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README.md

The list is currently shortened until the split-up process between Tools and Mobile Apps is finished.

Please consider to donate to the actual developers, I do not take any money from you nor is this project designed to make any donations out from other peoples projects. It is more helpful to all of us if the mentioned developers receiving funding to push their projects.

3D Simulation

  • Blender – A professional suite of tools for doing 3D and 2D animations, visual effects, compositing and video editing.
  • FlightGear – Atmospheric and orbital flight simulator with a flight dynamics engine (JSBSim) that is used in a 2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to space industry standards.
  • Maverick Model 3D – An open source 3D model editor based on Misfit Model 3D.
  • NATRON – Open Source Compositing Software for VFX and Motion Graphics.
  • OpenSim – Provide easy-to-use, extensible software for modeling, simulating, controlling, and analyzing the neuromusculoskeletal system.
  • SimPy – Queue-theoretic event-based simulator written in Python.

Advertising

Do not use any advertising service that comes from big tech corporations like e.g. Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads or Bing Ads. These services aggregate and exploit user data by micro-targeting specific individuals. Online Ads produce 60 Megatons of CO2 every year.

  • EthicalAds – Content targeted advertising which doesn't track or store any user data.
  • ContextCue – A privacy-focused advertising network that allows advertisers and publishers to grow their business with fast, lightweight, contextual ads that don't track, collect, or store user data.
  • Revive Adserver – An open-source advertising server that is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

Advertising Identifier (IDFA)

See here what it is. Background on how to Ban Surveillance-Based Advertising (pdf).

Advertising Opt-Out

Alarm Clock

  • Some Websites offering an Alarm Clock, the benefit is that you do not need to install anything at all.
  • Via Widget, Gadget in KDE, etc.
  • Physical Alarm Clock next to your bed or office.

Mobile Alarm Clock

  • Alarmio – An open-source simple alarm clock that implements many useful features while following regular design standards to ensure that it is quick and intuitive to use.
  • Clock + – Open-source Alarm clock, timer, and stop watch.
  • Forest – An Android and iOS app (and web add-on) that lets you track the amount of time you have spent studying.
  • Insane Alarm! – Developer states that he had "spent a night out with the boys and drank a bit too much but needed to be up in the morning".
  • Mac Timer App – Free and Open Source Timer app for macOS.
  • Simple Alarm Clock – Exactly as it's name says; simple alarm clock yet adds many improvements over other apps. No dock mode or world clock.
  • Simple Clock – A minimalistic Clock for Android.
  • Talalarmo – Minimal, simple and free alarm clock for Android thoughtfully designed by nap enthusiasts.
  • Timetagger – Open source time tracking application.

Amazon Shopping Alternatives

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Wibbets – The privacy guaranteed online shopping website Amazon alternative. - controversial

Amazon Book Store

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Goodreads
  • Google Play Books

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Better World Books – Better World Books is an online bookshop which tries to take a more ethical approach, by donating one book to charity for every book it sells.
  • BookWyrm – It's a fediverse decentral alternative for Amazon's Goodreads. Main usage it so archive and catalogue Books.
  • booqsi – A more social, Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads.
  • buch7.de – German platform to get free books.
  • OpenStax – Free and Flexible Textbooks.
  • Hive – Delivery is free within the UK, and a bit extra overseas.
  • Inventaire – A libre volunteer-run book lending site where you can make friends and create collaborative libraries together. You can make lists of books you want to lend to friends, and browse other friends’ lists.
  • inventaire – This is the space where the community shares knowledge about inventaire and books.
  • Kobo – The site doesn’t include any official way to separate the DRM from DRM-free titles, but you can search for DRM-free eBooks through our unofficial Kobo search page.
  • Libreture – Libreture is a Goodreads-style site which lets you store and organize your DRM-free eBooks online, browse DRM-free bookshops, discover new titles and share reading lists.
  • Open Library – Open Library is a Goodreads-style site where you can share reading lists, track your own book collection, borrow and download eBooks, and contribute to a catalogue of all books ever published.
  • Local Bookshops
  • Public Domain eBooks such as Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive Books, Feedbooks Public Domain, Standard eBooks, StandardeBooks, Faded Page and Wikisource.
  • Z-Library – Z-Library. The world's largest ebook library.
  • Public Libraries

Audible

  • LibriVox – A DRM-free collection of audiobooks that are provided at no charge. The books are read by volunteers and published under the public domain.
  • Libro.fm – Offers DRM-free audiobooks while also supporting local bookstores. Their membership option is only available in the US and Canada though.

Audio Platforms for Music Streaming

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Audius Music – A streaming platform built for all musicians, not just those signed to labels. Basically they’re a SoundCloud/Spotify platform based in a blockchain protocol in terms of monetization, that’s it. Only their client which is Another React app and protocol, Ethereum are open source (Apache License 2.0) the rest is the same. This is nothing but another privative/centralized music platform with DRM. The website contains 4, is proprietary and has 9 page privacy policy.
  • Apple Music
  • Google Music/YT Music
  • iTunes, Amazon Music
  • SoundCloud
  • Last.fm
  • Spotify, see open letter

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Ampache – A web based audio streaming application and file manager allowing you to access your music from anywhere, using almost any internet enabled device.
  • Audius Music – A streaming platform built for all musicians, not just those signed to labels. Build a fanbase, share your works in progress, and then publish your completed tracks for all the world to hear.
  • Brew.fm – An alliance of artists who remix and edit each other's tracks.
  • Bandcamp – Discover amazing new music and directly support the artists who make it.
  • Cider – A new cross-platform Apple Music experience based on Electron and Vue.js written from scratch with performance in mind.
  • Euterpe – Self-hosted music streaming server notes with RESTful API and Web interface.
  • Funkwhale – A social platform to enjoy and share music (SoundCloud alternative).
  • Headset – Headset is a desktop application that turns YouTube into a world class music streaming service.
  • Jamendo – A community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. Share your music, download your favorite artists!
  • Koel – A personal music streaming server that works. The mobile app is a paid product.
  • Kuku FM – Discover best Audio books, Podcasts, FM Radio, Talk shows, Stories in India. Listen content in English, Hindi, Marathi etc.
  • Madsonic – A web-based media library and media streamer with jukebox functionality. Based on Java technology, Madsonic runs on most platforms, including Windows, MacOS, OSX, Linux and Unix variants.
  • Maloja – Simple self-hosted music scrobble database to create personal listening statistics. No recommendations, no social network, no nonsense.
  • Mopidy – Plays music from local disk, Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, and more. You can edit the playlist from any phone, tablet, or computer using a variety of MPD and web clients.
  • Music Player Daemon – A "flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music".
  • Navidrome – Lightweight, fast and self-contained personal music streamer.
  • Nextcloud Music
  • Nuclear – Modern music player focused on streaming from free sources.
  • Olivia – Elegant music player for Linux.
  • Openwhyd – Collect and share all the music you love from any source but reunited in the same place.
  • Radio4000 – Lets you discover user curated radios from around the world, manage your online music library, and share it anonymously with everyone. All free and open source.
  • Resonate – The community-owned music network.
  • Subsonic – Your complete, personal music streamer.
  • Tribler – Open-source peer-to-peer file sharing that provides a "Youtube"-like streaming experience. Tribler uses Tor-like onion routing to protect the privacy of its users.
  • Zoff – Collaborate on a live music and video playlist with your friends. It's perfect for parties with integrated chrome-casting, or when you want quick access to your favorite playlist.

Mobile Music Streaming Apps

  • Foobnix – Audio player for Linux, Windows and Android.
  • Joox – A music streaming platform allowing you to download and stream popular song.
  • muffon – muffon is a desktop music browser / streaming service that retrieves info and audio/video from Last.FM, Discogs, VK, YouTube, Deezer, Yandex Music, Odnoklassniki, Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp and Genius.

Self-Hosted Mobile Music Streaming Apps

  • Ampache – Open-source and self-hosted web based media manager and media server. API available to allow usage on various platforms. On-the-fly transcoding available. Supports both music and video.
  • BlackHole – A Music Player App made with Flutter.
  • Funkwhale – Self-hosted, decentralized music service. Provide your own audio.
  • KooZic – KooZic is an open-source music streaming service that you install on your server, it is Based on Odoo.
  • Maloja – Simple self-hosted music scrobble database to create personal listening statistics. No recommendations, no social network, no nonsense.
  • Pulse Music – An offline music player app, with modern UI and powerful features that does not depend on Google Play Services.

Amazon AWS

  • M3O – Open source AWS alternative.
  • StackIT – Lidl competition that rivals AWS.

AirPod Apps

Android Apps on Linux

  • Anbox – Puts the Android operating system into a container, abstracts hardware access and integrates core system services into a GNU/Linux system.
  • Jolla – Run Android apps seamlessly on your Linux platform.
  • waydro – Waydroid uses Linux namespaces (user, pid, uts, net, mount, ipc) to run a full Android system in a container and provide Android applications on any GNU/Linux-based platform.

Android microphone checker and jamming

  • PilferShush Jammer – Light Android AOSP application to test microphone jamming techniques to combat Cross-Device Tracking (XDT).
  • Privacy Indicators – Get notified every time an app or a service uses camera or microphone.
  • SafeDot – Alerts you when a third-party application uses your device.
  • Skewy - anti eavesdropping – A tool to prevent eavesdropping and ultrasonic access of your smart phone.
  • Vigilante – Know when a third-party app uses your device.

Android App Management

  • Apk Extractor – Extract APKs from your device, even if installed from the Play Store. - Needs Root access.
  • AppManager – A full-featured open source package manager for Android.
  • Batch Uninstaller – Uninstall multiple applications at once.
  • OpenAPK – App manager uninstall, hide, disable, extract, share

Android Keyboard Apps

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • 8VIM – Open-source. A text editor inside a keyboard, drawing it's inspiration from 8pen and Vim.
  • AnySoftKeyboard – The only Android keyboard you'll ever need. Free as in speech and Free as in beer.
  • BeHe Keyboard – With BeHe Keyboard you can enjoy programming and using special keys (such as CTRL and ALT) on your android device without forgetting the design.
  • CompassKeyboard – CompassKeyboard's main goal is to enable entering any character (including international characters and symbols of computer languages as well) with the same layouts.
  • FlorisBoard – An open-source keyboard for Android. Currently in alpha/early-beta stage.
  • Hacker's Keyboard – An older keyboard, but still works at least from Android 2.3 through Android 10 and has a good Dvorak layout.
  • Indic Keyboard – Open-source keyboard that supports many languages that other keyboards sometimes don't support.
  • kboard – A keyboard designed for fast responses.
  • Multiling O Keyboard™ – The next generation of Multilingual Keyboard, Tablet keyboard, DIY keyboard, emoji keyboard, Floating keyboard.
  • OpenBoard – FOSS keyboard, based on AOSP.
  • Remote Keyboard – The app connects your desktop computer’s keyboard via Wi-Fi (can be forwarded over USB via ADB) to your android device so that you can control it comfortably.
  • Simple Keyboard – A simple open source keyboard.
  • Unexpected Keyboard – A virtual keyboard for Android. The main features are easy typing of every ASCII character using the swipe gesture, dead keys for accents and modifier keys and the presence of special keys (tab, esc, arrows, etc..).
  • WiFiKeyboard – Use your computer as a keyboard for your device, via a browser pointed to an address on the same LAN.
  • Unexpected Keyboard – A lightweight virtual keyboard for developers.

Apple App Store

  • AltStore – An alternative app store for non-jailbroken iOS devices.

Android App Store

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • APKGrabber – APKs from Google Play, APKPure, APKMirror or Uptodown (Izzy repo).
  • apkeep – The EFF launched an APK downloader that scans for malware.
  • Accrescent – An Android app store focused on security, privacy, and usability.
  • Evozi APK Downloader – Website that fetches free not pro APKs, directly from Google Play Store.
  • F-Droid – F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform.
    • Aurora Droid – An open-source alternative Google Play Store front end client with privacy and modern design in mind.
    • Droid-ify – The original Droid-ify developer left the Neo Store team which means Droid-ify and Neo Store are two separate apps.
    • Foxy Droid – Unofficial F-Droid client in the style of the classic one.
    • G-Droid – A front-end client for the F-Droid app-repository.
    • Neo Store – Alternative F-Droid client based on Foxy-Droid with Material UI. It replaces Droid-ify once its final basically Droid-ify got rebranded to Neo Store so it will be Neo Store from now on.
  • FossDroid – Promote free and open source apps on the Android platform: newest, trendiest and the most popular ones.
  • Raccoon – Open source Google Play desktop client and APK downloader for downloading Android apps on Windows, Mac OS and Linux PCs.
  • Kali Nethunter Store – For pen-testing apps only.
  • SkyDroid – Decentralized App Store for Android.
  • Via RSS – Set up an RSS feed to get notified of updates. This is very simple on GitHub, where you can append .atom onto the URL of the releases page and add it an RSS reader of your choice.

Alternative Google Play Store Clients

  • Aurora Store – Aurora Store is an Unofficial FOSS client to Google's Play Store, with an elegant design, using Aurora you can download apps, update existing apps, search for apps, get details about app tracker & adware and much more. What data does Aurora Store send to Google?.
  • Yalp Store – Simple app to download free APKs directly from Google Play Store.

Android Auto

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

Android Home Screen Launcher

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • All third party launchers found on the play store. They may contain ads/trackers and may ask for unnecessary permissions.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Kvaesitso – Kvæsitso is a launcher application for Android which replaces the device's default home screen.
  • KISS – Kiss. Minimalist open-source Android launcher, no internet access 200KB.
  • Lawnchair – No clever tagline needed.
  • LukeLauncher – A category based launcher.
  • Neo Launcher (formerly Omega Launcher) – Active development with lots of nice features.
  • Olauncher – Minimal AF (ad-free) launcher app for Android.
  • OpenLauncher – Customizable and Open Source Launcher for Android.
  • Posidon – A one-page launcher with an RSS-Feed.
  • Ruthless Pixel Launcher – A fork of Amir's launcher3 and various cherry-picks.
  • Sentien Launcher – Based on KISS launcher.
  • Shade Launcher – Active development with lots of nice features.
  • Simple App Launcher – A simple holder for favorite apps for quick & easy app launcher icon management.
  • Unlauncher – The goal of Unlauncher is to provide a clean and simple Android launcher experience. We believe you should have easy access to all of your apps without the distraction of bells, whistles, and notifications clamoring for your attention. You want to be able to use your phone, not have your phone use you.

Artificial Intelligence Tools

  • OpenCog – A project that aims to build an artificial general intelligence (AGI) framework. OpenCog Prime is a specific set of interacting components designed to give rise to human-equivalent artificial general intelligence.

ASN Blocking

  • asnban – Python script to easily block all announced prefixes of the owner of any given IP address.
  • blockasn – Blocks IP subnets belonging to an autonomous system.
  • sirubo – ASN prefix (big tech) outbound traffic blocker.
  • tcp-wrapper-asn-filter – A simple way to filter IPs by ASN to deny or allow connections to SSH.

Avatars

Anti-Facial Recognition

You find a summary of Concerns About Clearview AI's Facial Recognition Product here.

  • DoNotPay's – A tool makes your photos undetectable to facial recognition software.
  • MaskID – MaskID keeps your face hidden from the machines! Share your identity and morph with the community.
  • PimEyes – PimEyes is a paid detection system but also has a public index to remove your face.

Alternative Networks

Most network systems are by default not designed to be fully anonymous.

  • Bluesky – Bluesky architecture for decentralised social media.
  • DERO – The industry leader with innovation and features DeroDAG technology, Bulletproofs and a TLS encrypted network.
  • Diet256 – A Centrally Coordinated INET256 Network.
  • DNS over CoAP – Securing name resolution in the IoT.
  • Harmony – An open protocol for open, harmonious communication.
  • Hyperboria – Formerly known as Meshnet, a community dedicated for local WiFi initiatives, programmers, and enthusiasts. They run several servers and networks. Hyperboria is based on the cjdns routing protocol.
  • Loki – Lokinet is an onion-router that lets you access the internet anonymously. Built on LLARP, the fastest onion-routing protocol in the world.
  • NetBird – A P2P Network with WebRTC, WireGuard, SSO, and Zero Trust.
  • OStatus – OStatus, Fediverse, ActivityPub.
  • Sentinel – A network of independent dVPN applications, not just a single consumer facing dVPN.
  • Yggdrasil – End-to-end encrypted IPv6 network but not entirely antonyms.
  • urbit – A decentralized personal server platform, basically a compact system for an individual to run their own permanent personal server.

Alternatives to Shopify

  • Medusa – An open-source headless commerce engine that enables developers to create amazing digital commerce experiences.

Analytics Web Software

Is Google Analytics illegal in your country? website can quickly give you an insight if and your website is affected by recent law changes.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Ackee – Self-hosted website analytics.
  • Alpina Web Analytics – Simple, privacy-respecting analytics software with event tracking, real-time dashboard and filters. No cookie or local storage usage. The service offers free and paid plans.
  • Aurora – 100% Cookie-Free Open Website Analytics. Collect Anonymous Data.
  • Chiffre – Cannot be self-hosted but besides that, not bad.
  • Clicky – Monitor, analyze, and react to traffic in real time.
  • Console Cat – Privacy-preserving telemetry for Node.js CLIs.
  • Counter – No custom domain support but other than that, good and reliable.
  • Freshlytics – Open source privacy-friendly analytics.
  • Fugu – Open source and privacy-friendly product analytics. The cloud version of Fugu has one price tier and it costs $9/month. In the cloud version, you automatically get all updates and bug fixes, and can track up to 1 million events per month. Self-hosting is free.
  • GoAccess – An open-source web server analysis tool. Installs on your web server (ideally), but works just as well if you download your logs someplace else.
  • GoatCounter – Simple web statistics. No tracking of personal data. open-source and may be self-hosted. Free for non-commercial use; paid plans available.
  • HockeyStack – Offers cookieless tracking and no PII collected.
  • Kindmetrics – An open-source analytics tool. Landing page and company is based in Sweden, CDN in EU, Servers on Digitalocean (USA) data center is in Germany.
  • Kodex – A Privacy-Focused ETL Tool.
  • Matomo – Google Analytics alternative that protects your data and your customers' privacy.
  • Metabase – Self-hosted data analysis and visualizer.
  • No Cookie Analytics – No Cookie Analytics is a privacy friendly & open source analytics service. No cookies ever and forever.
  • Nullitics – Zero-effort open-source cheap analytics.
  • Offen – Fair web analytics. Gain insights while your users have full access to their data.
  • Open-Analytics-Core-HTTP – An open source alternative to Google Analytics back end.
  • Open Web Analytics – Open Web Analytics is the free and open source web analytics framework that lets you stay in control of how you instrument and analyze the use of your websites and application.
  • Panelbear – Privacy-focused analytics + web performance monitoring.
  • Piwik Pro – Free Alternative to Google Analytics. Plans to release a FOSS suite for personal use only.
  • Pirsch - Privacy-friendly, open-source alternative to Google Analytics that is lightweight, cookie-free and can easily integrated into any website or back-end.
  • Plausible – Simple and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.
  • PrivateAnalytix – A privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity.
  • Priviam.io – Privacy, ad-free search, disposable email, cookie-less analytics.- controversial
  • Piratepx – Does not support multi websites and there is no data export.
  • scale8 Tag Manager – An open-source, privacy-friendly Google Analytics and GTM alternative.
  • Shynet – Modern, privacy-friendly, and detailed web analytics that works without cookies or JS. No data export option.
  • Simple Analytics – Great analytics with privacy and simplicity in mind. Paid plans only (with free trials).
  • Statify for WordPress – A straightforward WordPress plugin to collect statistics on your site. It only counts page request instead of collecting personal data.
  • Supabase – An open-source alternative to Firebase.
  • Swetrix – Privacy-focused open-source web analytics service.
  • Umami – A simple, easy to use, open-source/self-hosted web analytics solution. No data export option.
  • uxwizz – Self-hosted alternative to Google Analytics and Hotjar.

Animated Charts

  • Vizzu – Open-source JavaScript library for animating charts.

Apple Motion

  • Blender – Blender is 3D computer graphics software toolset.
  • Natron – Natron has flexible Roto and Rotopaint tool-set that can generate unlimited layers of masks, mattes and shapes.
  • Synfig Studio – Vector-based 2D animation software.

Apple AirPlay

  • air-pi-play – Turn a Raspberry Pi into an Airplay server using R-Pi-Play to enable screen mirroring on TVs, monitors and projectors.
  • RPiPlay – An open-source AirPlay mirroring server for the Raspberry Pi. Supports iOS 9 and up.

Anti-Reflective Glasses

There are some benefits in using anti-reflective glasses. Make sure if you pick some, that they come with a CE & FDA certification. Do not buy some blue light filter glasses since there is no evidence that they actually help.

AntiVirus

Anime & Manga

  • Kotatsu – Easy Manga reader for Android.
  • MoeList – Another unofficial Android MyAnimeList client, track your progress in both anime and mangas.
  • Nekome – An Android application to manage tracked Anime and Manga lists.
  • Tachiyomi – A free and open source manga reader for Android 6.0 and above.
    • Aniyomi – Fork that allows to show videos.

AI Assistants

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Almond – The Open, Privacy-Preserving Virtual Assistant.
  • Ara – Open-source virtual assistant for Android. Can replace Google Assistant (home button functionality) on most devices.
  • BlindAI – Build a privacy-by-design voice assistant with BlindAI.
  • Gladys Assistant – A privacy-first, open-source home assistant.
  • Home Assistant – Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server.
  • Jasper – An open source platform for developing always-on, voice-controlled applications.
  • Kalliope – An open-source AI assistant.
  • Mycroft – Open-source AI assistant, range of hardware options.
  • Rhasspy – An voice assistant for offline home automation (Archived). Mini guide is here.

Mobile AI Assistants

  • Automation – Automation is an Android app to automate certain things on your device.
  • Dicio – Free and open source voice assistant for Android.
  • Easer – User-defined explicit automation for Android.
  • Sapphire-Assistant-Framework – An offline assistant for Android phones.

App Isolation

  • Insular – A FLOSS fork of Island, allows you to isolate privacy invading Android apps and prevent them from running when you don't want them too.
  • Island – Island for Android.
  • Riru – Enhanced mode for Storage Isolation – Storage Isolation (Storage Redirect) is an app which provides isolated storage feature for apps. It can prevent poor-designed apps making your storage messy and let you control files app can access. Not entirely free, 3 apps can be isolated more needs unlocked version.
  • Shelter – Shelter is a Free and Open-Source app that leverages the “Work Profile” feature of Android to provide an isolated space that you can install or clone apps into. The Shelter app is recommended over Insular and Island because it supports contact search blocking.

Anti-Theft Protection

  • Private Lock – Locks your mobile phone on high speed movements or force.

Archiver Tools

  • 7-Zip – Can archive and password protect + encrypt any file you put in a zip folder, regardless of the file extension.
  • Keka – The macOS file archiver Store more, share with privacy.
  • PeaZip – Free file archiver utility, open extract RAR TAR ZIP files, it also can encrypt files.

Auto Airplane Mode

  • Auto Airplane Mode – Schedule airplane mode based on your settings, e.g. by date/time. Root access is required to write secure system settings!

Audiobooks

  • Audiobooksnow – A collection of audiobooks, with over 95% of them available DRM-free.
  • Downpour – Sells DRM-free audiobooks in MP3 format, although audio book rentals require the use of its proprietary mobile application.
  • eStories – Is the audiobook imprint of eMusic, a DRM-free subscription service that we also recommend, and for a monthly fee provides audiobooks that are all completely DRM-free.
  • Language Audiobooks – Offers a variety of versatile language programs and downloads.
  • Learn Out Loud – An audio eBook store where users can purchase CDs or MP3 downloads of books, ranging from educational non-fiction to classic fiction like Herman Hesse's Siddhartha.
  • LibriVox – A wonderful archive of audio eBooks, completely free from DRM. Highlights include recordings of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, and Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland.
  • libro.fm – Is a purveyor of audiobooks. Files from libro.fm are directly downloadable, though they also have an app which may not be free software.
  • Lit2Go – A free online collection of stories and poems in mp3 (audiobook) format. The website contains analytics to track statistics.
  • Naxos Audiobooks – A variety of contemporary and classical audio books, without DRM and in the MP3 format.
  • Book D'Oreille – French language audio books, sans DRM.
  • Podiobooks/Scribl – Audiobooks that are are free to download and share.
  • Telltale Weekly – A one-stop source for audiobooks, including the work of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe. Starting from $1, enjoy these beautiful readings of classic stories. What's more, every file is free of DRM and guaranteed to play on any music player you own. Accepts payments in PayPal or BitPass.

Audiobook Player

  • aesopPlayer – An audio book player with emphasis on the elderly and visually impaired.
  • OpenAudible – A cross-platform desktop application for downloading and managing your Audible audiobooks.
  • PyCasts – Python 3 podcast & audiobook player based on python-vlc and appjar.

Mobile AudioBook Player

  • BookPlayer – Player for your DRM-free audiobooks.
  • Voice – A minimalistic audiobook player for Android.

Audio Editing

  • Ardour – A cross-platform digital audio workstation emphasizing audio recording.
  • Audacium – Yet another fork of Audacity.
  • fre:ac – A free audio converter and CD ripper with support for various popular formats and encoders.
  • LMMS – Another cross-platform digital audio workstation, more oriented towards making beats.
  • OceanAudio – Easy, fast and powerful audio editor.
  • Tenacity – A privacy-respecting Audacity fork.

Audit Database

  • cure53 – Xure53 public database for security audits which you can freely access.

Audit Tools

  • master_librarian – A simple tool to audit Unix/*BSD/Linux system libraries to find public security vulnerabilities.

Mobile Audit Tools

  • Andriller – Software utility with a collection of forensic tools for smartphones.

Audio Recording

  • AudioMass – Audio waveform editor in your browser. Ability to record is planned but limited based on what Audio APIs are supported by the OS and Browser.
  • Audio Recorder – Record audio files, clean and simple.
  • fmedia – A free portable and open source audio recorder software for Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD.
  • Jokosher – Yet another free open source audio recorder software for Windows and Ubuntu.
  • Libre AV Converter – Libre AV Converter is a free open source media converter software that also lets you record microphone audio.
  • Rehearsal Assistant – A voice / sound recording utility with two modes of operation.
  • SongRec – An open source Shazam client for Linux, written in Rust.
  • Waveshop – Free open source audio recorder software for Windows.

Mobile Audio Recording

  • AudioNotes – A simple Android app allowing you to take voice recordings. It supports light and dark themes, lets you save and edit your recordings.
  • Audio Recorder for Android – Audio recorder for Android with custom recording folder, nice recording volume indicator, recording notification, recording lock screen activity.
  • Audio recorder (Voice recorder, Sound recorder) – An application that gives easy audio recording experience. This app is optimized to start up as fast as possible, aiding the user in not missing important sounds.
  • Simple Voice Recorder - Record any audio easily – An easy way of recording any discussion or sounds without ads or internet access.

Audio Tools

  • Beets – A powerful command-line music organizer and manipulator.
  • Cecilia – A CSound-based graphical environment for music and signal processing.
  • cyanrip – Rips and encodes standard audio CDs with the least effort required from user.
  • fre:ac – Free audio converter. It supports audio CD ripping and tag editing.
  • Jack – Command-line CD ripper.
  • K3b – Is a full-featured CD/DVD/Blu-ray burning and ripping application.
  • Koel – An open-source personal audio streaming server.
  • Lame – A high quality, free and open-source MP3 encoder.
  • lltag – Automatic command-line mp3/ogg/flac file tagger and renamer.
  • matchering – Containerized web application and library for automated reference audio mastering.
  • MusicBrainz – Open Encyclopedia for Music information and Metadata, providing a unique ID for everything.
    • MusicBrainz Picard – Picard helps you organize your music collection by renaming your music files and sorting them into a folder structure exactly the way you want it.
  • Musikernel – A futuristic audio production platform (hardware support, APIs, hosts, plugins and more).
  • Rubyripper – Is a secure digital audio extraction application ("CD ripper") for Unix-like operating systems.
  • SoX – A free open-source command line utility for playing, converting and manipulating audio files.
  • split2flac – Split flac/ape/wv/wav and cue sheet into separate tracks.
  • Whipper – Python CD-DA ripper preferring accuracy over speed.
  • X Audio Copy – GTK and GNOME application for ripping CD-Audio and encoding in lossy and lossless audio formats.

AI music

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Muzic – A research project on AI music that empowers music understanding and generation with deep learning and artificial intelligence.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • MBeats Music App – This is a music app designed to use AI to enable user to use their voice to control their playlist.
  • AI-Vocal-Remover – Android app (Kotlin) that uses artificial intelligence to isolate vocals and instrumentals from any song to produce karaoke and acapella.

Audio VST

There is a huge list for Audio VSTs for Linux over here. There is also another awesome open source audio tools list here.

Audio Programming

  • Alda – A music programming language for musicians.
  • Bach: Automated Composer's Helper – A cross-platform set of patches and externals for Max, aimed to bring the richness of computer-aided composition into the real-time world.
  • Chuck – Strongly-timed, concurrent, and on-the-fly music programming language.
  • CoffeeCollider – A language for real time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition in HTML5.
  • Common Music – An open source music composition system.
  • Composing Studio – An online, collaborative editor for music notation.
  • Csound – A user-programmable and user-extensible sound processing language and software synthesizer.
  • Faust – A functional programming language specifically designed for real-time signal processing and synthesis.
  • IanniX – A graphical open-source sequencer, based on Iannis Xenakis works, designed for digital art.
  • Inscore – An environment for the design of interactive, augmented music scores.
  • Leipzig – A composition library for Overtone.
  • Midica – MIDI programming language with decompiler and player, supports karaoke.
  • Music Suite – A language for generalized music notation and theory, based on Haskell.
  • music21 – A Toolkit for Computational Musicology.
  • Nyquist – A sound synthesis and composition language.
  • OpenMusic – A visual programming language based on Lisp.
  • Orca – Live programming environment for music.
  • Overtone – An Open Source toolkit for designing synthesizers and collaborating with music.
  • Platonic Music Engine – An open-source music generation framework written in Lua.
  • Pure Data – A visual programming language for audio and other multimedia.
  • py-modular – A modular and experimental programming environment with basic DSP routines in python.
  • Sonic Pi – A live coding synth with an emphasis on educational use.
  • Sporth – A small stack based audio language.
  • SuperCollider – A programming language for real time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition.
  • Tidal Lurk – A language built on Haskell for live coding patterns.

Bible study

  • Bbl – A command line tool to read Holy Bible.
  • Go Bible – A free Bible viewer application for Java mobile phones.
  • Marcion – Coptic–English/Czech dictionary related to Crum's coptic dictionary, written in C++, based on MySQL, with Qt GUI.
  • OpenLP – A worship presentation program licensed under the GNU General Public License.
  • The SWORD Project – The CrossWire Bible Society's free software project.

Business Cards

  • EnBizCard – Self-hosted application to create interactive digital business cards.

Bypass GeForce RTX „LHR“ anti-mining protection

Bookmark Management

  • Axomark – Anonymous Social Bookmarks.
  • Brace – Helps you save links to everything and visit them later easily anytime on your any devices.
  • Localfirst – Selfhosted bookmark tool that supports full text search, annotations and RSS.
  • LinkWarden – A self-hosted bookmark and archive manager.
  • Memex – Annotate, organize and share your bookmarks.
  • Shiori – Annotate, organize and share your bookmarks.

Book Management

  • Openreads – Your private and open source books tracker, organizer and reading list.

Browsers - A general starter

Please check the Browser + WebView Comparison Table before you use something. In general I do not list any clown forks who offers no or less benefits because you can do it yourself without depending on a third-party project (in most cases) or in other words the community doesn't really need two practically identical packages that accomplish the same thing. iOS has limited Browser choice.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Browser Profile Backup Solutions

You can manually backup your profile or use some tools. Keep in mind that script based solutions can quickly corrupt your profile because the Browser might not be fully closed when you run the script.

Desktop Browser

Please keep in mind that projects like Ungoogled Chromium are hobby projects and cannot nor will ever compete against professional projects such as Brave Browser, simply because more manpower is involved in Brave's development. The only reason Ungoogled Browser is listed here is because some people do not like Brave Browser because they eg. do not use any crypto Wallet features (among other reasons).

Browsers are typically used as gateways to a lot of things and not only Browsing, because you can hear audio, play videos, use PWAs, edit code, flash ROMs with it among other things, the term Browser is also heavily aged and outdated, since the program is so heavily altered these days that it more acts like all-in-one tool. It should be noted that using an questionable web browser that is not actively developed or maintained only by a single developer or a small group can be dangerous. Sticking with a mainstream browsers like Chrome/Chromium, Brave, Firefox is better for various reasons.

Android & iOS Browser

All browsers on iOS must use Apple's WebKit to be allowed on the App Store.

  • Brave Browser – In case you use Brave Browser on Desktop already then keep it for mobile too.
  • Bromite – Android version which includes some hardening and additional tweaks and changes.
  • Ungoogled Chromium – Ungoogled-Chromium-Android is the Android version of Ungoogled-Chromium. - controversial
  • Frameless – A full-screen web browser for iOS.
  • Gear – The iOS Browser Supports Userscript.
  • iCab Mobile (Web Browser) - The default settings are not optimal but it is overall a considerable good Browser choice for iOS.
  • Lynket – Utilizes Chrome Custom Tab API to create a customized browsing experience while adding innovative features like background loading with floating bubbles, article mode and multitasking using Android's recent menu. - controversial
  • Lightning Browser – A lightweight Android browser with modern navigation. The price is free version on F-Droid but there is a Pro version for $1.50 on Google Play.
  • Orion Browser – For iOS and macOS. - controversial
  • Safari Browser – Safari is the best way to experience the internet on all your Apple devices. Default "Safe Browsing" setting shares web history with Chinese company Tencent.
    • Via Browser – Via Browser is a powerful browser based on WebView.
  • SnowHaze – Claims to be an privacy-oriented Browser.
  • SmartCookieWeb – A lightweight, basic and secure web browser that uses less than 8MB of space. - controversial
  • Tor Browser – Official Tor Browser for Android and iOS.

Flash Browser

Adobe Flash is dead and has several security implications however, some might want to quickly Browse oldschool websites and looking for a Browser based solution instead of blindly downloading and executing unknown code on their machine.

  • FlashBrowser – A small browser capable of viewing/displaying pages with embedded flash content.

Peer-to-Peer Browser

  • Agregore – A minimal web browser for the distributed web.
  • Beaker Browser – An experimental peer-to-peer Web browser.
  • Ceno – A P2P mobile browser to fight censorship.
  • Decenter Browser – Blockchain based Browser approach.
  • Stealth – Secure, Peer-to-Peer, Private and automatable Web Browser/Scraper/Proxy.

IPFS Browsers

  • Thor Browser – Native IPFS and IPNS browser which based on WebKit API.

Text based Browser

  • Brow – A fully-modern text-based browser. It renders anything that a modern browser can; HTML5, CSS3, JS, video and even WebGL.
  • Browsh – A fully-modern text-based browser, rendering to TTY and browsers.
  • Dooble – Dooble Web Browser, clean and easy.
  • Molasses – A multi-tabbed browser for the "slow" internet, including Gopher and Gemini.

Web Browser Tools

  • Diskernet - Searchable offline archive of browser history.
  • Meroku - Community owned self-hosted dApp store. It can be used for Browser based dapps or traditional dapps that run without Browser.
  • Visited - Locally collect browsing history over Browsers.

Browser Benchmark

  • ARES-6 – Various tests using the newest web standards and features.
  • Basemark – Various tests using the newest web standards and features.
  • JetStream – JavaScript benchmark developed by Apple.
  • Kraken – JavaScript benchmark developed by Mozilla.
  • MotionMark – Graphics benchmark developed by the WebKit team.
  • Octane – JavaScript benchmark developed by Google.
  • Speedometer – Performance benchmark that repeats the same actions using DOM APIs.
  • WebXPRT – HTML5 and JavaScript test developed by benchmark maker Principled Technologies.

Browser Syncing

  • EteSync – Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and privacy respecting sync for your contacts, calendars, tasks and notes.
  • Floccus – Sync your bookmarks privately across browsers.
  • Ymarks – Self-hosted cross-browser bookmarks sync.
  • xBrowserSync – Browser syncing as it should be: secure, anonymous and free.

Redirect News, Search, and Weather Results to Your Default Browser

  • MSEdgeRedirect – A Tool to Redirect News, Search, and Weather Results to Your Default Browser.
  • EdgeDeflector – A tiny helper application to force Windows 10 to use your preferred web browser instead of ignoring the setting to promote Microsoft Edge. Only runs for a microsecond when needed.

Browser Referrer Hider Tools

  • href.li – Hide your referrer and create an anonymous link that will hide the HTTP Referer header.

WebView alternatives

  • Bromite WebView – A version of Android System WebView with support for ad blocking and enhanced privacy.
    • WebView Switcher – A tool for installing Bromite WebView on Android 10 and higher.

Browser Fingerprinting

Canvas Fingerprinting

  • AdTechMadness – Overview of Google’s Picasso.
  • Antoinevastel – Picasso based canvas fingerprinting.
  • Dali.js – Dali.js, Picasso-like device attestation payload.
  • FingerprintJS – How Does Canvas Fingerprinting Work?
  • Google Research – Picasso: Lightweight Device Class Fingerprinting for Web Clients.

Fingerprinting measurement

Please keep in mind that no detection tool or website or app is absolute, they have a database and based on that they check known methods which returns your score. Unknown methods might exist already in the wild and maybe not all methods are integrated into the database. By no means are those tools an absolute instrument to measure - total - privacy, they only give you an indicator.

  • Am I Unique – Basic information a user's browser configuration and how trackable it is.
  • App Manager – Android package manager that also has lots of features to inspect apps, it is basically a all-in-one tool for Android.
  • BrowserLeaks – Gallery of testing tools that show what browser data can be leaked.
  • Cookie-Editor – Extension to quickly create, edit and delete cookies without leaving your tab.
  • DeviceInfo – Web browser security testing, privacy testing, and troubleshooting tool.
  • EFF CoverYourTracks – EFF project that allows you to understand how easy it is to identify and track your browser.
  • HUMAN Security – "Inside Anti-Detection Browsers and Account Takeovers".
  • Privacy Analyzer – Tool lists information that any website, advertisement, and widget can collect from your web browser.
  • Stanley – Can check the fingerprint of apks or installed apps.
  • ClassyShark3xodus – Scan apps for warnings.
  • User-Agent Switcher – Spoofs & Mimics User-Agent strings.

Passive Fingerprinting

  • nmap – Nmap Reference Guide on OS Detection.
  • p0f – Passive fingerprinting of TCP/IP communications.

TLS Fingerprinting

  • Salesforce Blog – Information regarding "TLS Fingerprinting with JA3 and JA3S".
  • ja3 – A method for creating SSL/TLS client fingerprints for threat intelligence.
  • ja3er – A project about collecting and sharing JA3 hashes.
  • JARM – An active Transport Layer Security (TLS) server fingerprinting tool.

Remote Fingerprinting

  • Drawn ApartM – Identification Technique Based on Remote GPU Fingerprinting.

Other Fingerprinting

  • FingerprintJS – "Incognito Mode Detection: Detecting Visitors Who Browse in Private Mode".
  • Jesse Li – "Detecting incognito mode in Chrome 76 with a timing attack".

Browser Extensions

The list is not a "best practice" recommendation list for extensions/add-ons you shall install. The list is random without any logic behind.

Before someone wrongly interpret this as "he uses those listed extensions himself", this is not the case. If you look for someone else suggestions, I suggest to take a look at privacy-fighter.

  • Behave! – A monitoring browser extension for pages acting as "bad boy".
  • Bias Monitor! – A Chrome Extension that promotes politically diverse news reading with Artificial Intelligence.
  • Canvas Blocker (Fingerprint protect) – A Firefox extension to protect from being fingerprinted, which is not needed with Brave Browser or Tor Browser.
  • Checkmarks – Firefox web-extension that checks bookmarks and loads favicons.
  • Chrome extension source viewer – Add-on or web app to view the source code of Chrome, Firefox, Opera 15 extensions and zip files.
  • Clickbait Remover extension for YouTube – Replaces thumbnails and modifies titles of videos on YouTube.com
  • Copy Guard – A browser extension to prevent copy hijacking.
  • Country Flags & IP Whois – Displays country flag of website's server location, Whois and Geo info on a browser addressbar icon.
  • Dark Background and Light Text – Firefox add-on that turns every page colors into "light text on dark background".
  • Enhancer for YouTube™ – Take control of YouTube and boost your user experience!
  • FastForward – Don't waste your time with compliance. FastForward automatically skips annoying link shorteners.
  • Feedbro – Advanced Feed Reader - Read news & blogs or any RSS/Atom/RDF source.
  • Firefox Multi-Account Containers – Alternative to above mentioned solution, optional, depends on your own preference.
  • Firefox Relay – ⁨Firefox Relay⁩ email aliases protect your real email address from public view, automatically forwarding emails to your real inbox. Amazon SES is used for delivery.
  • Image Search Options Customizable Image – Search right click context options.
  • IPvFoo – Display the server IP address, with a real-time summary of IPv4, IPv6, and HTTPS information across all page elements.
  • JavaScript Restrictor – JavaScript Restrictor controls the APIs provided by the browser. The goal is to improve the privacy and security of the user running the extension.
  • JShelter – Browser extension to mitigate potential threats from JavaScript.
  • Kee - Password Manager – Kee adds private, secure and easy password management features which save time and keep your private data more secure.
  • Keyboard Privacy – Not needed with Brave Browser or Tor Browser or in case you use some sort of anti-keylogger AVs/software.
  • Language Switch by Manuel Reimer – Allows to change the language identifier sent to web-servers to whatever language you need.
  • LibreJS – Allows to change the language identifier sent to web-servers to whatever language you need. GNU LibreJS aims to address the JavaScript problem described in Richard Stallman's article The JavaScript Trap.
  • LibRedirect – A web extension that redirects YouTube, Twitter, Instagram... requests to alternative privacy friendly front-ends and back-ends. Libredirect disables all instances and recommendation by default, which means the suggestions here do not contain any CloudFlare instances, which makes the extension preferable over the official instance list.
  • Tab Session Manager – A simple session manager. You can quickly save your current browser state and reload it whenever necessary.
  • Old Reddit Redirect – Ensure Reddit always loads the old design.
  • Prevent CSS Exfil attack – Not needed with Tor Browser.
  • Privacy-Oriented Origin Policy – Prevent Firefox from sending Origin headers when they are least likely to be necessary, to protect your privacy.
  • RadiTube – A browser extension to view the metadata of removed YouTube videos, the extension is not FOSS.
  • Reddit Enhancement Suite – A suite of modules that enhance your Reddit browsing experience.
  • Redirector – Browser extension (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge) to redirect URLs based on regex patterns, like a client side mod_rewrite.
  • Referer Control – Control the HTTP Referer on a per-site basis.
  • Request Control – An extension for controlling requests.
  • Scrt.link - Share a secret! – Securely share sensitive information online.
  • Shodan – Tells you where the website is hosted (country, city), who owns the IP and what other services/ ports are open.
  • SoundFixer – Lets you fix annoying sound problems in YouTube videos and such. Like audio in one channel only, too quiet or too loud.
  • Snowflake – Allows you to circumvent Tor censorship over WebRTC. When using the extension, your browser becomes a temporary proxy to the Tor network.
  • SponsorBlock for YouTube - Skip Sponsorships – Skip sponsorships, subscription begging and more on YouTube videos. Report sponsors on videos you watch to save others' time. Keep in mind that SponsorBlock transmits data.
  • Stylebot – Browser Extension quickly allows you to theme and fix CSS for every page you visit.
  • Tab Stash – A no-fuss way to save and restore batches of tabs as bookmarks.
  • Tabji – A privacy-first lightweight alternative to The Great Suspender.
  • Temporary Containers – Open tabs, websites, and links in automatically managed disposable containers. Containers isolate data websites store (cookies, storage, and more) from each other, enhancing your privacy and security while you browse.
  • Tomato Clock – A simple browser extension for managing your productivity.
  • Trace by AbsoluteDouble – An advanced extension that can protect many different types of browser fingerprinting such as Canvas/Audio/WebGL Fingerprinting. Trace also offers URL cleaning and header editing features such as the tracking cookie eater and Google header remover.
  • UNedit for Reddit) – Extension for viewing Reddit comments before they were edited or removed.
  • uBlock Origin – Not needed with Brave Browser or any other browser with integrated ad-block.
  • uBO-Scope – A tool to measure your 3rd-party exposure score for web sites you visit.
  • User-Agent Switcher by Alexander Schlarb – Easily override the browser's User-Agent string.
  • WebWormhole – Lets you send files from one place to another.
  • Wappalyzer – Makes it easy to find out what CRM, frameworks, e-commerce platforms, JavaScript libraries, server software, analytics tools, payment processors, marketing tools and more websites are built with
  • Web Developer – Adds a whole toolbar with various web development tools to your browser.
  • Window Resizer for Developer – This extension allows you to switch through different screen resolutions quickly.
  • zwBlocker – WAN extension that helps spot zero-width characters.

Popular Browser Extensions you do NOT need

Every custom extension and configuration you change makes your browser unique in its own way. See e.g. amiunique.

You do not need them if you have above listed extensions/add-ons installed or in case you use an up-2-date hardened browser. Additional info/comments are labeled next to the extensions/add-on.

