Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) I Use

This post lists some of the many Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) I love using, some I’ve tried, some I am currently exploring and trying out, and my experience with some of them.

• FOSS I Use

FOSS I Use

These are some FOSS I use, I’ve used, and am exploring:

• Instant Messaging:
  • E2EE Protocols:
    • Serverless:
      • Jami
      • Briar
      • Tox
    • Decentralized:
      • XMPP/Jabber Older, but more distributed. I use the movim.eu server, which is the default server for mov.im which supports Keyoxide identify verification (XMPP verification guide*). Public Servers: https://xmpp.net/directory.php
        • Free:
          • movim.eu
        • Paid:
          • conversations.im
      • Matrix Newer and feature rich, but more centralized because most users use the main server matrix.org, including me. Element is a mobile, web, and desktop client, and the developers also provide a managed hosting service, mainly for industry. Public Homeservers:
        • Free:
          • matrix.org
          • chat.mozilla.org
        • Paid:
    • Centralized:
      • Signal
      • MTProto (Telegram)
• Email:
  • ProtonMail I love what Proton Technologies AG does - providing private, secure and convenient email and VPN (and more) services to the masses, providing free email and VPN services to those that can’t afford to pay for it. I subscribe to their paid plans to support their services, and they host my custom domain email alias. They have FOSS mobile and web clients. mail@chester-tan.com
  • Tutanota Tutanota is another great private, secure, and convenient email provider, and they have FOSS mobile, desktop, and web clients.
  • K-9 Mail An android email client that supports IMAP and POP, and makes fetching Gmail and Outlook very easy! It also works well with OpenKeychain to encrypt, sign, and verify emails.
• Files Synchronization and Backup:
  • Syncthing is an amazing P2P file synchronization application for mobile and desktop.
• Real-Time Collaboration:
  • CryptPad E2EE and open source collaboration suite.
  • Overleaf Collaborative LaTeX editor
  • HackMD Collaborative markdown editor with support for creating presentation slides from markdown.
• Text Editors:
  • Cross-Platform:
    • Joplin
    • Standard Notes
  • Desktop:
    • Doom Emacs
    • ViM and NeoViM
    • Helix
• Web Browsers:
  • Firefox with extensions:
    • Bitwarden
    • DuckDuckGp
    • Multi-Account Containers
    • Vimium C
  • Chromium for use with Selenium for web-scraping
• Operating Systems:
  • Mobile:
    • Android Open Source Project (AOSP)-based
      • GrapheneOS My current main mobile daily-driver on a Google Pixel 3 XL. Google Pixels have the best custom AOSP distributions (or "ROMs").
      • CalyxOS I used to run this as a daily-driver and it works mostly really well out-of-the-box, but I agree more with the design decisions of GrapheneOS, which have many security and privacy benefits. For example, CalyxOS chooses to integrate MicroG, while GrapheneOS chooses instead to sandbox Google Play Services. While MicroG does work well, it has its downsides including some compatibility and security issues. Giving the user the option to install Google Play Services as regular sandboxed apps, on the other hand, means compatibility is almost 100%, and it restricts the permissions Google Play Services are granted.
      • /e/ I run this on my old Google Pixel (first-gen). It works well, integrating MicroG and a suite of cloud-synced apps (as an alternative to Google’s cloud-synced apps), but I wouldn’t recommend it if security is a big concern as it no longer has firmware support, and (so) it runs Android 9.
  • Desktop:
    • GNU/Linux related and/or Linux kernel-based
      • NixOS My current desktop daily-driver on a Lenovo ThinkPad P14s AMD Gen 1. Lenovo officially supports for RHEL and Ubuntu for most of their ThinkPads, which means most Linux distributions (except those 100% FOSS ones like GNU Guix which require all firmware to be open source) are well-supported.