancy). I don’t really need anything too complex, I just have to be able to browse my files effectively.
Video Player
mpv. You guessed it! It’s free, open-source, fast, and I mean, it’s mpv.
Productivity
Image Manipulation
GIMP. Once again: It’s free, open-source and has all the features I need.
Video Editing
I haven’t really been editing many videos but when I did, I used VEGAS Pro (on Windows) and more recently DaVinci Resolve, which works on Linux.
Audio Editing
Tenacity because Audacity started to ship with telemetry. It’s free, open-source and has all the features I need.
Office Suite
LibreOffice or Microsoft Office (on Windows).
Online Services
Password Manager
Bitwarden. It’s free, open-source and, as of now (02/2023), trustworthy enough for me. I have used KeePass and other apps that support KeePass formats, and they’re fine, but I need to access my passwords outside my main devices.
Tutanota. Not very feature rich, but it’s really cheap, end-to-end encrypted, green and has its clients open-source.
VPS
Hetzner. It’s where I’m hosting this website, a Minecraft server, and others. They’re cheap, reliable and have a great support team.
Domains
Namecheap. I’ve been using them for a while now and I’ve never had any issues with them. They’re cheap, reliable and have a great support team.
DNS Management
Cloudflare. I’ve been using them for a while now and I’ve never had any issues with them. They’re cheap, reliable and have a great support team.