  • Catblock
  • Cloud Firewall
  • Cookie AutoDelete
  • DDG Privacy Essentials
  • Disconnect
  • Google search link fix (also Yandex) – Removed from AMO, not maintained anymore.
  • HTTPS Everywhere is deprecated.
  • HTTPZ – Replaced with Auto HTTPS mode in almost every Browser.
  • I don't care about cookies / minerBlock – Most of those lists can be adopted in uBlock via a filter-list subscription.
  • Link Cleaner
  • Privacy Badger - Privacy Badger sends the Global Privacy Control signal to opt you out of data sharing and selling, and the Do Not Track signal to tell companies not to track you, which makes you more unique without any real benefit since DnT is optional. If you want similar add-on use Adguards StealthMode. PB itself had also long time problems with Google Analytics.
  • Redirect AMP to HTML
  • Skip Redirect
  • TrackMeNot – Not maintained anymore.
  • ChromeGalvanizer – Harden your browser against extension backdoors and exploits.
  • ClearURLs – Can be archived via uBO. ClearURLs includes some other useful features like eTag "blocking" but in hardened Browsers this is not needed or can be archived without the need to depend on third-party extensions.
  • Display sites quality – Questionable benefit because the database is often not up-2-date or does not exist for page x.
  • Don't touch my tabs! (rel=noopener) – Fixed within Mozilla Firefox source code and removed from AMO.
  • Emulate locally CDNs – Questionable gain of privacy, no proof or evidence. Implemented solutions are often outdated compared to real CDNs wo often update their stuff multiple times a day.
  • Prevent WebRTC IP leak – Above listed browsers do not leak WebRTC or can be manually configured as per needs.
  • Privacy Possum - I am absolute no fan of such extensions, the chance that you discover new trackers is low because filter-lists usually getting updated regularly and monitored by the community. Even if there are new trackers the community would quickly add this to uBlock filter-lists which makes the entire purpose of locally ad-blocking learning obsolete.
  • Unblock websites with a browser VPN/proxy – Optional, better use Tor/VPN instead of proxies.
  • uBlacklist – Blocks specific sites from appearing in Google search results. Can be archived with custom uBlock rules or filter-lists.

Book Resources

Dev Books

Other interesting guides and books

Brain Computer Interfaces

Brightness adjustment Tools

  • ClickMonitorDDC – Probably the most powerful utility on Windows of its type and it adjusts the real settings of your monitor. Official page is gone, for unknown reasons.
  • f.lux – It makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.
  • Win10 Brightness Slider – The program just sits as an icon in the tray notification area and left clicking on it will popup the brightness slider.

Bug Trackers

  • Bugzilla – A web-based general-purpose bug tracking system and testing tool originally developed and used by the Mozilla project, and licensed under the Mozilla Public License.
  • Mantis – A free and open source, web-based bug tracking system.
  • Mindquarry – An open source collaborative software geared towards small and medium-sized work-groups.
  • Redminey – A free and open source, web-based project management and issue tracking tool. It allows users to manage multiple projects and associated sub-projects.
  • Trac – An open-source, web-based project management and bug tracking system.

Bulk Renaming

  • SmartRename – Windows Shell Extension for Bulk Renaming.

Backup Solutions

  • ArchiveBox – Archive any HTTP sites.
  • BorgBackup – A deduplicating archiver with compression and encryption.
  • Cronopete – A backup utility for Linux, modeled after Apple's Time Machine.
  • Duplicati – A free backup software to store encrypted backups online in the cloud.
  • Déjà Dup – A personal backup tool to protect against accidental data loss.
  • Free FileSync – Folder comparison and synchronization software, minimal data syncing.
  • Paperback – Paper backup generator suitable for long-term storage.
  • rdiff-backup – Reverse differential backup tool, over a network or locally.
  • Rescuezilla – An easy-to-use disk cloning and imaging application that's fully compatible with Clonezilla.
  • Restic – A modern backup program that can back up your files.
  • Timeshift – An app that takes incremental snapshots of the file system at regular intervals.
  • UrBackup – An open Source client/server backup system.

Mobile Backup Apps

  • cbackup – A fast and complete app & data backup script for Android.
  • OandbackupX – Fork of OAndBackup adding support for new Android versions and updated UI.
  • restic for Android – Restic app, known from the popular Desktop version for Android.
  • Seedvault – So far it is supported by CalyxOS, GrapheneOS, LineageOS and Crdroid.

Background Remover

  • Background Remover – You can use the tool completely free of charge and without registration for private and business purposes which is the biggest difference to removebg. - controversial
  • Online Video Background remover – Online audio/video background remover. - controversial
  • Photo Doc – Russian website to remove background stuff from images. - controversial
  • removebg – Remove Image Background. - controversial

Barcode Scanner

  • BarcodeReader – Simple multi-format Barcode/QR Code reader for Windows.

Mobile Barcode Scanner Apps

  • AndrOBD – Use your phone/tablet to connect to your car's on-board diagnostics system via any ELM327 Bluetooth adapter.
  • Binary Eye – Yet another Barcode scanner for Android. Free, no ads and open source.

Benchmark

OpenBenchmarking.org provides a nice database for benchmark results, sadly it cannot be self-hosted.

  • Bench-sh-2 – System Info + Speedtest IPv4 + Drive Speed.
  • byte-unixbench – The original BYTE UNIX benchmark suite, updated and revised by many people over the years.
  • Geekbench – This tool allows you to use Geekbench 4 from a command prompt and automate it with shell scripts or batch files.
  • IOzone – A filesystem benchmark tool. The benchmark generates and measures a variety of file operations.
  • Iometer – An I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems.
  • y-Cruncher – Multi-Threaded-Pi-Benchmark.
  • Linux Bench – STH Linux benchmarking script.
  • Nench – A script loosely based on the established freevps.us/bench.sh.
  • Phoronix Test Suite – Makes the process of carrying out automated tests incredibly simple.
  • PyTorch Benchmark – PyTorch automatically performs necessary synchronization when copying data between CPU and GPU or between two GPUs.
  • pyhpc-benchmarks – CPU and GPU Benchmark of the most popular high-perf Python libs.
  • unixbench.sh – Auto install unixbench and test script.
  • VPS Benchmark – Benchmark disk, CPU and network.
  • VPSbench – A script to run simple and comprehensive benchmarks on CPU and IO performance.
  • Web Frameworks Benchmark – Static framework benchmark page.

Birthday Notifications

  • Birthday Calendar – Get a birthday calendar for all your social networks right inside Google Calendar.
  • BirthDay Droid – Helps you to remember your contact's birthdays. It scans your local contact list looking for birthdays.

Bluetooth Auto-Off

  • Greentooth – Save battery and mitigate the security risks of BT by automatically turning IT off when it is no longer needed.

Blockchain

Blockchain based Games

Blockchains are distributed, not decentralized. There's one central ledger. They have almost all the downsides of fully-decentralized systems.

BitTorrent clients

  • Deluge – A lightweight, Free Software, cross-platform BitTorrent client.
  • hTorrent – A HTTP to BitTorrent gateway with seeking written in Go.
  • LibreTorrent – A free torrent client for Android based on libtorrent.
  • qBittorent – An open-source software alternative to µTorrent.
  • rTorrent – Simple and lightweight BitTorrent client. Requires libtorrent backend.
  • Transmission – A cross-platform BitTorrent client.
  • Tribler – Privacy using our Tor-inspired onion routing, search and download torrents with less worries or censorship.
  • WebTorrent – A multi-platform desktop app for streaming torrents.
    • Instant.io – Streaming file transfer over WebTorrent (torrents on the web).

Mobile BitTorrent Clients

  • LibreTorrent – Copylefted libre software torrent client.
  • Transdroid – Allows you to manage your torrents. All popular clients are supported: µTorrent, Transmission, rTorrent, Vuze, Deluge, BitTorrent 6, qBittorrent and many more.

Code and Text Editors

  • DTE – A small and easy to use console text editor.
  • Geany – A powerful, stable and lightweight programmer's text editor.
  • Helix – A post-modern modal text editor.
  • Howl – A general purpose, fast and lightweight editor with a keyboard-centric minimalistic user interface.
  • Kakoune – Modal editor, faster as in less keystrokes.
  • Kate – A multi-document editor part of KDE.
  • Ledit – Simple, GPU-rendered, no bullshit text editor.
  • ncrypt – A free, open source, and privacy-focused online notepad.
  • Notepad++ – A free code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.
  • TextMate – Powerful and customizable text editor with support for a huge list of programming languages.
  • Vim – Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient. It is included as "vi" with most UNIX systems and with Apple OS X.
    • Neovim – Hyperextensible Vim-based text editor.
      • GNU Emacs – An extensible, customizable, free/libre text editor — and more.
      • Yode-Nvim – Focused Code Editing for Neovim.
      • Nano – GNU nano was designed to be a free replacement for the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email suite from The University of Washington.
      • Micro – A modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor.
      • Spacemacs – A community-driven Emacs distribution.
  • Vis – A vi-like editor based on Plan 9's structural regular expressions.
  • VSCodium – Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VS Code, on Linux there is Code OSS.
  • Zettlr – A Markdown Editor for the 21st century.

Mobile Code and Text Editors

APK Editors

  • APK Changer – Command line program for modifying apk files.
  • APK Editor Studio – Powerful yet easy to use APK editor for PC and Mac.
  • APK Studio – Cross-platform IDE for Reverse-engineering Android applications.
  • APKLab – Android Reverse-Engineering Workbench for VS Code.
  • Apktool-X – Apktool for Android.
  • apk-utility – Apk Utility is for decompiling, compiling, zipaligning, and signing android apk and jar files.

Hex Editors

  • ImHex – Hex Editor for Reverse Engineers, Programmers and people who value their retinas when working at 3 AM.
  • GNU Poke – An interactive, extensible editor for binary data. Not limited to editing basic entities such as bits and bytes, it provides a full-fledged procedural, interactive programming language designed to describe data structures and to operate on them.

Programming IDE

  • Code::Blocks – A free C/C++ and Fortran IDE built to meet the most demanding needs of its users. It is designed to be very extensible and fully configurable.
  • Data Stationt – The Data IDE for Developers.
  • Doom Emacs – An Emacs framework for the stubborn martian hacker.
  • Geany – Geany is a powerful, stable and lightweight programmer's text editor that provides tons of useful features without bogging down your workflow.
  • LiteIDE – LiteIDE is a simple, open source, cross-platform Go IDE.
  • MonoDevelop – MonoDevelop enables developers to quickly write desktop and web applications on Linux, Windows and macOS. It also makes it easy for developers to port .NET applications created with Visual Studio to Linux and macOS maintaining a single code base for all platforms.
  • Oberon+ – Oberon+ is a parser, code model, compiler and IDE.
  • The Lazarus Project – The professional Free Pascal RAD IDE.
  • Thonny – Python IDE for beginners.
  • wxDev-C++ – wxDev-C++ is an extension of Dev-C++ by Colin Laplace et. al. This program helps you to create dialogs and frames for wxWidgets visually using a form designer.

GitHub Copilot alternatives

Live coding

  • Cables - A tool for creating beautiful interactive content with nodes.
  • Fragment - A collaborative cross-platform AV live coding environment with pixels.
  • Hydra - A platform for live coding visuals, where each browser window is a node.
  • Livecodelab - A special secret place where you can make fancy "on-the-fly" 3D visuals and play awesomely offbeat (literally) sounds.
  • Orca - An esoteric language, usable as a live coding environment that can send and create MIDI, OSC & UDP signals.
  • Overtone - Collaborative Programmable Music.
  • Sonic Pi - A live code-based music creation and performance tool, also can export tracks.
  • Tooll.io - A free open source solution for creating interactive 3D content and animations.
  • Vuo - An application to help people develop interactive experiences, live performances, digital media, and more. Basic version is free.
  • vvvv - A hybrid visual/textual live-programming environment for easy prototyping and development.

Censor Bypassing Tools and Frameworks

Deep packet inspection is dead, and here's why.

  • AdGuard added an option called Protect from DPI.
  • chisel – A fast TCP/UDP tunnel over HTTP.
  • chnroutes- Modifies the route table to route only censored IPs through VPN.
  • code-talker-tunnel – Code Talker Tunnel (previously called SkypeMorph) is a protocol camouflaging tool, designed to reshape traffic output of any censorship circumvention tool to look like Skype video calls
  • Dust – A Polymorphic Engine for Filtering-Resistant Transport Protocols.
  • exposure – A A beautiful, fully open-source, tunneling service, written in pure PHP.
  • firefly-proxy – A proxy software to help circumventing the Great Firewall.
  • flashproxy – Miniature proxy that runs in a web browser, and reflects traffic to a Tor relay.
  • fteproxy – Provides transport-layer protection to resist keyword filtering, censorship and discriminatory routing policies.
  • fwlite – A powerful HTTP proxy server designed to circumvent the Great Firewall (GFW).
  • go-packetflagon – A local HTTP application that serves customized Proxy Auto Configuration files for your browser to help bypass Internet censorship.
  • gohop – A VPN implementation in GoLang, with crypto and obfuscation in nature.
  • gost – GO Simple Tunnel – a simple tunnel written in GoLang.
  • govpn – Simple secure VPN daemon, aimed to be reviewable, secure, DPI/censorship-resistant.
  • GreenTunnel – An anti-censorship utility designed to bypass the DPI system that is put in place by various ISPs to block access to certain websites.
  • httptunnel – How to install httptunnel on Linux.
  • infranet – Infranet is a system that attempts to circumvent web censorship by allowing clients to surreptitiously request sensitive content via cooperating Web servers distributed across the global Internet.
  • iodine – This is a piece of software that lets you tunnel IPv4 data through a DNS server. This can be usable in different situations where internet access is firewalled, but DNS queries are allowed.
  • LAN-port-scan forbidder – Browser addon to protect private network.
  • lantern – Lantern is a free desktop application that delivers fast, reliable and secure access to the open Internet for users in censored regions.
  • marionette – A programmable client-server proxy that enables the user to control network traffic features with a lightweight domain-specific language.
  • meek – Tor pluggable transport that uses HTTP for carrying bytes and TLS for obfuscation.
  • NaiveProxy – It uses Chrome's network stack to camouflage traffic with stronger censorship resistance and less detectability than custom-made network stacks (Shadowsocks and variants, V2Ray suite, handmade Golang stacks).
  • obfs4 – the newest version of the Tor obfsproxy obfuscation proxy. implements multiple pluggable transports.
  • obfsproxy with OpenVPN – OpenVPN traffic obfuscation using obfsproxy.
  • obfsproxy – Tor framework for implementing pluggable transports (anti-censorship network tunnels).
  • obfuscated-openssh – Handshake obfuscation strengthens the initial SSH handshake against systems that identify or classify various network protocols by examining data in transit for static signatures.
  • Return youtube dislike count – Dedicated Website with unofficial Chrome and Firefox extension. There are also several scripts.
  • YouTube Dislike Count which doesn't need external API call – Userscript solution which works without any external API.
  • scramblesuit – Tor pluggable transport that uses look-like-nothing traffic as a cover channel.
  • ShadowSocks – A fast socks5 proxy that encrypts traffic. Linux shadowsocks installation.
  • stegotorus – A tool that comprehensively disguises Tor from protocol analysis. To foil analysis of packet contents, Tor’s traffic is steganographed to resemble an innocuous cover protocol, such as HTTP.
  • streisand – Single command set for a server running a wide variety of anti-censorship software
  • telex – Involves placing anti-censorship technology into the Internet's core network infrastructure, through cooperation from large ISPs.
  • Torspray – A simple Python script to bring up multiple Tor bridges.
  • trojan – An unidentifiable mechanism that helps you bypass GFW.
  • tunsafe – A fast and modern layer 3 VPN tunnel that implements the new and modern WireGuard protocol that is becoming increasingly popular in the VPN community due to its security, speed, reliability and ease of use. TunSafe was developed with the goal to bring the power of the WireGuard-protocol to all the Windows users around the world and in March 2018 the first version was released.
  • uproxy – uProxy is a browser extension that lets friends route their connection to their Internet through each other's computers. It can help people with restricted or insecure access to the Internet get to the content they care about safely.
  • v2ray – A platform for building proxies to bypass network restrictions.
  • yt-dislikes-viewer – A Chromium-based browser extension that allows you to see dislikes on a YouTube video after the YouTube update. Keep in mind that using such tools usually exposing your own IP to the provider.

Mobile Censor Bypassing Apps and Frameworks

  • DPITunnel – An app for Android made to bypass censorship, supports much desync techniques. Can be used on all Android devices that have root access: phones, tablet, TV boxes.
  • envoy – C and Java Library derived from Chromium Cronet which can be used to make Android apps resistant to censorship.
  • InviZible – Android application for Internet privacy and security, it is more an all-in-one app but I wanted to list it under DNS.

Cloud Storage

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Cozy Cloud – French based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans. Can also be self-hosted and is open-source. And it also offers a collaborative notes editor.
  • Csyncx – Dropbox alternative only needs SFTP at server-side.
  • Diode – For individuals and organizations who want to safeguard their digital sovereignty. It is a high security, end-to-end encrypted solution for file sharing, collaboration, and backup that prioritizes security and confidentiality.
  • Filecloud Community Edition – Dropbox-like enterprise class file sharing and sync solution for home or business.
  • Filecoin – An open-source, public cryptocurrency and digital payment system intended to be a blockchain-based cooperative digital storage and data retrieval method.
  • Internxt Drive – A zero-knowledge cloud storage service based on best-in-class privacy and security.
  • JottaCloud – Norway based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans.
  • kDrive – Secure cloud to collaborate online, access your documents and files on all your iOS devices.
  • Maestral – Open-source, lightweight alternative Dropbox client.
  • Nextcloud – The open source self-hosted productivity platform that keeps you in control. There is also an PI Image ready to use. Tools like Cryptomator can also be used to encrypt your storage before syncing with its server.
  • ProtonDrive – You can now secure your files with end-to-end encryption.
  • Seafile – High performance file syncing and sharing. It includes a Wiki, WYSIWYG editing and other knowledge management features.
  • SpiderOak ONE – End-to-end no-knowledge encryption, Edward Snowden endorsed.
  • Sync – End-to-end encrypted Google Drive/Dropbox replacement.
  • Tahoe-LAFS – Capability-secure, end-to-end encryption, provider-independent privacy. Storage providers cannot read stored data.
  • Tresorit – An end-to-end encrypted file sync and sharing solution.
  • Unison – A file-synchronization tool for OSX, Unix, and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.
  • Woelkli – Your files encrypted, accessible from anywhere on any device, not FOSS.

Mobile Cloud Storage

Cloudflare Workers Alternatives

  • Blueboat – An open-source alternative to Cloudflare Workers.

Covid Notification Apps

Covid Certificate Apps

Call Blocker and Spam Filter Apps

Call Redirect

  • Red – Redirect outgoing calls to Signal/Telegram/Threema.

Calculator Apps

  • Calculator N+ or NCalc+ – Open-source feature-rich calculator. App itself is no longer in development, but the developer does encourage pull requests.
  • Calculator++ – Open-source calculator packed with features.
  • HexaCalc – Three tabbed calculator for decimal, hexadecimal and binary for iOS built in Swift with Xcode. Provides numerous operations and seamless conversion between the three tabs.
  • ncalc – A powerful Android calculator that contains most of the features needed.
  • Simple Calculator – Part of the SMT project.

Mobile Calculator Apps

  • BMI Calculator – Simple BMI calculator for iOS.
  • Calculator++ – Scientific calculator with sleek interface and powerful capabilities.
  • HexaCalc – Programmer's calculator for iOS.
  • OpenCalc – Simple and beautiful calculator for Android.
  • Simple Calculator – Part of the SMT project.
  • Splito! – Billing and tips calculator for iOS.

Camera Apps

  • Anonymous Camera – ‎Anonymous Camera for iOS lets anonymize photos and videos in real time, locally on device.
  • FreeDCam – An open source camera app which try to enable stuff that is forgotten by the manufacturers.
  • MotionCam – A camera application for Android that replaces the entire camera pipeline. It consumes RAW images and uses computational photography to combine multiple images to reduce noise.
  • Open Camera – Open-source camera for Android.
  • PhotonCamera – Android Camera that uses Enhanced Image Processing.
  • Secure Camera – Modern camera app focused on privacy and security with QR & Barcode scanning.
  • Simple Camera – Contains no ads or unnecessary permissions. It is fully open source, provides customizable colors..

Contacts & Calendars

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Google Calendar
  • S Planner / Calendar

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • AgenDAV – AgenDAV is a CalDAV web client which features an AJAX interface to allow users to manage their own calendars and shared ones.
  • Baikal – Baïkal is a Calendar + Contacts server.
  • Bloben – Self hosted web CalDAV calendar client.
  • Etar Calendar – An open source calendar app for Android.
  • EteSync – End-to-end encrypted sync for your contacts, calendars, tasks and notes.
  • KAddressBook – The contact manager component of Kontact.
  • Korganizer – The calendar and scheduling component of Kontact.
  • Lightning Calendar – A calendar fully integrated with Thunderbird.
  • Mailfence Calendar – Supports vCal/iCal import, export and can be accessed by using CalDAV.
  • Nextcloud Calendar – A user interface for Nextcloud's CalDAV server.
  • Open-Xchange – A secure hosted email and productivity platform, designed for providers of all sizes to offer their customers email, calendar, storage, encryption and more.
  • ProtonCalendar – Free plan only supports 1 calendar. Certain information stored in Proton Contacts, such as display names and email addresses, are not secured with zero-access encryption. Contact fields that support zero-access encryption, such as phone numbers, are indicated with a padlock icon.
  • Radicale – Self-hosted calendar server written in Python. WebUI for desktop, CalDav/CardDav for mobile sync. Can use a reverse proxy with Nginx for HTTPS.
  • Severus – A privacy focused contact management system.
  • Simple Calendar – A flexible calendar with many event related options.
  • Todo Agenda – Home screen widgets for your Android device.
  • Tutanota Calendar – Free cross-platform encrypted calendar. Allows importing of other Calendar files.
  • Twake – iOS app for Team channels, direct chat, task management, drive and calendar and more.

Mobile Contacts & Calendars

  • CalendarApp – iOS calendar app created with CalendarKit that shows events from EventKit.
  • Clendar – A minimal calendar & widgets app for iOS.
  • etar – Android calendar app.
  • FreeTimePicker – An iOS calendar with basic functions.
  • ICSx⁵ – ICSx⁵ is an Android app to subscribe to remote (“Webcal”) or local iCalendar files.
  • LunarCore – A small lunar calendar for iOS that contains a today extension.
  • Open Contacts – Hide contacts away from apps stealing your contacts information.
  • Proton Calendar for Android – Secure your schedule with end-to-end encryption.
  • Simple Calendar – Be notified of the important moments in your life.

Crowdfunding, Community, & Self-Publishing Platforms

  • Leanpub – Used by authors and publishers to publish amazing in-progress and completed books.
  • LuLu – One of the largest ebook self-publishing stores on the web.
  • Nantucket E-Books – A storefront and publishing platform for independent authors, centered around its own markup language and GNU LibreJS-compatible reader and book editor.
  • Noisetrade Books – A publishing platform sponsored by Paste Magazine that has a large selection of no-cost and DRM-free ebooks from a wide variety of independent authors.
  • Smashwords – Sells ebooks from independent authors.
  • StoryBundle – Sells bundles of independent ebooks using a pay-what-you-want pricing scheme.
  • Unglue.it – Crowdfunds DRM-free books, some under free culture licenses.
  • Wikibooks – Aimed at supplying educational textbooks.
  • Wikisource – A collection of documentation in form of eBooks.
  • XinXii – Europe's leading indie eBook self-publishing and distribution platform with 20,000 DRM-free eBooks (every day, numerous titles are added), 10,000+ independent authors and publishers from all over the world, and is available in 7 languages and 3 currencies.

CAPTCHAs

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Captcheck – Friendly, easy, lightweight, self-hostable CAPTCHA service.
  • Click Captcha – A visual, click-based CAPTCHA for human authentication.
  • Django Simple Captcha – Django Simple Captcha is an extremely simple, yet highly customizable Django application to add captcha images to any Django form.
  • DoomCaptcha – CAPTCHAs don't have to be boring, please READ the disclaimer on project's website.
  • FriendlyCaptcha – It's based on proof-of-work which means the user themselves don't have to do anything.
  • hCaptcha – Stop more bots. Start protecting privacy, Cloudflare now uses it instead of Googles reCAPTCHA system.
  • Hashwall – Protection against spam and denial of service without a CAPTCHA.
  • Honeypots – Instead of asking humans to verify themselves, you can try tricking bots into revealing themselves by interacting with “honeypots”.
  • POW Captcha – A lightweight, self-hosted proof-of-work CAPTCHA.
  • TextCaptcha – A source of simple textual CAPTCHA challenges.

Cloaking and Steganography Apps

Image Steganography

Clipboard Manager

  • CopyQ – Awesome FOSS cross-platform clipboard manager.

Mobile Clipboard Manager

CCleaner alternatives

  • BleachBit – Deletes unnecessary files to free valuable disk space, maintain privacy, and remove junk.
  • Clean Me – A small macOS app that acts as a system cleaner (logs, cache, …).
  • Comet (mdiskclean) – The goal of this project is to create an experience similar to the inbox Disk Cleanup program that ships with Windows.
  • Czkawka – Multi functional app to find duplicates, empty folders, similar images etc.
  • Disk Cleanup (Cleanmgr.exe) – A Microsoft software utility first introduced with Windows 98 and included in all subsequent releases of Windows. It allows users to remove files that are no longer needed or that can be safely deleted.
  • FSlint – A utility to find and clean various forms of lint on a filesystem. I.E. unwanted or problematic cruft in your files or file names. For example, one form of lint it finds is duplicate files. It has both GUI and command line modes.
  • LTE Cleaner – Wipes the only thing Android API 23+ can clean: log files, temporary files, and empty folders. Opensource, no ads.
  • Monolingual – A program for removing unnecessary language resources from OS X, in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space.
  • SCleaner – A Small & Simple One Click System Cleanup Utility for Windows To Keep Your System Clean & Optimized.
  • Stacer – An open source system optimizer and application monitor that helps users to manage entire system with different aspects, its an all in one system utility.
  • Sweeper – Helps to clean unwanted traces the user leaves on the system.
  • XTR Toolbox – Versatile and portable software designed to clean, tweak and optimize Windows. It's extremely fast and rich with features.
  • windows-tools – Speeds up Windows PC and server, by optimizing thread count per present RAM, changing NTFS settings for both performance and reliability, optimizing VSS preallocation, clearing VSS orphan shadows, clearing temp files from all profiles, etc. Multi functional app to find duplicates, empty folders, similar images etc.

Color Choices

CSS Frameworks

  • BASCSS – Lightning-Fast, Modular CSS for Designers.
  • Bootstrap – Mature HTML, CSS (LESS) & JavaScript.
  • Bourbon – A simple and lightweight mixin library for Sass.
  • Foundation – Fully featured mature HTML, CSS (Sass) & JavaScript.
  • Kickoff – A lightweight front-end framework for creating scalable, responsive sites.
  • PatternFly – A community of designers and developers collaborating to build a UI framework for enterprise web applications.
  • Rebar – Lightweight HTML, CSS (LESS).
  • Space – Base A sass-based responsive css framework.

Collaboration Platforms

  • Kanboard – A free and open source Kanban project management software.
  • My Personal Kanban – Offline Web App.
  • Nextcloud Deck – Useful when you already have NextCloud.
  • Nullboard – Offline Web App.
  • Radicale – Decentralized code collaboration network built on open protocols.
  • Skrifa – A simple word processor built with web technologies.
  • Taiga – An agile, free and open source project management tool.
  • TaskBoard – Works on almost any web host (only needs PHP with SQLite etc.
  • Twake – A complete and secure collaboration platform.
  • Wekan – An open-source and collaborative Kanban board application.

Chromebook hardware alternatives

How to enable Linux on your Chromebook (and why you should).

Chromecast alternatives

Configuration Software for Developers

  • Autoconf – A tool for producing configure scripts for building, installing, and packaging software on computer systems where a Bourne shell is available.
  • Automake – In software development, GNU Automake is a programming tool to automate parts of the compilation process. It eases usual compilation problems. For example, it points to needed dependencies.
  • BuildAMation – A desktop multi-platform free and open-source software system for writing a single description of how to build software for desktop computers.
  • CMake – In software development, CMake is cross-platform free and open-source software for build automation, testing, packaging and installation of software by using a compiler-independent method.

CMS

  • Contentful – One of the most popular CMS.
  • E-fun – A kind of headless, flat-file, and light CMS.
  • Jaw – A Headless Blog CMS.
  • Luminosity – A Complete PHP CMS built from Scratch.
  • Sanity – Headless CMS.
  • webiny – Self-hosted Headless CMS - this one is serverless, so host it on your own cloud! Other cool features include document management & page builder. Built with TypeScript.

Comment Systems

  • Discuzz – Simple open-source Comment System.
  • Giscus – A comments system powered by GitHub Discussions. Let visitors leave comments and reactions on your website via GitHub. Heavily inspired by utterances.
  • Remark42 – Privacy-focused lightweight commenting engine.

Cryptocurrencies

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Blockfolio
  • MLP

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Rotki – An awesome portfolio tracking, analytics, accounting and tax reporting application that protects your privacy.
  • pivx2bitcoin – Awesome private crypto swap. No accounts, no signups, no JavaScript, no tracking, no analytics. Tor and VPN friendly, too.

Computer Vision

  • AForge.NET – Computer vision, artificial intelligence and robotics library for the .NET Framework.
  • OpenCV – Computer vision library in C++.

Car Diagnostic

  • AndrOBD - Use your android device to connect to your car's on-board diagnostics system via diagnostic adapters.

Computer-aided design short CAD

  • Chokoku CAD – A new open-source CAD software on the browser.
  • FreeCAD – Parametric 3D CAD modeler with a focus on mechanical engineering, BIM, and product design.
  • LibreCAD – 2D CAD software using AutoCAD-like interface and file format.
  • OpenSCAD – A software for creating solid 3D CAD objects. It is free software and available for Linux/UNIX, MS Windows and Mac OS X.
  • QCAD – The Open Source CAD System for Everyone.
  • Solvespace – Parametric 2d/3d CAD.
  • XTrackCAD – An open-source, free, CAD program for designing model railroad layouts.

Cryptocurrencies Trading Bots

  • freqtrade – Free, open source crypto trading bot.

Crashlytics Logging

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Appwrite – Secure open-source back-end server for web, mobile & Flutter developers.
  • CondensationDB – Condensation is an open-source zero trust, distributed database enabling to build modern applications while ensuring data ownership and security.
  • Kuzzle – Google Firebase alternative.
  • Pocketbase - Open Source back-end in one single file, written in GO.
  • Sentry – Google crashlytics alternative.
  • Supabase – Open source Firebase alternative.

Data Deletion Services

  • Django-GDPR-assist – Tools to help manage user data in the age of GDPR.
  • JustGetMyData and JustDeleteMe – JustGetMyData and JustDeleteMe are websites that help you obtain and/or delete your data from multiple services.
  • lethe – A cross-platform data wiping tool that implements data destruction.

Database protection

  • ARX – Open Source Data Anonymization Software – Comprehensive open source data anonymization tool aiming to provide scalability and usability. It supports various anonymization techniques, methods for analyzing data quality and re-identification risks and it supports well-known privacy models, such as k-anonymity, l-diversity, t-closeness and differential privacy.
  • anonymize-it – A general utility for anonymizing data.
  • sdcMicro – R-package to anonymize microdata. Most functionalities of the package are also available via an interactive shiny-based graphical user interface.

Dating Sites

  • Alovoa – Alovoa is an AGPL-licensed dating site with a good privacy policy.

Dialer Apps

  • Koler – Just a simple phone app.
  • Simple Dialer – A handy phone call manager with phone book, number blocking and multi-SIM support.
  • WebCall for Android – Phone calls without app or SIM, via NFT and web browser.

Domain Hosting Providers

  • 1984 Hosting – A green, ethical web hosting that protects its user's privacy.
  • AccuWeb Hosting – No Ads or Banners.
  • CloudSigma – CloudSigma’s cloud infrastructure and services have been certified as compliant with the highest ISO 27001 requirements for security and data privacy.
  • Cryptoho – VPS hosting service with its servers in Romania, accepts BTC,Lightning Network, XMR, LTC, DASH, ETH, USDT as payment.
  • Exoscale – A European cloud computing for cloud native teams.
  • FlokiNET – A secure, stable and anonymous web hosting.
  • FreedomBox – A libre self-hosting system and also a commercial product. It has less apps than YunoHost but can be bought as a ready-to-use product.
  • Greenhost – A sustainable and secure web-hosting.
  • Infomaniak – Professional web hosting, domain name, cloud server, and email service.
  • Lohost – Distributed, decentralized, anonymized local website hosting.
  • Manitu – Web Hosting and Root Servers made in Germany.
  • Namecheap – Cheap domain names and web hosting.
  • NiceVPS – Proudly offering delivering the best uncensored and privacy oriented hosting service around.
  • Njalla – A privacy-aware domain service. It lacks a proper privacy policy but it is trusted and used by many.
  • OrangeWebsite – An Icelandic web hosting provider.
  • Private WebHost – Accepts BTC and for some other services PayPal. Premium Shared Hosting (PayPal & BTC), Virtual Private Servers (BTC only) and you can register a new domain.
  • Project Shield by Google – Project Shield is a free service that defends news, human rights and election monitoring sites from DDoS attacks.
  • Qurium – Qurium’s Secure hosting solution – Virtualroad.org – is the result of a decade of research and development, hand-on experience of preventing and mitigating targeted digital attacks.
  • Sandstorm – An open-source self-hosted web hosting platform for a wide set of web applications, including Etherpad (collaborative text editing), Radicale (calendar), Lychee (image hosting), Wekan (Kanban).
  • Takingnames.io – The first domain name provider for self-hosters.
  • Uberspace – Universal hosting for various stuff.
  • YunoHost – A libre operating system, that eases installing web applications on your own hardware. It also provides you with your own email server out of the box.

Domain Registrar

You can unblock domains from security filters.

  • DNSimple – Simple, Secure Domain Management.
  • Gandi – Their motto used to be “No bullshit”.
  • I.ws – Emoji Domain Registration.
  • Njalla – Privacy-aware domain service, sitting in between the domain service registrations and you, acting like a privacy shield.
  • Orangewebsite – An Iceland-based freedom of speech web hosting provider. They never actually ask for your name, at least when you pay in Bitcoin.

Domain Backup Severs

  • Proxmox – Provides Virtual Environment, Backup Servers and Mail Gateways.

Bulletproof Hosting Service Providers

Bulletproof Domain Hosting Providers

Local hosting

  • PageKite – Has led the way in making local servers public. With relays on four continents, it works with any computer, any web server and any Internet connection.

Diagramming Software

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Lucidchart
  • X-Mind

Privacy oriented alternatives:

Developer Tools

Mobile Developer Tools

Deezer Alternative clients

  • dzr – Command line Deezer player for Linux, BSD, Android + Termux.
  • SpotiFlyer – Multiplatform Music Downloader that supports Spotify, Youtube, Gaana, Jio-Saavn, SoundCloud.

Data Recovery

  • dvdisaster – A computer program aimed to enhance data survivability on optical discs by creating error detection and correction data, which is used for data recovery.
  • Foremost – A forensic data recovery program for Linux used to recover files using their headers, footers, and data structures through a process known as file carving.
  • PhotoRec – A free and open-source utility software for data recovery with text-based user interface using data carving techniques, designed to recover lost files from various digital camera memory, hard disk and CD-ROM.
  • TestDisk – It is primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally erasing a partition table).

Data Collection and Telemetry Studies

Image credit: bc + tcddublin

Designing things

Disqus alternatives

  • Commento – A Self Hosted Comment System for Websites That Just Works.
  • Chirpy – A privacy-friendly and customizable Disqus alternate.

Disk Benchmark Tools

  • Bench.sh – View system information and test the network, disk of your Linux server.
  • KDiskFree – Displays the available file devices (hard drive partitions, floppy and CD drives, etc.) along with information on their capacity, free space, type and mount point.
  • vdbench – Generate disk I/O workloads to be used for validating storage performance and storage data integrity.

Disk Erasure

  • ShredOS – Secure disk erasure/wipe.

Documentation Generators

  • CDoxygen – Tool for writing software reference documentation. The documentation is written within code.
  • CMkd – The software documentation is extracted from the sources files, from pseudo-code or comments.
  • CNatural Docs – Claims to use a more natural language as input from the comments, hence its name.

Document Scanners

  • Docus – Android application for scanning and managing documents.
  • NAPS2 – Scan documents to PDF and more, as simply as possible.
  • Open Note Scanner – With Open Note Scanner you can capture documents, handwritten notes, arts, shopping receipts, etcetera. It will automatically adjust the image aspect, contrast and save it. It will allow browsing, view and share the scanned documents.

Download Managers

  • Aria2 Download Manager – A download manager built with electron, react and aria2.
  • axel – Lightweight CLI download accelerator. It supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS protocols.
  • FireDM – Python open source (Internet Download Manager) with multi-connections, high speed engine, based on python, LibCurl, and youtube-dl.
  • GNU Wget2 – GNU Wget is a free software package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS, the most widely used Internet protocols.
  • Hitomi-Downloader – Desktop utility to download images/videos/music/text from various websites.
  • JDownloader2 – JDownloader is a free, open-source download management tool with a huge community of developers that makes downloading as easy.
  • lftp – Sophisticated command line file transfer program (ftp, http, sftp, fish, torrent).
  • Persepolis – Boost Downloading Using Libre Software!
  • XDM Xtreme Download Manager – Xtreme Download Manager (XDM) is a powerful tool to increase download speeds up to 500%, save streaming videos from YouTube, DailyMotion, Facebook, Vimeo, Google Video and 1000+ other websites, resume broken/dead downloads, schedule and convert downloads.
  • You-Get – Tiny command-line utility to download media contents (videos, audios, images) from the Web, in case there is no other handy way to do it.

Mobile Download Mangers

  • Aria2App – An advanced download manager based on Aria2 that can handle remote servers too.
  • Download Navi – Free and Open Source software download manager.
  • LibreTorrent – Free and Open Source, full-featured torrent client for Android.
  • Motrix – A full-featured download manager that supports downloading HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, Magnet, etc.

Deep Fakes Software

  • DeepFaceLab – DeepFaceLab is the leading software for creating deepfakes.
  • DeepFaceLive – Real-time face swap for PC streaming or video calls.
  • avatarify – Avatars for Zoom, Skype and other video-conferencing apps.
  • faceswap – Deepfakes Software For All.
  • omg.lol – Browser based deep fakes in pure JavaScript.
  • pytorch – An open source machine learning framework that accelerates the path from research prototyping to production deployment.

Deep Fake Protection

DNS and filtering

NextDNS will not get listed, they make money by limiting the DNS queries, their filter-list are integrated from GitHub based on other people work (and they do not donate to such projects). I absolute have no respect for this. Making money on behalf of other peoples work will not be tolerated on my list, they designed it to make money out of it not to help the community, the argumentation that you can use it free without buying for it (unless you hit the limit) does not change the fact that they steal other people filter-list (without asking if they even wanted to be listed). It would be different if they would fully open it up and accept donations, but that is not the case. BlahDNS/youtube-dl (as example) also do not limit stuff and then forcing you to pay for it to "unlock" additional stuff, it would be unthinkable.

There is also another reason, you cannot self-host it.

  • Adblock Fast – Adblock Fast is a new, faster ad blocker for Android, iOS, Chrome, and Opera.
  • Adguard Pro – The most advanced Safari content blocker and privacy keeper for iOS, DNS option/integration is planned. You do not need the app on iOS 14+. The source code is not fully open, you only see the issue ticket system.
  • DNSCrypt Proxy – A flexible DNS proxy, with support for encrypted DNS protocols.
  • DNSCrypt – Encrypts, authenticates and anonymizes communications between a DNS client and resolver.
  • HTTPS-DNS – Rust-based minimal DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) client.
  • Nebulo – An open-source Android client supporting DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS.
  • noisy – Simple random DNS, HTTP/S internet traffic noise generator.
  • pique – An advanced DNS stub with Freedom, Privacy and Security.
  • Swab – Content blocker for creative designer.
  • Unbound – A validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver.

Self-hosted DNS

  • BlahDNS – A hobby Adblock DNS project with DoH, DoT, DoQ, DNSCryptv2 support. In theory you can self-host it, the source code is there, I maybe post a guide.
  • CIRA Canadian Shield – Free for Canadian users.
  • Core DNS – CoreDNS is a DNS server. It is written in Go. It can be used in a multitude of environments because of its flexibility.
  • NSD – The NLnet Labs Name Server Daemon (NSD) is an authoritative, RFC compliant DNS nameserver. Here is a quick guide.
  • PowerDNS – PowerDNS, founded in the late 1990s, is a premier supplier of open source DNS software, services and support.
  • DNS over TLS and TOR with Pi-Hole – Instructions for setting up DNS over TLS over TOR.

Mobile Ad-blocking

DNS Servers

Do not blindly apply into any third-party DNS server, there are variables to consider like latency, privacy & security as well as the region you are from. Since I am from the EU/Swiss I only can list a handful providers. Listing 3 alternatives for every country would be too much for my list.

Key factors about DNS-over-HTTPS or short: DOH

  • Most ISP supporting DNSSEC among some other well-known security standards.
  • If you are using a VPN you should use your VPN provider's DNS server to minimize parties of trust, use one and exactly the same DNS and do not mix multiple DNS servers and resolvers across the OS, router, software e.g. Browsers. If you are not using any VPN and there is no censorship you should use your ISPs DNS server.
  • Under no circumstances should encrypted DNS be used to bypass censorship because violations may still be recorded and observers will still know what IP addresses your accessing.
  • Encrypted DNS doesn't make you anonymous, which means in other words, there is no improvement as privacy only factor. In fact you can smuggle something in the encrypted stream which you do not notice without inspecting the packages, which the normal user never does.
  • Overview of some providers and their tech behind.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

DNS Latency Matters

Docker alternatives

You can find an open-source home cloud that allows you to run Docker applications without coding here, it is called CasaOS. A Docker GUI is here.

  • abcdesktop.io – A cloud native desktopless system.
  • Buildah – Easily deploy docker based containers.
  • containerd – An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability.
  • Fleet – Self hosted applications provided as Docker containers.
  • K8s – Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
  • K9s – Kubernetes CLI to Manage Your Clusters in Style.
  • k3d – A variant of k3s that runs in docker (rather than a VM).
  • k3s – A minimal distribution of Kubernetes. k3s requires Linux. Minikube works on all platforms.
  • kind – Kind runs Kubernetes inside Docker.
  • Lima – It runs containerd+nerdctl on MacOS. Linux virtual machines, on macOS (aka "Linux-on-Mac", "macOS subsystem for Linux", "containerd for Mac", unofficially).
  • microk8s – A Snap distribution of Kubernetes. Only for Linux.
  • OpenVZ – Open source container-based virtualization for Linux.
  • Podman – An alternative to Docker, but get mentioned as a replacement for the Docker component (not Kubernetes) of Docker Desktop.
  • Rancher Labs – A complete software stack for teams adopting containers.
  • RunC – CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification.
  • Tilt – A toolkit for fixing the pains of multi-service development.
  • ZeroVM – An open source virtualization technology that is based on the Chromium Native Client (NaCl) project.

Detect Trackers in Apps

  • Exodus Privacy – Easily detect tracker before you install random apps.
  • LibChecker – An Android app to view libraries used in apps in your device.

Debuggers designed for testing and trouble-shooting

  • GNU Debugger – A portable debugger that runs on many Unix-like systems.
  • Memtest86 – Stress-tests RAM on x86 machines.
  • Xnee – Record and replay tests.

eSports Tools

  • Vodon Pro – Open-source, specialized player for eSports video reviews.

eCommerce platforms

  • eMarket Online Store – It is a free online store engine. Make the best online shop with us.
  • Medusa – An open-source e-commerce platform in 1 minute.
  • Rudder Server – Privacy-focused open-source alternative to Segment, customer data platform.

Event Hosting

eMail Clients

Desktop eMail Clients

  • aerc – Is an email client that runs in your terminal.
  • alot – Terminal-based Mail User Agent.
  • Alpine – Fast, easy-to-use and Apache-licensed email client based on Pine.
  • Balsa – Balsa is an e-mail reader for Gnome desktop environment.
  • Claws Mail – An open source email client (and news reader) for Windows and Linux.
  • Evolution – A Linux application that provides mail, calendar and address book.
  • Geary – An email application built around conversations, for Linux.
  • GNUstep Mail.app – An email client for GNUstep.
  • Himalaya – A CLI email client written in Rust. The aim of Himalaya is to extract the email logic into a simple (yet solid) CLI API that can be used directly from the terminal, from scripts, from UIs… Possibilities are endless!
  • iRedMail – Full-featured, open source mail server solution for mainstream Linux/BSD distributions.
  • KMailKMail – eMail component of Kontact, the integrated personal information manager from KDE.
  • Kolab Now – Online service providing personal Kolab Groupware on desired level.
  • Mailfence – Secure and private email-suite.
  • Mailspring – A fast email client written with Electron and React.
  • Mutt – Small but very powerful text-based mail client.
  • mu/mu4e – Maildir indexer/searcher + emacs mail client and guile bindings.
  • NeoMutt – Command line mail reader (or MUA). It's a fork of Mutt with added features.
  • Notmuchmail – A fast mail indexer built on top of xapian.
  • S-nail – S-nail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and receiving mail.
  • SnappyMail – Modern, lightweight and fast web-based email client.
  • Sylpheed – A simple, lightweight but feature-full, and easy-to-use e-mail client.
  • Thunderbird – A free customizable open source email client.
    • Betterbird – A fork of Mozilla Thunderbird with some extra candy in it, you still need to install essential add-ons and tweak the configuration.
    • Allow HTML Temp – Allows to have HTML temporarily enabled (and displayed) in the currently selected message by only one click. When switching to another message, it'll be shown automatically again in plain text or simple html mode (according to your settings).
    • MetaClean – Removes metadata and hidden data in email attachments preventing the leakage of confidential information that occurs in this type of communication and avoiding possible economic and reputation damages derived from the malicious use of metadata. The add-on is controversial because it uploads every attachment into a Cloud, however an AV usually does the same to check against a reputation database.
    • Octopus – Alternative OpenPGP Back End for Thunderbird.
    • pgpgeek – Quick & easy PGP encryption / decryption tool using openPGP.js.

CLI based eMail Clients

  • Himalaya – A CLI based Email Client.

