Useful apps and websites
A list of useful apps, games and web services that I use currently, or have used in the past. Items listed here are free and open source unless specified otherwise.
Apps
Apps listed in this section are done so with Windows users in mind. Some may be available for other platforms but not all.
- Kapersky Antivirus: my day-to-day antivirus of choice. Very private, and the best at dealing with viruses.
- Private Internet Access: my day-to-day VPN of choice. Paid, Very private, safe, and the best at actually being a VPN.
- Firefox: my day-to-day browser of choice.
- Windows Essentials: I legitimately use this. All of these apps replace their windows 10 counterparts. Windows Essentials is a GODSEND!!!
- Paint.NET: my photo and image editor of choice.
- Kdenlive: video editor: reasonably advanced and full-featured.
- BitWarden: one of the best password managers around. Works nicely with Firefox.
- Notepad++: a replacement for Window's default notepad app. I recommend.
- Office365: primary Office Uttils. Unfortunately requires money. A good set of office uttils.
- LibreOffice: secondary Office Uttils.
- Libresprite: creating and animating pixel art. Clone of Aseprite which is free if you compile it, otherwise, paid on steam.
- LibreWolf: respin of FireFox with some tweaks.
- OBS (Open Broadcaster Software): the BEST screen recorder and livestreaming software around.
- Windows Movie Maker: video editor: Under appreciated and good. Works well. I recommend.
- Scribus: desktop publisher.
- RSS Guard: simple RSS reader.
Games
- Freedoom: free and open source FPS game based on the Doom engine.
- Minetest: free, open source voxel game engine and game, fun to build stuff in. Pretty simular to minecraft in that sense.
- CubicCastles: free, closed source, voxel game. Very nostalgic. Fun to build stuff and mess around. Nice questline too.
- OpenArena: community-produced deathmatch FPS based on GPL idTech3 technology. I dont play it, but a friend tells me its fun
- OpenMW: open source engine for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Original game files required. If you dont have them: Game files available here
- OpenTTD: Transport Tycoon Deluxe as imagined by FOSS. Extremely fun!
- Red Eclipse: a fun Arena shooter. Been around a LOOOOONG time! Jauwn's video brought exposure to it, so thats nice!
- Shapez.io: factory line puzzle game, similar to Factorio. Also very fun and nice to relax to.
- Xonotic: free and fast arena shooter. Very fun, and reminds me slightly of Quake Live
Web apps
Open source web apps
- Apertium: free and open source alternative to Google Translate.
- Hastebin: free and open source alternative to Pastebin.
- Diagrams.net: a simple drawing and chart making program, available as an appimage. Useful for students of Design & Technology in the UK.
- HTMLhouse: quick and easy webpage creation tool for people who like to code in HTML.
- Nomagic: free and open source hub with a multitude of useful services.
- LibreSpeed: free and open source speedtest; no Flash, no Java, no websocket.
- LibreTranslate: free and open source translation tool.
- MultiTwitch: view multiple Twitch streams side-by-side, great for watching multiplayer streams.
- Neocities: a copy of geocities, build simple websites with HTML (like this one). You can also be VERY creative.
- OpenStreetMap: FOSS's answer to Google Maps.
- Piskel: pixel art image editor. Not my main, but pretty cool. Libresprite is better though.
- PrivateBin: open source Pastebin alternative with privacy enhancements.
Open source front ends
For this section I've linked to instance lists. This is to help further decentralise and share the load. Please consider donating to your favourite instances.
Closed source web apps
- Temp Mail: receive email at a temporary address. Use it when signing up to certain websites to avoid spam. My favorite temp mail service and the BEST one out there.
Web browser add-ons
Whilst most of these tools should be available for multiple web browsers, I use Firefox as my primary browser and this selection might reflect that.
- Private Internet Access: A paid VPN. Used in conjunction with the app for double privacy.
- behind!: an easy way to download images from awkward websites.
- uBlock Origin: a free, open source, ad content blocker.
- Kapersky Protection: a free, closed source, antivirus extension. Works well with the matching app.
- Ghostery: a free, anti-tracking extension. Works with extension above to make me private on the web and not be tracked.
- BitWarden Extension: a free extension for password manager. Used so i dont have to open the app all the time, also works well with the matching app.
- Return Youtube Dislike: a free, open source extension that does what the name says. I think we all hated the removal of the dislike.
- Youtube Redux: a free extension that reverts youtube to an old, more nostalgic look. I use it because i like it. Ties in with the extension above.
- I still don't care about cookies: a free extension that gets rid of cookies pop ups.
- Clear URLS: a free extension that that removes trackers from URLS.
- copy plain text: a free extension that copies text without any formatting and trackers.
Online resources
- Bosca Ceoil: free app that I use to create music for my games.
- Ambient Mixer: generate background audio to create your perfect environment using creative commons samples.
- DaFont: large collection of fonts, searchable by licence.
- Font Squirrel: large collection of fonts, searchable by licence.
- FreePD: large library of public domain music.
- Incompetech: large library of creative commons music.
- KissCC0: a library of public domain images.
- PickUp Image: library of public domain images.
- Public Domain Pictures: library of public domain images.
How-tos and fixes
Mastodon and fediverse tools