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Free, as in Freedom, Software

Your Freedom Needs Free Software ~ Richard Stallman

I use, and support, free (as in freedom) software. Sometimes also referred to as libre software.
I think the word libre is used to help clarify the confusion of the difference between the usage of
the word "free" as in gratis or no price and free as in freedom; as well as the confusion between
"free" software and "open source" software. Learn more about free software at www.GNU.org

Below is a curated list of Free/Libre software:

If you have questions or need help with getting started with anything on this list (including help with installs or updates) you can ask me, but there is often help from the community actively involved in using or developing each application. In addition to manuals or wikis they often have forums and mailing lists. Although I advocate for using free software, many of these applications will also work on the proprietary operating systems made by Microsoft and Apple.

Linux is Awesome!

Linux is an awesome operating system. Some people may think it's only for hobbyists or isn't important and they are absolutely incorrect. Linux is a big deal. The internet has mostly run on Linux for decades. Many other things like cash registers, ATMs, and ordering kiosks, use Linux too. And Linux is great for using on your desktop or laptop computer. Linux is free, as in freedom, software.

Linux is Linux but, underneath the hood, it can be set up in many different ways. So different people, or groups, put together a Linux operating system how they like it and they give it a name. This is called a Linux distribution (or distro). Try one and if it doesn't work for you, try a different one. When you're new to using Linux, it isn't important which Linux distro you use as long as you pick a commonly recommended distro. The reason is that the commonly recommended distros are usually recommended for a reason... For you to benefit from those who came before you. (Linux used to be hard to install, but it's easy now.) You're not giving up anything. All the power, flexibility, and features of Linux are present. But these distros are easier to install on a large variety of computer hardware, easier to start using, easier to find help articles, and easier to find live help with. So which Linux distros are these? Ubuntu or Linux Mint. You don't have to start with either of those, but you can't go wrong by doing so. So keep it simple, don't waste time, and start there. (By the way, many (most?) Linux distros are not fundamentally different from one another. They just come with a different set of pre-installed apps and use different desktop pictures.)

Linux operating systems often come with a "Live" option during installation. It's a great way to try it on a computer without installing it. If there is an option for a "live" version, that loads the operating system into RAM (your computer's temporary memory)...so nothing is installed or changed on your computer...when you turn off your computer the Linux session is wiped from RAM (temporary memory). When you turn your computer back on it will be just before...nothing was changed because it was all taking place in the temporary memory chips of the computer (RAM).

Use your computer to contribute to science

Office

Keep Track of Your Money

Note Taking (and a flashcard app)

Applications

Phone applications

Keep Control of Your Computing, So It Doesn't Control You! ~ Richard Stallman

Physical authentication keys

Physical authentication keys are a higher level of security than an authentication application. A side note: KeePassXC and KeePassDX can store temporary one time passwords (TOTP) therefore, allowing you to do the same thing as an authenticator app. (Always make a backup copy of your password database files and keep those backup copies on a separate device and store that device in a safe place. Remember to consider, not just theft, but also fire and water.)

TOR = The Onion Router, sometimes referred to as the "dark web"

The only way to prevent data from being abused is to prevent it from being collected in the first place. ~ Soren Stoutner.com

It's now spelled Tor, but it used to be all capital letters which was an abbreviation for The Onion Router. It's called the onion router because that description is the basic concept of its design; it uses layers...like an onion...to hide your IP address. Hiding your IP address is a critical step toward visiting a website anonymously. See the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Surveillance Self-Defense for more info about defending your privacy on the internet.

Visiting a .onion website is even better privacy and offers additional security for both the visitor to the website and the website host (both parties benefit). Avoiding the technical details here, but one other note about .onion sites....regular http connections are secured by the Tor network, so although on the regular internet you'll need to see https at the begining of the website address to show an encrypted connection...all sites on Tor ending in .onion are secure including http. So the regular clearnet website https://callmaintenance.lol is secured with the normal certificate system and you can see the connection is [this needs rewritten] but the .onion site starts with http but is secured and you get browser generated lock icon (looks like an onion/padlock in Tor Browser). [Also, this isn't technically correct in that a .onion site may have https. But if it doesn't then still has more security than http on the regular internet.]

You can visit the CallMaintenance.lol "onion" site using the Tor Browser.
The address is gp5nikn2jvifgoqbqhuyvtp3wbupmxe7jwnpis4gzueq7mvb7hsjsxqd.onion [No .onion version is available right now. If/when it is, it will have a different .onion address.]


GNU 🐃

When I launched the development of the GNU system, I explicitly said the purpose of developing this system is so we can use our computers and have freedom, thus if you use some other free system instead but you have freedom, then it's a success. It's not popularity for our code but it's success for our goal. ~ Richard Stallman

I want to thank Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org) for his devotion to promoting his free software philosophy. Learn about the GNU philosophy at https://www.gnu.org.

Drop Apple and Microsoft and switch to GNU+Linux.

The GNU Manifesto


Micro$oft rent seeking strategy: extend, embrace, extinguish.

30 Reasons You Should Finally Switch to Linux by Sam Bent

Linux Cinema...The Silence of the Fans

Computer

GNU + Linux

Computer tools