Mobile eMail Clients

  • K-9 Mail – Open Source Email App for Android, K-9 Mail will be the relabeled Thunderbird client for Android.
  • Ltt.rs - Simple and maintainable Android e-mail client – Proof of concept e-mail (JMAP) client (pronounced "Letters"). Makes heavy use of Android Jetpack to be more maintainable than some of the other Android e-mail clients.
  • p≡p – Free and open source email client for Android and iOS.
  • pEp Email – Encrypted email app for iOS.
  • SimpleEmail – A Free Software, nominalistic and privacy-friendly email app.
  • Tutanota – Encrypted email app for Android.

eMail Encryption

  • Encrypted emails based on Signal protocol with post-quantum algorithms – Research completed, project planned.
  • Enigmail – Encrypt/decrypt and digitally sign your emails in Thunderbird, Postbox and Interlink.
  • GnuPG – Encrypt and sign your data and communications.
  • GPG Suite – An open source GnuPG front-end for macOS.
  • GPG4Win – An open source GnuPG front-end for Windows.
  • Hemmelig.app – This application is to be used to share encrypted secrets cross organizations, or as private persons. Hemmelig truly cares about your privacy, and will do everything to stay that way. I hope you enjoy the product.
  • Mailvelope – A browser extension to securely encrypt your emails with PGP using webmail providers, made in Germany.

Disposable eMail Providers

None of them will actually work for Twitter, Gmail, etc. because they use a blacklist and basically blacklist all public providers. The moment I would post some Russian providers who currently work the moment they would add them to their blacklist. Self-host or search for some Russian providers yourself but do not leak them to the public.

  • 33 Mail – Create a new e-mail address whenever you need one. You need to register yourself to use their service.
  • 10 Minute Mail – Free and anonymous temporary email.
  • dispostable – Just pick a random email address.
  • erine.email – Unlimited disposable email addresses to avoid spam.
  • eMail Fake – Fake Email Generator with your name.
  • eMail Deck – Free & fast, temp emails in 2 easy steps.
  • eMaildrop – Free mailer with privacy in mind.
  • FakeMail – Temp mailer with privacy in mind.
  • Guerrilla Mail – Disposable Temporary E-Mail Address.
  • inboxkitten – Open source disposable email.
  • Maildrop – Free and open source disposable e-mail addresses service.
  • Mailinator – Email and SMS Workflow Testing.
  • Mailnesia – Disposable email at its best.
  • Mailsac – Open source disposable email hosting.
  • Moaktmail – Privacy respecting eMail service.
  • Mint eMail – A no-click disposable email system.
  • nada – Free and paid plans.
  • Temp Mail – Free, easy to use and reliable temporary email address.
  • Temp Mail – TempMailers.com is a service that allows receiving email at a temporary address that self-destructed after a certain time elapses.
  • Temp-Mail – Free and paid service, also has mobile apps.
  • tmpmail – A temporary email right from your terminal written in POSIX sh.
  • Tempr.email – A service for temporary email addresses (temp mail) with a large range of functions.
  • YOPmail – Free, quick and feature rich service guards you against spam.

Email Alias Services (Anonymous Forwarding)

With email aliases, you can finally create a different identity for each website. Defend against spams, phishing and data breach.

Services with self-hosting options:

  • AnonAddy – Allows you to easily create aliases that forward to their eMail address.
  • SimpleLogin – Allows you to easily create aliases for your eMail, it has been audited.

Services without self-hosting:

  • Firefox Relay – Create aliases that forward to your real inbox. Allows 5 aliases.
  • Forwardemail – Create unlimited email addresses for free using your custom domain. Plus get catch-all, wildcard, and disposable aliases – all for free.
  • improvmx – Set up email forwarding in seconds and start receiving and sending emails with your domain name.
  • MailMask – Create forwarding addresses for free, without an account.
  • SpamGourmet – If you give your email address to everyone, you are bound to receive spam emails, and you won't know where they came from. Absolutely free. No registration. 24/7 Support.

eMail Services

Comparison of different eMail services, please check this. And regarding security and emails check this. Self-host your own Email server.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

I will split the list in free-mailer and paid providers. Free mailer tend to use ads based systems to survive and are controversial because that might come with privacy implications.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

Nadim Kobeissi released an Analysis of the ProtonMail Cryptographic Architecture paper, covering ProtonMail specifically. However, the same principles can be applied to other web applications and providers such as Tutanota, BitWarden, Threema, etc. which attempt to provide E2EE through web browsers. LiveOverflow explained Nadim's paper, and why the scope of the E2EE bypassing mechanism isn't arbitrarily chosen.

  • 33Mail – Email alias service, including anonymous replies and custom domains.
  • Anonymize.com Email – Paid secure email service provided by Epik.com.
  • Criptext – An encrypted email service that guarantees security, privacy and control over all your email communications.
  • Cock.li – Yeah it's mail with cocks.
  • Confidesk – High class encryption, maximum security. No third party access, nobody can read your mail, only you. Privacy as it should be.
  • Cypht – The driving force behind Cypht development is to provide combined views for multiple accounts, but it's also a standard E-mail client that lets you browse and manage IMAP folders and send outbound messages with SMTP.
  • Espiv – A collective dedicated to providing private and secure email and hosting services for individuals and organisations committed to political and social justice.
  • Ethical Mail – A carbon neutral email service hosted in Australia and run by a not-for-profit organization. The service is funded by its users without tracking or advertising. It uses free software components and all improvements are contributed back to the community. Email is accessible through the website or any standard email app.
  • Fastmail – Paid email provider, located in Australia and US.
  • Git Send-Email – eMail over Git is normally enough for developer discussions, groups etc. It is not a high security solution that you should use compared to e.g. ProtonMail but is sufficent enough for just using a public Mail for developer talk etc that require working with Git anyway.
  • Inbox – Free service, ads based system to survive. Ad-blocker detection.
  • Kolab Now – A Swiss email provider with lots of extra services aimed at business people, including a calendar, file sharing, tasks and more. There’s a free trial, after which you pay a fee to continue using the service.
  • Lavabit – An open-source encrypted web-mail service, founded in 2004.
  • Mail2World – Personalized email service that's as unique as you are.
  • Mailbox – Similar to Posteo both in feature set as well as privacy, security and ethics.
  • Migadu – Migadu is an independent email hosting from Switzerland.
  • Paranoid Mail – GPG encrypted mail provider.
  • Posteo – Ad-free and anonymous email service based in Germany.
  • Proton Mail previously ProtonMail – Secure Email. Based in Switzerland, the Proton Team admitted to log trough third-party data centers. ProtonMail has zero-access encryption at rest for your emails and calendars. Data secured with zero-access encryption is only accessible by you.The reason why it was first unlisted was not security. There are other reasons, please see here, based on this and this and the FBI request. The official F-Droid app includes trackers and other crap. IP released in publich. ProtonMail rebrands as Proton, Unified Protection.
  • Purelymail – A no-frills email provider with some advance security features.
  • RiseUp – Online communication tools for people and groups working on libratory social change.
  • Runbox – Privacy focused eMail provider.
  • Seznam – Similar like Inbox, ads based free mailer.
  • Soverin – Located in the Netherlands and offers privacy-oriented email including custom domain name and optional web page too.
  • Systemli – Mailboxes without ads or analysis of your emails.
  • StartMail – A private email service developed by the creators of StartPage.
  • Telios – Decentralized and Encrypted Email.
  • Thexyz – A Canadian company offering privacy-conscious business email. Premium web-mail costs around USD $2.95 per month.
  • TildaMail – Private. Decentralized. Secure Email. Own your data. Choose where it's stored. Protect your privacy.
  • Tutanota – Secure email for everybody and open source. The provider accepts Bitcoin or Monero, see here. Tutanota doesn't allow the use of third-party email clients and there are no plans to pull emails from external eMail accounts using the IMAP protocol. This means eMail import is currently not possible.
  • Ubikom – Decentralized E2EE email service.
  • VESmail – Set-and-forget Encrypted Email, open source, in public testing now.
  • VFEmail – Since 2001, VFEmail has provided businesses and end-users a quick and convenient way to ensure their own security when it comes to email.
  • Webmail – Free email service.
  • Wasc – A German, anti-tracking mail service. Clean interface, trackers blocked, obfuscated addresses.

Onion eMail Services

  • DanWin1210 – XMPP, eMail and more.
  • Elude – Easy to use service.
  • OnionMail – An anonymous and encrypted mail server made to run on the TOR network without losing the ability to communicate with the Internet.

Self-hosting eMail Services

  • IMAP API is now EmailEngine.app – Self-hosted application to access your users' IMAP and SMTP accounts via a REST API. Send and receive emails on behalf of your users with ease.
  • LIV (Live Inbox View) – A webmail front-end for your personal email server.
  • Mail-in-a-Box – An easy-to-deploy mail server in a box.
  • Mailcow – An advanced mail server perfect for those with a bit more Linux experience.
  • MailinaBox – Self-hosted eMail made easy.
  • Modoboa – Open-source email server.
  • RainLoop – A simple, modern & fast web-based email client.
  • Roundcube – A web-based IMAP email client.
  • SOGo – Share your calendars, address books and mails in your community with a completely free and open source solution.

Mail Server

  • AnsiMail – Security focused mailserver based on OpenSMTPD/OpenBSD using ansible.
  • Maddy – Composable all-in-one mail server in Go.
  • Mailcow – An open source Dockerized mail server suite.
  • Mailpopbox – Single-user wildcard mail server with arbitrary reply addressing.
  • Mailu – A simple yet full-featured mail server as a set of Docker images. It is free software (both as in free beer and as in free speech), open to suggestions and external contributions.
  • NixOS Mailserver – A Complete and Simple NixOS Mailserver.
  • iRedMail – Free, Open Source Mail Server Solution.
  • WildDuck – No spof scalable and API driven email server.

Alternative eMail networks

  • mnm is not mail – The mnm project enables a new email network: a sane, simple protocol, a client, and a server. It’s designed for everyone.
  • TMTP – A safer, better, decentralized email network. The client and server are open source, subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v2.0.

Encryption (File/FDE)

The general rule is that encryption is meaningless unless proven, integrating just encryption into a random product means nothing because Security is only as strong as the weakest link.

A Comparison of Encrypted Raid on Debian GNU/Linux is available over here.

  • Age – A simple, modern and secure encryption tool (and Go library) with small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability.
    • winage – File encryption GUI for Windows.
  • Bcrypt – Cross-platform file encryption utility.
  • Blackbox – Safely store secrets in Git/Mercurial/Subversion.
  • certbot – Previously the Let's Encrypt Client, is EFFs tool to obtain certs from Let's Encrypt, and optionally auto-enable HTTPS on your server. It can also act as a client for any other CA that uses the ACME protocol.
  • Coherence – Cryptographic server for modern web apps.
  • CryptoPocket – Encrypt anything then Decrypt by providing a required key.
  • Cryptsetup – Cryptsetup and LUKS, open-source disk encryption. Default encryption for Linux.
  • Dexios – A secure command-line encryption tool.
  • Enigma Reloaded – Offline ready web app, that allows encrypted communication across less trustworthy channels.
  • Etebase – A set of client libraries and a server for building end-to-end encrypted applications.
  • Filen – Zero knowledge end-to-end encrypted cloud storage, redefined.
  • Gocryptfs – Encrypted overlay file-system useful for cloud storage.
  • GPG – Complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard. It allows to encrypt and sign your data and communication, features a versatile key management system. GnuPG is a command line tool with features for easy integration with other applications.
    • keygaen – Sign, verify, encrypt and decrypt data with GPG in your browser.
    • Opmsg – A reliable GPG alternative.
  • Hat.sh – A Free, Fast, Secure and Serverless File Encryption.
  • HTML Vault – Generates self-contained HTML files protecting secret text content.
  • IronSSH – End-to-end encrypt transferred files using SFTP/SCP and selectively share with others. Automatic key management works with any SSH server. Encrypted files are GPG compatible.
  • Kestrel – A data-at-rest file encryption program that lets you encrypt files to anyone with a public key.
  • Kryptor – A free and open source file encryption software.
  • pass-coffin – A password store extension that hides data inside a GPG coffin.
  • PassLock – PassLok is a free app that provides simple, highly secure encryption for text and files.
  • PeaFactory and Password Encryption Archives – PEAs are programs from a series of encryption tools for various tasks or file formats. PEA here means Password Encryption Archive.
  • Peergos – The secure peer-to-peer file system and social network.
  • Picocrypt – A very small (hence "Pico"), very simple, yet very secure file encryption tool.
  • rubberhose – Julian Assange's deniable-encryption filesystem.
  • SiriKali – A Qt/C++ GUI application that manages ecryptfs, cryfs, encfs, gocryptfs, fscrypt and securefs based encrypted folders
  • sops – sops is an editor of encrypted files that supports YAML, JSON and BINARY formats and encrypts with AWS KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault and PGP.
  • Scrambler – File/Directory Encryption Program for Python.
  • StegCloak – Hide secrets with invisible characters in plain text securely using passwords.
  • Stash – A command line program for storing text data in encrypted form.
  • Turnstile – One Way Encryption written in Rust.
  • Tomb – A free and open source system for file encryption on GNU/Linux. The encryption program uses dm-crypt (and cryptsetup) for its back-end. It also supports steganography so you can hide tombs in a variety of files.
  • Vault – Secrets management, encryption as a service and access management.
  • Veracrypt – A free open source disk encryption software for Windows, macOS and Linux.
  • ves util – End-to-end encrypted sharing via cloud repository, secure recovery through a viral network of friends in case of key loss.

Mobile Encryption (File/FDE)

  • Oversec for Android – You can use 128-Bit keys and the plain text is only visible in an overlay layer, both participant users need to have the app installed.

Encryption for Small Businesses

The businesses environment is a bit different from the normal Desktop environment. More people are affected at the same time and your assurance company will target you in case there was an breach and ask you if that could have been prevented and if security holes were known and how it could have been prevented. In such a case audits are important to ensure that you did all the best to your knowledge based on a third-party experts inspection on used program, libaries etc. This brings you in a way better position, jurisdiction wise.

This section is absolute unfinished.

  • Arcano – An end-to-end encrypted file transfer service. All data is encrypted in the browser of the sender and only decrypted in the browser of the receiver. Arcano never has access to the keys of the users and can thus not access any of the files. Metadata such as filename are also encrypted.
  • AxCrypt - controversial There are several arguments against and for it, the police argument practical applies to every encryption program.
  • Bitdefender GravityZone - Bitdefender GravityZone leverages encryption capabilities provided by Windows (BitLocker) and Mac (FileVault) platforms. - controversial
  • Boxcryptor - Audited but not without controversies. - controversial
  • Bitlocker - controversial VeraCrypt is not a solution because it often has problems with SecureBoot and some KB updates that trigger some SecureBoot mechanism, this is not fixable by VeraCrypt and a Microsoft issue, they refuse to open source their boot sector and document everything regarding this matter which makes it impossible to use VeraCrypt on enterprise level. However, you can harden BitLocker via GPO to address some concerns because the default settings are not optimal.
  • Cryptomator – Encrypts your data quickly and easily. Afterwards you upload them protected to your favorite cloud service. You can find an older audit on this page.
  • FileVault 2 – FileVault 2 is Apple’s answer to Bitlocker. - controversial
  • Databunker – API based personal data or PII storage service built to comply with GDPR and CCPA.
  • IBM Security Guardium Data Encryption – Performs encryption and decryption operations with a minimal performance impact. - controversial
  • Semgrep – Enforce security on every commit. Semgrep is a fast, open-source, static analysis tool for modern languages. With 1,000+ existing rules and simple-to-create custom ones, it finds the bugs that matter.

Container Encryption

  • zulucrypt – A tool for creating encrypted containers.

Mobile Encryption (File/FDE)

  • Crypt4All Lite - This application is used for encrypting and decrypting files with 256 bit AES algorithm.
  • DroidFS - Encrypted overlay filesystems implementation for Android.
  • EDS Lite - A virtual disk encryption software for Android which allows you to store your files in an encrypted container.
  • OpenKeychain – It uses encryption to ensure that your messages can be read only by the people you send them to, others can send you messages that only you can read, and these messages can be digitally signed so the people getting them are sure who sent them. It desperately looks for maintainers, future is unclear.
  • Tessercube / TesserPG (OpenPGP client) – Make Messaging Secure Again.

Git encryption

  • git-crypt – Transparent file encryption in git.
  • git-secret – Bash-tool to store your private data inside a git repository.
  • gitmask – Contribute to git anonymous.
  • GitTorrent – A peer-to-peer network of Git repositories being shared over BitTorrent.

Web based encryption tools

  • Boxentriq – Easy to use tools for analysis and code-breaking of the most frequent ciphers, including Vigenère, Beaufort, Keyed Caesar, Transposition Ciphers, etc.
  • Cryptolab – is a set of cryptography related tools.
  • CrypTool – Great variety of ciphers, encryption methods and analysis tools are introduced, often together with illustrated examples.
  • CyberChef – a web app for encryption, encoding, compression, and data analysis.
  • factordb.com – A tool used to store known factorizations of any number.

Electronic Design Automation (EDA)

  • Fritzing – An open-source initiative to develop amateur or hobby CAD software for the design of electronics hardware, to support designers and artists ready to move from experimenting with a prototype to building a more permanent circuit.
  • KiCad – A free software suite for electronic design automation (EDA).

Electron Framework Alternatives

Electron Framework is in general more heavy on resources compared to other solutions.

  • azula – Lightweight GPU accelerated HTML GUI for native JavaScript applications.
  • Chromely – Lightweight Alternative to Electron for .NET and .NET Core.
  • Flutter – Flutter makes it easy and fast to build beautiful mobile apps. Flutter is a new mobile app SDK to help developers and designers build modern mobile apps for iOS and Android.
  • GTK+ – GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. Offering a complete set of widgets, GTK+ is suitable for projects ranging from small one-off tools to complete application suites.
  • QT – Cross-platform application framework that is widely used for developing application software that can be run on various software and hardware platforms with little or no change in the underlying codebase, while having the power and speed of native applications.
    • fman build system – A framework for creating desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux. Based on Qt and Python, it is a lightweight alternative to Electron. Unlike other solutions, fbs makes packaging easy: Create an installer for your app in seconds and start distributing it to your users.
  • neutralinojs – Portable and lightweight cross-platform desktop application development framework.
  • NW.js – NW.js, previously known as "node-webkit" project, is an app runtime based on Small Chromium, Small Node.js iconNode.js. You can write native apps in HTML and Javascript with NW.js. It also lets you call io.js modules directly from the DOM and enables a new way of writing native applications with all Web technologies.
  • PHP App Server – Create lightweight, installable applications written in HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP for the Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop operating systems.
  • PyGObject – A Python package which provides bindings for GObject based libraries such as GTK, GStreamer, WebKitGTK, GLib, GIO and many more.
  • React Native – A framework for building native mobile apps using React.
  • Revery – Build native, high-performance, cross-platform desktop apps with ReasonML.
  • RhoMobile – Cross-platform framework for creating mobile and desktop apps for iOS, Android, WinCE, Sailfish OS, Windows, Linux and OS X..
  • Sciter – Embeddable HTML/CSS/script engine.
  • Tauri – Build smaller, faster, and more secure desktop applications with a web fronten.
  • Ultimate++ – A C++ cross-platform rapid application development framework.
  • Vuido – Build native desktop applications using Vue.js.
  • Webber – Effortlessly installs local shortcuts for any webpage
  • wxWidgets – A C++ library that lets developers create applications for Windows, OS X, Linux and UNIX on 32-bit and 64-bit architectures as well as several mobile platforms including Windows Mobile, iPhone SDK and embedded GTK+.

Ebook readers

  • Bookworm – A simple, focused eBook reader.
  • Calibre – The one stop solution to all your e-book needs.
    • Calibre Web – An app for browsing eBooks stored in a Calibre database.
  • DIY ePub Reader – An ESP32 e-reader.
  • Duofolio – An eBook reader that helps you read books in other languages.
  • Foliate – A simple and modern eBook viewer for Linux desktops.
  • KOReader – A document viewer for E Ink devices.
  • Librera Reader – All-Format eBook Reader for Android.
  • Thorium Reader – An EPUB reader of choice for Windows 10, macOS and Linux.

Employee Monitoring

  • fleet – Open source device management, built on osquery.

Educational Suites

  • ATutor – Web-based Learning Content Management System (LCMS).
  • Chamilo – Web-based e-learning and content management system.
  • Claroline – Collaborative Learning Management System.
  • DoceboLMS – SAAS/cloud platform for learning.
  • eFront – Icon-based learning management system.
  • FlightPath – Academic advising software for universities.
  • GCompris – Educational entertainment, aimed at children aged 2–10.
  • Gnaural – Brainwave entrainment software.
  • H5P – Framework for creating and sharing interactive HTML5 content.
  • IUP Portfolio – Educational platform for Swedish schools.
  • ILIAS – Web-based learning management system (LMS).
  • Moodle – Free and open-source learning management system.
  • OLAT – Web-based Learning Content Management System.
  • Omeka – Content management system for online digital collections.
  • openSIS – Web-based Student Information and School Management system.
  • Sakai Project – Web-based learning management system.
  • SWAD – Web-based learning management system.
  • Trunk – An open source language learning application.
  • Tux Paint – Painting application for 3–12 year olds.
  • UberStudent – Linux based operating system and software suite for academic studies.

Educational materials and Books for Students and Researchers

  • BookBoon – Publishes over 200 textbooks that students can download totally for free.
  • Light and Matter – Introductory physics textbooks in available in HTML and PDF. Released under both Creative Commons and the GFDL.
  • Linear Algebra – A first course – A free linear algebra textbook available in PDF and released under the GFDL.
  • Michael Willems Photography – DRM-free photography teaching books. Use discount code “FSF” for a 15% checkout discount.
  • Linear Algebra – A free linear algebra textbook in PDF format. Licensed under both Creative Commons and the GFDL.
  • Motion Mountain – Free physics textbook available in PDF. Released under Creative Commons.
  • OpenEdition – Free academic books and journals in HTML format
  • OpenStax College – A nonprofit organization committed to improving student access to quality learning materials. They provide free textbooks, developed and peer-reviewed by educators to ensure they are readable and accurate.
  • TechBooksForFree.com – Free programming and computer science books.
  • Wikiversity – A Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning.

e-mobility

  • EVerest – e-mobility powered by open source with EVerest, the charge point operating system. The official website is here.

Fact-Checking Sites to Fight Misinformation

  • BBC Reality Check – BBC Reality Check is the fact-checking arm of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). Launched in 2017, the BBC Reality Check team was assembled to fact-check and debunk fake news trying to pass as real news.
  • Fact-Checking Your Writing: Tips & Helpful Websites – Article on how to fact-checking your writings.
  • FactCheck.org – The Annenberg Public Policy Center project at the University of Pennsylvania has been around for a long time and has always enjoyed a reputation for debunking false claims, mostly those made by U.S. politicians.
  • FlackCheck.org – A companion site to FactCheck.org, it’s mostly focused on political literacy, but it can also help you learn how to identify the logical fallacies in arguments in general.
  • Guide on hot to fight lies and misinformation – How to fight lies, tricks and misinformation.
  • Lead Stories – Lead Stories is the site behind the Trendolizer engine, which shows you in real-time what stories, images, and videos are going viral right this minute.
  • MediaBiasFactCheck.com – Fact-checking is not a one-and-done kind of effort. For it to work, several levels of review are needed. Enter Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC).
  • NewsVerifier.Africa – Billed as “Africa’s Fact-Checking Watchdog,” News Verifier Africa (N-VA), is a nonprofit that was created in 2020 to fight against misinformation about Covid-19.
  • ReportersLab.org – Excuse us while we get a little meta here. At the Duke University Reporters’ Lab, you’ll find a database of fact-checking sites as well as a round-up of tools to help you and other fact-checkers…well, check facts.
  • SciCheck.org – While SciCheck is part of FactCheck.org, it deserves its own entry on this list. Since 2015, the SciCheck feature has been debunking false or misleading scientific claims.
  • TruthOrFiction – Truth or Fiction is one of the best fact-checking sites where you can get information on fake news and viral content you may come across online or by email.

Fairtrade Smartphones

  • Fairphone – Fairphone tries to get as much of its raw materials as possible from sources with decent working conditions and fair wages.
  • Shiftphones – Similar approach to Fairphone.

Flashlight Apps

  • Flashy – Simple & Privacy-Friendly Flashlight App.
  • Simple Flashlight – A simple modern flashlight with SOS, stroboscope & bright display, has no ads.

File Searching

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Apple Siri
  • Cortana App
  • MS integrated search trough Cortana app

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Cerebro app – Open-source productivity booster with a brain.
  • czkawka – Multifunctional app to find duplicates, empty folders, similar images etc.
  • Drill – Search files without indexing, but clever crawling.
  • Everything – Search engine that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows.
  • FSearch – A fast file search utility, inspired by Everything Search Engine. It's written in C and based on GTK3 and designed for Linux.
  • Orange – A cross-platform desktop application for searching local files.

File Systems

  • XOpenAFS – Distributed file system supporting a very wide variety of operating systems.
  • XCephFS – Distributed file system included in the Ceph storage platform.

Fonts

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Brick – An open-source webfont service.
  • Bunny fonts – Privacy respecting drop-in replacement for Google Fonts.
  • C64 TrueType (TTF) Fonts – Downloadable C64 TrueType (TTF) Fonts.
  • Font Squirrel – Free fonts have met their match.
  • Fontless – The easiest way to self-host Google Fonts.
  • fonts – Another privacy-focused Google Fonts alternative.
  • FontSource – An updating monorepo full of self-hostable open source fonts bundled into individual NPM packages.
  • Go fonts – The fonts have been tested for technical uses, particularly programming.
  • Google Webfonts Helper – Hassle-Free Way to Self-Host Google Fonts.
  • Libre Fonts by Womxn – You can freely access and use the fonts.
  • OpenFoundry – A new platform for open-source fonts in a noise-free environment, to highlight their beauty, extend functionality and encourage further exploration.
  • Open Font Library – CC based and freely usable fonts.
  • Osifont – A Free TrueType font for CAD projects.
  • The League of Movable Type – The original, the first, the open-source font foundry.
  • TypeFaces – Typefaces: The easiest way to self-host open-source fonts.
  • Use & Modify – Use & Modify is a personal selection of beautiful, classy, punk, professional, incomplete, weird typefaces.
  • Velvetyne – A French libre type foundry designing and releasing cutting edge typefaces.
  • System fonts – System fonts never leave the user’s device, so they cannot violate privacy and do not use their internet connection.

Font Editors

Find My Device

This category needs some work because lots of known-apps are years old and outdated, which means they might not work as intended on newer Android versions.

How are iPhones still findable even when turned off in iOS 15 – Explainer on how Apple devices with iOS 15 can b found even when turned off.

  • Find My Device – Find your Android Device via SMS.
  • Device Locator – Last update from 2018, so it might nor work on newer Android versions as intended.

File Management and Sharing

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Blaze – A fast, p2p and radically different way to transfer files.
  • Cozy – Stores all your personal data: pictures, health, bank, holidays, accessible only by you.
  • Dat-cp – Copy files between hosts on a network using the peer-to-peer Dat network.
  • OnionShare – An open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network.
  • Paperless-ng – A supercharged version of paperless: scan, index and archive all your physical documents.
  • Plik – Plik is a temporary file upload system (like Wetransfer) in Go.
  • QRcp – Transfer files over WiFi from your computer to your mobile device by scanning a QR code without leaving the terminal.
  • Send – Simple, private file sharing. Send. List of public instances.
  • Snapdrop – A Progressive Web App for local file sharing inspired by Apple's Airdrop.
  • Tresorit – Free, End-to-end encrypted alternative for file sending. Up to 5GB.
  • YourTransfer.io – The simple but elegant file-sharing solution.

Fitness and Health

Your health is a very important piece of your private data and you should care a lot about it. Also, health related data is among the most coveted. Please don't use apps from Google, Fitbit, Huawei, Xiaomi or any company that seeks the gathering of your personal data and come potential with other security risks.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Nafas – Open-Source Breathing Gymnastics Application.
  • Nomie – Open-source life tracker with community extensions.
  • OpenFoodFacts – Open Food Facts is a food products database made by everyone, for everyone. You can use it to make better food choices.
  • OpenTracks – A sport tracking application that completely respects your privacy.
  • Pomatez – One of the best Pomodoro technique apps for Windows/Mac and Linux.
  • OpenWorkout – Simple workout trainer that puts your privacy first.
  • wger – A free, open source, self-hosted web application that manages your exercises, workouts and nutrition.

Mobile Fitness Apps

  • Another Pomodoro – Open-source Pomodoro timer app that runs in the browser.
  • AAT – A GPS-tracking application for tracking sportive activities, with emphasi.
  • FitoTrack - A privacy oriented fitness tracker for Android.
  • Gadgetbridge – Use your Pebble/Bip/Miband/Hplus/more and keep your data private! Freemyband.com website.
    • Fossil Hybrid HR – Fossil Hybrid HR watchface code intended to be used by Gadgetbridge.
  • Loop Habit Tracker – Track your habits and long-term goals.
  • Pedometer – Counts your steps in background. Customize daily goals, notifications + modes.
  • SigmaFit – Workout tracking made easy.
  • Workout Time! – An app for managing and performing timed workouts.

Fitness and Health Resources

  • DareBee! – Non-Profit platform that provides workout plans and health guidance.

FTP Clients

For mobile apps please check the file manager section, most file manager include such a function.

  • FileZilla – A free FTP solution for both client and server.
  • Cyberduck – A libre server and cloud storage browser for MacOS & Windows.
  • WinSCP – A popular SFTP client and FTP client for Windows.

File-Sharing

Keep in mind that most services are not fully open source or their back-end is closed.

  • 0x0 – File URLs are valid for at least 30 days.
  • AnonFiles – Quick and easy share files.
  • Arbore – A free and open-source file sharing application that enables you to send your pictures, documents, files to your contacts privately and without limits.
  • Anoxinon Share (50 MB) – Clean and simple file-sharing made in Germany.
  • Bitwarden Send – A trusted way to securely share information directly with anyone.
  • Blindsend – Open source tool for private, end-to-end encrypted file exchange.
  • BorgBase – Secure encrypted backup hosting service that offers 10 GB free storage forever.
  • Disroot Upload (2 GB) – Simple and easy file sharing.
  • dotfilesync – Sync your dotfiles into a private GitHub gist.
  • e2ee-cloud – A self-hosted, end-to-end encryption and cloud sharing software.
  • federalist – Access files on the decentralized, unblockable torrent swarm and visit links using Handshake domains. Decentralized internet is here.
  • ffsend – Easily and securely share files from the command line. A fully featured Firefox Send client.
  • fex – A big files sharing service.
  • FileBin – 6 Day file storage system.
  • FileSend (50 MB) – Simple, encrypted file sharing.
  • FreedomBox – A private server for non-experts: it lets you install and configure server applications with only a few clicks.
  • git-annex – Git annex offers robust and flexible file management. Packed with features, future proofing, and many different back-ends to connect to cloud services.
  • Gotify – A simple server for sending and receiving messages.
  • Jirafeau (100 MB) – Quickly share files.
  • Litterbox (1 GB) – Temporary uploads up to 1 GB.
  • MuWire – File-sharing over I2P.
  • NowTransfer (2 GB) – No tracking, no logging and no advertising.
  • Nextcloud Social – File sharing across NC instances and into the outside world.
  • OLKi – File/dataset hosting and social network for scientists.
  • Oshi – Anonymous file storage.
  • Rclone – Rclone is a command line program to manage files on cloud storage. It is a feature rich alternative to cloud vendors' web storage interfaces and like the tools listed above enables encryption for encrypting files in the cloud.
    • RCX – Android GUI for rclone. Manage files across many cloud services in a simple way under one interface.
    • Rclone Crypt – A client-side encryption tool that can encrypt before upload and decrypt after download from cloud storages.
    • Rclone Remount – Remount cloud storage locally during boot via rclone & fusermount directly on your Android powered smart device.
  • SendBig (5 GB) – Offers 5 GB free and 30 GB for pro users. The servers are ISO 27001 certificated and files are securely encrypted. - controversial
  • SendBig (5 GB) – Up to 5 GB for free users to upload. - controversial
  • SendFiles – Start sending encrypted files by generating a random password.
  • Syncthing – Continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes.
  • Teknik (1 GB) – Allows you to upload compressed files.
  • Transfer.sh – Easy file sharing from the command line.
  • ToffeeShare – ToffeeShare: Share files privately and secure, without size limit.
  • uMTP-Responder – Lightweight Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) responder daemon for GNU/Linux (USB).
  • Uguu – A simple lightweight temporary file host with support for drop, paste, click and API uploading.
  • Up1 – A Software for file encrypted hosting.
  • Pomf – A simple lightweight file host with support for drop, paste, click and API uploading.
  • Protocol for Synchronous Conferencing (PSYC) – A flexible text-based protocol for delivery of data to a flexible amount of recipients or people, by unicast or multicast. It is primarily used for chat conferencing, presence, pubsub and instant messaging, but not limited to that. Existing systems can easily use PSYC, since PSYC hides its complexity from them.
  • XD – Anonymous file-sharing. Torrent client for I2P.
  • XTahoe-LAFS – Distributed file system and Cloud storage system with integrated privacy and security features.

Mobile File-Sharing

  • Anemo – A private local storage utility application for android. Instead of being a stand-alone file manager user interface, it hooks into various components of Android making it feel like a native part of the operative system. Moreover it provides ways for the user to export contents from other apps and save them as files.
  • Sharik - Works with Wi-Fi connection or Tethering (via WiFi Hotspot). No internet connection needed. Available for Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS & Windows.
  • Seeker – Android client for the Soulseek peer-to-peer network.
  • TrebleShot – Free and open-source software for sharing files with support for browsers, Android & desktop.

Send files between devices

  • Android File Transfer For Linux (and Mac OS X) (USB)
  • CopyPaste.me – Helps you when you need to send a password, text snippet or file from one phone, laptop or tablet to another device.
  • Datash – Send or receive text or file from one device to another one through browser, it doesn't require any login or registration.
  • Http Share – A simple way to share files on your phone or tablet with any other phone, computer or tablet.
  • KDE Connect – Provides a set of features to integrate your workflow across devices. There exist also besides the Android, Windows and Linux version an iOS version.
  • LanXchange – Configuration-free, cross-platform file transfers for your local network.
  • Mass Transfer – Sends files only between Androids.
  • NitroShare – Simplifies the task of sending files from one device to another on a local network.
  • paste-out – The most convenient way to send a text from iOS to Windows/Linux.
  • qrcp – Transfer files over WiFi to mobile devices by scanning a QR code.
  • Teleporter – A simple application for sending files from Point A to Point B.
  • Transfer.sh – Easy file sharing from your Android device.
  • tFileTransporter – Transfer apps, images and files to Android Devices and PCs.
  • Warpinator – Unofficial re-implementation of Linux Mint's file sharing tool Warpinator for Android, basically a tool for sending and receiving files between computers that are on the same network. All you need do is install Warpinator on the computers, choose a group code, edit your firewalls if necessary, and that’s all.

Self-hosted File-Sharing

You find an entire self-hosted list with search capability here.

  • Lufi – Lufi means Let's Upload that File, it's a E2E encrypted file sharing software.
  • Ntfy – Self-hostable app to send push notifications and files to Phone/Desktop.
  • OnionShare – An open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network.
  • Portal – Zero-config peer-to-peer encrypted live folder syncing tool that respects your .gitignore.
  • Netop – A simple free (GPLv3) Russian cross-platform utility to transfer files over network.
  • Nextcloud – The self-hosted productivity platform that keeps you in control.
  • ProjectSend – Share files with your clients from your own server.
  • Retroshare – Retroshare is a free, open-sourced, secure, encrypted, anonymous, multi-platform application for securely sharing and communicating with trusted Friends in a global decentralized network. RetroShare provides file sharing, chat, messages, forums, channels and more.
  • Seafile Server – Share files over your own server secure and easily.
  • Zend – The safe, secure and completely free way to transfer large files around the Web.

P2P based file-sharing

  • Fission Drive – Your files, under your control, available everywhere.

File Manager

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Astro File Manager
  • ES Datei Explorer
  • Solid Explorer

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • fff – A simple file manager written in bash.
  • FileGator – Powerful Multi-User File Manager – A free, open-source, self-hosted web application for managing files and folders.
  • Files – A modern file manager that pushes the boundaries of the platform.
  • foot – foot is a very nice terminal emulator if you run Wayland.
  • Hydrus – A personal booru-style media tagger that can import files and tags from your hard drive and popular websites. Content can be shared with other users via user-run servers.
  • lf – Terminal file manager written in Go using server/client architecture.
  • Midnight Commander – Console-based, dual-paneled file manager.
  • n³/nnn – Tiny, lightning fast, feature-packed file manager.
  • ranger – A VIM-inspired filemanager for the console.
  • Sigma File Manager – "Sigma File Manager" is a free, open-source, quickly evolving, modern file manager (explorer / finder) app for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
  • Stash – An organizer for your porn.
  • TagSpaces – An offline, open source, document manager with tagging support.
  • Vifm – A file manager with curses interface, which provides Vim-like environment for managing objects within file systems, extended with some useful ideas from mutt.
  • winfile – Original Windows File Manager (winfile) with enhancements.
  • Xplorer – A customizable, modern file manager.

Mobile File Manger

  • Amaze File Manager – Material designed with an app manager and many colorful skins. Compress and extract files, save bookmarks, and view history.
  • Dir – A modern File Manager for Android.
  • Ghost Commander – Dual panel Android file manager (like Norton or Total Commander). Aside the /sdcard support, it works with FTP servers, Windows (Samba) network shares (with a plug-in), ZIP archives, etc. Lots more features and customization settings are there.
  • lrkFM – Free and open source file manager for Android with focus on archive extraction (.tar, .tar.gz, .zip, .7z and .rar (but not RARv5)) and creation (.zip).
  • Material Files – Material Design file manager for Android, it also supports FTP and SFTP.
  • Simple File Manager – Easy app for managing your files without ads, respecting your privacy & security.

Funding

Firewalls

Apple’s Private Relay can cause the system to ignore firewall rules.

Firewall analysis and anti-censorship bypass

  • BlockCheck – A script that detects what kind of blocking (DNS, IP, DPI) your ISP is using (for Russia).
  • ChinaDNS – Protect yourself against DNS poisoning in China.
  • Geneva (Genetic Evasion) – Novel experimental genetic algorithm that evolves packet-manipulation-based censorship evasion strategies against nation-state level censors.
  • gfw_whitelist – A Pac File of the Whitelisted Websites for the Great Firewall of China (GFW).
  • GoodbyeDPI – Passive Deep Packet Inspection blocker and Active DPI circumvention utility (for Windows).
    • PowerTunnel – Simple, scalable, cross-platform and effective solution against government censorship
  • gfwlist – Great Firewall of China ban list.
  • mongol – A simple python tool to pinpoint the IP addresses of machines working for the Great Firewall of China.
  • NetTrust: Dynamic Firewall – A Dynamic Firewall Authorizer. It uses a DNS as a source of truth to allow/deny outbound requests.
  • ooni-probe – Network measurement tool for detecting internet censorship. Measuring HTTP/3 censorship with OONI Probe.

Router Firewalls

  • Firewalla – An open source and extensible routing and firewall.
  • fwknop – Protects ports via Single Packet Authorization in your firewall.
  • FireZone – Open Source Tailscale alternative, provides VPN Server and Firewall.
  • NetBird – An Open-Source Tailscale alternative.
  • OPNense – Is an open source, easy-to-use and easy-to-build FreeBSD based firewall and routing platform. It includes most of the features available in expensive commercial firewalls, and more in many cases. It brings the rich feature set of commercial offerings with the benefits of open and verifiable sources.
  • Open MPTCP Router – An open source solution to aggregate multiple internet connections using Multipath TCP (MPTCP) on OpenWrt.

Hardware based Firewall solutions

  • NitroWall – OPNsense based router/firewall with Coreboot.

Router Firmwares

  • Dasharo – Open-Source Firmware Released For MSI Alder Lake Motherboard. In theory this can also used on routers, because it uses CoreBoot. Benchmarks showing that the BIOS is as fast as the vendor BIOS.
  • OpenWRT – Secure router aftermark firmware with firewall and advance interface as well as the ability to change settings via SSH.
  • Open-Source Firmware Foundation – Infos, News and guidance regarding open source firmware for various IoT devices.

Mobile Firewall Apps

Some of the listed apps are not traditional firewalls. I decided included them anyway because the category is not that long. Please keep in mind that Netguard among other Android firewalls may not be entirely helpful with Android 10+ due to per app internet permission toggles.

  • AFWall+ – Firewall (iptables front-end), based on DroidWall.
  • Better Blocker – A privacy tool for Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
  • Nebulo – A free, open-source, no-root, light-weight dns-over-https, dns-over-tls, and dns-over-http-over-quic client for Android with emphasis on privacy and security. Nebulo is fast, highly-customizable, ad-free, efficient on the battery, contains zero analytics / tracking.
  • Port Authority – Blocks websites from using JavaScript to port scan your computer and internal-network and also dynamically blocks all LexisNexis endpoints from running their invasive data collection scripts.
  • RethinkDNS + Firewall – Free and open source dns based ad-blocker and firewall for Android.
  • SoniControl – The Ultrasonic Firewall for Android Users. The app is not needed in hardened Distros since they added some protections within their source code. Ask your Distro maintainer if they adopted a protection against Ultrasonic attacks or not.
  • TrackerControl – Allows users to monitor and control the widespread, ongoing, hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behavior ("tracking"). To detect tracking, TrackerControl checks all network traffic against the Disconnect blocklist, used and trusted by the Mozilla Firefox browser.

Windows Firewall GUIs

  • Fort Firewall – Fort is a simple firewall for Windows 7+.
  • ntopng – Network traffic/connections monitoring, block ads/malicious domains using filter lists.
  • Private WinTen (Private Win10) – Privacy tool for Windows with a built in firewall.
  • PortMaster – Open-source network monitor and firewall.
  • SimpleWall – Simple tool to configure Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) which can configure network activity on your computer.

Linux Firewall GUIs

  • FirewallD – Provides a dynamically managed firewall with support for network/firewall zones that define the trust level of network connections or interfaces. It has support for IPv4, IPv6 firewall settings, ethernet bridges and IP sets.
  • OpenSnitch – OpenSnitch is a GNU/Linux port of the Little Snitch application firewall.
  • Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) – Simple to use yet powerful Firewall, an optional GUI can be installed.

Web Application Firewall

  • Curiefense – Curiefense adds a broad set of automated web security tools, including a WAF to Envoy Proxy.
  • ironbee – IronBee is an open source project to build a universal web application security sensor. IronBee as a framework for developing a system for securing web applications – a framework for building a web application firewall (WAF).
  • ModSecurity – ModSecurity is a toolkit for real-time web application monitoring, logging, and access control.
  • NAXSI – NAXSI is an open-source, high performance, low rules maintenance WAF for NGINX, NAXSI means Nginx Anti Xss & Sql Injection.
  • SQL Firewall – SQL Firewall Extension for PostgreSQL.

Firmware Analysis

  • FirmWire – A full-system baseband firmware analysis platform that supports Samsung and MediaTek.

GDPR Tools

  • Amnesia – Perform research and share your results that satisfy GDPR guidelines by using data anonymization algorithms.
  • Anonymizer – Universal tool to anonymize database. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) data protection act supporting tool.

Gaming Preservation

Game Launchers

  • Legendary – A free and open-source replacement for the Epic Games Launcher.

Game Emulation

  • 86Box – Emulator of x86-based machines based on PCem.
  • ActiveGS – Apple II/II GS Emulator with in-app game browser, MFi & iCade controller support.
  • Amiberry – An optimized Amiga emulator, for ARM-based boards.
  • DuckStation – PlayStation 1, aka. PSX Emulator.
  • GameHub – A unified library for all your games.
  • LaunchBox for Android – Performance wise one of the best Android emulator frontends you can get. - controversial
  • Ludo – A minimalist front-end for emulators.
  • Lutris – An open source gaming platform for Linux.
  • OpenEmu – An open source project to bring game emulation to macOS.
  • Pegasus – A cross platform front-end for launching emulators and managing your game collection.
  • PlayOnLinux – A tool to help Linux, MacOS users run games and programs for Windows.
  • PlayStation 2 Emulator in a Web Browser – Open Source PlayStation 2 Emulator in a Web Browser.
  • Playnite – An open source video game library manager.
  • Provenance – iOS & tvOS multi-emulator frontend, supporting various Atari, Bandai, NEC, Nintendo, Sega, SNK and Sony console systems.
  • RetroArch – A front-end for emulators, game engines and media players.
  • Winetricks – An easy way to work around problems in Wine.
  • dosemu2 – Run DOS programs under Linux.
  • iAmiga – Commodore Amiga emulator, based on UAE, the project seems to be abandoned.
  • itch.io – An online game marketplace and community.
  • vAmiga – macOS Amiga emulator.

Mobile Game Emulators

  • Delta – Delta is an iOS application that allows you to emulate and play video games for several classic video game systems, including Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and Nintendo DS.
  • DOSPad – iDOS an DOSBox port on iOS.
  • GBA4iOS – Gameboy, Gameboy Color & Gameboy Advance emulator.
  • Lemuroid - An open-source emulation project for Android based on Libretro. Its main goal is ease of use, good Android integration and a great user experience. It has an extensive list of built-in emulators.
  • MAME4iOS – Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator for iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, macOS (Catalyst)
  • Mini vMac – Mini vMac for iOS.
  • Motorola Ready For – Control your screen’s cursor with a flick of the wrist. Your phone morphs into a one-handed, motion-sensing remote. Plus, quickly navigate with home and back buttons. - controversial
  • nds4ios – Port of the Nintendo DS emulator, nds4droid to iOS.
  • PPSSPP – A PSP emulator for Android, Windows, Mac and Linux, written in C++.
  • Skyline – Run Nintendo Switch homebrew and games on your Android device.

Games without DRM

Game Platforms

  • Good Old Games (GOG) – A Steam-like video games platform without any Digital Rights Management: games you buy are yours forever, no one can take them away from you.
  • Humble Store – The charity initiative Humble Bundle also has an online store that sells both DRM and DRM-free games (the link below goes to their DRM-free section).
  • Itch.io – Sells games without DRM, so you can buy games and keep them forever.

Gaming Security

  • No-Chat-Reports – Strips cryptographic signatures from player messages, making it impossible to track and associate them with your Mojang/Microsoft account.

Generate Fake Web Browsing and Mitigate Tracking

  • PartyLoud – A simple tool to generate fake web browsing and mitigate tracking.

GPS, WiFi sensor and network status

  • FasterGPS – You can select a NTP Server matching your region to speed up the process of getting a GPS fix.
  • GPS Test – An app for testing GPS and GNSS capabilities of a device.
  • Kotori – A lightweight, open source speedometer app for Android using GPS.
  • Nearby – Scans all nearby wifi networks and the devices connected to each network for Indoor positioning.
  • SatStat – A diagnostic tool that displays data reported by sensors in the phone.
  • Sky Map – Point your phone at the sky, and Sky Map will show the stars, planets,
  • WiFiKeyShare – Share Wi-Fi passwords with QR codes and NFC tags.

Google Alerts

  • F5 Bot – Emails you when your selected keywords are mentioned on Reddit, Hacker News, or Lobsters.

Google Doodle alternatives

  • dudle – German Instance to quickly create polls.
  • nuudel – Instance to run a poll.
  • Kukkee – The free, open source and self-hostable Doodle alternative

Google Earth

  • GeoMapApp – GeoMapApp is a map-based application for browsing, visualizing and analyzing a diverse suite of curated global and regional geoscience data sets.
  • KDE Marble – Currently only on Linux, but is being ported to other platforms.
  • WorldWind – NASA WorldWind Software Development Kits (SDKs) for geo-spatial 3D virtual globe visualization via OpenGL/WebGL on Android, Java and JavaScript/HTML5.
  • ossimPlanet – A 3D Geospatial viewer built on top of OpenSceneGraph.

Google Flutter

  • Apache Cordova – It's a major tool for web developers.
  • Codename One – Most similar tool to flutter on the market, open source, supports Kotlin and Java.
  • KMM – You can find the docs here.
  • QT – Cross platform framework for C++ developers.

Google Forms

  • BlockSurvey – Enables digital rights (identity and data ownership) to users using Blockstack's blockchain. Users truly own their data with BlockSurvey.
  • Drupal Webform – Module for making forms and surveys in Drupal content management system (it is not a standalone app).
  • EUSurvey – The European Commission's official survey management tool. Its main purpose is to create official surveys of public opinion and forms for internal communication and staff management, e.g. staff opinion surveys and forms for evaluation or registration.
  • Form Tools – A powerful, flexible, free and open source PHP/MySQL script you install on your website for managing your forms and data.
  • Input App – Mobile survey app and cloud sync for Qgis projects.
  • LimeSurvey – A free open source survey software, it can be used on the LimeSurvey.org site, or you can install it on your own server if you have one.
  • Nextcloud Forms – If you are using Nextcloud, the Forms extension is a good option for creating simple surveys and questionnaires. Survey info and responses are kept private on your Nextcloud instance.
  • OhMyForm – A free and open source alternative to commercial form creators like Small Typeform iconTypeform and Small Google Drive.
  • PHP FormBuilder – Easy-to-use HTML form builder script that provides simple and flexible way to create HTML forms and also validate different types of fields, using embedded ApPHP DataValidator.
  • Quill Forms – Contact forms and surveys act as lead generation machines and bridge the gap between your audience and products.
  • SurveyJS – A free and open source solution under MIT license. However, professional full-time software developers support it.
  • Tripetto – No-code tool for building truly conversational, logic-driven forms and surveys that lets you flexibly present these as conversational forms or even chats.
  • VFront – A free, open source front-end for MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite databases written in PHP and Javascript.
  • Vue Flow Form – A form generator tool for developing custom, conversational forms. It's a free, open-source, and self-hosted solution built with Vue.js under the MIT license, that can be integrated into your app or website.
  • Webform & self-hostable – A free open source form software, available to either self-host or host on Webform.com. The version hosted on Webform.com comes in free and paid versions.

Google Music

  • Audinaut – An open-source Airsonic client for Android.
  • MALP – An open-source Android client for MPD. Available on F-Droid.
  • Shuttle+ – Open-source local music player for Android. Available on F-Droid or by direct download.

Google Kepp

  • GitJournal – Your Markdown notes stores in any Git Repo. Available for both Android (Play Store) and iOS.
  • Joplin – Open-source notes/todo app. Available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Also offers a terminal version.
  • Nextcloud Notes – A distraction free notes taking app for Nextcloud. It provides categories for better organization and supports formatting using Markdown syntax.
  • Notesnook – A truly zero-knowledge note taking app, encrypted using XChaChaPoly1305-IETF & Argon2. It is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and has browser extensions too. It is not self-hostable and follows a freemium model. Notesnook soon goes open source.
  • QOwnNotes – Open-source file editor with Markdown support. (thanks u/maqp2)
  • Rnote – A simple note taking application written in Rust and GTK4.
  • Standard Notes – Encrypted note storage with loads of features. Offers a web app as well as downloads for most operating systems. Has a paid plan, but the free tier has many useful features as well.
  • TiddlyWiki – An open-source personal note-taking system that can run in the browser as a single HTML file or as a NodeJS application. It can be stored locally on a hard drive or removable drive, self-hosted on one's own server, or use various web-based storage options.
  • Turtl – Encrypted collaborative notebook with possibility of running your own server.

Google Classroom

  • Canvas – Paid service by Instructure. Also available as a self-hosted, open-source option.
  • ILIAS – Self-hosted open-source classroom software.
  • Moodle – Self-hosted open-source Classroom software for schools. Very powerful.

Google Sheets

  • Grist – Open core alternative to G Sheets with SQLite storage and Python formulas.
  • Magic Sheets – Machine Learning for Google Sheets. - controversial

Google Sites

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Google Sites
  • Squarespace
  • Weebly

Privacy oriented alternatives:

Google Safetynet

Faking, spoofing, manipulating category for SafetyNet Attestation and other Android limitations.

  • DisableFlagSecure – Disable FLAG_SECURE on all windows, enabling screenshots in apps that normally wouldn't allow it.
  • FakeXposed – Hide xposed, root, file redirection, etc.
  • Safetynet-fix – A universal fix for Google SafetyNet on Android devices with hardware attestation and unlocked bootloaders.
  • hsu – Magisk module for hiding Magisk and root by entirely disabling and hiding them.

Google Trends

There are some open source API's available to Google trends.

Google Workspace

Most tools are normally paid or freemium only because you need to put lots of time, effort and maintenance in such G-Suite alternatives.

  • Fastmail – A solid alternative for email & calendar. Fastmail is also listed under eMail provider.
  • Nextcloud Hub – Nextcloud is the most deployed on-premises file share and collaboration platform.
  • WikiSuite – The most comprehensive and integrated Free / Libre / Open Source enterprise software suite.

Graphic Novels & Comic Books

  • Comic Book Plus – Comic books in CBR/CBZ. Requires free registration.
  • Comics Fu – A platform for creating digital comic stores.
  • comiXology – Sells comics and offers DRM-free backups on select titles.
  • Dynamite Entertainment – Sells DRM-free comics and graphic novels.
  • Panel Syndicate – A pay-what-you want website for comics by artist Marcos Martin and writer Brian K. Vaughan.
  • Rebellion Publishing – A digital publisher of ebooks, graphic novels, and comic books.
  • Thrillbent – A digital comics site created by award-winning comics writer Mark Waid and television writer/producer extraordinaire John Rogers.

Groceries

  • Grocy – A web-based self-hosted open source groceries and household management solution for your home. There is also an F-Droid app.

Mobile Groceries Apps

Governmental Petition Portals

Some, or most listed alternatives are using Cloudflare or are in general CL hosted. See below why CL is general controversial even tho the EU fully trust Cloudflare

Some common sites that are FOSS:

Controversial:

Guides connected to privacy, security or anonymity

You find a basic info page about Open Source Guides here.

Please keep in mind that some guides might be a bit older, however some still have meaning and you possible can learn from them in an historic context to see how certain stuff evolved, or stay the same. In general guidance are only as good as the author did the research on the given topic, which means that some things can be universally applied to specific threads and other guidance are specific to one or a few given examples.

I only delist links that is entirely incorrect or even dangerous to follow because security practical constantly evolves in both ways, positive ways and negative ways, which means new attacks emerge and new counter measurements also getting released because of the new threats.

IoT Security

iOS Specific Privacy Guides

Privacy Guides

Hardening Guides

Anonymity Guides

  • Anonymity Papers – Collection of books and other papers regarding anonymity.
  • Cornell Anonymization Toolkit – The Cornell Anonymization Toolkit is designed for interactively anonymizing published dataset to limit identification disclosure of records under various attacker models.
  • Open Anonymizer – Open Anonymizer protects sensitive data by generalizing data records in order to create data twins that mask the identity of individuals. It is based on the concept of k-anonymity .
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to Online Anonymity – Guidance to anonymize your daily data footprint.
  • UTD Anonymization Toolbox – Anonymization ToolBox to anonymize your data.

"Best Practice" Guides

Anti-Censorship Guides and Tools

Opsec Guides

Self-Hosting Guides

Security Guides

Hardware Monitoring

  • NVMe / SSD / HDD S.m.a.r.t Monitoring Script – NVMe, Rocket SSD and HDD S.M.A.R.T Monitoring for Windows and Linux.
  • Libre Hardware Monitor – A fork of Open Hardware Monitor, is free software that can monitor the temperature sensors, fan speeds, voltages, load and clock speeds of your computer.
  • NBFC – A cross-platform fan control service for notebooks.
  • Open Hardware Monitor – A free open source software that monitors temperature sensors, fan speeds, voltages, load and clock speeds of a computer.
  • OpenRGB – Open source RGB lighting control that doesn't depend on manufacturer software. For Windows, Linux, MacOS.
  • Sidebar Diagnostics – A simple sidebar for Windows desktop that displays hardware diagnostic information.

Hardware Recycling

Heroku Alternatives

  • Cloud66 – Our products help companies build, deploy and manage their applications without hiring DevOps teams.
  • Digital Ocean App Platform – The DO App Platform is a bit more hands on than Heroku.
  • Dokku – Dokku helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications.
  • Fly – Run your full stack apps (and databases!) all over the world. No ops required.
  • Railway – No support for scheduled executions.
  • Render – Has GitHub integration support.

HTTPS

This section is not finished.

  • HTTPS wrongly gets advertised as secure, which is not the case, there are bunch of scenarios in which HTTPS fails to protect the users. Self-hosting won't solve much because even self-hosted setup would have to talk to the outside world in the end.
  • Proxies like Squid can do HTTPS intercepting. Certificate transparency effectively solves this because certain browsers, currently only Safari and Chrome require all new certificates be submitted to multiple certificate transparency lists - if it encounters a certificate that isn't, it’ll show a warning page before establishing the TLS session. This doesn’t stop interception at all, but the first time it happens that some huge website notices a certificate they didn’t authorize and/or should be blocked by their CAA records, it’ll be a large event with disastrous consequences for the CA, likely triggering immediate within under <48 hours removal from publicly trusted CA lists. This happened already, see here.
  • Countries could ban HTTPS.
  • Tor network helps against many vulnerabilities HTTPS has. With Tor, every domain generates their own public/private key pair (which represents the domain itself) hence making it impractical for actors to break all of them (in fact, breaking even one of the 128-bit ed25519 keys would be a breakthrough in cryptography).

Hardware Teardown Websites

Huawei Smartwatches Firmware and Apps

  • Gadgetbridge – Use your Pebble/Bip/Miband/Hplus/more and keep your data private! Freemyband.com website.
  • Huafetcher – Kivy GUI for huami-token. Works on desktop and as Android apk. Downloads key and aGPS data, unzips it into /storage/emulated/0.
  • Master for Amazfit – Application for working with a smart watch Amazfit and smart scales Mi Scale. - controversial
  • Master for Mi Band – Application for working with a smart bracelet Mi Band and smart scales Mi Scale. - controversial
  • Mi Bandage for Mi Band & Amazfit – Official app for Amazfit to watch activities. - controversial + outdated
  • MiDoze – Easiest way to download ROMs and APPs for Xiaomi wearables.
  • Notify Lite for Mi Band – Official app for Mi Band to update firmware, change settings etc. - controversial
  • Notify Lite for Smartwatches – Supports Mi Band, Amazfit, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, Wear OS, and more. - controversial
  • Notify for Amazfit – Official app for Amazfit to watch activities. - controversial
  • Notify for Mi Band – Official app for Mi Band to watch activities. - controversial
  • Tools & Amazfit – Create own notifications and more. - controversial
  • Tools & Mi Band – Create own notifications and more. - controversial
  • Watch Droid Assistant – Notification app for various smartwatches. - controversial
  • Zepp Life – Official Activity Tracker for your Huawei Smartwatch. - controversial
  • Zepp（formerly Amazfit – Official App for Huawei Smartwatches. - controversial

Intel Management Engine & AMD Platform Security Processor

me_cleaner does not disable ME altogether, it just removes some "suspicious" parts. Majority of code still remains there. Same with AMD PSP. You can't remove all of it as your CPU will not even boot. PSP disable is supposed to disable some additional parts.

Invisible Link detection

  • Linx – Reveals invisible links within JavaScript files.

Icon Libraries

  • 3dicons – Open-source 3D icon library.
  • Ant Design Icons, by Ant Financial – Ant Design SVG Icons.
  • Bitcoin Icons – Icons made for Bitcoin applications that you can freely use.
  • Bootstrap Icons – Official open source SVG icon library for Bootstrap.
  • Boxicons – Boxicons is a simple vector icons set carefully crafted for designers and developers to use in your next project.
  • CoreUI Icons – Premium designed free icon set with marks in SVG, Webfont and raster formats.
  • css.gg – Open-source CSS, SVG, and Figma UI Icons available in SVG Sprite, styled-components, NPM & API
  • Devicon – A set of icons representing programming languages, designing & development tools. You can use it as a font or directly copy/paste the svg code into your project.
  • DevUI Icons, by Huawei Cloud – DevUI font icons.
  • Eva Icons – Eva Icons is a pack of more than 480 beautifully crafted Open Source icons for common actions and items.
  • Feather – A collection of simply beautiful open source icons.
  • feather – Simply beautiful open source icons.
  • flaticon – 1M+ vector icons grouped in 30k packs.
  • Font Awesome – Scalable vector icons that can instantly be customized — size, color, drop shadow, and anything that can be done with the power of CSS.
  • Foundation Icon Fonts 2 – Custom icon sets that are stored in a handy web font and are coded to be more accessible. A couple lines of CSS and the right markup will get you going in no time.
  • Foundation Icon Fonts 3 – A custom collection of lots of icons.
  • Font Fabulous – A fabulous iconset packaged as a font.
  • Glyphicons – Is a library of precisely prepared monochromatic icons and symbols, created with an emphasis to simplicity and easy orientation.
  • Google Material Design Icons, by Google – Official Google Material Design Icons.
  • Govicons – Gov Icons is a font and CSS toolkit with over 100 government themed icons.
  • Heroicons – A set of free MIT-licensed high-quality SVG icons for UI development.
  • Icofont – 5k free icons to spice up your creative designs.
  • icoMoon – 500+ free Icons.
  • Iconic.app – Free, “do wtf you want with” pixel-perfect SVG icons.
  • Iconic – An open source icon set with 300 marks in SVG, webfont and raster formats.
  • iconmonstr – Discover over 3k free simple icons in various collections.
  • Iconoir – A set of free SVG graphics.
  • icons – Official open source SVG icon library for Bootstrap.
  • icons8 – 70k Free Flat Icons.
  • IcoMoon – IcoMoon CC icons and free to use icon-font creation software.
  • IconSweets2 – Is a huge set containing over 1k custom designed icons. Icon Sweets 2 will quench your icon thirst for all your iPhone, iPad & Android apps or new web projects.
  • Ionicons – The premium icon font for Ionic Framework.
  • IconShock – Over 100k free icons, icons are taken from open source projects and then they got optimized.
  • Jam Icons – Jam icons is a set of icons designed for web projects, illustrations, print projects, etc. Shipped in JavaScript, font & SVG versions.
  • Marka – 36 Beautiful transformable icons.
  • Mono Icons – A simple, consistent open-source icon set designed to be used in a wide variety of digital products.
  • Octicons – All official GitHub icons.
  • Pepicons – A completely original 80s themed set of hand-crafted icons, made in two retro variants: Pop! and Print.
  • pictonic – Over 300+ free icons.
  • React Icons – SVG react icons of popular icon packs.
  • React Feather Icons – Collection of simply beautiful open source icons for React.js.
  • Remix Icon – A set of open-source neutral-style system symbols elaborately crafted for designers and developers.
  • RPG-Awesome – A fantasy themed font and CSS toolkit.
  • Simple icons – Over 1000 Free SVG icons for popular brands.
  • Snappy Icons – Open SOurce Icon Pack for React Native.
  • SuperTinyIcons – Miniscule SVG versions of website and app logos, under 1KB each.
  • svg-spinners – A collection of free SVG loading spinners.
  • Styled Icons – Icon packs like Font Awesome, Material Design, and Octicons, available as React Styled Components.
  • svg-icon – An ultimate svg icons collection done right, with over 5k SVG icons out of the box.
  • Tabler Icons – Over 1900 pixel-perfect icons for web design.
  • teenyicons – Tiny minimal 1px icons designed to fit in the smallest places.
  • ToIcon – All icons are licensed under a Creative Commons.
  • The Noun Project – Provides CC and purchasable icons.
  • Themify Icons – Themify Icons is a complete set of icons for use in web design and apps, consisting of 500+ pixel-perfect, hand-crafted icons that draw inspiration from Apple iOS 7.
  • TheNounProject – Search over 150k icons designed by creators from around the world.
  • uiw-icons – The premium icon font for UIW Framework.
  • zondicons – A set of free premium SVG icons for you to use on your digital products.

Mobile Icon Libraries

  • Ameixa – Port of TwelF CMTheme for many launchers.
  • Articons – A line-based icon pack with over 2100 icons! Originally forked from Frost, but rebuild with consistent sizing and adjustments specifically for lines in mind.

Icon and SVG Tools

  • fontello – Icon fonts generator.
  • Orion icon library – Generate icon fonts or download icons in multiple formats.
  • LibreSprite – Animated sprite editor & pixel art tool.
  • Penpot – The Open-Source design & prototyping platform.
  • svg-icon – Select as many SVG icons as you need, and download as an SVG symbols sprite file.
  • svgtofont – Read a set of SVG icons and output a TTF/EOT/WOFF/WOFF2/SVG font.

Pictogram Libraries

  • IconMonstr – Provides a large collection of glyph icons from a German artist. Free to use without attribution and free to modify.
  • Inkscape Open Symbols – Open source icon sets to use as Inkscape symbols.
  • Libre Logos – Free, exclusive logos for open source projects and NGOs.
  • Pictogramas – Open source free icons for personal and commercial purposes.

IMSI

Imgur & Photobucket

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • anfora – Self-hosted photo gallery social network. Under development.
  • IMGZ.org – IMGZ is paid-only. It's no-hassle, one-click, super easy image uploads, and it's cheap. So cheap, the only way to pay will be yearly, because it's too cheap to pay monthly. The tool is not FOSS but listed in case you look for an alternative to get supported/sponsored.
  • Lutim – Let’s upload that image is a privacy-friendly and libre photo sharing service. You can set your image to be deleted at first view or after a specified time.
  • Omgur – A free and open-source alternative Imgur proxy based front-end focused on privacy.
  • PeerPx – Decentralized social network for photographers.
  • Picc.io – Pinterest/Imgur alternative anonymous image selfie sharing. Each image you upload has a built image sharing widget to share images on social media. FOSS is planned.
  • Rimgo – Self-hosted free and ad/trackless front end for Imgur.

Investment Trackers

Individual Authors and Books

  • An Anarchist FAQ – A comprehensive introduction into the philosophy of anti-authoritarianism and anarchism. Licensed under the GNU FDL.
  • Anna Galore – A french writer who offers most of her novels and short stories entirely DRM-free.
  • Blake Crouch – A suspense writer who has made it to the top ten Kindle bestseller list.
  • Craphound – Author's site. Fiction and non-fiction by Cory Doctorow.
  • Diane Duane – Wrote the 'So You Want to be a Wizard' series and sells copies of not only the original published version but also a new updated version which is only available at her site.
  • Green Comet – A novel of love and adventure on an inhabited comet, and its sequel, Parasite Puppeteers, are available to download in various formats, including ePub and OGG under the free culture CC-BY-SA license.
  • IPv6-Handbuch – Is a small German ebook shop selling books on IPv6.
  • J.A. Konrath – An author of detective novels and suspense novels.
  • Kanika G – Self-publishes DRM-free children's books.
  • Libreleft Books – Publishes Laurel L. Russwurm's free culture licensed mystery novels.
  • Philippe Aigrain – An internet activist involved with La Quadrature du Net.
  • Lessig.org – Lawrence Lessig's author page, whereat his eBooks may be freely downloaded.
  • Rory Price – Has written a DRM-free novel with software freedom as a major theme.
  • Simon Hayes – Writes the popular comedic space opera ‘Hal Spacejock’ and the 'Hal Junior' series.
  • Stories for My Little Sister – Free original kids' books written and illustrated by a team of two sisters. These are available for children of all ages.
  • Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air by David MacKay -- A readable discussion (with actual metrics!) of our options for energy development.
  • Thomas A. Knight – An independent, self-publishing author of fantasy novels, all available for purchase DRM Free.
  • Thomas Galvin – Is self-described as being "an author who spends far too much time thinking about vampires" and you can find his works on his website.

Internet Speed Testing

IPFS

Check which public IPFS gateway are currently online.

  • ETH.LIMO – A decentralized alternative to Cloudflare’s often unreliable eth.link service, LIMO functions as a drop-in replacement for eth.link; a Web 2.0 infrastructure stack for resolving Ethereum Name Service (ENS) records and associated IPFS content (Web 3.0).
  • Fully-searchable Library Genesis on IPFS
  • InterPlanetary File System – A decentralized network for storing and sharing data online. Instead of custom URLs, files are automatically addressed based on their content and served by their users.
  • Nebula – An IPFS DHT Crawler.
  • OpenBazaar 2.0 powered by IPFS
  • Radicle – A decentralized alternative to GitHub built on IPFS.
  • transferfile – Free Decentralized Filesharing over the IPFS network. Up to 32 GB per upload and no registration needed.

Instant Messaging

Please check out this website for comparisons, there is also another one here. Threema provides their own chart. The most complete chart is this one.

FBI document shows what data can be obtained from encrypted messaging apps, this is controversial but gives an solid overview.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Clubhouse, because lawyers say you could get sued.
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Google Hangouts / Chat – Owned by Google #fedpot
  • Instagram DM - Owned by Facebook
  • Skype / Skype for Business – Owned by Microsoft
  • Wickr – Owned by Amazon #fedpot
  • WhatsApp – Owned by Facebook + #fedpot
  • Zoom #fedpot + ad-banners
  • Systems that rely on Intel SGX for private discovery e.g. used by Signal.
  • Systems that rely on Servers to resolve username to public key e.g. used by Wickr.
  • Systems that rely on Servers to trust with your own IP address e.g. Wickr, Telegram and Signal.
  • Systems that rely on Servers used to authenticate other unknown users e.g. used in Telegram.

P2P based Messaging

No servers involved. Everything goes directly from one peer to the other peer. No point of failure or control. The features are reduced because of the lack of server, messaging can be slower.

Peer-to-peer communications reveal one's IP address to each other, so using a reliable VPN, proxy, or TOR is advised. Briar is an exception to this rule, as it uses either Bluetooth range or the local network it's connected to; else all traffic goes through TOR. Ones without servers are ideal, such as: Jami, Tox, Ricochet, Status, Scuttlebot and PSYC-2. Some are still in development and may be prone to bugs.

Keep these options in mind when communicating with your clique. Many of us belong to private groups on Telegram which are presumably free from moderator surveillance (or at least interference), but ultimately we should transition to a more durable platform that will be unable to censor our messages. Try a few out and see what works for you and your crew.

  • Anonymous Messenger – A peer to peer private anonymous and secure messenger that works over tor. It's also free and open source software which gives users the freedom of changing it and redistributing it under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.
  • Berty – The privacy-first messaging app that works with or without internet access, cellular data or trust in the network.
  • Conversations – Easy to use, reliable, battery friendly. With built-in support for images, group chats and E2E encryption.
  • Ekiga – Ekiga (formerly known as GnomeMeeting) is an open source SoftPhone, Video Conferencing and Instant Messenger application over the Internet.
  • Mixing Messenger – An open source cryptocurrency wallet and instant messenger which supports almost all popular cryptocurrencies.
  • Onymochat – An end-to-end encrypted, decentralized, anonymous chat application. You can also host your anonymous .onion webpage with Onymochat.
  • Siskin – Lightweight & powerful XMPP client for iPhone and iPad.
  • Surge – A p2p file-sharing app designed to utilize blockchain technologies to enable 100% anonymous file transfers. Surge is end-to-end encrypted, decentralized and open source.
  • Tinfoil Chat – Onion-routed, endpoint secure messaging system.
  • Tox – Tox is easy-to-use software that connects you with friends and family without anyone else listening in. - controversial due to the donation scandal.
    • aTox – Reasonable Tox client for Android.
    • Toxic – A Tox-based instant messaging and video chat client.

Instant Messaging Decentralized

No single point of control or failure. A decentralized network operated by different servers from different volunteers around the globe. You choose where your data stays or you can self-host your own server. Somewhat more complex protocols (because of federation between servers) and some extra metadata is added to the messages (without compromising privacy).

  • Adamant – Decentralized anonymous messenger, Crypto Wallet & Exchange.
  • CoyIM – A new XMPP chat client that is safe and secure by default: no settings to change, no plugins to install, no computer configuration to change. You can also sandbox coy via firejail or your sandbox of choice.
  • Cwtch – A decentralized, privacy-preserving, multi-party messaging protocol that can be used to build metadata resistant applications.
  • databag – A self-hosted privacy first storage and messenger for the decentralized web.
  • Delta Chat – Chat over encrypted email. eMail itself is not secure, however most countries block other option, so this is more for those who cannot use alternatives,
  • Iris – An offline-first, secure and anonymous social networking app with encrypted private messages.
  • Jabber / XMPP (Protocol) – The universal and open messaging standard. Tried and tested. Independent. Privacy-focused. E2E encrypted.
  • Kontalk – A new way of communicating.
  • MiroTalk – An alternative to Zoom and Teams.
  • SimpleX – Decentralized chat with a focus on users’ privacy - doesn't use global user identities. v3.0 added E2EE calls.
  • Speek – Decentralized and Secure Messenger. The Speek client is creating a Tor hidden service on the client PC. The message is then routed via the Tor onion network to the receiver.
  • Status – Status uses an open-source, peer-to-peer protocol, and end-to-end encryption to protect your messages from third parties. Keep your private messages private with Status.
  • Scuttlebot – An open source peer-to-peer log store used as a database, identity provider and messaging system. It features global replication, file-synchronization, and end-to-end encryption.
  • Xx Messenger – xx network does not distribute, offer, solicit sales of, or sell any xx coins in any state or jurisdiction, they provide an iOS and Android app. Their tech whitepaper is here, among their FAQ.

Instant Messaging Centralized

Instant messaging guidance for beginners:

The service is in charge of running the servers that allow users to communicate. Single point of failure and control, but still 100% safe and trustworthy if the protocols and code are open and audited.

Leaked FBI Docs Suggest Telegram Safer than WhatsApp, Threema and others, see picture and source below.

Image credit: therollingstone

Source for this is claim is here. For people saying Telegram isn't mentioned in the source article, click on the source document. It does cover various apps including Telegram. The document as PDF is hosted here.

iOS Keyboard

  • ToneBoard – A Chinese keyboard for iOS that helps you remember tones.

iOS Shell replacement

  • ish – Simple Linux Shell for iOS.

Kahoot Alternatives

  • Particify – Game-based learning platform.

Keybase Alternatives

In May 2020 Keybase was acquired by Zoom.

  • Keyoxide – A Keybase alternative, basically a privacy-friendly platform to establish your decentralized identity.
  • wheretofind.me – An open source identity directory website. It lets you create a small profile with all your social media links. Afterwards, point people to this profile so they can quickly find you on all platforms.

Key Remapper

Mobile Key Remapper

  • KeyMapper – Change what the buttons do, the Android app is on Google Play Store and F-Droid.

Learn Coding

Life360 Alternatives

  • OwnTracks – A self-hosted Life360 alternative with iOS and Android apps.

Limit maximum Battery charging percentage

There are some Windows apps but this is depending on BIOS/firmware because the batteries work independently from the OS and unless this is implemented in the firmware itself there is no way to control this behavior. The workaround is to use different energy profiles but this depends on the manufacturer.

Linktree Alternatives

  • Singlelink – The open-source micro-site platform & Linktree alternative.

Literary Archives & Libraries

  • Adelaide University – Contains Classic books on Literature, Philosophy, Science, History, Exploration and Travel in ePUB format or for reading online.
  • Bookyards library – Has ebooks and other items. eBooks are PDF.
  • Century Past Library – A site aggregating links to many public domain books of historical and scientific interest, as well as magazines and other periodicals. While we cannot recommend the books and articles that make use of the Internet Archive's DRM-restricted borrowing service, the majority of the works listed here are available free of charge as PDF downloads.
  • Classic Reader – Online library of thousands of free books by authors such as Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare and many others.
  • DigiLibraries – No cost eBooks library, with over 20.000 Free eBooks.
  • E-Books Directory – No cost eBooks, documents, and lectures from all over the internet, available in PDF format and organized by subjects.
  • Ebooks – Has DRM-free ebooks as well as ones restricted with DRM. However, you can filter search results to only show you the DRM-free ones.
  • epub Books – Offers gratis books, with a focus on high-quality formatting and images that work reliably on a variety of devices.
  • Free Tamil eBooks – No cost eBooks in the Tamil language.
  • Free-ebooks.net – Free eBooks in various formats.
  • Global Grey – DRM-free libre and public domain eBooks in several formats.
  • Internet Archive – Free Books from a variety of sources, most available as scanned PDFs and OCRed plain text. More that 2,000,000 books available. Please note that we do not recommend their eBook lending program, which is DRM-encumbered and managed through a non-free client.
  • Internet Sacred Text Archive – Books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric.
  • Library of Congress – Historical books, images, and music from America. Books are normally scanned to PDF but the text is often available on-line.
  • ManyBooks.net – No charge eBooks, in a variety of formats, mostly from Project Gutenberg. They provide excerpts and sometimes a book description. They allow readers to leave book reviews.
  • Marxists Internet Archive – Books and articles by hundreds of writers, Marxist and non-Marxist. Some of the books have an option of PDF download, but the PDF version is the webpage printed to a PDF file and thus not very suitable for most ebook readers.
  • Mutopia – Hosts thousands pieces of music – free to download, modify, print, copy, distribute, perform, and record – all in the Public Domain or under Creative Commons licenses, in PDF, MIDI and other formats.
  • OBOOKO – Hundreds of ebooks for direct download at no charge. Fiction and non-fiction. Authors may publish books on the site free of charge.
  • PDFBooksWorld – Distributes public domain books in PDF format.
  • Planet eBook – Free classic literature that has fallen out of copyright. Available in PDF format.
  • Project Gutenberg Australia – Provides books that are public domain in Australia.
  • Project Gutenberg Canada – Canada has different copyright laws than the US. These eBooks are public domain in Canada. Content is HTML and TXT.
  • Project Gutenberg – Is the original purveyor of DRM-free eBooks. The project aims to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks that will be readable on any device you choose. When you obtain an eBook, you should not be locked into using one particular eBook reader. Instead, you should have the freedom to read that book on any device. All of the material available through Project Gutenberg is free of charge, including the complete works of William Shakespeare, Peter Pan, and the United States Declaration of Independence.
  • Project Runeberg – A volunteer effort to create free electronic editions of classic Nordic (Scandinavian) literature and make them openly available over the Internet.
  • PublicBookshelf – Over 540 books to read using a built-in, easy-to-read book format, specializing in all types of romance books including classics and contemporary. Renascence Editions specializes in English works written between 1477 and 1799. PDF or HTML, generally, and an excellent source for works in Early Modern English.
  • Smart Study – Post with more than 1,000 open textbooks and learning resources for various subjects
  • Snewd – A great source of professionally edited public domain texts in a variety of ebook formats.
  • Standard Ebooks – Produces new and attractive editions of ebooks sourced from Project Gutenberg with additional proofing, using modern typography, updated font kerning, and in the latest ebook formats.
  • The Anarchist Library – An archive focusing on anarchism, anarchist texts, and texts of interest for anarchists, in PDF, plaintext, and EPUB formats.
  • The Book of Secret Knowledge – A collection of inspiring lists, manuals, cheatsheets, blogs, hacks, one-liners, cli/web tools and more.
  • The Dunyazad Digital Library – A personal collection of DRM-free ebooks of history and adventure.

DRM-Free Book Stores

DRM itself is highly controversial and there is large history abusing it. It is overall privacy invasive and the efforts to protect the content is known to be ineffective.

  • Beam Book Store – Sells DRM-free books in German. Some books are distributed with a buyer-unique watermark, although this watermark does not limit book usage.
  • Book View Café – Sells ebooks without DRM or an EULA
  • The Bundle of Holding – Is a DRM-free bookselling site that sells time-limited, DRM-free offers of tabletop roleplaying game rulebook .PDFs and RPG-related ebooks.
  • Chicago Shorts – DRM-free ebooks, passages and short stories selected by the University of Chicago.
  • Closed Circle – Small DRM-free ebook store, direct from the authors themselves. Specializing in fantasy.
  • Delphi Classics – sells copies of classic texts edited and formatted as ebooks. All epub files are - DRM-free, but not the .mobi files.
  • Ediciones Babylon – Spanish books and ebooks free of DRM.
  • Editions Fleurus – A French publishing house with over 1000 titles available.
  • Elegant Solutions Software and Publishing Company – eBooks in a few portable formats.
  • The Fifth Imperium – CD-ROM images, mostly the images are of the free CD-ROMs included with some Baen Books. Baen Books allows the CD-ROMs to be copied and distributed for free. Every CD-ROM contains several complete novels in HTML format, and some have extras, like MP3 readings. All CD-ROMs also contain artwork for the CD-ROM itself.
  • Girlebooks – A resource for classic and contemporary ebooks by female writers.
  • Humble Bundle (Books) – Sells collections of DRM-free ebooks, with two bundles available at any point in time.
  • Immatériel.fr – A French distributor of ebooks that indicates DRM-free titles with smiley faces.
  • Lektu – A Spanish-language DRM-free ebook store. In addition to books, it has audiobooks, ecomics, and music.
  • U.S. Government Bookstore – Offers both print and DRM-free digital publications from across the entire US federal government, ranging from art and travel to business, education, and history.
  • Weightless Books – An independent DRM-free ebooksite devoted to ebooks of all sorts.

eBook Publishers

  • 0s&1s – Both a digital publisher and a distributor of e-books published by twenty-seven different independent presses in the United States and Canada—including Black Balloon Publishing, Coach House Books, Red Hen Press, and Tin House Books.
  • Angry Robot – Sells a variety of DRM-free science fiction and fantasy novels
  • Apress – Publisher of IT-related technical books. .
  • Baen Ebooks – Sells DRM-free ebooks from an assortment of science fiction and fantasy publishers, including Baen Books, Del Rey, and Tor. They also offer a number of no-cost downloads in their "Free Library".
  • Le Bélial – A French publishing platform free of DRM.
  • Blackstone Publishing – Releases DRM-free books through a variety of retailers.
  • BookRefine – A DRM-free publisher that takes a strong stance against copyright trolling and sending DMCA takedown notices.
  • Bragelonne – A DRM-free download of their ebooks for customers who first purchased it through a DRM service.
  • BWB Texts – A New Zealand-based publisher.
  • Carina Press – A digital-first imprint from Harlequin covering many genres.
  • Flat World Knowledge – The world's largest publisher of free and open college textbooks.
  • Goal Publications – A queer-owned publisher of young adult literature, catering specifically to the furry fandom.
  • Homeless Book – DRM-free publisher offering a wide range of books on politics and political theory in Italian.
  • Inside Outsider Publications – Specializes in publishing fiction which deals with environmental and social issues.
  • Liber Liber – A non-profit publisher of Italian-language ebooks.
  • Lost Art Press – A small Midwestern publishing company that seeks to help the modern woodworker learn traditional hand-tool skills. They sell boutique hard copies as well as DRM-free PDF downloads of nearly all of their books.
  • Manning eBooks – Publishes computer books for professionals--programmers, system administrators, designers, architects, managers and others.
  • New Internationalist – A not-for-profit cooperative to report on the issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice."
  • No Starch Press – Publishes and sells DRM-free ebooks, on a wide range of non-fiction topics and howto guides.
  • OR Books – A progressive anti-DRM publisher
  • Packt Publishing – Offers DRM-free books for IT professionals.
  • The Pragmatic Bookshelf – Has DRM-free books by and for programmers in a variety of formats.
  • Propaganda Yayınları – An independent publishing house specializing in Turkish languages works on political and socioeconomic issues, including feminism, anarchism, economics, and philosophy.
  • Publie.net – A French publisher that offers most titles DRM-free displaying a smiley face icon.
  • Rocky Nook – Is digital photography-focused publisher that offers all ebooks without DRM.
  • Rosenfeld Media – Sells DRM-free ebooks about user experience design and also includes a DRM-free digital copy with every physical book they sell.
  • Saga Press – A sci-fi and fantasy imprint of Simon & Schuster. Their ebooks are all DRM-free.
  • Sher Music Co. – Publishes jazz and Latin music real books and method books, and their ebooks are DRM-free.
  • SIGNAL 8 PRESS – A publishing company focusing on East Asia and the Pacific Rim which publishes engaging novels, short story collections, and nonfiction written in English.
  • Sophia Institute Press – Publishes faithful Catholic classics and new Catholic books by the enduring figures of the Catholic intellectual tradition.
  • Springer Science+Business Media – An international publisher of books on science, technology, and medicine.
  • Star Trek Books – A subsidiary of Simon & Schuster. Their ebooks are all DRM-free.
  • Take Control Books – Offers highly practical, tightly focused ebooks covering Apple products.
  • Tor/Forge/Tom Doherty Associates – Science fiction and fantasy publisher of Macmillan, sells DRM-free books.
  • XML Press – A publisher of technical communications books whose ebooks are all DRM-free.
  • Zubaan Books – An Indian feminist publishing house that sells DRM-free materials.

Login sharing platforms

  • BugMeNot – Freely share login to websites.
  • Login2 – Provides similar service like BugMeNot.

Log4j Alternatives

  • Logevents – An easy-to-extend implementation of SLF4J with batteries included and sensible defaults.
  • Log4CL – Log4CL is high performance extensible logging library for Common Lisp.

Logos

  • Librelogos – Free logos for open source projects and NGOs.
  • Never Published – Curated, original and timeless royalty-free images

Location tracking

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Apple AirTag
  • Google Location History
  • Google FindMyDevice

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Private Location – Keep your phone location private.
  • OpenTracks – OpenTracks – GPS-Tracker that s privacy respecting.
  • My Position – Share your location, easily and lightly. Supports plain coordinates, geo:-URI, OpenStreetMap- and GoogleMaps-Links.

Mobile location tracking

  • AirGuard – To detect if you’re being tracked by an Apple AirTag without your knowledge.
  • FIND3 Scanner – Scan Bluetooth and WiFi for FIND3.
  • Finder – Remote mobile phone searching via SMS-requests.
  • Flyve MDM Agent – Manage and secure effectively your mobile devices and applications.
  • PhoneTrack Nextcloud application
  • prey – Android client for the Prey anti-theft software.
  • Simple SMS remote – Control your device by sending text messages.
  • TICE App – The secure location sharing app for meeting up and locating friends and family in real-time.
  • Traccar Client - Track your location – Client for Traccar server software. A demo server is setup in the app for trying it out and the results can be viewed in a browser.
  • Ulogger for Android – Android application for real-time collection and publishing of geo-location data.

Local Public Transport

  • Maps – Open-source navigation app based on MAPS.ME.
  • Organic Maps – An Android & iOS offline maps app for travelers, tourists, hikers, and cyclists based on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data.
  • Transportr – Transportr is a non-profit app developed by people around the world in their free time.
  • Öffi Stations – Öffi is a public transport Android app (also shows delays and replacement bus service for more and more transport authorities in Europe and beyond) – similar to Transportr app.

Mobile Network-wide Inspection Apps

  • PCAPdroid – No-root network monitor and traffic dump tool for Android devices. You can get it on F-Droid for the OS part mitmproxy might come in handy.

Malware Analysis

  • PiRogue – Mobile forensic and network analysis for iOS and Android.
  • Pifmana – Pipeline for Malware Analysis.

macOS Malware Analysis

Tools and utilities mentioned in The Art of Mac Malware by Patrick Wardle.

  • ClamAV’s sigtool.
  • DTrace.
  • The base64 utility to decode Base64 data.
  • The codesign utility to check and display code signatures
  • The defaults utility to view the contents of a property list (plist) file.
  • The file utility to determine the file type, e.g. text or code.
  • The find utility to view all of the files contained within an application bundle.
  • The fs_usage utility to monitor system calls file system activity in real-time
  • The hdiutil utility to mount Apple Disk Images (.dmg) and extract the contents.
  • The hexdump utility to display the hexadecimal dump of a given file.
  • The lldb default debugger in Xcode on macOS.
  • The md5 and shasum utilities to generate the hash of the binary.
  • The nettop, netstat and lsof utilities to monitor network sockets and connections.
  • The nm utility to display the symbol table of object, library, or executable file.
  • The osadecompile utility to display compiled AppleScripts.
  • The otool utility to view contents of a file or libraries linked to executables.
  • The pkgutil utility to view information about installer packages (.pkg or .mpkg).
  • The plutil utility to view the contents of a property list (plist) file.
  • The spctl utility to assess how the system will handle a given file, e.g. install and execute.
  • The strings utility to extract strings from a binary.
  • ASDisasm – To disassemble run-only AppleScripts.
  • Apparency – To view the results of macOS security checks against a given app.
  • Crescendo – To view events in real-time.
  • Dylib Hijack Scanner – To find applications susceptible to dylib hijacking.
  • ESFPlayground – To view events from the Apple Endpoint Security Framework (ESF).
  • FLOSS – To automatically deobfuscate strings from binaries.
  • FSmonitor – To monitor all changes to the file system.
  • FileMonitor – To view file events, such as creation, modification, deletion.
  • Hopper, IDA Pro and IDA Free, or Ghidra to disassemble, decompile and debug binaries.
  • JTool2 – To view contents of a file or libraries linked to executables.
  • KnockKnock – To identify persistently installed software.
  • MachOView – To visualize the contents of a Mach-O file, allows in-place editing of binaries.
  • Netiquette – To monitor network sockets and connections.
  • PicoSnitch – A reasonably reliable traffic per application monitor using BPF.
  • ProcInfo – To monitor process creations and terminations (deprecated?).
  • ProcessMonitor – Monitor process creations and terminations.
  • Suspicious Package – To open a macOS Installer package and see what's inside.
  • TaskExplorer – To visually explore all running processes.
  • TrueTree – To display a process tree for current running processes.
  • UPX – To unpack UPX’d files.
  • WhatsYourSign – To view any file's cryptographic signing information.
  • Wireshark and the tcpdump utility to capture and analyze network traffic, the tool works on various platforms.
  • aevt_decompile – To decompile AppleScripts.
  • asar or npx to get the source code of an Electron app.
  • class-dump – To extract class information from a Mach-O file.
  • cleancss.com/perl-beautify/ – To clean up messy, minified, or obfuscated Perl.
  • decompiler.com – To decompile binaries back to source code.
  • fsmon – To monitor system calls file system activity in real-time.
  • oletools – To analyze Microsoft OLE2 files, such as Office documents or Outlook messages.
  • olevba – A script to parse Office documents to detect VBA Macros.

MongoDB alternatives

  • FerretDB – A truly open-source MongoDB alternative.

Marine Autopilot

  • Pypilot – An open source marine autopilot.

Monitor Website changes

Microblogging

  • 1MB – Easy Website Hosting and Blogging. The pro plan starts at 9 bucks a month.
  • Bear Blog – Microblogging without trackers, the upper layer is Heroku. The public ranking algorithm is explained over here.
  • Blarb – Microblogging with a twist, because everything gets deleted after 24 hours.
  • Heaven Web previously known as Simple Blogs – Good for private blogs but not for commercial/public blogging. Built-in feed reader.
  • HTML Simple Publishing (HSP) – Neat Web Publications.
  • Gollum – A simple, Git-powered wiki with a sweet API and local front-end.
  • GNU social – RMS approved.
  • Lists.sh – A Microblog for Lists.
  • Mataroa blog – Naked blogging platform, for minimalists. Just write.
  • microblog.pub – A self-hosted, single-user, ActivityPub powered microblog.
  • Orca – An open-source platform for building modern community apps.
  • pump.io – It's a stream server that does most of what people really want from a social network.
  • prose.sh – A blog platform for hackers.
  • Rainbow Stream – A smart and nice Twitter client on terminal written in Python.
  • Retype – A self-hosted alternative to GitBook.
  • slc.is – A Markdown Blog on Go.
  • Statsigstatus – Open-Source Status Page Built with GitHub Actions.
  • Toot – Mastodon CLI & TUI client.
    • tut – A Mastodon TUI.
  • Turses – A Twitter client for the console.
  • Twister – Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Microblogging.
  • Yellow – Self-hostable mini blog system.
  • twtxt – Decentralised, minimalist microblogging service for hackers with a CLI.
  • Write.as – A simple writing platform built to preserve and spread your words.
  • WriteFreely – An open-source platform for building a writing space on the web.
  • Void – Static pages and blog articles are possible.
  • Zb – A self-contained zip blog.

Blogging and Microblogging Tools

  • markdown_ss – Ultra minimal markdown static site generator.

Medium Blog Alternatives

  • Neocities – Create your own free website. Unlimited creativity, zero ads.
  • LibMedium – Works similar like Scribe.
  • OldSchoolBlog – Blogging in the Ways of the Old School.
  • Papyrus – Privacy-first, minimal, fast blogging/newsletter platform.
  • Plume – An open source federated blogging platform, which lets you create a federated blog. This means it can be followed from Mastodon and other social networks powered by the ActivityPub standard.
  • Scribe.rip – An open source Medium Blog front-end.
  • Stringer – A blogging platform for the masses. Built for the decentralized web.
  • WordPress Federated – If you run a blog powered by WordPress, you can add a plugin that makes it federate with Mastodon and other social networks using the ActivityPub standard.
  • Write Freely – A blogging service like Medium where the focus is on the text itself, with a clean uncluttered aesthetic.

Meditation

  • Medito – Free and open source meditation app for Android and iOS.

Mind Mapping

  • Compendium – A computer program and social science tool that facilitates the mapping and management of ideas and arguments. The software provides a visual environment that allows people to structure and record collaboration as they discuss and work through "wicked problems".
  • Dia – Free and open source general-purpose diagramming software, developed originally by Alexander Larsson. Dia uses a controlled single document interface (SDI) similar to GIMP and Inkscape.
  • FreeMind – FreeMind is a free mind mapping application written in Java, which is further developed by the fork Freeplane until today (2021).
  • Freeplane – Freeplane mind mapping tool a free mind mapping program under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or later.
  • Heimer – A simple cross-platform mind map, diagram, and note-taking app written in QT.
  • PGF/TikZ – PGF/TikZ is a pair of languages for producing vector graphics (e.g., technical illustrations and drawings) from a geometric/algebraic description, with standard features including the drawing of points, lines, arrows, paths, circles, ellipses and polygons.
  • View Your Mind (VYM) – View Your Mind (VYM) is a cross-platform concept mapping software.
  • Visual Understanding Environment – The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is a free, open-source concept mapping application written in Java. The application is developed by the Academic Technology group at Tufts University. VUE is licensed under the Educational Community License. VUE 3.0, the latest release, was funded under a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Mesh networking

  • ormesh – Helps you to connect services through the Tor Network.
  • Meshenger – Allows voice and video calls without any server or Internet access.

Maps and Navigation

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Bing Maps
  • Google Maps
  • HERE WeGo
  • Navigon
  • Petal Maps
  • Sygic
  • TomTom
  • Waze
  • Yandex Maps
  • Apple – Maps or Apple CarPlay.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Open Street Map (OSM) – OpenStreetMap is built by a community of mappers that contribute and maintain data about roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, and much more, all over the world.
    • Benmaps – Alternative based on OpenStreetMap.
    • OSMAnd – Android/iOS Navigation app using OSM. It is a feature-rich app with all you expect.
    • Osm.el – OpenStreetMap Viewer for Emacs.
    • ohsome – OpenStreetMap History Analyizer.
    • StreetComplete – To fill missing OpenStreetMaps info you encounter, in an almost fun manner.
    • Vespucci – The first OpenStreetMap editor for Android.
  • Qwant Maps – An OpenStreetMap-based private Google Maps alternative. Qwant Maps has better search results than OSMAnd+.
  • Organic Maps – Great offline maps for hikers and cyclists.
  • Positional – An elegant and colorful location information app for Android with Compass, Clock, Level, Sun, Moon, Trail Marker and many other features.
  • Pure Maps – Pure Maps is a full-featured map and navigation application allowing you to explore maps, search for addresses and points of interest, as well as assist with navigation. For that, it uses either offline OSM Scout Server or online service providers. Available for Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS and as flatpak package.
  • Maps – Maps: Restricted Android GoogleMaps WebView.
  • Maps Metager – MetaGer provides a Google like Maps service.
  • MAPS.ME – An open source cross-platform offline maps application.
  • Magic Earth – A free maps and navigation app based on OpenStreetMap data.
  • uNav – uNav is powered by OpenStreetMaps and Mapzen, available only on Ubuntu Touch.

Microsoft Exchange

  • Grommunio – The most advanced solution in communication and collaboration, a platform for everyone.
  • Internxt – An Open Source Encrypted Cloud Service With Native Linux Client.
  • Kopano – From the German-Dutch software manufacturer Kopano, is also AGPLv3-licensed and based on the Zarafa software stack.
  • LeitzCloud – Germans copy and paste Netxcloud attempt, paid. A free trial is available. - controversial
  • Nextcloud – Like in ownCloud or Dropbox, users can access the software suite via their desktops (Windows, Linux, and macOS), web browsers, or native apps (Android and iOS).
  • ownCloud – The core of the client-server software and many community apps are published under the AGPLv3.
  • OX App Suite – The OX App Suite is a modular email, communication, and collaboration platform, mainly designed for telcos, hosting companies, and other providers delivering cloud-based services.

Metadata Removal

  • BleachBit – Alternative for CCleaner that is FOSS and can also remove leftovers, metadata etc.
  • Dangerzone – Take potentially dangerous PDFs, office documents, or #images and convert them to safe PDFs.
  • Exiv2 – Exiv2 is a Cross-platform C++ library and a command line utility to manage image metadata
  • ExifCleaner – A free desktop app to clean image metadata.
  • ExifLooter – Integrates with OpenStreetMap and can remove metadata.
  • ImageOptim – Native MacOS app, with drag 'n drop image optimization and meta data removal.
  • mat2 – A metadata removal tool, supporting a wide range of commonly used file formats.
  • Metadata Cleaner – Python GTK application to view and clean metadata in files, using mat2.
  • Metadata Removal – Tiny tool to remove metadata from images and videos on windows in c language , the python variant adds support for torrent and audio files.
  • pdf-redact-tools – Helps with securely redacting and stripping metadata from documents before publishing.
  • Unsubscan – Free and offline mailing list unsubscription tool.

Mobile Metadata Removal Apps

  • DetoxDroid – This app follows a different approach by stripping away all the attention-grabbing and manipulative features of other apps. DetoxDroid does not require you to choose a time and place when you want to "detox", or punish you if you fail.
  • ExifEraser – Android app to remove metadata except the embedded ICC Profile, EXIF, Photoshop Image Resources and XMP/ExtendedXMP metadata upon saving.
  • Exif-Remove – Remove EXIF data from all digital pictures in current directory by typing exif.
  • ImagePipe prevously Scrambledeggsif – Reduces image size and removes exif-tags when sharing images on Android devices.
  • MAT – Metadata Anonymization Toolkit.
  • Pocket Paint – The standard image manipulation app for Catroid.
  • PrivacyBlur – App which can blur sensitive portions of pictures before sharing them online.
  • Scrambled Exif – Remove EXIF data from pictures before sharing them.

Media Player

  • clapper – Gnome media player built using GJS with OpenGL rendering.
  • IINA – A modern media player for macOS.
  • MPC-BE – Media Player Classic – BE is a free and open source audio and video player for Windows.
  • MPlayer – Video player that supports a complete and versatile array of video and audio formats.
  • MPV – A free, open source, and cross-platform cmd based media player.
  • OpenTogetherTube – The easy way to watch videos with your friends.
  • Pennywise – Cross-platform application to open any website or media in a floating window.
  • Rise Media Player – One media player for everything you own or stream.
  • PotPlayer – Similar like MPC but with a better skin, audio and video player for Windows.
  • WatchParty – A website for watching videos together.
  • VLC – Multimedia player for almost every platform.

DLNA Media Player

  • Plain UPnP - UPnP / DLNA server and browser – PlainUPnP (formals DroidUPnP) is an UPnP control point application for Android.
  • Yaacc – The App allows you to play media from UPNP/DLNA devices in your network on your android device or any UPNP/DLNA device in your network.

IPTV Player and Services

  • FastCloud – Open Source IPTV/Media Service.

Mobile IPTV Player

  • DMS Explorer – This is a kind of a DLNA player.
  • FastoTVLite – A cross-platform free IPTV/stream player with EPG support.
  • MediaPlayer – A DLNA device (DMP), which can be in the search for DMS devices, browse resources and play locally.

Music Player

  • Audacious – An open source audio player.
  • cmus – A small, fast and powerful console music player for Unix-like operating systems.
  • DeaDBeeF – A multi-platform and modular audio player.
  • Elisa – A simple music player that should be easy to use.
  • foobar2000 – An advanced freeware audio player.
  • Harmonoid – Elegant music app to play & manage music library.
  • mpg123 – Console based MPEG Audio Player and decoder library.
  • pianobar – A free/open-source, console-based client for the personalized online radio Pandora.
  • Rhythmbox – A music playing application for GNOME.
  • Strawberry – A music player and music collection organizer.

Mobile Music Player Apps

  • Howl – Android Offline Music Player for Android.
  • LOS Eleven – The default LineageOS music player.
  • Metro (Retro Music fork with features unlocked) – Best material design music player for Android.
  • Music Player GO – Very simple, nice, privacy-friendly and original local Android Music Player.
  • Shuttle+ – An open source, local music player for Android.
  • TimberX – Material theme music player that works across all form factors (phones, wear, auto, cast, assistant) and uses latest tools (Kotlin, Architecture components, Room, Databinding).
    • Timber – This is the pure FOSS fork of the app, where all these non-free dependencies have been removed.
  • Vanilla Music – A clean, simple and free music player for Android.
  • Vinyl Music Player – Music player easy to use and customizable (multiple themes including a dark one).

Music Player Daemon

  • Cantata – Qt5 Graphical MPD Client.
  • clerk – Simple MPD client using rofi or fzf.
  • fmui – FZF is a MPD user interface.
  • mpc – MPC connects to a MPD and controls it according to commands and arguments passed to it.
  • ncmpcpp – Feature rich ncurses based MPD client inspired by ncmpc.

Guitar Tablature Editor

  • TuxGuitar – Is a multi-track guitar tablature editor and player written in Java-SWT, It can open GuitarPro, PowerTab and TablEdit files.

Create Music with your Browser

  • Audiolab – Open-source sound generating software.

Markdown editors

  • Abricotine – An open-source markdown editor built for desktop.
  • Blank – A keyboard-first Markdown Editor made for writing.
  • Charm Glow – Render markdown in your terminal.
  • Ghostwriter – A distraction-free Markdown editor for Windows and Linux.
  • HedgeDoc – Lets you create real-time collaborative markdown notes on all platforms.
  • Letsmarkdown – Write Markdown. Together.
  • Logseq – A privacy-first alternative to WorkFlowy.
  • MacDown – An open source Markdown editor for Mac OS.
  • Mark Text – A Markdown editor for Mac, Windows and Linux.
  • Obsidian – Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.
  • PanWriter – PanWriter is available on macOS, Windows and Linux.
  • Typora – A Markdown editor and Markdown reader.
  • Zettlr – A Markdown editor for the 21st century.

Math Teaching

  • handcalcs – This can be used with jupyter notebooks.
  • GeoGebra – Free digital tools for class activities, graphing, geometry, collaborative whiteboard and more.
    • OPenStax – Resources, books and infos that can be imported into GeoGebra.
  • LaTeX – Combined with Texmaker.
  • Overleaf – Online platform to teach and learn math.
  • WolframAlpha – A computational knowledge engine and answer engine developed by Wolfram Research.

Mozilla Pocket alternatives

  • Wallabag – A privacy-friendly, libre online service which lets you save articles from the web so you can read them later.

Note taking apps

  • Bilgge – A privacy-paranoid free service for protecting your personal information, it fully works in your Browser.
  • Boost Note – An open source Markdown editor for developers.
  • Carnet – A complete open source note taking app.
  • Cryptgeon - Easily send fully encrypted, secure notes or files with one click. Just create a note and share the link.
  • Cryptee – A private and encrypted place for all your photos, documents, notes and more.
  • Encryptic – Note taking app that heavily relies on encryption.
  • LibreOffice Online – Self-hosted instance of LibreOffice that you can run in your browser.
  • LunaTask – An all-in-one privacy-focused to-do list, notebook, habit and mood tracker and pomodoro timer.
  • notely – Free, open source notes on the web.
  • One Time Note-Share – One Time Note-Share is an encrypted note that deletes itself after access.
  • p!n – Pin notes to the notification area.
  • Paperwork – An open-source, self-hosted alternative to services like Evernote, OneNote or Google Keep.
  • Piwigo – A great option that you can self-host. It is also free and open source.
  • PubPub – An open-source all-in-one collaborative publishing platform.
  • QOwnNotes – An open source markdown note taking with Nextcloud / ownCloud integration.
  • Standard Notes – A simple and private note-taking app.
  • SilentNotes – A simple note taking app which respects your privacy.
  • Turtl – A secure collaborative notebook.
  • ZK - A plain text note-taking assistant.

MAC Address Changer

  • BAT script – Randomly change the Mac Address on Windows.
  • easymacchanger – Change the network identity of your device.
  • MAC Address Tool – Windows tool allowing users to change the MAC-address of network adapters through a registry key.
  • macchanger – A Bash based MAC address changer.
  • Spoof – Easily spoof your MAC address in macOS, Windows & Linux.
  • SpoofMAC – Change your MAC address for debugging for OS X, Windows, and Linux.

MAC Address Online Lookup Database

NSFW Detection

  • The Movie Parser – An app to read a movie file, and indicate which scenes are NSFW, it uses an A.I. to do that. The wrapper can be used in other projects, or you use the single executable and use it as standalone app.

NFT

Law professor explains how blockchains and NFTs don’t protect virtual property

Notes and Tasks

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Google Keep and Google Keep Exporter – Convert your Google Keep notes into a standard markdown + YAML header format.
  • Evernote
  • Squid
  • Notion
  • OneNote
  • Tasker

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • AppFlowy – An open-source alternative to Notion. You are in charge of your data and customizations. Built with Flutter and Rust.
  • Bangle.io – A free alternative to Notion that takes markdown notes saved right in your computer.
  • BatNoter – An open source, markdown-based, self-hosted note taking webapp that can act as alternative to Evernote. The project was renamed from gitnoter to batnoter.
  • Hyperdraft – An open-source notes app that works in the browser and syncs with 0data protocols.
  • Joplin – Note taking and to-do application with synchronization capabilities.
  • Lomorage – Mobile first self-host photo storage solution, and has native iOS / Android application as well as optimization for Raspberry PI and Armbian OS.
  • Nextcloud Notes – The Notes app is a distraction free notes taking app for Nextcloud.
  • Notally – A beautiful notes app.
  • Standard Notes – A free, open-source, and completely encrypted notes app.
  • TinyList – Create and share notes and checklists, without sacrificing your privacy.
  • Vikunja – The open-source to-do app to organize your life.
  • Xournal++ – A handwriting note-taking software with PDF annotation support. Written in C++ with GTK3, supporting Linux (e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, SUSE), macOS and Windows 10. Supports pen input from devices such as Wacom Tablets.

Mobile Note Taking Apps

  • Carnet (cloud) – Design inspired by Google Keep.
  • Easer – An event-driven Android automation app. It knows various events, and you, the user, could tell it what to do on what event (and even combine multiple events!).
  • LibreTasks – A fork of Omnidroid App, now maintained and with more features.
  • Standard notes (cloud) – Encrypted notes on their server, accessible from any browser.
  • Joplin – An open source note-taking app. Capture your thoughts and securely access them from any device.
  • Keep The Notes - Offline - Keep the Notes is a user-friendly free notebook app for Android. This is a clear and convenient note-taking app that allows you to take quick notes and checklists to organize your life easily.
  • Markor – Text editor, notes & toDo. Lightweight. Markdown and todo.txt support.
  • Material Notes – Simple Material based Android app.
  • MyOwnNotes (cloud) – Works with a ownCloud subscription.
  • NeutriNote – Markdown + Math in Just 3 MB.
  • Notally – A beautiful notes app for Android.
  • Notepad – A simple, bare-bones, no-frills note taking app.
  • Noteless: Markdown note-taking – Markdown-optimized editor with syntax highlighting.
  • Notesnook (mobile) – A truly zero-knowledge note taking app, encrypted using XChaChaPoly1305-IETF & Argon2.
  • Noto – Simple and minimal note-taking Android application built with Kotlin.
  • Omni Notes – Very feature rich, open-source, material design notes app. Very active development.
  • One Pile - Private notes and document management for macOS and iOS.
  • Orgzly – Notes are stored in the plain-text Org mode format. Supports searching, metadata, and manual sync with Dropbox or local directory, which can be synced using e.g. Syncthing.
  • Privacy Friendly Notes – Privacy Friendly App for creating and managing notes on Android.
  • Quillnote – With Quillnote, you can take beautiful markdown notes whenever you feel inspired.
  • Scarlet Notes FD – Works completely offline, offers rich notes with lists, headings, quotes, floating mode, and more.
  • Simpletask + syncthing – Combining both apps allows you to take notes and syncing them.
  • Simple Notes – A beautiful quick note taking app without ads or weird permissions.
  • Tasks.org – Tasks is libre open-source software, based on the original source code from the popular Astrid Tasks & To Do List.
  • posidon notes – This is a very minimal Android note taking app. It has a nice design, but very minimal functionality. You can write, edit and delete notes, that's it.
  • sNotz – An open-source and completely offline application to manage simple notes.
  • uNote – Lightweight and minimalist notepad.
  • Xournalpp Mobile – A port of the main features of Xournal++ to various Flutter platforms like Android, iOS and the Web.
  • Zettel Notes - Android Markdown app with GPG encryption and WebDAV sync.

News Pages

  • Local newspaper – Support independent and qualitative journalism in your community.
  • 2600: The Hacker Quarterly – A magazine named after the 2600 Hz tone used in phreaking.
  • AllSides – Unbiased news source, primarily for US politics.
  • Classics in the History of Psychology - – Historically significant documents from the scholarly literature of psychology.
  • Drewes news – Privacy-focused news feed that groups stories, using NLP.
  • ListMonk – Self-hosted newsletter and mailing list manager.
  • wallabag – Pocket, safe articles and read them later.

Mobile News

  • Feeder – Use good old-fashioned RSS-Feeds with Feeder.
  • Flym – Open-source Material Design RSS reader.
  • OptOut – Nonprofit News App. - FOSS planned, maybe. - controversial

News Groups

  • Discourse – Discourse is the 100% open-source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, or long-form chat room.
  • GNU Mailman – Mailman is free software for managing electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists. Mailman is integrated with the web, making it easy for users to manage their accounts and for list owners to administer their lists. Mailman supports built-in archiving, automatic bounce processing, content filtering, digest delivery, spam filters, and more.
  • Groups.io – A privacy focused email list system that does not track you, nor your members. It is not open source. Data is hosted on one central server but the server is encrypted. It has modern email group features such as a wiki, integrations, and RSS import support.
  • Iris Forums – A easy to use CLI forum for Unix users.
  • Mailman – GNU Mailing List Manager, free software for managing electronic mail discussion and e-newsletter lists.
  • Sympa – An open-source mailing list manager. It provides advanced features with a rich and secure web interface.

Network-wide ad & tracker blocking DNS servers

We do not list the original Pi-Hole project in this section since AdGuard Home does overall a better job and includes more features with a better UI.

  • AdGuard Home – Network-wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server.
  • DNSCrypt – A flexible DNS proxy, with support for encrypted DNS protocols.
  • Donutdns – A Simpler Alternative to Pi-Hole.
  • Privaxy – Like uBlock but through a MitM proxy and no browser extension.
  • Unbound – Unbound is a validating, recursive, caching DNS resolver.
  • YogaDNS – Automatically intercepts Windows DNS requests at the system level and allows you to process them over user-defined DNS servers using modern protocols and flexible rules.
  • WireHole – A WireGuard VPN with Native Ad-Blocking included.

Oculus Quest

  • Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices.

Office Apps

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • AbiWord – A free word processing program similar to Microsoft Word.
  • Airborn OS – Private Google Docs Alternative.
  • Arcane Office – GDPR compliant. Decentralized and private.
  • Calligra Suite – An office and graphic art suite by KDE.
  • Calligra – An office and graphic art suite by KDE. It is available for desktop PCs, tablet computers, and smartphones. It contains applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, vector graphics, and editing databases.
  • Collabora and NextCloud – A cloud, mobile and desktop enterprise office suite.
  • CryptPad – Collaboration suite, encrypted and open-source.
  • Freeshow – A Free and Open-source ProPresenter alternative.
  • Graphite – A decentralized and encrypted Google Docs alternative.
  • LibreOffice – Free and open source offline Office.
  • Luckysheet – An online spreadsheet like excel that is powerful, simple to configure, and completely open source.
  • LyX – It's an open-source (and offline) document processor using TeX/LaTeX.
  • OnlyOffice – Free and open source online office for collaboration, the program is a web-based free and open-source office suite with extensive functionality.
  • Skiff – End-to-end encrypted collaboration (Google Docs / Notion).
  • Texel – CLI tool for viewing spreadsheets.

Mobile Office Apps

Opt-Out of Mobile ISP location tracking

Open Knowledge Projects

Operating Systems

Android

Try to avoid using Google Android or any Android that has been modified and tuned by any manufacturer such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, etc. Android is an Open Source project – AOSP – Android Open Source Project – and it has many versions that will respect the user privacy and data and won't share it with private servers from manufacturers or service providers.

It is important to use always the latest OS - if possible - there are several reasons e.g. Android 10 disallows Apps in general from third-parties to access critical stuff like IMEI, SIM, Serial Number, MAC etc. There are some small exceptions but overall it means that Google adopts certain problems and tries to solve them in the next versions which makes the OS by default more secure compared to older and easier attackable Builds.

Android Stock OS aka AOSP alternatives

It should clearly noted that most if not all listed alternatives that are based on AOSP are typically done to cash-grab others via donations with marketing phrases and unproven promises and claims like, use our product it is more privacy friendly or security optimised. Everyone can harden an OS, this is not some secret magic.

AOSP is under heavy development by more developers and overall more people are involved and claiming that you as individual person or small group do it better without even trying to submit patches to the original AOSP in the first place is not only rude and disrespectful but also ethical questionable, assuming yo believe in ethics. Forks usually tend to add no actual benefit into something unless done by professionals as well as people with an actual reasonable business model and independence, however most of the listed project highly depend on AOSP.

People tend to smear AOSP based on what vendors afterwards integrating and doing with it, e.g. adding bloatware apps etc. however you can compile AOSP yourself without any bloatware nor depend on another third-party identity such as GrapheneOS, CalyxOS, etc.

Hardening the OS yourself would be less of an mainstream problem if those who claim, in the name or privacy and security would submit their patches in public trough and open database. This is usually not the case and such people tend to lure people instead of their own websites, pages to pretend they do the most work, which is not only incorrect but also ethical questionable because the AOSP cares a lot about privacy and security and are reasonable in merging possible pull requests, assuming the patch actually fixes some hole, leak etc.

The underlying point is that those providers usually feeding off others people work, modifying it and claim privacy and security that are hard to proof for average users because they are not skilled enough to audit it themselves and often those claims cannot be verified because it consumes lots of time, research and in the meantime AOSP could have already addressed it trough a new patch-level set or entirely new major OS build. The ethical dilemma in using alternatives is that you need trust another unknown identity with unproven claims, while they claim they need money in form of e.g. donation to pay professional people to do an audit, which is the perfect excuse to collect donations luring people into using your product(s). Or in other words, use our product and support us and we show you can trust us afterwards when we got enough money to pay someone for an audit.

For example the GrapheneOS developer needs money to pay professional people to do an audit, while he claims, unproven, that his OS is more secure than others based on applying only best practices, while you could do this for yourself, assuming the team would release all of the modified AOSP patches. In such cases you simply need to keep his word as truth, because most people have no time, skill or knowledge to inspect the source code. Just because there is source code available does not conduct security because we had examples like Heatbleed when the source was years available and no one actually inspected it, which ended up leading people for years vulnerable. Open source therefore is not a guarantee for trust and security. The security lies heavily on the fact that actual people need to inspect your code, code that is complicated and you need the skills, time and research to come to an conclusion if it can be exploited. Facts that the teams does not communicate in public, because open source is no wonder weapon regarding security and never will be.

In truth the developers want to make a living out of it to continuing his job which is the reason they depend on money trough e.g. donations. This is at no time nowhere directly communicated.

The logic falls apart the moment you put every aspect in consideration because AOSP is a larger target and used by much more people than GrapheneOS, so mathematically, without even real world examples the claim that is more secure and private cannot be correct. Applying best coding practices and hardening alone also do not necessarily mean that your OS is more secure, for example if you touch known cryptography the opposite can happen, you end up more vulnerable. I also doubt such individual people and small groups in general because if they would actually fight for the mass they would help the AOSP Team directly so that everyone can benefit and use their code which is inspected by a bigger audience and used by lots of more vendors and users and not trying to cash-grab others based on Googles security practices, which are not GrapheneOS research and experiences.

In other words, give me money in form of donations because I claim my products are more secure and privacy friendly because I applied best practices. I am not really a friend of such claims and this has a wide history of been abused, it usually takes a while until someone figures such things out because, as mentioned inspecting things + have the knowledge to come to the conclusion how hard or easily something can be exploited is a real job and requires various skills. Unpaid people usually do not do all of this or are not involved.

Another point is breakages, when you apply best practices you usually break the entire eco-system, apps will stop working, you can only install various apps because the author decided to only approve certain apps, see the practice applied by Pale Moon developers who only approve certain extensions, or other dependencies simply stop working and you need to entirely trust such developers with their workarounds, workarounds no one typically inspect, audit or use, which automatically limits the target factor. The less it is known and used the less, mathematically it is insecure, this is just statistics, other consideration that even if there are holes, that the not automatically easily be exploitable are not even mentioned in such scenarios.

The whole story reminds me on the Telegram Crypto-Gram challenge - Cripple the AOSP with best practices so that nothing works and then claim security to sell the product. Here use my product because it is secure, there is no audit, I cripple and break all apps or sandbox it to pretend I know what I am doing....

  • /e/ OS – A complete, fully de-Googled, mobile ecosystem based on LineageOS. You can find an analysis of the /e/OS app installer over here.
  • ArrowOS – AOSP based project started with the aim of keeping things simple, clean and neat. We added just the right and mostly used stuff that will be actually USEFUL at the end of the day, aiming to deliver smooth performance with better battery life.
  • CarbonROM – CarbonROM is an aftermarket firmware based on the Android Open Source Project created with the purpose of adding versatility and customization to stock Android.
  • Calyx OS – A secure and private mobile OS for Pixel phones and the Xiami Mi A2.
  • crDroid – Improve the performance, reliability and customizability of your Android device.
  • Divest OS – Divest OS strives to prolong device life, enhance user privacy, and provide modest security to many devices. DivestOS inherits many supported devices from LineageOS. It has signed builds, making it possible to have verified boot on some non-Pixel devices. The OS has automated kernel vulnerability (CVE) patching, fewer proprietary blobs, a custom hosts file, and F-Droid as the app store. It comes with a hardened WebView, Mulch, enables CFI for all architectures and network state partitioning, and receives out-of-band updates.
  • dotOS – It was launched with an aim to provide Unique user interface and Optimum performance that too keeping in mind the balance between performance and battery life. dotOS is based on Google's Android Open Source Project with Hand-picked goodies.
  • Havoc-OS – An after-market firmware based on Android Open Source Project, inspired by Google Pixel with a refined Material Design UI. We offer a smooth and stable experience for your device with a selected set of amazing features that provide an exceptional user experience.
  • Kali Linux – Kali Linux also works on mobile phones. Different phones need different images, this is why there is no direct repository link.
  • OpenKirin – A team of developers who believe that a pure, AOSP Android experience should be easily available for users running Huawei devices with Kirin chipsets. The reason I list it here is that Huawei devices with Kirin chipsets have less options, I am aware this is AOSP based and the title here says Stock OS alternatives, which AOSP in general counts in.
  • OmniROM – Android custom ROM variant, feature-packed but always with stability as number one priority in mind.
  • Paranoid Android – AOSP based ROM with some enhancements.
  • PostmarketOS – Touch optimised and pre-configured version of Alpine Linux.
  • ProtonAOSP – A minimal Android fork for design and performance for Google Pixel devices, which is based on Android 11 & 12. This ROM can be used together with MicroG and has many interesting features. However, by default it comes with GAPPS, minimalistic package pre-installed, which you can uninstall afterwards if you want. The OS is not specifically dedicated to improving privacy or security, but it still has some features to help keep your data considerable private.
  • Replicant – A free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom and privacy/security.
  • Suomenlinna – Sailfish OS, Linux for mobile phones.
  • StagOS – Unlikely like every other rom out there.
  • Vostok – Customized AOSP, possible outdated which depends on the device.

Android GSI Images

Android Generic System Images (GSIs) are for app developers to perform app validation and for development purposes, which means they are bare naked images without anything e.g. GAPPS preinstalled. Since version 401+ OTA is supported for devices with dynamic partition.

Google Play Services Framework

  • microG – microG is on its own not a OS, but a re-implementation of Google’s proprietary Android apps and libraries.
  • NanoDroid – An installer for various OpenSource projects, most noticably microG and F-Droid. It supports all Android 4.4+ phones and all partition layouts (System-as-root, A/B) and can be installed as a Magisk module.

Mobile OS based on Linux

Some Distros, mobile as well as desktop using Google Fonts, however there is no evidence that this influence and security or privacy related things for you. There are no hidden connections or analytics.

  • Armbian OS – Minimal Debian based Linux with powerful configurator and software installer.
  • B2G OS – Community Driven Web Based Mobile OS.
    • Capyloon – Mobile Web-based OS works on PinePhone Pro, Librem 5, Pixel 3a
  • crDroid – Designed to improve the performance, reliability and customizability of stock Android
  • Hubris – An OS from Oxide Computer.
  • Kupfer – A postmarketOS-like Arch Linux spin for phones.
  • Maemo Leste – OS designed for Smartphones and SBCs.
  • Manjaro Phone – Focus on PinePhone.
  • Mobian – Debian for mobile.
  • MuditaOS – Mobile operating system based on FreeRTOS™ optimized for E Ink displays.
  • Nemo – Supports all all Sailfish devices.
  • Pine64 Arch Fork – The PinePhone-specific danctnix's Arch fork is currently a popular and well-maintained choice among PinePhone users.
  • Plasma Mobile – Plasma, in your pocket. Privacy-respecting, open source and secure phone ecosystem.
  • PureOS – Operating system developed by purism for the Librem 5.
  • Sailfish OS – Privacy-focused mobile OS by Jolla with a proprietary UI and Android compatibility layer on top of an open-source Mer GNU/Linux base.
  • UBPorts – Ubuntu Touch is the touch-friendly mobile version of Ubuntu.
  • Ubuntu Touch – A free and open-source operating system for smartphones and tablets based on Ubuntu.

WearOS

  • AsteroidOS – Open-source alternative for Wear OS.
  • LuneOS – OS for Smartphones, Tablets, SBCs.

Open Source Hardware

Open Source Hardware Association – The Open Source Hardware Association or in short: OSHWA aims to foster technological knowledge and encourage research that is accessible, collaborative and respects user freedom. This is the starting point for your research and to check open source hardware news. Another good overview is a list of open-source computing hardware.

Free Hardware and Free Hardware Designs explained. You find an Certified Open Source Hardware Projects list here.

  • Beechat Network Systems Ltd. – A human-powered, open-hardware, fully-waterproof, electricity generator. The project was born out of the need to power electronics in all off-grid scenarios.
  • Firefly – An open-source $5 DIY hardware wallet.
  • Freedeck – Open-Source Stream Deck.
  • FOSSi – Free and Open Source Silicon (FOSSi) are components and systems that are inside silicon devices (‘chips’)..
  • Glia – High-quality low-cost open source medical hardware.
  • Liberouter (2014) – Towards autonomous neighborhood networking.
  • LibreCellular – Aims to make it easier to create 4G cellular networks with open source software and low cost software-defined radio (SDR) hardware.
  • Mouse – Repository for Open Source Mouse Firmware and Hardware.
  • OpenRex – Open Source Hardware Project.
  • Open Source Hardware Lab – Open Source Hardware Project, overview, guidance and reference links.
  • Open Source 5G List – List of 5G projects and a general starter for developers, users and beginners.
  • Turris Omnia – A router from the Czech Republic using open source firmware built on top of OpenWRT.
  • Pid.codes – Free USB IDs to open-source hardware.
  • PUMA - World's First Open Source 3D Printed Microscope with an Augmented Reality Heads Up Display.
  • RISC-V ISA – The Sipeed Maix Amigo kit from 2020 was among the first RISC-V PDAs.
  • SLIMBOOK – Born in 2015 with the idea of ​​being the best brand in the computer market with GNU / Linux (although it is also verified the absolute compatibility with Microsoft Windows).
  • Space – Repository of open source space-related software and hardware.
  • The NEORV32 Processor – Open source hardware SoC.
  • TinyNES – NES compatible open hardware video game console.

Online Leak and Leakproofing Tests

Only unique tests are getting listed here, it makes no sense to list 1000+ pages who do all the same or offering absolute nothing new regarding fingerprinting/leaking.

OSINT Tools

You find a bigger list here: Nixintel's OSINT Resource List - A startpage with online resources about OSINT.

  • airgeddon – App at Linux systems to audit wireless networks.
  • Blackbird – An OSINT tool to search for accounts by username in social networks.
  • Capa – Quickly check what execution files can really do.
  • cgit – Collection of data recovery tools.
  • email2phonenumber – OSINT tool to obtain a target's phone number just by having his email address.
  • fluxion – A WiFi attack proof tool.
  • Gitleaks – Check for privacy data leaked from git repositories.
  • Gip – Google IP Search reverse search.
  • LinkScope – Allows you to perform online investigations by representing information as discrete pieces of data, called Entities.
  • No-BlackM – Telegram Bot to search for telephone numbers.
  • Sherlock Project – Hunt down social media accounts by username across social networks.
  • Snoop – One of the most promising OSINT tools to search for nicknames
  • Sputnik – Open Source Intelligence Browser Extension.
  • sub3suite – A new free, open source, cross platform OSINT tool.
  • sub3suite – A new free, open source, cross platform OSINT tool.
  • tangalanga – Zoom conference scanner and hacking tool.
  • trape – Tool to track and execute intelligent social engineering attacks in real time.

OS and Data Monitoring

  • Netdata – Distributed, real-time monitoring Agent collects thousands of metrics from systems, hardware, containers, and applications with zero configuration. It runs permanently on all your physical/virtual servers, containers, cloud deployments, and edge/IoT devices, and is perfectly safe to install on your systems mid-incident without any preparation.
  • Uptime-kuma – A fancy open-source self-hosted monitoring tool.
  • AppActivityViewer – iOS 15 App Activity Record Viewer.

Open Source privacy-friendly firmware replacement for Robot Vacuums (ie Roombas)

  • Valetudo – Cloud-free control web-interface for vacuum robots.

Open Source Games

  • List of open source Games – List of open source games as well as some reference to other lists and material.
  • Minetest – A free open source Minecraft-style game with huge worlds, a variety of different playing modes, online and offline gameplay, multiplayer servers, lots of user-created mods and more.
  • Open source games list (OSGL) – Contains information about 1342 open source games and 310 game engines/tools.
  • Open Source Games – There are some good FOSS Games available as open source projects.

Open source game engines

  • Adventure Game Studio - Free engine for making point & click adventure games.
  • Amulet - A free Lua-based audio/visual toolkit suitable for small games and experimentation, with online editor.
  • DOME - A framework for making 2D games using the Wren programming language.
  • DuckEngine - A 2D Game Engine for the web.
  • GameStudio - 2D Game engine and editor for Windows and Linux.
  • Godot - Perhaps the most complete and well documented open source engine, for 2d and 3d.
  • HaxeFlixel - Cross-platform development, open source
  • Heaps - A free and open source cross platform graphics engine written in Haxe.
  • LITIENGINE - A free and open source Java 2D Game Engine.
  • luxe - In development: a 2d-focused engine, code in Wren.
  • LÖVR- An open source framework for rapidly building VR experiences in Lua.
  • nCine - An open source cross-platform 2D game engine with an emphasis on performance.
  • Phaser.io - Desktop and mobile HTML5 game framework, using JavaScript.
  • Pixelbox.js - Combination editor and a simple JavaScript library.
  • Pyxel - A retro game engine for Python.
  • Rbfx - Open-source game engine with Unity-like editor and C# support.
  • Ren'Py - Free, open source cross-platform Visual Novel development engine.
  • Starling - A Cross Platform Game Engine.
  • Superpowers - HTML5 2d + 3d engine, coding in Typescript.
  • XREngine - Open-source WebGL Metaverse Engine.

PCB Design Software

  • KiCAD – Open-source tool that helps you in making Electronic Design Automation (EDA).
  • LibrePCB – A free EDA software to develop printed circuit boards.
  • OpenSCAD – Single-Board Computer Case Builder.

Pixel Editors

  • LibreSprite – A free and open source program for creating and animating your sprites.
  • Piskel – A simple web-based tool for Spriting and Pixel art.
  • Pixelorama – A free & open-source 2D sprite editor.
  • PixiEditor – A lightweight pixel art editor.
  • Shape Shifter – A web-app that simplifies the creation of icon animations for Android, iOS, and the web.

PDF tools

PDF merging

  • Pdfreader – Read text and parse tables from PDF files.
  • PDFWrench – Free PDF merging tool that works without any file upload to ensure privacy.

PDF Reader

  • Document Viewer – A highly customizable document viewer for Android.
  • Evince – A document viewer for multiple document formats.
  • Okular – A universal document viewer developed by KDE.
  • Sioyek – Sioyek is a PDF viewer designed for reading research papers and technical books.
  • Skim – A PDF reader and note-taker for macOS.
  • SumatraPDF – A multi-format reader for Windows.
  • zathura – A highly customizable and functional document viewer.

Mobile PDF Reader

  • Book Reader – Android book reader application.
  • Document Viewer – Document Viewer is a highly customizable document viewer for Android.
  • KOReader – An ebook reader application supporting PDF, DjVu, EPUB, FB2 and many more formats, running on Cervantes, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook and Android devices.
  • Librera Reader – Book Reader for Android.
  • MuPDF – A lightweight and customizable PDF and XPS viewer.
  • PDF Viewer Plus – A simple PDF document viewer for Android.

PDF Editor

  • PDF Converter – PDF Converter is an easy to use application to convert Images to PDF.
  • Simple PDF – PDF editor/annotator that doesn't upload document to server. - controversial

PDF Document Scanner

  • Open Note Scanner – With Open Note Scanner you can capture documents, handwritten notes, arts, shopping receipts, etcetera.
  • Termux with pandoc and texlive-bin plugin allows you to scan or convert documents from e.g. markdown to PDF.

Poll Systems

  • Framadate – An easy-to-use libre Doodle-style event and poll service, provided by France’s largest ethical software organization Framasoft. It costs nothing, it doesn’t track you and you don’t need to register.

Payment Systems

Most payment systems are closed source or contain tracking or contain Cloudflare and CDNs behind their systems.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Cash – Use person-to-person payments using physical notes and coins.
  • Conceal - Decentralized Finance, Private Transactions & Encrypted Messaging.
  • Heaven - Haven is an ecosystem of digital assets that enables users to convert between volatile assets and stable currencies directly within their vault, in complete privacy.
  • Liberapay – An easy-to-use, free open donations platform and lets your fans send you a set amount every week, month or year.
  • Monero – It's fast, private, untraceable and secure. The claim Monero is traceable and cracked by the feds has no actual evidence. There are no indicators for that found in the real-world. It was only attacked, the story that went around was about XMR pre-ring signatures. That said it got fixed. Feds cannot trace Monero.
  • MobileCoin – The only sustainable cryptocurrency that's fast and simple enough for everyday encrypted payments directly on your mobile device.
  • Open Collective – A more advanced platform specially designed for crowdfunded projects and organisations that want to be as transparent as possible about how donations are spent.
  • Pivx Shield – Proof-of-Stake coin, with SHIELD transactions, gives users private, anonymous, nearly instant payments.
  • Snowdrift – Non-profit cooperative funding platform with an unique approach to fundraising called crowd matching.
  • zcash – Sources claim that Edward Snowden is involved, zcash uses strong cryptography.

Mobile Payment

  • Catima – For your Barcodes, memberships, loyalty programs, coupons and tickets.
  • Encryptr – A zero-knowledge, cloud-based e-wallet & password manager.

Payments and Personal Finances

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • BitcartCC – Open-source self-hosted all-in-one cryptocurrency platform.
  • CoinJoin – Bitcoin transaction compression which aims to improve privacy.
  • CypherpunkPay – Modern self-hosted software for accepting Bitcoin/Lightning.
  • Freecoin – A set of tools to let people run reward schemes that are transparent and auditable to other organisations. It is made for participatory and democratic organisations who want to incentivise participation, unlike centralized banking databases. Freecoin aims to leverage the use of social digital currencies in a reliable, simple and resilient way.
  • GNU Taler – A payment system that makes privacy-friendly online transactions fast and easy.
  • Kresus – An open-source libre self-hosted personal finance manager.
  • Over the counter btc – Marketplace for people to conduct over-the-counter trading in bitcoin currency.
  • pivx2bitcoin – Private crypto swap. No accounts, no sign-ups, no JavaScript, no tracking, no analytics. Hosted on both Tor and clearnet.

Micropayment and funded software

  • Budget Zen - Simple and Encrypted Budget Management.
  • Debitum – With Debitum you can track all kinds of IOUs, be it money or lent items.
  • GnuCash – A personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.
  • Haveno – Private and decentralized way to exchange Monero for national currencies or other cryptocurrencies.
  • IHateMoney – Manage your shared expenses, easily.
  • My Expenses – Featureful GPL licensed Android Expense Tracking App.
  • Nextcloud Cospend – A group/shared budget manager inspired by the great IHateMoney.
  • OpenFare – Micropayment funded software.
  • ProExpense – A simple free finance note to safely record daily expenses.
  • WebCash – Peer-to-peer electronic cash with no blockchain.

Pin Brute-Force Protection

  • Wrong PIN Shutdown – This simple app monitors the number of failed login attempts. If a certain number of attempts is exceeded, the device is automatically shut down.

Photo Editing and Management

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Akira – A native Linux app for UI and UX design.
  • Alva – An app to create living prototypes with code components.
  • Czkawka – Multi functional app to find duplicates and similar images etc.
  • Darktable – An open source photography workflow application and raw developer.
  • Filmulator – A simplified raw editing software with the power of film.
  • Flowblade – Flowblade is a free open NLE video editor for Linux.
  • GIMP – The Free & Open Source Image Editor.
  • Glimpse Image Editor – A libre graphics application based on the popular GNU Image Manipulation Program. The project tries to improve the performance and user experience of the latter.
  • Haiku Animator – Open-source vector design tool for creating Lottie animations.
  • Inkscape – Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images.
  • Krita – Krita is a free and open source digital painting application
  • MyPaint – A painting tool for digital artists.
  • Mydraft – An open source wire-framing tool.
  • minimator – A Minimalist Graphical Editor.
  • Pencil Project – An open-source GUI prototyping tool.
  • Penpot – An open Source design and prototyping platform meant for cross-domain teams.
  • Pinta – Open-Source Drawing and Image Editing Software Scores Another Update
  • Pixelitor – Open source image editor with non-destructive smart objects.
  • qView – qView is an image viewer designed with minimalism and usability in mind.
  • RawTherapee – A free, cross-platform raw image processing program.
  • Scribus – An open source desktop publishing software.
  • Seashore – An open source image editor for macOS.
  • Tldraw – An open-source SVG-rendered drawing tool.
  • Tropy – An Open-Source App to Organize Your Research Photos.
  • Wireflow – An online and open source tool for creating beautiful user flow prototypes.

Mobile Photo Editing and Management

  • Gimp – Android Gimp version.
  • Simple Draw – A canvas you can draw on with different colors.

Projects you can join to help the make the world more sustainable

Privacy organizations and Cyber-Pirates

Consider joining and donating to one, several or all of the listed organizations, they actually fight for your digital freedom.

Proxy Tools

  • Anxray – Another Proxychain Tool With Xray Core.
  • Lantern – Lantern is a centralized and peer-to-peer proxy, which is used as a circumvention tool. The tool detects whether websites are blocked and, if so, allows you to access them via the Lantern servers or the network of Lantern users.
  • netch – A simple proxy client.
  • Psiphon – A free and open source circumvention tool that utilizes SSH, VPN and HTTP proxy technology to provide you with uncensored access to the internet.
  • v2rayN – Windows only utility to use various proxies.

Mobile Proxy Apps

Privacy Policies Analysis Tools

  • airsend – Privacy Policies of Top Messaging Apps reviewed.
  • Privacy Parrot – AI tool reads privacy policies, tells you which sites sell your info.
  • Privee – Google Chrome extension using machine learning to summarize privacy policies.
  • Privado – Privado CLI scans & monitors your repositories to build up privacy-transparency reports & finds privacy issues. Easily generate Generate Play Store Data reports.
  • Terms of Service; Didn't Read – Quickly analyze / review or explain ToS to the community which gets listed.

Privacy Analysis Tools

  • Adversarial Robustness Toolbox (ART) – Adversarial Robustness Toolbox (ART) – Python Library for Machine Learning Security – Evasion, Poisoning, Extraction, Inference – Red and Blue Teams.
  • Bogus – A simple and sane fake data generator for .NET languages like C#, F# and VB.NET.
  • Condenser – Database subsetting tool for Postgres and MySQL which takes a representative sample of your data in a manner that preserves the integrity of your database.
  • DataMasker – A free data masking and/or anonymizer library for Sql Server written in .NET.
  • Diffprivlib – The IBM Differential Privacy Library. Diffprivlib is a general-purpose library for experimenting with, investigating and developing applications in, differential privacy.
  • Easy-data-masking – A JavaScript plugin for data masking.
  • Event Timestamp Generator – Generate real world event sequence data using an exponential distribution.
  • FBPCF (Facebook Private Computation Framework) – The Private Computation Framework (PCF) library builds a scalable, secure, and distributed private computation platform to run secure computations on a production level. PCF library supports running the computation on AWS Cloud and is able to integrate various private computation technologies. Specifically, it leverages EMP-toolkit to enable privacy-preserving computations.
  • FHIR Tools for Anonymization – An open-source project that helps anonymize healthcare FHIR data, on-premises or in the cloud, for secondary usage such as research, public health, and more.
  • Format Preserving Lorem Ipsum Text Generation
  • Google Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) libraries – Open-source libraries and tools to perform fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) operations on an encrypted data set.
  • Google's differential privacy libraries – Libraries to generate ε- and -differentially private statistics over datasets.
  • Gretel Synthetics – Synthetic data generators for structured and unstructured text, featuring differentially private learning.
  • HElib – An open-source software library that implements homomorphic encryption (HE).
  • Machine Learning Privacy Meter – A Python library that enables quantifying the privacy risks of machine learning models.
  • Mainzelliste SecureEpiLinker (MainSEL) – Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage using Secure Multi-Party Computation.
  • mangle – This library provides functionality to sanitize text and HTML data. This can be integrated into tools that export or manipulate databases/files so that confidential data is not exposed to staging, development or testing systems.
  • Masquerade – A Postgres proxy that masks sensitive datasets.
  • Microsoft SEAL – An easy-to-use open-source homomorphic encryption library developed by the Cryptography and Privacy Research Group at Microsoft.
  • Mimesis – A high-performance fake data generator for Python, which provides data for a variety of purposes in a variety of languages.
  • PrivacyRaven – A privacy testing library for deep learning systems. You can use it to determine the susceptibility of a model to different privacy attacks; evaluate privacy preserving machine learning techniques; develop novel privacy metrics and attacks; and repurposed attacks for data provenance and other use cases.
  • pydbgen – Generate full data tables with meaningful yet random entries of most commonly encountered fields in the world of database, such as name, age, birthday,, credit card number, SSN, email id, physical address, company name, job title.
  • Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) with Go – This project implements secure two-party computation with garbled circuit protocol.
  • Solitude – Solitude is a privacy analysis tool that enables anyone to conduct their own privacy investigations. Whether a curious novice or a more advanced researcher, Solitude makes the process of evaluating user privacy within an app accessible for everyone.
  • Synthea – Synthetic Patient Population Simulator. The goal is to output synthetic, realistic, patient data and associated health records in a variety of formats.
  • TensorFlow Privacy – A Python library that includes implementations of TensorFlow optimizers for training machine learning models with differential privacy.

Privacy relevant books and papers

Package Managers

  • BCUninstaller – A free program uninstaller.
  • Chocolatey – The package manager for Windows.
  • GeekUninstaller – A portable software uninstaller.
  • PortableApps.com – A website offering many free, commonly used Windows applications that have been specially packaged for portability.
  • Scoop – A command-line installer for Windows.
  • winget – Microsoft's open-source CLI packager manager for Windows.
  • winstall – A web app for browsing and installing Windows Package Manager apps.

Package delivery

Same like eMail aliases proxies, this is controversial since you share your data with another third-party that you must fully trust.

  • Shipto.me – Ship physical packages to others without sharing your address.

Paywall Bypassing

  • 12ft – 12ft Ladder is a free service for reading news articles. Prepend 12ft.io/ to the URL of any paywalled page, and we'll try our best to remove the paywall and get you access to the article.
  • Bypass Paywalls – Extension for Firefox and Chrome to bypass PayWalls on multiple websites.
  • Demodal – A browser extension that blocks modals and overlays.
  • Incoggo – Read Millions of blogs and articles. No paywalls.

Planning

  • TREX – Reactive planning. Egular Language description for XML (RELAX) is a specification for describing XML-based languages. A description written in RELAX is called a RELAX grammar.

Plagiarism Checker

None of below listed tools or websites are FOSS. I plan to change that, however I prefer showing the tools who actually work and doing their job. If I find more - reliable - FOSS tools I will add them instead. That said I only drop the links as is until I reconstructed this category.

Well worth searching your GitHub URL with Google Scholar, which is a great way to find out if your code has made it into any academic publications.

Password Managers

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Bitwarden – An open source cloud based password manager.
    • vaultwarden – Unofficial Bitwarden compatible self-hosted server, formerly known as bitwarden_rs.
  • Buttercup – A secure and open source password manager.
  • Cozy Pass – Fills all your passwords, payments, and personal details wherever you need them.
  • Himitsu keyring & password manager – A new approach to storing secret information on Unix systems, such as passwords or private keys.
  • KeePass Password Safe – KeePass, the free, open source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager.
  • KeepassXC – Securely store passwords using industry standard encryption, no sync just storage.
    • KeepassDX – Save and use passwords, keys and digital identities in a secure way by integrating the Android design standards.
    • Strongbox – Secure Password Management for iOS and Mac OS.
    • KeeWeb – For Web and other platforms.
  • LessPass – Stateless password manager. Remember one master password to access your passwords. No sync needed.
  • pass – Unix password manager.
  • Passky – Open source Password Manager for almost every platform.
  • Padloc – The last password manager you'll ever want to use.
  • swifty – Free Offline Password Manager.
  • Spectre.app – Modern password app.

Mobile Password Managers

Password auditing and recovery application

  • aircrack-ng – A complete suite of tools to assess WiFi network security. All tools are command line which allows for heavy scripting.A lot of GUIs have taken advantage of this feature. It works primarily Linux but also Windows, OS X,FreeBSD,OpenBSD,NetBSD as well as Solaris and even eComStation2.
  • Dirsearch – An advanced brute force tool based on a command line.
  • John the Ripper – John the Ripper is an Open Source password security auditing and password recovery tool available for many operating systems. John the Ripper jumbo supports hundreds of hash and cipher types.
  • L0phtCrack – A password audit and recovery program originally developed by Mudge from L0pht Heavy Industries. Using dictionaries, brute-force, hybrid attacks, and rainbow tables, it is used to test password strength and also to recover missing Microsoft Windows passwords.
  • Mask attack – Mask attacks can be used to filter passwords based on specific words, numbers within a specified range, the user's preferred special characters, or any other password features the hacker is confident in.
  • Rainbowcrack – A computer program that creates a rainbow table that can be used to crack a password. RainbowCrack differs from "conventional" brute force crackers in that it uses huge pre-computed tables called rainbow tables to reduce the time required to crack a password significantly.

Per-app anonymization

  • HideDroid – An Android app that allows the per-app anonymization of collected personal data according to a privacy level chosen by the user.

Period Tracker

If you need an app for menstrual cycle tracking please don't use any apps like Clue, Period Tracker, etc. Those cute pink apps are greedy for your menstrual cycle and intimate life data and will sell it for sure, protect your private life. Check the list below and you will find nice alternatives.

  • Drip – The menstrual cycle tracking app that makes period and fertility tracking more secure and more transparent.
  • Euki – Helps you get answers that you can trust without making assumptions about who you are, what you do or don’t already know, or how you identify.
  • Period_Underground – Period Tracker that keeps all data on device.
  • Periodical – A menstruation calendar to calculate the fertile days according to Knaus-Ogino which also allows to take notes and document symptoms.
  • YouPeriod – The privacy-first period tracking app.
  • log28 – A (very) simple no-frills period tracker for Android.

Plastic Scanners and Spectrometer

Plastics: Material-Specific Data

Photo Storage

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Google Photos
    • Google Photos Takeout Helper – Script that organizes the Google Takeout messy archive into one big chronological folder. Use this script to get out of Google Photos.
  • Amazon Photos
  • Samsung Photos

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Ave – A gallery and metadata explorer app, built for Android with Flutter.
  • DNG Processor – Bring out the best in your phone's camera. It waits for new RAW images captured using a supported camera app, and then processes them in the background. Works well with Open Camera and usually gives better results than Google Camera ports.
  • Immich – Self-hosted photo, video backup solution directly from your mobile phone.
  • Phimp.me – Photo Imaging and Picture Editor.
  • Photok – Encrypted Photo Safe for Android.
  • Photos Vault for iOS – Secure encrypted vault for your Photos and Videos.
  • Simple Gallery – A premium app for managing and editing your photos, videos, GIFs without ads.
  • Stingle Photos – A secure, open-source photo, video cloud storage and backup application that is safe, ad-free and easy to use. It provides strong encryption and privacy to keep you safe from data breaches and leaks.

Self-hosted photo storage

  • DAVx⁵ – Synchronization solution for both contacts (CardDAV) and calendars (CalDAV). Requires a hosting server. Previously known as DAVdroid. The price: is around 3.33€ on Google Play and free on F-Droid.
  • DigiKam – Awesome Professional Photo Management with the Power of Open Source.
  • Garage – An open-source distributed storage service you can self-host to fulfill many needs.
  • Jump – Yet another self-hosted startpage for your server designed to be simple, stylish, fast and secure.
  • LibrePhotos – Active OwnPhotos fork. Self-hosted alternative to Google Photos.
  • Lychee – An open-source self-hosted photo-management tool that includes built-in support for videos.
  • Nextcloud – The open source self-hosted productivity platform that keeps you in control. It has a Photos plugin to help you organize and visualize your photos. E2EE is still unstable on Nextcloud, especially when it may cause data loss if the user did not backup their files and enabling it without knowing.
  • ownCloud – ownCloud is an open-source file sync, share and content collaboration software that lets teams work on data easily from anywhere, on any device.
  • ownPhotos – Self-hosted and open-source Google Photos alternative.
  • PhotoPrism – Feature rich server-based application for browsing, organizing and sharing your personal photo collection. The most similar to Google Photos.
  • Photostructure – Self-hosted photo library that makes browsing and sharing a lifetime of memories delightful.
  • Photoview – Photo gallery for self-hosted personal servers with Facial Recognition.
  • Pigallery2 – A self-hosted directory-first photo gallery website.
  • Piwigo – Self-hosted and open-source cloud photo manager. Designed for organisations, teams and individuals.

Third-party photo storage cloud options

  • Crypt.ee – A private and encrypted place for all your photos, documents, notes and more.
  • IMGZ – A paid image sharing site that doesn't make you the product.

Mobile apps for photo storage

  • DAVx⁵ – CalDAV/CardDAV Synchronization and Client.
  • Piwigo Android – Piwigo Native Android App.
  • Stingle Photos – A convenient, easy to use Gallery/Camera application with Backup and Sync functionality for your photos and videos which seamlessly provides strong security, privacy and encryption.

Podcast

  • Castopod by Ad Aures – Your Free and Open-Source Podcast Host.
  • CPOD – A simple, beautiful podcast app.
  • LibsynDL – Download all podcasts/episodes from an RSS-Feed.
  • PCD – CLI podcast client (podcatcher) written in GOLang.
  • PodKatch – A free and open source podcast app for Windows, Mac and Linux.
  • Podigee Podcast Player – The Podigee Podcast Player is a state of the art web audio player specially crafted for listening to podcasts.
  • Seth Leedy's GRC Security Now Downloader – Purpose of this BASH script is to allow easy downloading of Security Now podcasts and files related to it.
  • Shellcaster – Terminal-based podcast manager built in Rust.
  • castero – TUI podcast client for the terminal.
  • castget – A command-line podcast downloader.
  • marrie – A simple podcast client that runs on the CLI.
  • podgrab – A self-hosted podcast manager/downloader/archiver tool to download podcast episodes as soon as they become live with an integrated player.
  • podsnatch – Simple podcast downloader.
  • Pubcast – An experimental ActivityPub based podcasting platform.
  • rtv-downloader – Wrapper and extension of youtube-dl, that lets you manage downloading podcasts, scrape missing data such as date, title, description and rename podcasts to match a given template.
  • speakrr – A self-hosted podcast manager.
  • santamonica – Self-hosted Zola-based template website for podcasts.
  • upodder – Simple console/terminal podcast downloader.

Mobile Podcast-Player

  • AntennaPod – Easy-to-use, flexible and open-source podcast manager and player.
  • Anytime Podcast Player – The simple Podcast playing app built with Dart & Flutter.
  • Audio Anchor – Android audio player that tracks the listening progress of your audio books and podcasts.
  • Escapepod – Podcast Player for Android
  • MaterialAudiobookPlayer – Minimalistic audiobook player.
  • Tsacdop – Enjoy podcasts with Tsacdop. A podcast player built with flutter.

Podcast search engine

  • Listen Notes – Listen Notes provides a clean interface to quickly search for new and old Podcasts.

QR-Code Creator

QR-Code Reader

  • BarcodeReader – Simple multi-format barcode/QR Code reader for Windows.
  • BarcodeScanner – A simple and beautiful barcode scanner.
  • QR Scanner – Lightweight Javascript QR Code Scanner.
  • QR-Code Reader for MacOS X via Terminal - QR code reader for OS X via Terminal.
  • Web App - A progressive web application (PWA) to scan QR codes.
  • qrap - Generate a QR code payload for Wi-Fi access point credentials.
  • qrencode - Command line tool to generate QR codes.
  • spqr - Generate a QR code payload for initiating a SEPA transfer.

Mobile QR-Code Reader

  • BGAQRCode-Android - QR code reader and generator written in C.
  • Binary Eye – Yet another barcode scanner for Android. Free, no ads and open source.
  • Code Scanner – An Android app to scan and generate codes(barcodes/QR codes).
  • QR Scanner (Privacy Friendly) – (SECUSO) Privacy Friendly QR-Scanner with minimal permissions.
  • obsqr – Fastest and most lightweight QR-Code reader.

Robotics

  • ROS – Robot Operating System.
  • Webots – Robot Simulator.
  • YARP – Yet Another Robot Platform.

Radio

  • GNU Radio – The Free and Open Software Radio Ecosystem.
  • RadioDroid – Browse and stream internet radios on Android.
  • Transistor – Transistor is an app for listening to radio programs over the internet.
  • tuner – GNU/Linux app to discover and play internet radio stations.

Root

Software Energy Consumption Measurement

Social Networks and Platforms

Historically, amplified speech (think Newspapers/Radio/TV etc) has always been highly controlled, not in terms of content, but in terms of who could contribute. With social media, this is uncharted territory as not everyone's opinion is equally valueable yet the impact it. It could have is massive. So censorship as the social medias imagine it (misinformation) has never been historically tested. Imagine if anti-vaxxers were allowed public platforms when polio was a thing. Would have been devastating to society.

In general social networks are fedpots. It should be noted that alternative clients and font-ends will still share your IP among some other metadata with the service as they make direct requests too, this means the Instance owner still can gather several data from you.

Discord clients

Your IP address and messages will still be shared and belong to Discord, the worst part is that they are not encrypted. Keep in mind that Discord monitors your voice calls in real-time. Keep in mind that Discord itself is on our NOPE list for various reasons.

  • Aliucord – Discord Android app mod inspired by desktop Discord client mods without Discord Tracking.
  • BetterDiscord – A client modification for Discord, also you need to install a DoNotTrack plugin to block trackers.
  • discordo – Lightweight, secure, and feature-rich Discord terminal client.
  • OpenAsar – An open-source alternative of Discord desktop's app.asar that comes with a no track function.
  • GooseMod – A new store-driven Discord mod that comes with a Fucklytics plugin to block trackers.
  • Cumcord – A Discord client mod for your Discord client mod, also you need to install a Fucklytics plugin to block trackers.
  • Kernel – A super small and fast Electron client mod with the most capability, also you need to install a Discord Utilities package to block trackers.
  • Powercord – A lightweight client mod focused on simplicity and performance that comes with a No Track function.
  • WebCord – A Discord and FOSSCord API-less client made with the Electron.

Discord alternative Clients

Your IP and messages will still be shared and belong to Discord and they are NOT encrypted. Some alternatives listed are highly controversial.

  • Fosscord – Free and open source software compatible with Discord.
  • Guilded – A Discord competitor that is primarily focused on video gaming communities, such as those focused on competitive gaming and eSports. - controversial
  • gtkcord4 – A lightweight Discord client written in Golang which uses GTK3 for the user interface.
  • Symphony – Work live with your clients and counter-parties with modern, connected collaboration technology. - controversial

IRC

You can combine Matrix with IRC via bridges. Keep in mind that lots of IRC Servers might blocking Tor connections to prevent abuse. IRCv3 server software feature support table, common privacy and security issues with IRC are explained here.

The main reason IRC or XMPP is listed and Matrix is not

  • IRC and XMPP exist much longer and are proven to be effective. Depending on the protocol and client-side implementation of specific things, they are considerable secure and private enough.
  • IRC and XMPP are more or less easier to fix without breaking something or causing tremendous preoccupations that influence privacy and or security in an negative way.
  • Matrix gets wrongly advertised as all-in-one solution and super secure and whatnot, this is absolute not the case. It has many many weaknesses, leaks and some things are not encrypted at all.
  • Matrix lacks fundamental moderation tools for admins which makes it hard to control your server as well as room compared to IRC, XMPP etc. Moderation bots for Matrix, as time of writing this do not exists for the wide mass.
  • There are plans for IRCv3 and XMPPv3 that might solve mentioned issues.
  • There exist better networks to Matrix for specific needs, which I listed below such as Mastodon which are for most people enough, depends of course on what you want, micro-blogging, chatting etc.
  • Matrix gets money directly from the government which I do not like, nor do I see the need for such influence. The same could have been accomplished via eg donations.
  • It is unclear if Matrix will include a crypto system like Signal or not. Rumors say they might introduce some sort of coin or NFT based system or overlay based system.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • BitchX – A full-featured, scriptable free software IRC client for UNIX-like systems.
  • Convos – Self-hosted web client for IRC.
  • HexChat – HexChat is an IRC client based on XChat, but unlike XChat it’s completely free for both Windows and Unix-like systems.
  • Libera.Chat – A next-generation IRC network for FOSS projects. Libera.Chat can be accessed using an IRC client.
  • Ii – A minimalist FIFO and filesystem-based IRC client.
  • Irssi – Your text mode chatting application since 1999. IRC built-in. Multi-protocol friendly for module authors.
  • Textual – Textual as a popular macOS client.
  • The Lounge – ZNC as a bouncer for any IRC client for receiving offline messages.
  • ZNC – ZNC as a bouncer for any IRC client for receiving offline messages.
  • catgirl – A TLS-only terminal IRC client.
  • chat.sr.ht – IRC based Chat system for SourceHut members.
  • icyrc – A no BS IRC client.
  • ii – A minimal FIFO and file-system-based IRC client.
  • The Lounge – A modern self-hosted IRC client.
  • tiny – An IRC client written in Rust with a clutter-free interface.

Mobile IRC Apps

  • Revolution IRC – Revolution IRC Client is the next-generation IRC client for Android, made with design and functionality in mind. Let's start this revolution!
  • Quasseldroid – Chat comfortably. Everywhere.

Instagram

Instagram is a very privacy-invasive app with biased results and feeds based on user profiles, it is also used as a manipulation tool and has a lot of censorship going against free speech. Lastly, it has an addictive and toxic UI design. You can request your entire data over here.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Barinsta Fork – Instagram client, previously known as InstaGrabber. This fork is unofficial unless community decides otherwise. C&D letters will be ignored.
  • PixelFed – A free and ethical photo sharing platform.
    • PixelDroid – Free Android client for Pixelfed, the federated image sharing platform.

Instagram Alternatives

  • Haven – Self-hosted (or paid), Open Source private blogging platform. Markdown editing, supports images, video, and private RSS.
  • Wishy.gift – A simple, free, and privacy-focused wishlist's for all occasions. Create shareable wishlist's to help friends and family find the perfect gift for you. Not FOSS.
  • Instander – Closed-source alternative, basically the Instagram app without ads, download content and other perks. - controversial

Alternative Instagram clients

Keep in mind that there are some problems coming from Instagram’s end.

Instagram Tools

Mastodon

Some Info:

Some tools:

  • Fedilab – A multifunctional Android client to access the distributed Fediverse, consisting of microblogging, photo sharing and video hosting.

    • Fedilab Lite – A lightweight version of Fedilab but with all essential features.

  • Hyperspace – A cross platform Mastodon client that looks like eye candy.

  • Mastodon – Free, federated micro-blogging social network built on open protocols.

  • Halcyon – Alternate Mastodon front-end.

  • Pinafore – An alternative web client for Mastodon focused on speed and efficiency.

  • Sengi – A cross platform FLOSS multi-account Mastodon desktop client.

  • TheDesk – A cross platform Mastodon desktop client, made with love in Japan.

  • Tootle – A simple Linux Mastodon client.

  • iMast for Mastodon – Swift based app for macOS.

Onlyfans

Onlyfans has a controversial history with handling user data.

  • NotOnlyFans – Self-hosted OnlyFans with cryptocurrency payment.

Metaverse Alternatives

Why Facebook’s Metaverse Is A Privacy Nightmare.

  • Hubs Mozilla – Meet, share and collaborate together in private 3D virtual spaces.
  • Open Simulator – OpenSimulator is an open source multi-platform, multi-user 3D application server.
  • Vircadia – A semi-federated Metaverse / VR conferencing system that is fully open-source.

TikTok

TikTok privacy is similar like every popular platform really bad.

  • ProxiTok – Open source alternative front-end for TikTok made using PHP.
  • Tiktok Web Viewer & Video Downloader – Discover popular TikTok videos, people, sounds on Tiktok. Browse the most popular Tiktok profile and hashtags on the web. Also with our website to download tiktok video is so easy.
  • TikRank – A free tool to batch download TikTok videos without watermark.
  • TikTokD – You can download all videos from a user at once by username or download a single video by video link.
  • myfaveTT – A Chrome extension to download all your Liked videos from TikTok.

Twitter

Avoid using Twitter official app or the website. It tracks users and creates user profiles based on what they follow, retweet and like. You can request your Twitter data over here. Since 2022 Twitter offers an .onion address.

  • Bleeter – Twitter UI built using F#.
  • Fritter – A free, open-source Twitter client for Android.
  • Harpy – Android alternative front-end for Twitter built with Flutter/Dart.
  • mitnal – Twitter client for UEFI.
  • Shitter – Android alternative front-end for Twitter built with Java.
  • Tweepy – Twitter for Python.
  • Tweet-app – Desktop Twitter client only for tweeting. Timeline never shows up.
  • Tweeterr – A tool to use Twitter from the command line on the fly.
  • Twidere X – Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built mostly with Kotlin, in early stage.

Twitter alternative font-ends

  • farside – Compiled list of all alternative instances and font-ends for Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Google and Co.

Alternatives to Twitter

Federated social networks: A federated social network isn't a single website like Twitter or Facebook, it's a network of thousands of communities operated by different organizations and individuals that provide a seamless social media experience.

If you insist on using Twitter then use Tweeten, which is based on TweetDeck, that contains no tracking code.

  • Tweeten – Get the most powerful TweetDeck experience without worrying about the limits. Ever.

Alternatives that work similar:

  • Aardwolf – Powering connected social communities with open software.
  • Bastyon – Claims to be censor and surveillance free. First Fully Decentralized Social Network on Blockchain.
  • Cohost – A new social media platform built from the ground up by a small team of developers and designers who like sharing things on the
  • Hey.Café – A new social network designed to be simple and fast. When you join you can create new conversations and join communities that we call cafés based on your interests.
  • Koo – Indians version of Twitter which allows to self-verify real users using their government-issued biometric identification number.
  • Kibou – A lightweight federated social networking server based on open protocols. It is written in Rust, utilizes Rocket as it's web framework and Diesel as it's database driver.
  • lotide – Acts like Link Aggregator and Social Network.
  • PostPlaza – Decentralized social media.
  • Podium – Web3, Decentralized, open source, ad-free, free speech community network.
  • Retribute – A Community Wealth Sharing Platform.
  • SDF – The Ethical Social Network.
  • Sqwok – A social chat alternative to Twitter and Reddit.
  • Yarn.social – Yarn.social is a decentralised self-hosted social media that has a privacy-first focus.
  • Zooko – Like Twitter, but Immutable, Verifiable and Decentralized.

Mobile Twitter

  • AndStatus – An Open Source multiple accounts client for multiple Social networks, including Mastodon, Twitter, ActivityPub (Client to Server), GNU social and Pump.io.
  • Honk – Social network and an alternative to Twitter.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Akasha – Next-generation social media network immune to censorship by design. It is built on top of Ethereum using Smart Contracts and IPFS.
  • Drakkle – Is an alternative social network to Twitter, which has better privacy policies.
  • IndiView – FOSS app for the Diatum self-hosting network, supporting messaging and media sharing.
  • Pleroma – A free, federated social networking server built on open protocols.
    • Soapbox – A front-end for Pleroma with a focus on custom branding and offers possible a more easier friendly user experience.
  • Manyver – A social network off the grid.
  • SplinterNet – Android app designed to create an unblockable Twitter like network that uses no cellular or Internet communications.
  • Diaspora – The online social world where you are in control.
  • Socialhome – A federated personal profile with social networking functionality. Users can create rich content using Markdown and even HTML/JS/CSS (if set as trusted user).

Alternative Twitter front-ends

  • Kizie - A privacy focused Twitter client which only uses Pirsch for analytics.
  • Nitter – Nitter is a free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy.
    • Feetter – Create and manage Nitter feeds.
    • Fritter – A free, open-source Nitter client for Android and iOS.
    • PussTheCat – Open source and private alternatives to popular platforms and services.
    • Twiiit – Redirecting proxy for Nitter instances.
  • Yotter – Twitter with privacy with a simple yet beautiful UI.
  • Twidere – Material Design ready and feature rich Twitter/Mastodon/Fanfou app for Android.
  • Tusky – Mastodon client for Android which also works as Twitter replacement.
    • Yuito – It can be used with distributed SNS (Social Network Services) like Mastodon, Pleroma, Pixelfed etc., which use the ActivityPub protocol.

Alternative Front-end Bots

  • linkchanbot – A Telegram Bot which sanitizes and substitutes share links with lightweight, privacy respecting proxy frontend alternatives. The Bot supports Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Reddit.

Facebook

A developer created a nice little tool which is called "Unfollow Everything". You can also self-host your Facebook data. Facebook itself has serious implications.

  • Caprine – Unofficial and privacy-focused Facebook Messenger app with many useful features.
  • Fb Messenger CLI – Use Facebook Messenger from command line.
  • Friendica – A decentralized social network with no central authority or ownership.
  • Frost – An extensive and functional third party app for Facebook (Android app).
  • Gancio – A shared agenda for local communities.
  • Gath.io – A quick and easy way to make and share events which respects your privacy.
  • GetTogether – A free open source event management site. Groups are called “teams”, and the site automatically searches for teams and events near you.
  • Hubzilla – A powerful platform for creating interconnected websites featuring a decentralized identity, communications, and permissions framework built using common web server technology.
  • Mobilizon – A federated and libre event organization platform, provided by France’s largest ethical software organization Framasoft.
  • Movim – A decentralized social and chat platform that act as a web front-end for the XMPP protocol.
  • SlimSocial – Android, alternative front-end for Facebook, built with Java.
  • Zom – An extremely easy to use and free open source messenger app. You don’t need to register to use it, just think of a username.

Facebook Mobile Clients

  • Frost – An extensive and functional third party app for Facebook.
  • Tinfoil for Facebook – Tinfoil for Facebook lets you use the mobile website without having the rest of your web browsing tracked. It requires far fewer permissions than the official app.

Alternatives to Facebook

I do not list Gab because it is somewhat connected and infiltrated by alt-right people. There is many proof to backup my statement. Alternatives like SlimSocial for Facebook only render the website in an app and ad-block or CSS block specific elements, Facebook still can be monitor everything e.g. see your IP which is the reason such apps are not listed here.

  • Bitnation – Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nation (DBVN).
  • BuddyPress – WordPress social networking in a box.
  • CYGO Network – An unregistered non-profit organization which aims to provide privacy-oriented online services which are based on open source software, as well as to help fight against online censorship by offering alternatives to both Facebook and Reddit.
  • Diaspora – A federated social networking service, designed to be a more privacy-aware alternative to Small Facebook, it is security focused, privacy oriented and without censorship.
  • GNU social – It is social communication software for both public and private communications. It is widely supported and has a large userbase.
  • Hubzilla – A powerful platform for creating interconnected based websites featuring a decentralized identity, communications, and permissions framework built using common webserver technology.
  • Identi.ca – Open source social networking and micro-blogging service based on the pump.io software, using the Activity Streams protocol.
  • Manyverse – A social network app using the SSB protocol (Secure Scuttlebutt) where you can write posts and share with friends nearby or over the internet.
  • Mastodon – Mastodon is a decentralized microblogging engine.
  • Minds – Free and open-source platform to launch your digital brand, social network and mobile app.
  • Misskey – Federated social network similar like to what Facebook or Twitter offers.
  • Movim – The social platform shaped for your community and that federates with the others.
  • Nostr – A new social network protocol.
  • Okuna – Open source, zero tracking, zero spying and zero ads social network.
  • Open Source Social Network (OSSN) – It allows you to make a social networking website, helps your members build social relationships with people who share similar professional or personal interests.
  • Patchwork – A decentralized messaging and sharing app built on top of Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB).
  • Steemit – A non-censored social platform where users are incentivized to contribute and curate content. The users decide what is valuable by voting, and content regarded valuable is rewarded with money.
    • Golos – A fork of Steem/Steemit blockchain mostly for Russian-speaking users but not only. Golos gives users monetary rewards for any meaningful contribution to the platform.
  • ZeroMe – Social network for the distributed P2P network ZeroNet.

Mediathek

  • MediathekViewWeb – Video content of German public-service television broadcasters (e.g. ARD, ZDF).

IMDb

  • LibreMDb – A FOSS alternative front-end to IMDb. Inspired by projects like Teddit, Nitter and many others. The official instance is https://libremdb.herokuapp.com/.

Reuters

  • Neuters – An alternative front-end to Reuters.com. The official instance is https://boxcat.site.

Quora

  • Quetre – An alternative front-end to Quora. It enables you to see answers without ads, trackers, and other such bloat. The official instance is https://quetre.herokuapp.com/.

XMPP Jabber - Free Servers

XMPP Compliance Tester allows you to gather some background information about servers before you join them.

Jabber Clients

XMPP clients highly depending on specific XEPs, those are basically extensions. An example is that without XEP-0198 you will be losing offline messages if your connection is unreliable.

About OMEMO

Are we OMEMO yet? – This list displays the progress of OMEMO integration in various XMPP clients. Same like IRC, XMPP has his own issues.

OMEMO alias XEP-0384 relies on XMPP PEP for publishing key information, so it will require changes to run over other protocols.

However, same like any other piece of code it can be complex, OMEMO is pretty large and has some flaws and integration problems. Another problem with OMEMO is that it depends on libsignal-protocol.js that is developed by Open Whisper Systems and possible prevents you from using it due to the license it uses and compatibility issues to other projects. OMEMOs audit is basically devastating and allows MITM attacks.

So in a nutshell:

  • OMEMO is on paper better than OTR, but has severe some flaws too and is far from easily integrated. It depends on several things like license, used framework etc.
  • Clients that often support OMEMO normally do not support Audio/Video for various reasons and problems.
  • OMEMO is a step in the right direction but it needs more work.

That said pretty much every listed client here is far from ideal and I list them for individual reasons. Please review them and check what you need, if Audio and Video is a factor than e.g. Conversations is not yours, in that case Dino might be a better choice.

  • AstraChat – An enterprise alternative to WhatsApp and Slack for large organizations that want their own private messaging servers in the cloud or on premise.
  • Chat Secure – A free and open source messaging iOS app that features OMEMO encryption and OTR encryption over XMPP.
  • Cheogram – Chat on the Jabber network (XMPP protocol); focus on features for gateway users, Matrix support is maybe coming.
  • Conversations – Jabber/XMPP client for Android 4.0+ smartphones that has been optimized to provide a unique mobile experience. It does not support Audio or Voice.
    • Conversation – A fork of Conversation with IPv6 support, and more.
    • Monocles chat – Monocles chat is a fork of blabber.im and Conversations with some changes, to improve usability.
    • DarkMessenger – A version of the Conversations XMPP app which only uses onion addresses.
  • Dino – A Modern XMPP ("Jabber") Chat Client using GTK+/Vala.
  • Gajim – A fully-featured XMPP client.
  • Profanity – A console based XMPP client written in C using ncurses and libstrophe which is inspired by Irssi.
  • PSI+ - XMPP Client, OMEMO E2EE, Windows builds link.
  • txmppc: Tiny XMPP Client - Cmdline based client, keep in mind that OMEMO is not supported.
  • Snikket - Easy-to-use federated messaging+calls app based on open standards (XMPP) and open-source self-hostable server. No phone number required.

XMPP Server Software

  • Prosody – A lightweight and flexible XMPP server designed with ease-of-use and extensibility in mind.
  • Snikket - Easy-to-use federated messaging+calls app based on open standards (XMPP) and open-source self-hostable server. No phone number required.

Capy.life

  • capyend – Frontend & Backend for capy.life.

Clubhouse

  • clubhouse-clone – A clone of of the app Clubhouse, but available in Web, Android and IOS.
  • Clubhouse – Clubhouse clone written in Flutter using Firebase/Firestore and Agora services.
  • ClubHouse – Unofficial Clubhouse app for Android.
  • Houseclub – A barebones unofficial Android app for Clubhouse.
  • Jam – Jam is your own open source Clubhouse for mini conferences, friends, communities
  • JamJam – An Open Source alternative to Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and similar audio spaces.
  • Neshouse – An open source implementation of Clubhouse.

Pinterest

  • Pinry – A Self-hosted Alternative to Pinterest.

Reddit

Try to avoid using Reddit or at least avoid their official clients because there are plenty of trackers and ad-systems integrated. Reddit itself shares a lot unnecessary user data with their servers and partners. If you want to use it anyway I highly recommend you to use old.reddit.com or i.reddit.com URLs instead because it renders faster and is more privacy respecting than the new design.

Taking over abandoned Subreddits:

You can Use r/redditrequest to take over subreddits, and/or make new subreddits.

  • AltCensored – An unbiased community catalog of 175995 limited state, removed, and self-censored YouTube videos across 9421 monitored channels, of which 2241 have been deleted and 1988 are being archived in case of deletion.
  • Apollo – Free ad-free front-end for Reddit on iOS with lots of improvements over the official app.
  • Cent – Democratized social network built on Ethereum.
  • Chttr – Politically unbiased, privacy respecting social network.
  • dPlatform – Decentralized Discussion Platform. The content you contribute is hosted on the nodes (miners) of the ArWeave network, current count is between 500 and 1000 geographically distributed nodes.
  • Diaspora – Dandelion is an Android client for Diaspora.
  • Lemmy – A federated link aggregator and Reddit alternative. You find all official supported clients listed here. Lemmy.ml instance admin Dessalines is known to be a liar and someone who pretends good faith, ethical rules and code of conduct but in reality he does not care, he cares only about his own ideology. Self-hosting is the better option.
    • Hexbear.dev – Status currently unclear, as linked in the announce.
    • Lemmury – A mobile Android client for Lemmy.
    • jerboa – Android Native Lemmy Client for Android.
    • Remmel – Remmel is a mobile iOS client for Lemmy.
  • List of Active Reddit Alternatives v7 – Huge list maintained by the community which shows alternatives to Reddit.
  • Minds – Anonymous & open-source social network with encrypted conversations.
  • Phuks – A friendly link aggregating website.
  • Postmill – Postmill is a libre self-hosted link aggregator. It lets you create a community free from corporate control.
  • Raddle – A web-based forum where users submit links, pictures, posts, etc.
  • Ruqqus – Another alternative to Reddit.
  • SaidIt – An open source Reddit clone.
  • Steemit – Communities without borders. A social network owned and operated by its users, powered by Steem.
  • Tildes – A non-profit community site driven by its users' interests.
  • Win Community – Similar like Reddit.

Reddit Clients

  • Apollo for Reddit – iOS Reddit Client.
  • Infinity – A beautiful Reddit client for Android.
  • RedReader – An unofficial open source Reddit client for Android.
  • Slide – Slide is an open sourced, ad free Reddit browser for Android and iOS.
  • Stealth – Stealth is an account-free, privacy-oriented, and feature-rich Reddit client for Android.

Reddit Alternative front-ends

  • Dawn – Open-source Reddit app for Android that is gesture driven.
  • Eddrit – Alternative front-end for Reddit, inspired by Nitter, built with Python & Starlette.
  • Kddit kalli – Alternative front-end for Reddit. Themed around Reddit redesign.
  • Libreddit – Alternative front-end for Reddit. Themed around Reddit redesign.
  • RedditClient – Alternative front-end for Reddit, built with Angular.
  • Slide – Open source, ad free Reddit browser for Android.
  • Snew – Open-source client for Reddit forked from the Reddit source code.
  • Teedit – Alternative Reddit front-end focused on privacy.
  • Troddit – Alternative Reddit front-end web-client focused on privacy.
  • Top of Reddit – Top Reddit posts every day.
  • Updoot – Android, alternative front-end for Reddit.
  • Xeddit – A Xamarin.Forms app for Reddit.
  • junipf-reddit-frontend – A Reddit front-end written in React.

Unblock Reddit

  • Reveddit – Reveal Reddit's removed content. Search by username, subreddit (r/), link or the entire domain.

YouTube

Don't use YouTube (or their official client). YouTube is very privacy invasive, it generates a very accurate profile based on your interests. Also it is a radicalization tool which shows biased content to users in order to get more engagement and to get them to watch more and more content creating an addiction. It never shows you alternative opinions to your ideology/bias. YouTube censors a lot. YouTube collects a lot of your data: interests, free time, ideology, likes, dislikes, music taste, etc.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

Keep in mind that lots of alternatives that are so-called privacy friendly are quickly abused to spread propaganda, disinformation and is deliberately abused to re-host stuff that is removed by other more sophisticated platforms. Extremists simply love to abuse platforms to spread their propaganda.

  • BeardTube – A place for sharing videos from a revolutionary perspective. Politics, Economics, History, Philosophy, Science, Journalism, Culture, News, Critiques, and more are welcome here as long as submitted content is relevant and of high quality.
  • BitChute – Another alternative to YouTube. Peer to peer video sharing platform.
  • Bit.Tube – Crypto-powered decentralized video sharing service.
  • BreadTube – BreadTube, or LeftTube, is a loose and informal group of online content creators who create video content, often video essays and livestreams from socialist, communist, anarchist, and other left-wing perspectives.
  • DTube – A full-featured video sharing website, decentralized via IPFS.
  • MediaGoblin – A free, decentralized Web platform (server software) for hosting and sharing many forms of digital media.[
  • Peertube – A free, open and decentralized alternative to video platforms.
  • Pitahaya – Encrypted Video on YouTube.
  • SkewTube – New video-sharing sites thrive on misinformation and hate.

YouTube Music alternative front-ends

  • AudioTube – AudioTube is a client for YouTube Music. It is a Plasma mobile project with an interface designed for Linux phones.
  • Beatbump – A front-end for YouTube music.
  • ViMusic – A Jetpack Compose Android application for streaming music from YouTube Music.

YouTube alternative clients and front-ends

Assuming you use any alternative Instance and Service make sure to read the Privacy Policy of that specific Instance/Service first, assuming they have one.

  • Bastyon – Alternative media network to YouTube.
  • Elfeed Tube – Elfeed Tube is an Emacs package for a richer, interactive, noise-free and fully text-capable interface to your Youtube subscriptions and playlists using Elfeed, the RSS feed reader for Emacs.
  • FreeTube – An open source desktop YouTube player built with privacy in mind. Uses Local RSS API or Invidious for back-end.
    • CloudTube – An alternative front-end for YouTube that does not depend on JavaScript.
    • MiniTube – Watch YouTube videos in a new way: you type a keyword, Minitube gives you an endless video stream.
  • FluTube – Multi-platform YouTube video downloader made using flutter.
  • [Hyperion](An alternative YouTube front-end) – An alternative YouTube front-end.
  • LibreTube – An open source YouTube front-end.
  • Plumber – Local and remote video trimmer, can trim parts of video without downloading whole video, utilizes youtube-dl, allows conversion to GIFs.
    • Invidious-viewer – Python application to watch YouTube videos through the Invidious API, in the terminal (requires MPV player and libmpv.so).
  • Piped – The Privacy-friendly YouTube front-end and alternative that's efficient by design but uses Cloudflare CDN. A list of instances can be found here.
    • New Piped UIl – Similar like Piped Material.
    • Piped Material – A fork of Piped, focusing on better performance and a more usable design.
  • Maurice Oegerli – An alternative YouTube front-end using the invidio.us API.
  • NewPipe – Alternative Android YouTube app. No account needed, privacy respecting, no ads.
  • youtube-local – Browser-based client for watching YouTube anonymously and with greater page performance.
    • Alltube – Web GUI for youtube-dl.
    • Tartube – A GUI front-end for youtube-dl, partly based on youtube-dl-gui and written in Python 3 / Gtk 3.
    • Vividl – Modern Windows GUI for youtube-dl.
    • yt-dlp – A youtube-dl fork with additional features and some other fixes.
    • yt-local – (Fork of YouTube-local) Browser-based client for watching YouTube anonymously without forcing JavaScript.
  • Invidious – Alternative and privacy respecting YouTube front-end. Most instances that use invidious still need JavaScript enabled despite the claim on the GitHub claim that invidious does not need JavaScript.
  • iYTBP – YouTube without ads and background playback Magisk Module.
  • mps-youtube (PC) – Also known as mpsyt is a command line app that let's you hear to YouTube music without using all your CPU in rendering the background image.
  • ReVanced – YouTube Vanced reboot project.
  • SkyTube – Alternative Android YouTube app. No account needed, privacy respecting, no ads.
  • SmartTubeNext – Ad free app for watching tube videos on Android TV boxes.
  • SongTube – Simple & Beautiful App (Tool) made in Flutter to Download Media from YouTube.
  • TubeSync – A personal video recorder for YouTube. It syncs YouTube channels and playlists to a locally hosted media server.
  • ViewTube – An alternative YouTube front-end with SponsorBlock functionality (Uses Invidious instances for back-end).
  • Vinegar – Safari extension that replaces the YouTube player with a minimal HTML video tag.
  • Vuetube – A simple FOSS video streaming client aimed to recreate ALL features from their respective apps (and more).
  • yattee – Alternative YouTube front-end for iOS, tvOS and macOS built with Invidious and Piped.
  • ytcast – Cast YouTube videos to your smart TV from the command line. This program does roughly the same thing as the "Play on TV" button that appears on the player bar when you visit YouTube.com with Chrome or when you use the YouTube smartphone app.
  • ytcc – Command line tool to keep track of your favorite playlists on YouTube and many other places. You can import YouTube subscriptions from Google Takeout and provide them as an RSS feed for your favorite reader.
  • YouTube iOS – YouTube iOS Template is developed by Haik Aslanyan and written in Swift 3.
  • YouTubeClone – YouTube clone using MVC API.
  • Youtube-viewer – Lightweight YouTube client for Linux.
  • Youtube Wrapper – A browser based YouTube accessed through an application that is minimalistic with an adblock.
  • uYou+ – Spoken uYou+ is an alternative YouTube app for Apple's iOS and iPadOS.

Self-hosted YouTube media servers

  • YouBit – Host any file on YouTube for free.
  • Tube Archivist – Your self hosted YouTube media server.
  • veems – An open-source platform for online video.

Social Media Wiping

Please consider NOT to wipe your posts on Reddit and other forum based platforms, the reason is simply, people search for answers and if you delete yours after you got a solution people might not be able to find useful stuff. Instead I suggest to use alternative accounts, one for questions, one for work etc.

The overall best strategy is that you post only useful or helpful stuff on platforms which does not expose or compromise you, this way you do not need to wipe something afterwards and you help others.

  • How to permanently delete a Facebook account – Dedicated page to show users how to backup your data before deleting Facebook.
  • JustDeleteMe – A directory of direct links to delete your account from web services.
  • PowerDeleteSuite – Power Delete Suite for Reddit.
  • Reddact – A tool and extension to delete social media content like e.g. Discord messages, Instagram, Reddit etc.
  • Social Amnesia – Forget the past. Social Amnesia makes sure your social media accounts only show your posts from recent history, not from "that phase" 5 years ago.
  • YT-Spammer-Purge – Purge Spam comments on YouTube, a demo video is here.
  • autopruneDiscord – Automatically delete the oldest message in a discord channel whenever a new message is added.
  • ephemeral – Automatically delete your old Tweets with AWS Lambda.
  • Reddit Shreddit – Program to delete entire Reddit user post and comments history.

Social Media Identity Privacy

  • City Map Generator – The website requests several browser permissions such as browser sensors etc. and contains 1 Google tracker.
  • Fake Data – Browser extension to fill forms with fake data.
  • Fake it WS – Generate full fake identities with random names, addresses, SSNs, credit cards, phone numbers, and more.
  • Fake Face Generator – Unique real-time face generator.
  • Fake Name generator – Generate fake names.
  • Not a real Human – Random AI generated faces that can be used as profile pictures, avatars etc on social media platforms.
  • Random Face Generator – A Cross-Platform app to Generate Faces of non-existing People.
  • This Person does not Exists – AI that generates faces which you freely can use. There is also the same for cats.
  • This is not a Person – AI that generates fake persons.
  • Verif Tools – Verif Tools is an online tool for quickly editing image layouts. We have collected together the most popular templates for letterheads, business cards, postcards, mockups. Use them right now from any device.
  • Which Face Is Real? – Seeing through the illusions of a fabricated world, small game you can play.

Streaming Tools

  • MediaPipe – Cross platform ML solutions for live and streaming media.
  • Navidrome – iTUnes music streaming.
  • Overpass – A self-hosted video live streaming app.
  • Owncast – Self-hosted Live video streaming.

Mobile Streaming Apps

  • ExoAirPlayer – Android app to run on a set-top box and play video URLs "cast" to it with a stateless HTTP API (based on AirPlay).

Streaming Platforms (e.g. Twitch)

Avoid using platforms such as Twitch, Patreon, YouTube because they are very privacy-invasive with viewers and you. Instead, you can try using some self-hosted platforms that do take care of everyone's privacy.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Altair – Is an up-and-coming streaming platform. Not fully FOSS.
  • ElectronPlayer – An Electron Based Web Video Services Player. Supporting Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, Floatplane, Hulu and others...
  • Glimesh – Glimesh is the next generation streaming platform built by the community for the community.
  • Owncast – Take control over your live stream video by running it yourself. Streaming + chat out of the box.
  • Rumble – Your rights management video platform. Host, distribute and monetize all your professional, social and viral video.
  • livego – Live video streaming server in GoLang.
  • streamlink-twitch-gui – A multi platform Twitch.tv browser for Streamlink. Another alternative is to use MPV + the chat plugin.

Mobile Streaming Platform Apps

  • Twire – An open source, ad free Twitch browser and stream player for Android.

Songs regarding Open Source

Sound effects

  • as3sxfr - A free open source tool for generating sound effects, primarily for games but they could be used for anything you like.
  • Bfxr - Sound effect editor that is based on sfxr.
  • Chiptone - A free tool for generating sound effects in the browser.
  • evosfxr - Some sound effects, also based on sfxr, with evolution.
  • Freesound - Repository of more than 500k CC licensed sounds and effects samples.
  • GB SFX Generator - A small tool for creating authentic Game Boy sound effects.
  • rFXGen - Based on sfxr.
  • sfxr - The original sound generator these are based on.

Speech (synthesis and recognition)

Silverlight

  • OpenSilver – A modern, plugin-free, open-source re-implementation of Silverlight.

Spotify Alternative Clients

These clients, although will have less tracking, still DO NOT protect your privacy at all as you will still be streaming from Spotify servers from you own premium (paid, identified) account. The only workaround is to use faked accounts in case you use some downloader tools.

  • Alfred Spotify Mini Player – Lightway alternative with some extra gimmicks.
  • kotify – Requires an Spotify Account, multi-platform desktop client for Spotify focused on library organization for power users. Relies on official Spotify client for playback
  • ncspot – Cross-platform nurses Spotify client written in Rust, inspired by ncmpc and the likes.
  • Open Apollo – Simple Spotify player for watchOS.
  • psst – Fast and multi-platform Spotify client with native GUI.
  • Spotube – A Cross-platform Flutter based lightweight Spotify client. It utilizes the power of Spotify & Youtube's public API & creates a hazardless, performant & resource friendly User Experience.
  • Spot – Native Spotify client built in GTK and Rust.
  • SpotX – Modified Spotify Client for Windows only, focused on blocking ads and updates for the desktop version of Spotify, disabling podcasts and more.
  • SpotifyClone – An iOS app that visually clones Spotify's app and consumes the official Spotify's Web API to show(and play) songs, podcasts, artists and more.
  • Spotiqueue – Minimalistic queue-oriented macOS-native client, with Guile Scheme scriptability.

Spotify Alternative Mobile Clients

  • Blade Player - Open source Spotify client that works without a premium account.
  • xManager - Open source Spotify manager. Builds Spotify app with additional features. Make sure you disable the optional ads option, it was integrated to help the developer but can be turned off.

Spotify Download Tools

  • Spoqify – Replace 't' with 'q' in a Spotify URL to remove personalization.
  • Oggify – Download Songs Directly from Spotify, for HQ you need a premium account.

Speedtest.net Alternative

  • LibreSpeed – A simple and libre speed test for your internet connection.
  • Wifinian – A Windows desktop tool to enable user to actively control Wi-Fi connections.

Smart TV

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Android TV, not necessarily the OS itself but pre-installed apps
  • LG WebOS
  • Any other privacy-invasive common TV OS that comes preinstalled with your TV.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Kodi – It is an entertainment hub that brings all your digital media together into a beautiful and user friendly package. It is 100% free and open source, very customisable and runs on a wide variety of devices.
  • Jellyfin – Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached.
  • OSMC – OSMC is a free and open source media center built for the people, by the people. OSMC is basically a Linux distro with Kodi pre-installed
  • RaspberryCast – Transform your Raspberry Pi into a streaming device. Cast videos from mobile devices or computers to your TV.

Operating System Suggestions

These are only a handful suggested Distros. I do not intent do list all distros that I think are usable, the list mainly list them because they are well maintained, usable for beginners + experts and they have lots of background, which indicates that they are reliable, secure, private and accepted widely in the privacy and security scene. It is not a bias based list which means other distros that are not directly mentioned are maybe even better or similar like the ones I choose to list. Do not bash other Distros because of my findings, keep the piece, thanks.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • GNU/Linux – GNU/Linux is a family of mostly free and open source Operating Systems mostly developed by the community. If you don't know where to start, not (Cinnamon) is a beginner friendly distribution. If you want to try it out without installing it to your computer, you can use a Live USB Stick. If you want to install Linux but keep your current operating system, you can set up dual boot.
  • Another alternative is BSD (e.g. FreeBSD with the desktop-installer package), although you might find it slightly less beginner-friendly than GNU/Linux.

MacOS OS alternatives

  • Distrochooser – Helps you to choose a suitable Linux distro. The name is derived from “Linux distributions”, the term for such variants.
  • Zorin OS – A beautiful Ubuntu-based operating system. It’s focused on making the transition from Windows or macOS to Linux as easy as possible.

Linux Distros for beginners or ex-Windows users

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Testing and reviewing Linux Distros:

  • FSF's list of truly Free/Libre GNU/Linux distros.
  • DistroTester – Check distros online.
  • OnWorks – Online Linux Distro test, similar like DistroTester.
  • Linux From Scratch – A project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code.
  • Linux Live Kit – A set of shell scripts which allows you to create your own Live Linux from an already installed Linux distribution. The Live system you create will be bootable from CD-ROM or USB Flash Drive.

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • antiX-21 – A Linux Distro based on Debian without systemd, designed for older Hardware.
  • EndeavourOS – An easy way to install Arch Linux (successor of AntergOS).
  • Debian – Debian is used by millions, has a good record regarding security and maintenance.
    • Titan Linux – Based on Linux, focused on performance, device support and provides minimalistic KDE plasma element.
  • Fedora Workstation – A reliable, user-friendly, and powerful operating system.
  • Feren OS – Based on Ubuntu + KDE, easy to use and designed for Windows switcher.
  • Garuda – Supports KDE, Xfce, GNOME, LXQt-kwin, Wayfire, Qtile, BSPWM, i3wm and Sway, for Gamers, beginners and advance users.
  • JuNest – The lightweight Arch based distro that runs upon any Linux distribution.
  • KDE Neon – The latest and greatest of KDE community software packaged on a rock-solid base.
  • Linux Mint – Beginner friendly Linux distribution.
  • LinuxFX – Based on Ubuntu, modified KDE Plasma to make it look like Windows 11.
  • Manjaro – Free fast and secure Linux based operating system for everyone, suitable replacement to Windows or MacOS with different Desktop Environments. controversial but maybe fixed. Please keep in mind that those articles and issues are old, but they are still relevant due to Manjaro still continuing those practices.
  • MassOS – Free GNU/Linux operating system for laptops and desktops which is designed to be minimal and lightweight, without compromising on features.
  • MX Linux – A cooperative venture between the antiX and MX Linux communities.
  • NomadBSD – A persistent live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD®.
  • OpenSUSE – A community project to develop and maintain a general purpose Linux distribution.
  • PCLinuxOS – A user-friendly Linux distribution with out-of-the-box support for many popular graphics and sound cards, as well as other peripheral devices.
  • Q4OS – The primary Q4OS aim is stability, it is based on Debian and uses the Trinity DE.
  • Solus – For beginner, gamer and Windows switcher.
  • SulinOS GNU/Linux – An independent rolling distro that uses binary the package system.
  • XeroLinux – A Beautiful Arch-Based Linux Distribution for Beginners.

Privacy and Security hardened Distros

  • Alpine – A security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox.
  • Arch Linux – A security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution. Arch Linux Installation Guide for Developers.
  • Discreete Linux – Aimed at journalists, activists and whistle-blowers, Discreete Linux is similar to Tails, in that it is booted live from external media, and leaves no/ minimal trace on the system.
  • Gentoo – Lightweight Linux with possibilities to security hardening and tweak it, overall it provides a solid ground.
  • Guix – Guix is an advanced distribution of the GNU operating system developed by the GNU Project—which respects the freedom of computer users.
  • HardenedBSD – Founded in 2014 by Oliver Pinter and Shawn Webb, HardenedBSD is a security-enhanced fork of FreeBSD.
  • Hyperbola – Derived from Arch plus stability and security from Debian, Hyperbola provides packages from it that meet the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines (GNU FSDG) and replacements for the packages that don't meet this requirement. Packages are provided for the i686 and x86_64 architectures.
  • KodachiOS – Purpose of Linux Kodachi is to provide a secure, anti forensic, and anonymous operating system.
  • Parabola – A fully free, stable, secure, simple, lightweight and long-term support distribution.
  • Parrot OS – A Linux distribution based on Debian and designed with security and privacy in mind.
  • PlagueOS – A Hardened Void Linux.
  • PureOS – Secure and freedom respecting.
  • Qubes OS – A free and open-source security-oriented operating system meant for single-user desktop computing.
    • Liteqube – Liteqube puts Qubes OS on a diet.
  • Tails OS – Tails is a portable operating system that protects against surveillance and censorship.
  • Whonix – Operating System designed for anonymity.

Distros for NAS

  • TOS – Terra Masters TOS system optimised for NAS.
  • Umbrel – A good start for someone interested in self-hosting apps without the need to do everything on his own.

Distros for Gaming only

Linux Alternatives

  • Essence – A desktop operating system built from scratch, for control and simplicity.
  • HaikuOS – A free and open-source operating system compatible with the now discontinued BeOS.
  • MercuryOS – A speculative reimagining of current operating system paradigms.
  • Oberon – Oberon System is a modular, single-user, single-process, multitasking operating system written in the programming language Oberon.
  • OpuntiaOS – An operating system targeting x86, ARMv7 and Aarch64.
  • Qbix – A decentralized Social Operating System for the web, with reusable, user-friendly, battle-tested components that can be combined in various ways.
  • RedLeaf – A research operating system developed from scratch in Rust to explore the impact of language safety on operating system organization.
  • Redox – OS written in Rust.

Calculator Operating Systems

  • KnightOS – An open-source OS for TI calculators.

Data Center Alternatives

  • HomelabOS – Your offline-first privacy-centric personal data center.

Distro for Developers

There is no definition regarding the term - for developers - I only list Distros here that are official advertised as such and the ones which I approved. Of course you can use any other distro for something else that developers can use but some are optimized explicitly for developers or they come with pre-installed tools to make it easier to work with on a daily basis.

  • Asahi Linux – The First Linux distribution to support Apple M1 processors.
  • AlmaLinux 9 – Free Alternative to RHEL 9.0.
  • AzureSphereOS – Azure Sphere Source Code Under GPL.
  • Fedora – Fedora is an open source Linux distro that is powered by Red Hat Inc.
  • Hubris – An open-source OS for micro-controllers, in 2000 lines of Rust.
  • NixOS – Nix is a tool that takes a unique approach to package management and system configuration.
  • OpenBSD – The OpenBSD project produces a FREE, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux – Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 brings new features and improvements to help deployments, optimize performance and help risk mitigation.
  • SecurityOnion – Linux distro for threat hunting, enterprise security monitoring, and log.
  • Talos Linux – Distro for Kubernetes and developers.
  • Trisquel – Trisquel GNU/Linux is a fully free operating system for home users, small enterprises and educational centers.
  • Tiny Core Linux – Small Linux distro that needs around 46MB of RAM and 50MB of Disk. This is for minimalists.

Linux Distros for Raspberry Pi Gamers

  • Alpine Linux – Security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox.
  • Apertis – Debian derivative for IoT and embedded.
  • Arch Linux ARM – Lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.
  • balenaOS – Open source OS to run Docker containers on embedded devices that's been designed for reliability and proven in production.
  • BerryBoot – Bootloader/universal OS installer, with support to VNC and HDMI-CEC.
  • CentOS – CentOS on the Raspberry Pi.
  • chilipie-kiosk – Image which boots directly into full-screen Chrome, perfect for dashboards and build monitors.
  • Channels DVR Server – Custom image for Channels DVR Server which provides a whole home DVR system.
  • DietPi – Minimal image designed to fit on a 2GB SD card, with tons of configurable settings and scripts.
  • DroneBridge – A WifiBroadcast extension to make for a real alternative to DJI Lightbridge and other similar systems.
  • EZ-WifiBroadcast – Affordable Wireless Digital HD Video Transmission made easy.
  • FabScanPi – An open source 3D laser scanner using the Raspberry Pi Camera Module.
  • Fedora – Linux Fedora distribution built for the Pi.
  • FreeBSD – An advanced computer operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.
  • Gentoo – Gentoo Stage 3 tarball for Raspberry Pi.
  • Gladys Assistant – A privacy-first, open-source home assistant.
  • Hass – Home automation operating system/application for embedded device, also available standalone.
  • HypriotOS – Minimal Debian-based operating system, optimized to run Docker.
  • Kali Linux – Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking Linux distro for ARM devices.
  • Kano OS – Open-source OS for exploration, creation, and play.
  • Lakka – Retro-gaming on the Raspberry Pi built entirely on RetroArch.
  • LibreELEC – Bare minimum OS for Kodi
  • MnemOS – Designed for constrained hardware, including micro-controllers.
  • Minibian – Minimal Raspbian (lighter than Jessie Lite).
  • MoodleBox – Provides a Moodle learning management system on Raspberry Pi.
  • motionEyeOS – Linux distribution that turns a single-board computer into a video surveillance system.
  • NetBSD – A free, fast, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system.
  • NextCloudPi – Nextcloud ready image based on Raspbian. Features Nextcloud running on Raspbian, with PHP 8 and HTTP2 enabled Apache server.
  • NOOBS – New Out Of the Box Software, an easy OS installer for beginners.
  • OctoPi – A distribution for 3d printers.
  • OpenHABian – A pre-configured version of the OpenHAB home automation software.
  • OpenMediaVault – The next generation network attached storage (NAS) solution based on Debian Linux containing services like SSH, (S)FTP, SMB/CIFS, DAAP media server, RSync, BitTorrent client and many more.
  • openSUSE – A major Linux distribution that has images based for its stable release Leap and rolling release Tumbleweed. Images can be found for many of the Pis, including the Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 4.
  • OpenWRT – A Linux distribution for embedded devices for network management.
  • OSMC – Open Source Media Centre, based on Kodi.
  • PiDeck – Small form factor DVS system allowing you to control digital music files with timecode vinyl.
  • PiNet – System to manage Raspberry Pi classrooms.
  • PirateBox – Anonymous offline mobile file-sharing and communications system.
  • RasComm RaspberryPi MorseCode Translator – RasComm is a communication device that translates plain text into Morse code (IMC) visually or audibly.
  • Raspberry Pi OS – The official supported Raspberry Pi OS (previously called "Raspbian"), based on Debian and available as a lite version.
  • Raspbian – A free operating system based on Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware.
  • RasPlex – Plex client image for the Raspberry Pi.
  • Recalbox – Drag & drop light-weight retro-gaming and media center on the Raspberry Pi.
  • RetroPie – Retro-gaming on the Raspberry Pi.
  • Risc OS – Non-Linux OS originated from the group that developed the ARM microprocessor.
  • Rocket Show – Play synced backing tracks, videos and DMX light-sequences live on stage.
  • RuneAudio – Free and open source OS that turns embedded hardware into Hi-Fi music players.
  • SamplerBox – Drop'n'play sampler: drop .WAV samples on the SD card, and play!
  • SARPi – Stands for the Slackware ARM on Raspberry Pi.
  • Snappy Ubuntu Core – Official (minimal) Ubuntu distribution for IoT.
  • Twister OS – Skinned version of Raspberry Pi OS with preinstalled apps like box86 and Retropie to introduce beginners to Linux and Raspberry Pi.
  • Ubuntu Core – Optimised for IoT and embedded devices.
  • Ubuntu MATE – Ubuntu distribution for the Raspberry Pi based on MATE desktop.
  • Ubuntu Server – Ubuntu Server distribution for the Raspberry Pi.
  • Volumio – Headless audiophile music player, designed to play music with the highest possible fidelity.
  • Windows 10 ARM – Community maintained Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi.
  • Windows 10 IoT Core – Windows 10 distribution for IoT.

Chromebook OS alternatives

  • Cadmium – A Linux distribution to liberate ARM Chromebooks, Cadmium, aims at providing a stable (and mainline) Linux experience for selected Google Chromebook devices.
  • CloudReady – Same like ChromeOS the OS is based on Chromium OS, it requires minimum 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. Dual-Boot is not supported.
  • GalliumOS – To run GalliumOS, your ChromeOS device needs firmware support for Legacy/BIOS or UEFI booting.
  • OpenFyde – Chromium OS with or without Google.

Fire OS alternatives

  • LineageOS – LineageOS 18.1 for Fire TV Stick Lite (sheldon).

Remote Access and Control

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Apache Guacamole – A client-less remote desktop gateway. It supports standard protocols like VNC, RDP, and SSH.
  • Aspia – Good Remote Access Application with self-hosted Server to bypass NAT.
  • Barrier – A software that mimics the functionality of a KVM switch, which historically would allow you to use a single keyboard and mouse to control multiple computers by physically turning a dial on the box to switch the machine you're controlling at any given moment. Barrier does this in software, allowing you to tell it which machine to control by moving your mouse to the edge of the screen, or by using a keypress to switch focus to a different system.
  • DWService – An open source project which offers a service to allow access to remote systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry...).
  • FreeNX – Application for remote access, desktop sharing, virtual desktop (on Linux only) and file transfer between computers.
  • MeshCentral – The open source, multi-platform, self-hosted, feature packed web site for remote device management.
  • Meetsy – Simple and open source Calendly Alternative, Scheduling System and Meeting Scheduler.
  • p2p – Remote Desktop P2P based. Portable, No configuration or installation needed, communicate your endpoint to the peer, and vice versa, press connect and enjoy.
  • Remmina – Remote access screen and file sharing to your desktop (RDP).
  • Remotely – Smooth remote control, remote scripting, and rich auto-complete to maximize your IT support efficiency.
  • RustDesk – Open-source remote desktop client software, written in Rust. Works out of the box, full control of your data, with no concerns about security.
  • UltraVNC – A powerful, easy to use and free – remote PC access software's – that can display the screen of another computer (via internet or network) on your own screen.
  • VNC (RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC) – Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop-sharing system that uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB) to remotely control another computer.
  • Ogon – Fully Featured RDP Server for Linux.
  • PRemoteM – A modern personal remote session manager and launcher.
  • Rport – Helps you to manage your remote servers without the hassle of VPNs, chained SSH connections, jump-hosts, or the use of commercial tools like TeamViewer and its clones.
  • RDesktop – An implementation of a client software for Microsoft's proprietary Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
  • Screego – Screen sharing for developers.
  • TermPair – Easily share terminals with end-to-end encryption. Terminal data is always encrypted before being routed through the server. Learn more.
  • Weylus – Use your tablet as graphic tablet/touch screen on your computer.

Reverse Proxy

  • Traefik – The world’s most popular cloud-native application proxy that helps developers and operations teams build, deploy and run modern micro-services applications quickly and easily.

Reverse Engineering

  • Cutter – Free and Open Source Reverse Engineering Platform.

RSS and ATOM Reader

You can obtain a comprehensive aggregator for news feeds here.

  • AirSS – A web feed reader that runs entirely in your browser.
  • Akregator – A news feed reader. It enables you to follow news sites, blogs and other RSS/Atom-enabled websites without the need to manually check for updates using a web browser.
  • BringRSS – RSS/Atom Newsreader.
  • Canto – Canto is an Atom/RSS feed reader for the console that is meant to be quick, concise, and colorful.
  • Create Feed – Helps you to create RSS feed from any HTML website elements.
  • Evolution
  • Feedbin – You can subscribe not only to RSS feeds, but also Twitter accounts and email newsletters.
  • Feeder – Small Android application to read RSS-Feeds.
  • Feeds Mage – Get RSS feeds and newsletters of your Twitter follows.
  • Fluent Reader – Modern desktop RSS reader.
  • FreshRSS – A free, self-hostable aggregator… probably the best!
  • Go RSS – Go Terminal Feed Reader.
  • liferea – The free news aggregator on your Linux desktop.
  • Miniflux – A minimalist and opinionated feed reader. Completely open-source, along with automatically removing pixel trackers.
  • Newsboat – An RSS/Atom feed reader for the text console. It’s an actively maintained fork of Newsbeuter.
  • NewsBlur – A personal news reader that brings people together to talk about the world. A new sound of an old instrument.
  • Photon – RSS reader as light as a photon with terminal and sixel.
  • qBittorrent – P2P torrent client & integrated RSS reader.
  • Quite RSS – A open-source cross-platform RSS/Atom news feeds reader.
  • Raven Reader – A open source desktop news reader with flexible settings to optimize your experience.
  • RSS Guard – A simple (yet powerful) RSS/RDF and ATOM feed reader for Windows, Linux or Mac OSX.
  • RSSOwl – Search and filter news so you never miss stuff that matters anymore.
  • Read.as – Free and open source long-form reader.
  • rerss – Receive old updates from RSS feed.
  • rf – A terminal-based RSS/Atom feed reader, reminiscent of an '80s Usenet news reader
  • RSS404 – Automatically convert web page to RSS without any code.
  • RSSHub – An open source, easy to use, and extensible RSS feed generator. It's capable of generating RSS feeds from pretty much everything.
  • Sfeed – RSS and Atom parser (and some format programs). It converts RSS or Atom feeds from XML to a TAB-separated file.
  • Sismics Reader – Simple and effective RSS Reader.
  • Stringer – Simple reader with the ability to run it at your hosting provider or for free at e.g. heroky.
  • Snownews – A command-line RSS feed reader. It runs on everything Unix.
  • Thunderbird – Thunderbird includes a chat as well as an RSS and ATOM reader.
  • Weloverss – Another Web RSS-Reader.
  • WikiNewsFeed – RSS aggregator powered by Wikipedia.

Mobile RSS and Atom Reader

  • Flym – A simple, modern, totally free (no ads) and open source project which keeps you inform by fetching your websites/blogs and is playing them in a mobile-optimized way.
  • Feeder – A modern RSS client for Android that has many features and works well with folders of RSS feeds. It supports it supports RSS, Atom and RDF and JSON Feed.
  • Fluent Reader – A local, cross-platform news aggregator with a fresh look. Bring all your favorite sources with you and read distraction-free.
  • Nextcloud News Reader – Connects to your Nextcloud or ownCloud instance and downloads the RSS-feeds. The Price is 2.39 € via Google Play and it is free on F-Droid.
  • NetNewsWire – RSS reader for macOS and iOS which is also a cross-platform RSS/Atom news feeds.
  • Nunti – Finally a smart RSS reader which doesn't suck ass or your data.
  • Reams – A deeply superficial RSS iOS app.
  • Read You – Feed Reader 'Reeder'(iOS) but for Android.
  • spaRSS – Based on Feedex and Sparserss, this checks RSS/Atom news feeds, polling for updates from the device on a regular basis. Fetched items are available for offline reading.
  • Tiny Tiny RSS – Android based RSS reader.
  • TTRSS-Reader – An Android-Client for the self-hosted Tiny Tiny RSS feed-reader.
  • Wire – An RSS reader for iOS that displays articles with their native formatting — or an optimized mobile version for sites that support AMP — and doesn’t require yet another account to sign up for.

RSS-Bridges

  • dato.rss – Dato.rss the best RSS search experience you can find.
  • FeedBridge – Provide RSS-Feeds for sites that don't have one.
  • Feed to Mail Dir – Helps you convert your RSS-feeds to mail, you then can use your email client to receive the feeds.
  • Insta Feed – Generate a RSS-Feed from an Instagram user's posts via camera picture.
  • ratt – A tool for converting websites to RSS/Atom feeds. It uses config files which define the extraction of the feed data by using css selectors, or Lua script.
  • rss-bridge – The RSS feed for websites missing it.
  • RSS-2-eMail – Forward RSS feeds to your email address.
  • RSS Please – Generate RSS feeds from websites with RSS Please.

Recipes

  • No Nonsense Recipes – An ad-free recipe database with a freemium business model. Browse for free or create an account to save, search, upload your own recipes, leave comments, and more.

Reverse tethering

  • Gnirehtet – Reverse tethering over add for Android: it allows devices to use the internet connection of the computer they are plugged on. It does not require any root access (neither on the device nor on the computer).

Rescue Disks

  • AppleJack – This project has not had an updated release since about 2010, and does not work on macOS Catalina
  • Grml – Bootable live system (Live-CD) based on Debian especially well suited for administrative tasks like installation, deployment and system rescue.
  • MediCat USB – A complete multiboot solution for modern computers. MediCat USB is geared towards modern hardware, and is now a rolling-release.
  • USB/DVD DLC Boot 2019 – DLC Boot 2019 is a rescue disk that is used as a Recovery CD. The point is that if you are having problems such as Windows can not boot, missing MBR, want to format the hard drive, remove viruses and so on, you can simply use the DLC Boot 2019 to resolve the issue. – Official website unavailable, use SoftPedia as mirror.

Closed Source Rescue Disks

  • BootMed – An Ubuntu Remix for those new to Linux. It's main goal is to help the average Windows user to recover a computer that will not boot. Official site is offline.
  • Direction – This is a modern alternative version to Falcon 4's Ultimate Boot CD and a alternative to Legacy GeGeek Toolkit. This had over 100+ Tools and over 5+ Bootable OSs.
  • Gandalf’s Windows 10PE – Gandalf’s Windows 10PE is a bootable CD that contains a load of useful tools you can make use of in a variety of situations like analyzing, recovering and fixing your computer even if the primary operating system can not be booted.
  • Hiren's BootCD PE – Hiren's BootCD PE (Preinstallation Environment) is a restored edition of Hiren's BootCD based on Windows 10 PE x64.
  • Hoek's Tools – Hoek’s Tools is a vast collection of portable utilities for the management, diagnosis and repairing of computer problems, recover lost or deleted files or cracking passwords. The project is no longer updated and a download is no longer provided on the official website, but you can still download last version, 0.1.001, released on April 20, 2013.
  • KNOPPIX – Is not focused on a variety of diagnostic and repair tools, unlike the Ultimate Boot CD. Knoppix is an operating system Live CD which happens to have a few tools.
  • Trinity Rescue Kit – Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a free live Linux distribution that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines, but is equally usable for Linux recovery issues.
  • Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) – Ultimate Boot CD is completely free for the download, or could be obtained for a small fee.

Screensavers

  • BOINC – BOINC was originally developed to manage the SETI@home project.
  • Electric Sheep – Electric Sheep is a distributed computing project for animating and evolving fractal flames, which are in turn distributed to the networked computers, which display them as a screensaver.
  • XScreenSaver – A free and open-source collection of 240+ screensavers for Unix, macOS, iOS and Android operating systems.

Screen Recording

  • Greenshot – A small screenshot tool with support for OCR, Office export and annotations.
  • Kap – An open-source screen recorder built with web technology.
  • Kazam – A simple screen recording program for Linux.
  • OBS Studio – A free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
  • Picklecast – Share your screen to a projector with only a web-browser.
  • peek – Simple animated GIF screen recorder with an easy to use interface.
  • Shottr – macOS screenshot utility.
  • ScreenToGif – Allows you to record a selected area of your screen, edit and save it as a .gif or video.
  • ShareX – ShareX is a free and open source program that lets you capture or record any area of your screen and share it with a single press of a key. It also allows uploading images, text or other types of files to many supported destinations you can choose from.
  • SimpleScreenRecorder – An easy to use screen recording program for Linux that supports OpenGL and X11.
  • Spectacle – A simple application for capturing desktop screenshots.
  • Voloscreen – For Windows and Linux, it is free and open source.

Mobile Screen Recording

  • LOS built-in Recorder App – Make sure you select and use the latest version. Some distros come with their own versions pre-installed.
  • ScreenCam – Lightweight and functional screen recorder.
  • ScreenKap – A simple screen recorder app for Android. It uses MediaStore or Storage Access Framework API's to access files so it doesn't require the storage permission.

Self-Hosting Providers

  • Multy.dev – An open-source tool to deploy cloud-agnostic infrastructure anywhere.
  • PikaPods – Instant Open Source App Hosting. Pika hosts your apps at the container-level with everything taken care of. This includes OS- and app updates, taking care of setup steps, regular backups and monitoring.

Search Engines

List of GitHub repositories and articles with list of dorks for different search engines. I do not list App Stores under Search Engines because I do not want to confuse the average user and to avoid useless discussion about semantics and content discovery.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Andi – A new generation anonymous and ad-free search engine it provides relevant results via auto-learning A.I.
  • Blinde Kuh – Search engine designed for our kids, made in Germany.
  • Ekoru – Privacy focused search engine that also aims to clean up the oceans.
  • Entfer – A new search engine that lets you control the ordering of search results.
  • Esteroids – A search engine for ENS + IPFS websites.
  • Gibiru – Search Provider since 2009.
  • Givero – Donates a large part of it’s gross revenue to Non-Profit organizations.
  • Goopt – Search Engine for a Procedural Simulation of the Web with GPT-3.
  • Marginalia – An independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. - controversial
  • MetaGer – Search engine project from the registered nonprofit organization SUMA E.V. in Germany. There is an .de and .org domain, one is for german and the .org domain is for english results. . MetaGer's source code was released on Gitlab at the 16th of August 2016 and back in February 2014 they added a [Tor Instance](Tor https://www.instanceb7cxf4dkdsko6ah2.onion/tor/).
    • Gigablast – A search provider focused on privacy and one of only a handful of search engines in the US that maintains its own index of over a billion pages.
  • Okeano – Claims to not store any identifiable information.
  • Qdrant – Open-source neural search engine and a Vector Search Engine.
  • Personal Search Engine – A home-grown search engine for individuals.
  • The Social Search Engine Find Unique Topics and Make Anonymous Comments – A crowd-sourced, anonymous social search tool. Pretty unique search engine and the only reason why it is listed.
  • Tuxdex – Anonymous Search Engine. - controversial
  • Wiby – Search engine for the pages from the earlier days of the Internet. - controversial

Metasearch engines

Metasearch engines use another search engine's data to produce its own results from the Internet. There's a widespread misconception that meta-search engines are somehow inferior or unworthy.

Be careful if you use public instances, this applies to every self-hosted public instance, and is not an exclusive search engine warning. Similar like with Tor nodes, anyone with bad intentions can set up a “rogue” instance and potentially log user activity.

  • Approach Zero – A math-aware search engine.
  • Big Search – Handily use / switch any one or multiple (uninterruptedly) search engines (or search any websites).
  • ElasticSearch – Open Source search engine based on RESTful and Analytics data.
    • Sonic – Fast, lightweight & schema-less search back-end. An alternative to Elasticsearch that runs on a few MBs of RAM.
  • Ecosia – A search engine based in Berlin, Germany which uses Bing as upper layer.
  • Flexsearch – Flexible & Fast .net Search Engine.
  • Givero – Based in Denmark, Givero offers more privacy than Google and combines search with charitable donations.
  • Infinity Search – Infinity Search is a privacy metasearch engine that does not log any information about its users. In terms of privacy, it works the same way as DuckDuckGo.
  • Kagi Search – 100% privacy, 0% ads. - controversial
  • librengine - Privacy oriented Web Search Engine.
  • Librex - A privacy respecting, free as in freedom meta search engine for Google. - controversial
  • MeiliSearch – A next generation search engine for modern web.
  • Million short – Million Short started out as an experimental web search engine that allows you to filter and refine your search results set. - controversial
  • Mwmbl – An open source, non-profit search engine implemented in Python.
    • Crawler-Extension – An open source web crawler for the Mwmbl non-profit search engine.
  • Oldest Search – Search for the oldest result on internet. - controversial
  • Oscobo – A search engine created for the sole purpose of protecting your privacy while you search the web.
  • Private – The search engine that cryptographically protects your privacy. Private.sh queries search back to Gigablast.
  • Roogle – A (Hoogle-like) Rust API search engine.
  • Rave Book Search Engine – Easily find books or audio-books.
  • SearchGar – An Search Engine made in Python.
  • SearXNG – Privacy-respecting metasearch software. Keep in mind that anyone can create an instance an deliver ads, malware etc. SearXNG is a fork of Searx with many usability fixes.
    • SearX.be – Example: SearX.be is located in the EU.
    • List of SearX instances – Shows different instances, choose one or more to use. Click "..." in address bar to add as search engine.
    • SearX.QT – Lightweight desktop application for Searx.
  • SS – Onion based search engine focused on privacy.
  • Swisscows – 100% anonymous, child-friendly, own servers in the Swiss alps (no cloud provider), everything is located outside of the EU and US.
  • Whoogle Search – A self-hosted, ad-free, privacy-respecting Google metasearch engine.
  • YaCy – A free, open source and decentralized search engine.
  • Qdrant – Open-Source Vector Similarity Search Engine.

Certificate Search Engines

  • CTSearch – Certificate Transparency Search Tool.
  • Censys - Certificates – Certificates Search.
  • CertSpotter – Monitors your domains for expiring, unauthorized, and invalid SSL certificates
  • Crt – Simple Certificate Search engine.
  • PassiveTotal – Security intelligence that scales security operations and response.
  • SynapsInt – The unified OSINT research tool.
  • TLS BufferOver – Quickly find certificates in IPv4 space.

Enterprise Search Engines

  • Lucene – A free and open-source search engine software library, originally written in Java by Doug Cutting.
  • Nutch – A highly extensible and scalable open source web crawler software project.
  • Solr – An open-source enterprise-search platform, written in Java. Its major features include full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, real-time indexing, dynamic clustering, database integration, NoSQL features and rich document (e.g. Word and PDF) handling.
  • Xapian – A free and open-source probabilistic information retrieval library, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Torrent Search Engines

  • Cleanbay – Torrent meta-search engine.
  • Giga – Torrent search engine but the database is fetched locally from IPFS.
  • rats-search – BitTorrent search engine.
  • Torrentinim – Low memory-footprint, self hosted API-only torrent search engine. Native support for Linux, Mac and Windows.

Developer oriented Search engines

  • abyteofcoding – A search engine sourced from over 2k technical programming articles.
  • Kayval.dev – Search engine designed for developers.
  • Nrtsearch – Yelp’s Fast, Scalable and Cost Effective Search Engine.
  • Quickwit – Quickwit is the next-gen search & analytics engine built for logs. It is a highly reliable & cost-efficient alternative to Elasticsearch.
  • RediSearch – RediSearch provides secondary indexing, full-text search, and a query language for Redis. These feature enable multi-field queries, aggregation, exact phrase matching, and numeric filtering for text queries.
  • Sodha – Search engine for software eng blogs and technical content.
  • Tantivy – A full-text search engine library inspired by Apache Lucene and written in Rust.
  • Typesense – Typo tolerant, in-memory fuzzy search engine for building search experience.
  • YouCode – A Search Engine for Coders.

Exploit and leaks search engines

  • BreachDirectory – Check if your information was exposed in a data breach.
  • BreachForums – Breaches, Data leaks, databases and more.
  • Crackstation – Massive pre-computed lookup tables to crack password hashes.
  • DNS Twister – The anti-phishing domain name search engine and DNS monitoring service.
  • Dehashed – Free deep-web scans and protection against credential leaks.
  • Have I Been Pwned – Allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address or phone number has been compromised.
  • Leak-Lookup – Search across thousands of data breaches.
  • LeakCheck.io – Make sure your credentials haven't been compromised.
  • Shodan Search Engine – Search Engine for the Internet of Everything.
  • Snusbase – Stay on top of the latest database breaches.

Web3 search engines

  • neeva.xyz – The web3 based search engine.

SMS

SMS is in general not secure by nature.

  • Crypton – Secure SMS Sim Card in the cloud.
  • Onlinesim – Receive SMS online to virtual phone number.
  • SmsPVA – SmsPVA is a service providing a phone number you can send any SMS on and get a text of it.
  • Virtualsim – Virtualsim provides physical SIM cards leasing for SMS verifications.

SMS Apps

  • Google Messenger – Support Signal Protocol over RCS, which means you get E2EE that Google cannot read anyway. However, Signal is still a better option as there is less metadata, particularly with sealed sender. - controversial
  • Simple SMS Messenger – An easy and quick way of managing SMS and MMS messages without ads.

Secure Shell (SSH)

Major problems with SSH are explained over here.

  • ConnectBot – An SSH and telnet client, and terminal emulator for local shell. Supports multiple sessions, including running them concurrently.
  • Cyberduck – macOS and Windows client for ssh.
  • Eternal Terminal – Eternal Terminal (ET) is a remote shell that automatically reconnects without interrupting the session.
  • Lsh – Server and client, with support for SRP and Kerberos authentication.
  • Mosh – Remote terminal application that allows roaming, supports intermittent connectivity, and provides intelligent local echo and line editing of user keystrokes.
  • OpenSSH – Client and server.
  • PuTTY – Client-only.

Statistics

  • Framadate – Schedule a meeting or create an opinion poll.
  • Framaforms – Design your online surveys easily while respecting your audience.
  • Jaspy – Open-source program for statistical analysis.
  • LimeSurvey – The most popular FOSS online survey tool on the web.
  • QLimeSurvey – Formerly known as PHPSurveyor, is a free and open source on-line statistical survey web app written in PHP based on a MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL or MSSQL database, distributed under the GNU General Public License.
  • R Statistics Software – R is a programming language and free software environment for statistical computing and graphics supported by the R Core Team and the R Foundation for Statistical Computing.

Scanning and Pentesting (Network Forensic)

  • ACSTIS – ACSTIS helps you to scan certain web applications for AngularJS Client-Side Template Injection (sometimes referred to as CSTI, sandbox escape or sandbox bypass). It supports scanning a single request but also crawling the entire web application for the AngularJS CSTI vulnerability.
  • BruteShark – A Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) that performs deep processing and inspection of network traffic (mainly PCAP files, but it also capable of directly live capturing from a network interface).
  • DroneSploit – A pen-testing console framework dedicated to drones.
  • Infection Monkey – A semi automatic pen testing tool for mapping/pen-testing networks. Simulates a human attacker.
  • Is website Vulnerable – Finds publicly known security vulnerabilities in a website's front-end JavaScript libraries.
  • OWASP Testing Checklist – List of some controls to test during a web vulnerability assessment. Markdown version may be found here.
  • PTF – The Penetration Testers Framework (PTF) is a way for modular support for up-to-date tools.
  • Pentest Tool LITE, OS tool to analyse page for most common issues – You can use it as command line utility installed as global package through npm or yarn, or you can use web app.
  • PhpSploit – Full-featured C2 framework which silently persists on web server via evil PHP oneliner. Built for stealth persistence, with many privilege-escalation & post-exploitation features.
  • Recon-ng – Recon-ng is a full-featured Web Reconnaissance framework written in Python. Recon-ng has a look and feel similar to the Metasploit Framework.
  • Spyse – An OSINT search engine that provides fresh data about the entire web. All the data is stored in its own DB for instant access and interconnected with each other for flexible search.
  • padding-oracle-attacker – Padding-oracle-attacker is a CLI tool and library to execute padding oracle attacks (which decrypts data encrypted in CBC mode) easily, with support for concurrent network requests and an elegant UI.
  • sqlmap – SQLMap is an open source penetration testing tool that automates the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws and taking over of database servers. It comes with a powerful detection engine, many niche features for the ultimate penetration tester and a broad range of switches lasting from database fingerprinting, over data fetching from the database, to accessing the underlying file system and executing commands on the operating system via out-of-band connections.
  • Stowaway – Multi-hop Proxy Tool for pentesters.
  • w3af – W3AF is a Web Application Attack and Audit Framework. The project’s goal is to create a framework to help you secure your web applications by finding and exploiting all web application vulnerabilities.
  • ZAP – The Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is an easy to use integrated penetration testing tool for finding vulnerabilities in web applications.

Thesaurus Alternatives

  • Vocrab – A lightweight front-end for Thesaurus.com.

TV Streaming

  • Zapp – Zapp ist Teil von MediathekView und gibt dir einen schnellen Zugang zu vielen deutschen öffentlich-rechtlichen Fernsehsendern. Schaue ARD, ZDF und andere Sender live oder aus der Mediathek.
  • DroidShows – TV series browser and tracker.

Tracking

  • DejaVu – Mobile/cell and WLAN/Wi-Fi based network provider for UnifiedNlp and microG.
  • Hammond – Self-hosted vehicle expense tracking system with multiple users support.
  • MozillaNlpBackend – Location calculation is done online and therefor requires internet connection.
  • Nextcloud Phonetrack – Nextcloud app can track location history with an Android app (other apps also supported). Supports caching positions offline and sending them to the server in batches. The first-party app has good battery saving options.
  • NominatimNlpBackend – MapQuest’s Nominatim service (based on OpenStreetMap) for geo-coding.
  • OwnTracks – Location tracking for displaying the current location only (limited location history functionality).
  • Traccar – Location tracking software made for dedicated GPS logging devices.
  • UnifiedNLP – Most modern ROMs come with support for non-Google geo-location providers. On these systems UnifiedNlp can be installed as a user app to replace the network location provider.

Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

2FA Directory: List of websites and whether or not they support 2FA. 2FA QR code generator can be of assistance, it can be combined with e.g. Aegis Authenticator.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • II Factor – Solid iOS 2FA app.
  • Aegis Authenticator – A free, secure and open source app for Android to manage your 2-step verification tokens. Supports variety of imports from other apps (Google Authenticator, Authy etc.), vault encryption and exporting keys (plaintext or encrypted).
  • andOTP – Time-based One-time Passwords (TOTP) from QR codes for two-factor authentication.
  • Authorizer – A Password Manager for Android with Auto-Type over USB and Bluetooth, OTP and much more.
  • Authenticator Pro – Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) client for Android + Wear OS.
  • Extended version of Standardnotes + tokenvault extension
  • FreeOTP+ – Enhanced fork of FreeOTP-Android providing a feature-rich 2FA authenticator.
  • OTP Auth (iOS) – 2-Factor Auth for Pros.
  • Raivo OTP – A native, lightweight and secure one-time-password (OTP) client built for iOS.
  • Tofu – Open-source 2FA for iOS.

Two Factor MITM and auditing

Two Factor Hardware Keys

  • Dicekeys – DiceKeys are the back-up you can rely on to restore your accounts and data.
  • NitroKey – Protects emails, files, hard drives, server certificates and online accounts
  • OnlyKey – OnlyKey is an open source alternative to YubiKey. OnlyKey natively supports: a hardware password manager, multiple two-factor methods (FIDO2, TOTP, and Yubico® OTP), passwordless SSH login, and OpenPGP.
  • Solokeys – The first open-source FIDO 2 security key.
  • TurtleAuth – A DIY GPG USB Key Based on the STM32.

Text Steganography

  • Nahoft – A state-of-the-art encryption app made for Android mobile phones.
  • Steg Cloak – Hide secrets with invisible characters in plain text securely using passwords (repo).

File Steganography

Translation

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Bing Translator
  • Linguee
  • Yandex Translate is easy to abuse
  • DeepL – The premium version (DeepL Pro) does not keep your data after it is translated. They specify that the texts are deleted immediately. DeepL's terms of usage disallow submitting any text containing personal data, and submitted text will be retained for a certain amount of time.
  • Google Translate

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Apertium – A free/open-source machine translation platform, runs offline on your computer.
  • Dialect – An Open-Source Translation App for Linux.
  • LibreTranslate – Open Source Machine Translation – 100% Self-Hosted. No Limits. No Ties to Proprietary Services.
  • Mitzuli – Translator for Android featuring a full offline mode, voice input (ASR), camera input (OCR), voice output (TTS), and more.
  • Softcatala – Open Source Translation tool – Only Catalan/Spanish/English/French, it uses uses apertium.
  • SimplyTranslate – You can select between different Translation engines, Google, DeepL, ICIBA or LibreTranslate.
  • TranslateLocally – Free, open source neural MT, runs offline on your computer.

Alternative Google Translate front-ends

Alternatives for Google Translate on Mobile

  • OpenL Translator – Open source front-end to the high-quality DeepL machine translation services (available for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Polish).
  • QuickDic – Offline translation dictionary.

Transcription

  • Captain-s-Log – An audio transcription program utilizing IBM's Watson Speech to Text tool.
  • Deepgram – Speak something out loud, let deepgram do some work.
  • Gecko – A Tool for Effective Annotation of Human Conversations.
  • ocr-gt-tools – Ergonomic line-by-line transcription of scanned text.
  • speechTranscription – Use of a live transcription tool.
  • vid2cleantxt – A command-line tool to easily transcribe speech-based video files into clean text.

Tax Software

Open source tax software is a difficult topic with a lots of issues and concerns.

  • Actual – Privacy Focused Self Hosted Finance Management Platform Now Open Source.
  • Akaunting – A free, open-source, and online accounting software for small businesses and freelancers.
  • ATOS – FOSS for freelancers that manages clients, invoices, and estimates taxes.
  • excel1040 – Federal Income Tax Spreadsheet 1040 Complete your US Federal Income Tax Form 1040 using my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet income tax system.
  • GNUKhata – Free and Open Business Accounting Software.
  • hledger – Free cross-platform accounting software, for folks new to accounting and also for power users.
  • OpenTaxSolver – OpenTaxSolver is meant to be used with the IRS's tax booklet.
  • RP2 – Privacy-focused, open-source, free US Crypto tax calculator.
  • Simplified German income tax calculator – Simple Tax income calculator website.
  • Ustaxes – An open source tax filing application that can be used to file the Form 1040 United States individual income tax return.

Text to Speech

  • Espeak – A free and open source text to speech utility that can be used to convert text to speech in many different languages.
    • eSpeakNG – Text-to-speech engine for Android. Based on the eSpeak engine.
  • Festival – Festival is another free and open source text to speech engine that works similar to Espeak.
  • Pico Text to Speech Engine – Pico is a free and open source text to speech engine that is included by default in Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
  • Project Alice – A smart voice home assistant that is completely modular and extensible. It was first built around Snips therefore runs entirely offline and never sends or shares your voice interactions with anyone, Project Alice guarantees your privacy in your home or wherever you’re using Project Alice.
  • Read Aloud - Text to Speech Voice Reader extension for your browser.
  • RHVoice – TTS engine with extended languages support, including Russian.
  • Spchcat – Speech recognition tool to convert audio to text transcripts.
  • Vosk Speech Recognition Toolkit – An offline open source speech recognition toolkit. It enables speech recognition for 20+ languages and dialects.
  • Wenet – Automatic Speech Recognition toolkit.

Temporary App Permissions

  • Bouncer (paid + NOT FOSS) – Gives you the ability to grant permissions temporarily. Want to tag a location or take a photo, but don't want that app to be able to use the camera or get your location whenever it wants?

Threat Monitoring

  • MISP – Open-source threat intelligence and sharing platform.

Tor Network

This section is not finished.

  • Tor Threat Models: Is Tor the Right Tool for You?
  • Tor is not perfect same like any other protocol it has weaknesses but depending on how you count far less than most other known protocols. This argument makes it worth alone to suggest using the tor network.
  • JavaScript among some other old and outdated web-standard are among the highest threat to the tor network, this is not really a tor network issue because tor simply need to fallback to older standards to not entirely breaking the web as we know it.
  • Tor does not encrypted inbound traffic, for this you would need I2P. You can use I2P together with Tor but it is more configuration trouble.
  • Content is encrypted between client and nodes but not from exit relay to server. The anonymity relies on servers, the more servers the more anonymous the user is because he can easily hide in the mass. However, if someone compromise hundreds of Tor Relays the entire privacy aspect will be lowered or even compromised.
  • HTTPS redirects can be blocked so Tor isn't a fail-safe alternative.
  • Using a browser add-on that rewrites the URL request before it's sends a GET request is paramount to security. If relying on the initial request to redirect after the fact the resulting method could be overwritten by an exploited endpoint.
  • Combining Invisible Internet Project alias I2P and Freenet for file-sharing could help solve some, but not all problems.
  • The biggest problem with Tor is that it is not really usable in the real world due to how it works, most websites simply ban Tor traffic, or you get spammed with CAPTCHAs. Some ISPs directly flag you if you use the tor network which means you are classified as possible threat which makes you more unique among - normal - users.

Major problems while using Tor:

  • Constantly reCaptcha requests, which you need to solve. Almost every captcha system is at some point privacy invasive by design.
  • Lots of providers throttle your internet connection once they detect, unusual, traffic. This can make you more likely a target because you stick out like a needle from the mass.
  • Security pages, like banking often entirely block connections coming from Tor users which makes it impossible to use Tor on eg. your banking page. Trying to workaround this often results in more fingerprinting and restrictions.
  • Entropy bias

Tor Tools:

To-Do Manager

  • 1List – 1List is a simple app to manage several lists from only one screen.
  • BookStack – Open-source, self-hosted, for organizing and storing information.
  • OpenTasks – A task manager app, allowing you to categorize your todo list by urgency, state, timeframe etc.
  • Tasks – Tasks is libre open-source software, based on the original source code from the popular Astrid Tasks & To Do List!
  • ToDoList – To Do List does not connect to the network and the data is saved only on your device.

Mobile To-Do Manager

  • Deer – Minimalist Todo Planner app built around the idea of efficiency and clean aesthetic.
  • Fokus – An open source application that combines a #todo list and a calendar that can help you manage your school related work and events in one place. It's fast and beautiful yet simple design that can help you focus on what matters most.

Teamwork Tools

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • Dino – A modern and open source Jabber/XMPP chat client for the Desktop.
  • Mattermost – Open-source Slack alternative.
  • Meething – Decentralized Real-Time Communications (dWebRTC).
  • Mumble – Open Source, Low Latency, High Quality Voice Chat, you can bridge audio between Mumble and Discord.
  • Nextcloud Talk – Keep conversations private with Nextcloud Talk, you can connect that to Office etc.
  • Odeon – DAO discovery, investment, and collaboration platform.
  • Portway – Collaborative content hub.
  • Revolt – User-first chat platform built with modern web technologies. FOSS and self-hostable, it also can bridge with Discord and Matrix and they have E2EE planned. Self-hosting DMs is not, yet, possible.
  • RocketChat – Control your communication, manage your data, and have your own collaboration platform to improve team productivity.
  • Semaphor – Encrypted, decentralized authority team chat and file sharing.
  • Squawk – Walkie Talkie for Teams.
  • Talk – Group video call for the web. No sign-ups needed and no useless downloads are required.
  • TOR Fonep2p – Secure and anonymous VoIP tool.
  • Twake – Work in a team faster, it covers all of your organizational needs through a single platform.
  • Zulip – Chat for distributed teams.

Mobile Team Working Apps

  • Dragonfire – Open source voice assistant project for Ubuntu based Linux distributions. Dragonfire uses Mozilla DeepSpeech to understand your voice commands and Festival Speech Synthesis System to handle text-to-speech tasks.
  • Just search – Simple internet search shortcut.
  • Saiy – Fully customizable open source voice assistant.

Text Sharing

  • ~decentralized p2p PasteBin – P2P based and decentralized PasteBin, the source code is afaik not available.
  • 0bin – 0bin is a client-side-encrypted alternative PasteBin. You can store code, text and images online for a set period of time and share with the world.
  • AnonPaste – Forked from private bin, and features the option set pastes to never expire.
  • CryptoContainer – Encrypted messaging system inside container.
  • distbin – Distributed social PasteBin using Activitypub.
  • HedgeDoc – The best platform to write and share markdown.
  • LibreBin – A privacy friendly JavaScript free alternative to Pastebin
  • NoPaste – An open-source website similar to Pastebin where you can store any piece of code, and generate links for easy sharing.
  • Paste – Simple Pastebin clone.
  • Pastewin – Free alternative Pastebin front-end, the official instance is here.
  • Pastor – The Pastebin that hopefully doesn't suck.
  • PrivateBin – Minimalist, open source online Pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data. Data is encrypted and decrypted in the browser using 256 bits AES. PrivateBin offers a list of instances.
  • Prismo – A decentralized link-sharing app powered by ActivityPub.
  • Riseup Paste – Etherpad service hosted by Riseup.
  • Stikked – An advanced and beautiful Pastebin written in PHP. You can also self-host it.
  • VeryBin – An anonymous and encrypted online Pastebin using 256-bit AES.
  • Yopass – Secure sharing of secrets, passwords and files.
  • publicnote – Enter any title above to access a note. No account required.
  • Write.as / WriteFreely – An open source platform for building a writing space on the web. Can be used as blogging and to share text.

Disposable Text Sharing

  • One-Time Secret – One-Time Secret is a way to share sensitive information simple and secure.
  • Yopass – Yopass is a project for sharing secrets in a quick and secure manner. The sole purpose of Yopass is to minimize the amount of passwords floating around in ticket management systems, Slack messages and emails.

Terminal Emulators

  • a-shell – MacOS and iOS shell terminal based on Mosh.
  • Alacritty – A cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator.
  • Blink – iOS mobile shell terminal based on Mosh.
  • Hyper – A terminal built on web technologies.
  • SwiftTerm – MacOS VT100/Xterm Terminal emulator in Swift.
  • Yakuake – A drop-down terminal emulator based on KDE Konsole technology.
  • iTerm2 – A replacement for Apple Terminal and the successor to iTerm.
  • Syncterm – A simple BBS terminal program.
  • st – A simple terminal implementation for X.

TLS/SSL Ciphers

  • testssl.sh – A free command line tool which checks a server's service on any port for the support of TLS/SSL ciphers, protocols as well as some cryptographic flaws.
  • BlackLight – A Real-Time Website Privacy Inspector.
  • TLS support – Tool for debugging client TLS version and cipher support issues.

Trust in Computing

Use your phone as your PC

  • Bliss ROM – Androidx86 for your PC, Laptop, Windows Tablet, UEFI Android tablet, Virtual Machine, etc.
  • Deskreen – Turn any device into a secondary screen for your computer.
  • maruos – Use you phone as your PC.
  • scrcpy – Multiplatform software to view and control your Android screen from a desktop computer, connecting via USB cable. From there, mouse clicks and keyboard entry work and the phone’s functions are all available from the desktop, with little to no lag whatsoever.
  • QtScrcpy – Android real-time display control software.

Use your phone as a webcam

Most if not all tools and apps are not free because they usually work with a driver that needs to be signed by Apple and other platforms which is not entirely free nor an open process. There exist some FOSS tools and apps but they usually work pretty badly in terms of performance and quality.

  • Reincubate Camo – Use your phone as a pro webcam, free.
  • Iriun Webcam – Use your phone's camera as a wireless webcam in your PC or Mac.

USB Protection

  • USBGuard – A software framework for implementing USB device authorization policies (what kind of USB devices are authorized) as well as method of use policies (how a USB device may interact with the system).

UnifiedNLP back-ends for MicroG

If location (NLP) is not working, download and install this and enable High Accuracy Location and open SatStat. Wait for it to get your location. Don't close SatStat app instead minimize it and open MicroG Settings > Self-Check. All boxes should be checked.

USB ISO tools

  • booty – BOOT to any GNU/Linux via network (PXE), CD-ROM (ISO) or USB-stick with using the tmpfs and SquashFS + Overlay FS. The readme is not in english.
  • Ventoy – An open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.
  • WinSetupFromUSB – A Windows program, which prepares multiboot USB flash or fixed disk to install any Windows versions since 2000/XP, boot various Linux and *BSD flavors, as well as many Windows, Linux, DOS based and other utilities. The website is HTTP + the program is not FOSS, it gets listed here because it was one of the first.
  • Usbimager – A non-electron based alternative to Balena Etcher.

Userscripts

Unit Converter

URL Shorteners

List of URL shorteners.

  • 0x90.st – A URL Shortening service for files. Self-hosted.
  • anon.to – An anonymous URL redirector and shortener.
  • Btfy – A Privacy-focused custom URL shortener and branded links.
  • FlyURL – Simple and self-hosted URL shortener.
  • Goshorly – Fast and easy URL shortener to self-host.
  • Kutt – A free and open source URL shortener with custom domains and stats.
  • LSTU – An open source URL shortening service.
  • Pauperial – Simple website for make short link.
  • Poda – Tracking free, FOSS, URL shortener.
  • Polr – A quick, modern, and open-source link shortener.
  • SmallLinks – URL Shortener Built with PostgreSQL, Redis and Kafka.
  • YoURLs – A small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service.
  • Web Address Guru – URL shortener that respects your privacy.
  • ZWS – Shorten URLs using invisible spaces.

URL Unshortener

  • Cuttly – Makes link management easier than ever, and advanced analytics allow you to understand what is happening with your links.
  • Link Unshortener – Mac app that expands shortened web links, following redirects until it reveals the destination URL. Never again click a link before you know where it's going!
  • URL Shortener Unshortener Userscript – Adds small button next to shortened URLs on eg. Twitter and other sites that will replace the shortened URLs with their real locations and vice-versa. Useful for when you don't want to blindly click links.
  • Teknik – created to shorten and unshorten links.

URL changer for YouTube, Twitter...

  • UntrackM – Once set by default to open Twitter, YouTube and Instagram links will transform them into Nitter, Invidious and Bibliogram links and delegate the action to another app.

URL Protection Tools

  • leon – Android app for removing tracking parameters from shared URLs.
  • This Link Will Self-Destruct – This link will self destruct allows you to create and share links that self-destruct after a set numbers of views, or at a point in time.
  • Url checker – Allows you to analyze (or share) URLs before opening them.

VirusTotal scanners

Keep in mind that VT is owned by Google.

  • VTSCAN – Scan a file directly from your terminal using VirusTotal API.
  • VTHC – A Windows Explorer context menu extension that allows you to query the Virus Total malware scanning service simply by right-clicking on a file.

Virus Scanners - Online

  • Armadito – Open source signature-based anti-virus and malware detection for Windows and Linux. Supports both ClamAV signatures and YARA rules. Has a user-friendly interface, and includes a web-based admin panel for remote access.
  • Any.Run – Online VM and inspector that unpacks and checks programs.
  • Dr. Web – URL and document scanner.
  • Hybrid Analysis – Maybe the best alternative to VirusTotal.
  • Jotti – Yet another scanner but with PDF support.
  • MetaDefender – Quickly scans various file types.
  • Pithus
  • Sandboxie – Not online, but a open source Windows program to isolate programs on software basis.
  • Scan Maldoc – A Python-based analysis framework to analyze suspected malware documents to identify exploits in streams of different encodings or compressions. QuickSand supports documents, PDFs, Mime/Email, Postscript and other common formats.
  • ScanURL – Check a website/URL for phishing, malware, viruses and poor reputation.
  • URLVoid – This service helps you detect potentially malicious websites.
  • virSCAN – Upload suspicious files to be checked.

Virtualization Machines

  • Tart – Tart is a virtualization tool to build and run virtual machines on Apple Silicon.
  • VirtualBox – FOSS alternative to VMWare.
  • Xen Project – Open source virtual machine monitor intended to serve as a type-1 hyperviser for multiple operating systems using the same hardware - very useful for servers, as it allows for fully independent virtual Linux machines.

Virtual Reality (VR)

  • Simula – A VR window manager for Linux that runs on top of Godot. It takes less than 1 minute to install.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

  • Oracle Free VPS – Free tier has limits but is a solid alternative to AWS.

VPN

PrivacyTools, now called PrivacyGuides spreads misinformation regarding Five Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes jurisdiction. Over the years PTIO/PGIO updated their original statement a lot and it looks better today but it is still overall wrong because people tend to believe that they are more secure and private if they use services, tools etc. that are not connected to such countries, programs or cooperation's - in the real world, this is not the case. There is no evidence to backup such claim, it is more likely the opposite, there is evidence that this does not change anything at all as I will explain below in detail with one specific example, there are others but it would be too complex here to go into every single detail because most people are already overwhelmed with this one given example.

Example that criminals in the real-world would use

Assuming you choose a provider outside any of those alliances and countries and their real servers are not located in such countries or have any other partnership, there is still no guarantee that the provider is not forced by other laws and cooperation to hand over your data anyway. There are alliances which are not directly bound by data protection laws only, lets say you plan to kill someone and you choose to use provider X as assurance that your secret is safe, you really think they not going down on you? With they I mean e.g. Interpol, if they not already obtained evidence that you used provider X to plan or spread your plans to kill someone, such thinking is more than naive. Interpol will rain down on you, you can count on that and every country that is not working with one of those alliances works together with eg. Europol, Interpol and others. There is no country that does not work together with some organization across borders to hunt down criminals. There is no actual evidence that someone got away while planing and executing murder on the internet, it often took long but at the end everyone made a mistake and the feds got them, see Silkroad, even with Tor and other protection mechanism there is always something, human error or other variables. Thinking you are 100% protected and get away with it is naive, it takes time to hunt criminals down, yes but there was no case ever that survived for long, the moment the feds are getting involved you can basically say goodbye, see cases like Cyberbunker, Silk etc.

People can also secretly do illegal surveillance and sell such data or give it away for free. Jurisdiction wise it does not hold but if illegal obtained contain hard evidence for e.g. murder, they will anyway start an investigation even if they cannot directly prosecute you based on the illegal obtained data. This happened several times, one of the most known example for this is the Panama Hack.

If you do illegal stuff. that is forbidden in every country alias transborder crimes the jurisdiction argument alone does not matter and even if, they will bypass it because if the judge gets evidence that there is something that you are involved in, they can rule and force everyone to hand over all data or shut it down. This is okay because the Internet shall no place to help, support or advertise criminal activities.

Some more details

  • There are multiple types of jurisdiction in a criminal case.
  • PrivacyTools or short PTIO, wrongly spread and assume jurisdiction matters when it comes to VPNs or Software in general, yet they fail to list one single precedent case, because there is none. Their believes is based on Snowdens leaked picture - among some other stuff - that got spread around the Internet and misinterpreted - from people that are not experts, aka news media - based on the assumption that Google and Big Tech works directly together with the Govt. to hand over all your data. This is not the case, the Govt. needs to request such cases and explain in detail to court why they want to have such data. In such a case they already gathered enough evidence that you are a criminal. Criminal laws overrule any privacy laws. Google etc. also do not get paid to hand over any data, so why should they if it is huge effort without getting anything in return. It is the opposite, Google wants to collect data because they make the money with it and there is no evidence that they sell obtained data directly to the NSA in order to make money based on your private data. Big Tech wants to collect data to build their own algorithm, tools which they can sell, they have absolute zero interest in selling stuff which benefits themselves to feed their programs, algorithm and to gain intelligence to stay on top of the competition. If you sell and share all your data to the competition you can close your business.
  • Encryption is what matters more than jurisdiction because if they - for example ISP - cannot use such data to connect the dots to you because missing metadata, no one can build a case against you and the court will automatically reject any attempt to prosecute you. You only get prosecuted if there is enough evidence which can include metadata. The Intelligent Agencies around the world request data if they have reasons to believe that your service is involved into illegal activities, this is absolute not bound to the UK, USA etc. only, such data request are common. The only difference is mass surveillance vs individual requests. However the original surveillance program got now stopped and declared as illegal. There are no new programs and you cannot just secretly establish new programs without money and funds for such surveillance. However, there are other projects and programs started or still running, keep in mind that the list is incomplete and some countries might never - in public - disclosed their programs.
  • There is no case in which jurisdiction makes a difference. If Swiss, that have the strongest privacy laws in the world have evidence enough that you are a indeed a criminal they still can order a Swiss ISP to hand over data, there are dozens of such cases across every country, no matter if Five eyes or not. She here, here or read the book.
  • Jurisdiction can makes things harder but not impossible in case we are referring to - hand over data - to X. There is no evidence that none members cannot simply request data too. Leaks only showed included members but never ever mentioned what if someone outside those countries try to request data, it is called special relationship.
  • Collective intelligence is not bound to individual partners or countries.
  • Jurisdiction only matters in case there are sufficient information, leaks, metadata available against you or someone else to build a case. The location does not matter if data are sufficient encrypted. The assumption to lower the risk by choosing a country outside the UKUSA Agreement is not proven to make anything more secure, because - depending on the HOPS - the traffic still goes over at least one or more Internet nodes from one of those countries anyway which then can collect the traffic and decrypt it later. Once you gathered such data you can build surveillance strategies, the jurisdiction here simply can be bypassed, illegal obtained or not because they - govt, ISP - etc. already got plausible cause to wiretap you. Which happened a lot already in lots of FBI cases. PTIO or now PrivacyGuides fails to provide any evidence for their claim how jurisdiction loopholes would change something in your favors.
  • None of the PTIO maintainers are experts in internet law, cryptography, security nor are they involved into such cases before or after the Snowden leaks. They basically claim a lot without showing actual evidence. They wrongly interpret pictures from leaks, how they see it, and not based on what is really happening in the real world. This is why no one can take this organization serious. It is a collective of red-pilled people and that is all, in the real world we provide evidence, ask lawyers and check actual laws, doing the needed research and just claiming X without evidence is unprofessional.
  • Countries like USA or powerful organisations like NSA do not gave any shit about legal or illegal, so what you think other countries will do, well similar things, it depends who is in charge and who gives the money for such surveillance programs, some countries have simply less budget for surveillance. But that does not mean there is none.
  • Redirecting internet traffic is possible and it happened multiple times, this includes every traffic.

Nutshell

  • Encryption is what is more important because even if someone is, for whatever reasons, forced to hand over data and the service or programs you used, uses a strong encryption, no one will be able to open and access your private data stream or files. Zero-knowledge proof is what ultimate counts in such examples cases, nothing else.
  • People tend to want full anonymity and not a VPN. A VPN also leaves traces and metadata behind. It is just harder to backtrack.
  • Coffee shops and airports are not how you get hacked, there are rare exceptions but this is an generalization VPN providers use or abuse as selling argument. Assuming there is a breach, the shop owner or airport would fix it afterwards anyway to prevent that this will ever happen again because it brings negative light on the IT admins behind. Coming to the false conclusion that every public network is automatically be compromised is a claim without any evidence. The overall web-security evolved in the past years and Browsers, OS getting better and usually respond to threats. The underlying problems are usually at user end or because of bad security practices from the people who setup the networks in the first place.
  • PTIO often spread misinformation because they are based.
  • Researchers Again Show How Major VPNs Quietly Undermine User Security.
  • India IT Ministry orders VPN providers, crypto players to store data for 5 years, which means VPNs have less and less meaning as other countries will follow this example.
  • VPNs on iOS are a scam due to OS restrictions.

VPN Comparison

About WireGuard

WireGuard. has many, many issues, as explained here and here. Because of several flaws WireGuard does not get my overall approval at this point, their design goals also do not match with what most people in the real-world really want.

  • Why WireGuard is NOT safe, and you should NOT use it.
  • The official app does not have a kill-switch option within the GUI, there is a cmd-line parameter for Linux user but it is overall hard to work with it and there is no guarantee it really works unless you debug it via console or third-party tools to ensure nothing drops.
  • The official app has absolute no indicators if you are still connected to the VPN server or not, there is no warning or info indicator when you drop the connection once you minimized the app. You only see connected or disconnected from within the app.
  • WireGuard does not work with LLv6 by design, see here.
  • VPN provider like eg. ProtonVPN re-wrote lots of the server and client parts, adopted and fixed flaws in their own client app which makes it not really comparable with the original WireGuard app or other VPN provider apps who did similar stuff to fix flaws.
  • Cryptographic proof is not absolute.
  • WireGuard doesn't dynamically assign IP addresses which means every time you use it, you get the same, easy-to-track static IP address. This overall means WireGuard must log and store your IP address and timestamps. Both OpenVPN and IKEv2 avoid these security concerns by dynamically assigning IP addresses.
  • Most RouterOS do not support WireGuard - yet. There are only externals like OpenWRT that support it directly, most users do not installing third-party firmware on their device because it requires technical skill, time and effort - assuming your IoT device is even supported and fully compatible.

Credit - ProtonVPN Team

Overall except the smaller codebase, less battery draining among the less CPU power you need there is absolute no benefit over OpenVPN.

The main reason why some VPN provider adding it is not security, or privacy, it is in most cases speed and efficiency compared to IPSec and OpenVPN.

Self-manageable VPNs

  • algo – Install WireGuard VPN with a simple script.
    • Setup IPSec VPN – Build your own IPsec VPN server in less than 10 minutes.
  • Amnezia VPN – Your own self-hosted VPN. The clients are FOSS, see here.
  • DigitalOcean self-hosted VPN – Guide for self-hosted VPN on Digital Ocean.
  • Docker AWS VPN – Guide for self-hosting VPN on AWS with docker.
  • GlobalProtect openconnect – A GlobalProtect VPN Client (GUI) for Linux, Support SAML.
  • graftcp – Redirects the TCP connection made by the given program (application, script, shell, etc.) to SOCKS5 or HTTP proxy.
  • Mysterium.vpn – Mysterium Network is a P2P based VPN.
  • MyVPN – Download a free program to create your personal VPN server.
  • onioncat – Transparent layer on top of Tor's or I2P.
  • openvpn-install – Easy OpenVPN install script.
    • wireguard-install – Easy WireGuard install script. Please see above note about Wireguard.
    • wg-access-server – An all-in-one WireGuard VPN solution with a web UI for connecting devices.
  • pritunl – Self-hosted enterprise VPN server built using the OpenVPN protocol.
  • stunnel – Proxy designed to add encryption tunnels to existing apps without any changes in the programs code.
  • Set up your own VPN at home with Raspberry Pi – Quick and easy guide to setup your own small network.
  • subspace – WireGuard VPN server GUI.
  • tinc – A Virtual Private Network (VPN) daemon that uses tunneling and encryption to create a secure private network between hosts on the Internet.
  • Zerotier – Self-hostable alternative to OpenVPN.
    • ZeroUI – GUI application for Zerotier.

Mobile VPN apps

  • Calyx VPN – This is Calyx.net, a free VPN service offered by The Calyx Institute as part of its non-profit mission.
  • WireGuard for Android – Next generation secure VPN network tunnel. - controversial
  • OpenVPN for Android – OpenVPN for Android.
  • Riseup – Free VPN, open source project funded only by donations.
  • VPN by Google One – VPN by Google One Comes to iOS, Google is known to have a good security but there are multiple controversies here. - controversial I decided to list it regardless because there are not much iOS alternatives that fit into this category. If I know better solutions I replace the VPN by Google.

VPN Providers

  • AdGuard – Protect your online privacy, encrypt your connection, hide your IP address and websites you visit from anyone (including your ISP).
  • Azire – Swedish provider that uses secure and modern protocols, along with SOCKS5 proxies, DNS servers and IPv6 connectivity in carefully chosen locations.
  • F-Secure FREEDOME VPN – Browse secure & private wherever you go. Keep prying eyes away on public Wi‑Fi with FREEDOME VPN.
  • IVPN – An audited, open-source VPN service with WireGuard, kill-switch and tracker blocker, they accept Bitcoin and Monero.
  • Mullvad – Mullvad has some port forwarding restrictions due to ToS changes. Mullvad are one of the first who accepted Monero, which makes them a preferable choice since Monero is recommended too. Mullvad audit + Mullvad VPN relay audit.
  • OVPN – OVPN is the VPN service that makes you anonymous online. The M247/DataPacket Problem with Mullvad VPN.
  • Perfect Privacy VPN – Perfect Privacy is committed to the privacy and anonymity of its customers since 2008 and is one of the most secure VPN providers worldwide.
  • Private Internet Access (PIA) – Headquarters located in U.S. but their servers are not located in the U.S.
  • ProtonVPN – You also can use it as free VPN alternative (create a free account). ProtonVPN currently only supports remote port forwarding on Windows, which may impact some applications, especially Peer-to-Peer applications like Torrent clients. The latest audit can be found over hereh.
  • VyprVPN – Swiss based VPN provider.
  • Webpc – 2$ per month Wireguared VPN, no logs policy.

SCM Tools (Source Code Management)

Remember that just because you self-host doesn't mean you can ignore DMCA take-down requests (DMCA itself is obviously an US law, but many Western countries have similar laws). You can choose to ignore such DMCA requests if they decide to send one to your self-hosted website, but not honoring it means you think you're not infringing on their copyright and are willing to go to court over it. If they don't want to go this far, or you try to not include contact info, they'll probably first send a DMCA to your web host/registrar who will suspend your hosting/website unless you counter-notice, which still means you've got to be ready to fight a lawsuit. Note that Cloudflare forwards DMCA requests to your web host company, so you can't hide behind CF.

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

Here is a list of all alternatives in a simply chart to compare features.

  • Budibase – An open-source low-code platform for building internal apps in minutes.
  • Codeberg – A collaboration platform and git hosting for free and open source software, content and projects.
    • GitNex – Android app for Gitea, Codeberg and self hosted instances.
  • FlowForge – An open-source low-code platform based on the OpenJS Foundation Node-RED project.
  • Git via e.g. Disroot – A free and open source distributed version control system which you can also self-host if you want to.
  • Gitolite – Allows you to setup git hosting on a central server, with fine-grained access control and many more powerful features.
  • Gitea – A community managed lightweight code hosting solution written in Go.
  • Gogs – A painless self-hosted Git service written in Go.
    • NotABug – Powered by a liberated version of GOGs.
  • NocoDB - Open Source Airtable Alternative.
  • OneDev – An Open Source Gitlab EE Alternative for Development Management.
    • Pagure – An Open Source software code hosting system.
  • Radicle – A Decentralized Alternative to GitHub for Web3.
  • Sfizio – Homebrew Version Control Tool.
  • SourceHut – A network of useful open source tools for software project maintainers and collaborators, including git repos, bug tracking and more.
    • Hut – A CLI Tool for SourceHut.
  • teknik – Gitea home and source code for teknik.

Mobile Version Control Platforms

Video Conferencing

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Discord
  • Google Meet
  • Instagram
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Skype
  • WhatsApp
  • ZOOM

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • BigBlueButton – A web conferencing system designed for online learning.
  • Briefing – Secure direct group video chat that works on every platform.
  • Freenet – A peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication.
  • Jami (formely Ring) – Distributed universal and secure Free Software for multimedia communications.
  • Jitsi Meet – More secure, more flexible, and completely free video conferencing. It does not need any account or installation. You find an instances list over here. Jitsi itself currently does not support OMEMO.
    • Brave Talk – Based on Jitsi integrated into Brave Browser.
  • kMeet – Free and secure videoconferencing solution for Android and iOS.
  • LinePhone – For smartphones, tablets and desktop platforms.
  • Mumla (client for Mumble) – Third-party Android client for Mumble.
  • MiroTalk – Video up to 4k and 60 FPS WebRTC P2P open source and self-hosted.
  • PeerCalls – Group peer to peer video calls for everyone written in Go and TypeScript.
  • Pyrite – Open source video conferencing.
  • Zoom – Google meet Open Source alternative for smart working.

Video Streaming Platforms

Not so good in terms of privacy:

  • Amazon Prime Video
  • Disney+
  • Netflix
  • Plex

Video and Audio Streaming

  • Jellyfin – The volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached.
  • librefm – A music community website that aims to provide a Free Software replacement for last.fm.
  • Owncast – A self-hosted live video and web chat server.
  • Stremio – A modern media center that's a one-stop solution for your video entertainment.
  • ZoneMinder – FOSS video surveillance software.

Mobile Streaming

  • CloudStream-3 – Android app for streaming and downloading Movies, TV-Series and Anime.
  • Findroid – Third-party native Jellyfin Android app.
  • Serenity – A React Native Music Player for Android and IOS.

Video encoders

  • Avidemux – A free and open-source software application for non-linear video editing and transcoding multimedia files.
  • HandBrake – A free and open-source transcoder for digital video files.
  • FFmpeg – A free and open-source software project consisting of a suite of libraries and programs for handling video, audio, and other multimedia files and streams.

Video editors

  • Astrofox – A motion graphics program that lets turn audio into amazing videos.
  • AviSynth – A frameserver program for Microsoft Windows developed by Ben Rudiak-Gould, Edwin van Eggelen, Klaus Post, Richard Berg, Ian Brabham and others.
  • Avidemux – A free and open-source software application for non-linear video editing and transcoding multimedia files.
  • AV-Converter – Convert audio/video files to another format.
  • Cinelerra – A video editing and composition program (an NLE, Non-Linear Editor) designed for Linux.
  • DVD Flick – An open source DVD authoring application for Windows developed by Dennis Meuwissen and released under the GNU General Public License.
  • DaVinci Resolve – A color grading and non-linear video editing application.
  • Flowblade – A free and open-source video editing software for Linux.
  • Hitfilm Express – Free video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools and everything you need to produce content, films or gaming videos.
  • Kdenlive – An open source and feature-rich video editor.
  • LiVES – A free video editing software and VJ tool, released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.
  • LosslessCut – A free, platform independent Video editing software, which supports numerous audio, video and container formats.
  • Mediabits.io – Mediabits.io lets anyone create engaging videos for their audio, perfect for sharing on social media.
  • Natron – A free and open-source node-based compositing application.
  • Olive – A free non-linear video editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • OpenShot – A simple and powerful video editing program.
  • Pitivi – Originally spelled PiTiVi, is a free and open-source non-linear video editor for Linux, developed by various contributors from free software community and the GNOME project, with support also available from Collabora.
  • Shotcut – A free, open source, cross-platform video editor.
  • StaxRip – Video encoding GUI for Windows.
  • VidCoder – An open-source DVD/Blu-ray ripping and video transcoding application.
  • VideoLAN Movie Creator – VLMC (stands for VideoLAN Movie Creator) is a cross-platform, non-linear, video editing software application based on the VLC Media Player.
  • VirtualDub – VirtualDub is a free and open-source video capture and video processing utility for Microsoft Windows written by Avery Lee. It is designed to process linear video streams, including filtering and recompression. It uses AVI container format to store captured video.
    • VirtualDubMod – An open-source video capture and processing tool for Microsoft Windows, based on Avery Lee's VirtualDub.

Video transcoders

Watermark Tools

  • pdfparanoia – PDF watermark removal library for academic papers.
  • Timestamp Images – FOSS Client-Side iPhone Photo “Time Taken” Watermark Utility.

Wayback Machine

  • Archive Today – Archive.today is a time capsule for web pages. - controversial
  • Archive.ph – Create a copy of a webpage that will always be up even if the original link is down.
  • ArchiveBox – Open source self-hosted web archive.
  • CachedPages – Get the cached page of any URL.
  • CommonCrawl – Open repository of web crawl data.
  • HamsterBase – A self-hosted, local-first web archive application. You can easy highlight and annotate pages, valuing privacy and security.
  • LinkAce – Self hosted archive to store and organize links of your favorite websites.
  • Resurrect Pages – Search trough web crawlers and caches, create web based snapshots etc.
  • Social Feed Archive – Open source self-hosted web archive.
  • Stored.website – View cached web pages/website.
  • UK Web Archive - Collects millions of websites each year, preserving them for future generations.
  • Web Archive – Explore more than 700 billion web pages saved over time.

WhatsApp Alternatives

  • Salty.IM – A chatting app alternative to WhatsApp.

WebDAV

  • Duplicati - WebDAV as a backup target, currently for Windows, Mac and Linux.
  • WinSCP - SFTP Windows client that also supports WebDAV.
  • davfs2 - Allows mounting a WebDAV server as a local filesystem, for Linux only.

Mobile WebDAV

  • Total Commander - File manager that includes a WebDAV plugin which you optionally need to activate. - controversial
  • WebDAV Navigator - WebDAV client for Android devices. - controversial

Webgrabber

  • cURL – A computer software project providing a library (libcurl) and command-line tool (curl) for transferring data using various network protocols. The name stands for "Client URL", which was first released in 1996.
  • HTTrack – A free and open-source Web crawler and offline browser, developed by Xavier Roche and licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3.
  • Wget – A computer program that retrieves content from web servers. It is part of the GNU Project.

Webcam Apps

  • Cheese – GNOME webcam application.
  • Guvcview – Linux webcam application.

Web3

Some notes regarding Web3.

Wallpapers and Images

Not so good in terms of privacy:

Privacy oriented alternatives:

  • CC Search – Big catalog of images, search, also based on tags and filter for CC license.
  • Flickr Creative Commons – Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through content under each type of license.
  • Fotopia – CC platform for all sorts of free material.
  • FreeImages – Free Stock Photos & Royalty-Free Images.
  • Getty Images – Royalty Free Stock Photos, Illustrations, Vector images and more.
  • Gratisography – Royalty free HD Stock Photos and Images.
  • Interfacer – Get access to 300+ high quality free design resources.
  • New York Public Library Public Domain Images – Public Domain Collections: Free to Share & Reuse.
  • Open Doodles by Pablo Stanley – A Free Set of Open-Source Illustrations. Free for Commercial and Personal Use. No need to credit, license, or anything.
  • Pixabay – Stunning free images & royalty free stock.
  • StockSnap – Free Stock Images.
  • The Stocks – Royalty free Photos and other resources.
  • Trianglify Desktop Wallpaper – A cross platform desktop app that generates pleasing triangle wallpapers.
  • unDraw – Open-source illustrations for any idea you can imagine and create.
  • Wallpaper Cave – Open source wallpapers from the community.
  • Wallpaper Generator – Generate wallpaper images from mathematical functions.

Mobile Wallpaper Apps

  • Internxt Photo – Pitches itself as an open-source Google Photo alternative with privacy and security in mind.
  • Muzei – A live wallpaper that gently refreshes your home screen each day with famous works of art.
  • Mysplash – An Unsplash client for Android.
  • Prism – A beautiful open-source wallpapers app for Android.
  • Resplash – Unofficial Unsplash Android App.
  • WPGen – Android app which can generate solid color, diagonal gradient or plasma effect static multi color wallpapers.

Wallet Apps

  • AirGap – A crypto wallet system that lets you secure cypto assets with one secret on an offline device.
  • AlphaWallet ETH Wallet – Easy-to-use and secure Ethereum wallet for iOS.
  • BlueWallet Bitcoin Wallet – Thin Bitcoin Wallet Built with React Native and Electrum.
  • Dash Electrum – Dash Electrum is an easy-to-use Dash client based on Electrum.
  • Dogecoin Wallet – Dogecoin is a digital currency similar to Bitcoin.
  • Ellaism Wallet – Ellaism has zero pre-mine and has no mandatory developer fees with all support and development donated freely by the community.
  • Simple Bitcoin Wallet – Bitcoin wallet with Lightning Network support.
  • Taler Wallet – This app is a wallet for GNU Taler. It is highly experimental, and not ready for production use yet.
  • Tron Wallet – Tron Wallet is an officially supported, multifunctional wallet designed for the TRON network.
  • UBIC Wallet – Wallet for the Unconditional Basic income.
  • Unstoppable Wallet – A fully decentralized Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Binance Chain, Bitcoin Cash and DASH currency wallet for iOS and macOS.

Mobile Wallet Apps

Wallets Hardware based

You find an introduction into the hardware wallet market here.

  • Ledger – Ledger Nano S, Ledger Nano X are good for starters and advance users. You find a review over here.
  • Trezor One and Trezor Model T – Trezor Wallet is basically an online website that coupled with your Trezor Bridge, a background application which facilitates the connection between the device and your browser. is used to manage your device and their wallets.

Whiteboard

  • OurBoard – Free and open source online whiteboard.
  • Excalidraw – Collaborative virtual whiteboard for sketching and hand-drawn like diagrams.

Wikipedia

Read more about the issue with Wikipedia on the Wikiless manifesto. Keep in mind that Wikipedia is a social media site where users (and people paid to influence politics) write articles, which can shape public opinion and even undermine trust.

Wikipedia Mobile

  • Kiwix – Lets you read Wikipedia and other websites without an Internet connection.

Weather Tools

  • Sol for iOS – Displays weather information so you can plan your day accordingly. Check the weather in your current location or any city around the world.
  • Wethr – Command line weather tool.
  • pwea – Simple terminal weather tool written in Python.
  • wego – A weather client for the terminal.
  • wttr.in – Console-oriented weather forecast service that supports various information representation methods like terminal-oriented ANSI-sequences for console HTTP clients (curl, httpie, or wget), HTML for web browsers, or PNG for graphical viewers.

Mobile Weather Apps

  • Clima – Beautiful, minimal, and fast weather app for Android.
  • Forecastie – A simple, copylefted libre software weather app for Android. It gathers data from OpenWeatherMap, via their public API.
  • Geometric Weather – A light and powerful weather app that provides you with real-time temperature, air quality, 15-days weather forecast, and accurate time-sharing trends.
  • NearbyWeather – Current weather for nearby stations with lists, maps and detail view.
  • Privacy Friendly Weather – Privacy Friendly App for Android that can display weather for cities.
  • QuickWeather open source weather app – Weather at a glance for anywhere in the world.
  • SmileWeather – A personal iOS weather app I'm building in the open.
  • SwiftLanguageWeather – Swift Language Weather is an iOS weather app developed in Swift 4.
  • TemperatureAtlas – The app uses Apple Maps combined with the OpenWeather API.
  • Tiny Weather Forecast Germany – Weather forecast with widgets for up to 10 days, based on open data from Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD).
  • Weather Widget – One or more widgets to home screen with weather 5 to 7 day weather forecast in a location.

Windows 11 Useful Tools and Scripts

Do not even think about wasting my time submitting nonsense tools like e.g. "O&O ClownUp", most of them are closed source anyway and the ones who are FOSS seems mostly copy and paste imitations.

  • AeroPeek11 – Bring back the Aero Peek feature into Windows 11.
  • AltSnap – Drag windows when pressing the alt key (like on Linux, for Win).
  • ContextMenuForWindows11 – Add Context Menu For Windows 11.
  • DefenderUI – Freeware alternative to Simple Windows Hardening, it is not FOSS and not as advanced as HC or Simple HC.
  • Dynamic Windows 11 Setup TPM Bypass Script – Easy script to enable and disable TPM requirement for Windows 11.
  • EverythingToolbar – Everything integration for the Windows taskbar.
  • ExplorerPatcher – This project aims to bring back a productive working environment on Windows 11.
  • Fido – Fido (Full ISO Download Script) is a PowerShell script to download Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11 ISO files from official Microsoft servers.
  • Hard_Configurator – GUI to Manage Software Restriction Policies and harden Windows Home OS – or alternative Simple Windows Hardening.
  • HardenKitty – Checks and hardens your Windows configuration.
  • HardeningAuditor - Scripts for comparing Microsoft Windows compliance with the Australian ASD 1709 & Office 2016 Hardening Guides.
  • MicaForEveryone – A tool to enable backdrop effect on title bar of win32 apps on Windows 11.
  • NanaRun – Replacement for NSudo, it is an application runtime environment customization utility for Windows 11.
  • OpenHashTab – File hashing and checking shell extension that integrates into Explorer shell.
  • OpenNetMeter – Monitors network and data usage on Windows.
  • privacy.sexy – Enforce privacy & security best-practices on Windows and macOS.
  • RadeonSoftwareSlimmer – Radeon Software Slimmer is a utility to trim down the bloat with Radeon Software for AMD GPUs on Microsoft Windows.
  • RoundedTB – Add margins, rounded corners and segments to your taskbars.
  • Sophia Script – The most powerful PowerShell module on GitHub for Windows fine-tuning and tweaking.
  • TrafficMonitor – Display network,CPU, GPU, Mem usage and temp in Windows taskbar.
  • TweakUIX – The user interface is based on the classic Tweak UI app from XP times. It provides some tweaking toggles for Windows.
  • ViVeTool-GUI – Windows Feature Control GUI based on ViVe - ViVeTool.
  • WSA Toolbox – A Windows 11 application to easily install and use the Windows Subsystem For Android™ package on your computer.
  • WSAGAScript – Install Google Apps (Play Store) on WSA (Windows Subsystem Android)
  • Windows-11-Fixer – A tool to "Fix" Windows 11.
  • Windows10Debloater – Script to remove Windows 10 bloatware.
  • Windows11Upgrade – Windows 11 Upgrade tool that bypasses Microsoft´s requirements.
  • Winfetch – A zero-dependency Neofetch clone written in PowerShell.
  • windows_hardening.cmd – Script to perform some hardening of Windows 10/11.
  • wsa_pacman – A GUI package manager and package installer for Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA).
  • NVSlimmer – NVIDIA driver slimming utility for Windows.
  • Windows-On-Reins – Enhance privacy, improve performance on Windows 10 and 11.

Windows 11 Desktop Shell Replacement

  • b3 – i3 for Windows.
  • BlackBox – Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications. One example is the bbkeys hotkey application.
  • Cairo Shell – The Cairo taskbar preserves desktop area for your wallpaper and applications.
  • LiteStep – A replacement #desktop interface for Windows.
  • ReactOS Explorer – ReactOS Explorer is the default graphical shell that comes with ReactOS from version 0.2.0 forward. It is meant to be the equivalent of Windows Explorer on Windows operating systems.
  • Talisman Desktop – Talisman Desktop is a configurable Windows shell replacement introduced in 1997 by Lighttek Software.
  • win3wm – A Native Tiling Window Manager for Windows 10, Inspired by I3wm.
  • xoblite – An advanced "extended shell" for Microsoft® Windows® 10 and 11, part of the Blackbox for Windows family.

Windows 11 Taskbar Tools

  • 7+ Taskbar Tweaker – All-in-One Tweaking tools for various visual Windows effects. The program is not FOSS.
  • ExplorerPatcher – Advance Taskbar tool and patcher.
  • SystemTrayMenu – A free, open-source start menu alternative for Microsoft Windows. It offers a clear, personalized menu in the system tray. Files, links and folders are organized in several levels as drop-down menus.
  • Stardock Start11 – Restore the Classic Start Menu in Windows 11.
  • StartAllBack – All-in-One Tweaking tool for Windows, the tool is no FOSS and paid.
  • Taskbar11 – Change the position and size of the Windows taskbar in Windows 11.
  • TaskbarCustomizer – This is an application that modifies the appearance of the taskbar.
  • TaskbarDock – Customize Windows 10 Taskbar with few extra features.
  • taskbar-groups – Lightweight utility for organizing the taskbar through groups.
  • TaskbarX – Center Windows taskbar icons with a variety of animations and options. The app itself is paid in Microsoft Store.
  • TaskbarXI – An application written in C++ to modify the Windows 11 Taskbar.
  • Windows11DragAndDropToTaskbarFix – Fixes the missing "Drag & Drop to the Taskbar" support in Windows 11. It works with the new Windows 11 taskbar and does not require nasty changes like Undocking/Disabled or restoration of the classic taskbar.

Windows 10/11 Download Utilities

  • Fido – A PowerShell script to download Windows ISOs or the UEFI Shell.
  • MediaCreationTool by bBw0Avc4 – Download quickly some Windows Images. The source code is here.
  • UUPMediaCreator – An utility to create Windows Media files (.ISO, .WIM, .VHD) from Unified Update Platform files.

Windows Forensic Tools

Window Manager

  • Amethyst – Tiling Window Manager for macOS.
  • Asseml – The effortless window manager for macOS.
  • Chunkwm – A tiling window manager for macOS.
  • DWM – A dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled, monocle and floating layouts.
  • Dintwm – A tiling window manager for AmigaOS.
  • Enlightenment Desktop – A Window Manager, Compositor and Minimal Desktop for Linux (the primary platform), BSD and any other compatible UNIX system.
  • Fancy Zones – A tiling window manager.
  • gamescope: the micro-compositor formerly known as steamcompmgr – SteamOS session compositing window manager.
  • GlazeWM – A tiling window manager like i3wm written entirely in C#.
  • Hydra – A lightweight OS X window manager with a powerful API.
  • i3 – A tiling window manager, completely written from scratch. The target platforms are GNU/Linux and BSD operating systems, our code is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) under the BSD license.
  • JWM (Joe's Window Manager) – JWM is a light-weight window manager for the X11 Window System. JWM is written in C and uses only Xlib at a minimum.
  • Komorebi – A tiling window manager for Windows written in Rust.
  • Kwm – Tiling window manager for OS X.
  • Mudeer – KDE Plasma Screen Splitting Shortcuts ideal for Ultrawide and Super-Ultrawide Monitors.
  • River – A dynamic tiling Wayland compositor .
  • SDWM – Simple Dynamic Window Manager for Windows.
  • Simula – A VR window manager for Linux.
  • Sway – Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11.
  • TinyWM – A tiny window manager in around 50 lines of C.
  • Xmonad – A dynamically tiling X11 window manager.
  • Xterm Window Manager – Text-based window manager for Xterm-like terminals. Works on Xterm, Linux console, and can also be run as a GUI.
  • Yabai – Tiling Window Manager for macOS
  • wtftw – A tiling window manager written in Rust.

WLAN-SSID: Opt-Out

Why Privacy matters?

NOPE Software and Services

Image credit: devrant + RMS himself

I will not add the following projects/software and I will not debate this. Don't make him cry again 😢.

Please keep in mind that every software and service is at some point fixable and just because they are listed under this section does not mean they cannot be relisted once the mentioned product fixed provided criticism.

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