Free software worth checking out. Vol. I
Originally posted only in Gemini. Now it is here too!
All the software listed below is free (as in freedom) and self-hostable. This list contains cool software I’ve found and fell in love with during my wanderlust journeys around the Internet.
Fossil SCM
- More than a DVCS, it is a whole GitHub-in-a-box ¹.
- Self-contained, fast and easy to use (easier than Git).
- All batteries included in just a few megabytes.
- Works everywhere, not only POSIX systems.
- Each repository is contained in a SQLite file.
- Actually makes sense.
Concourse
- Continuous thing-doer, modern, does things well.
- Build environments run isolated in Docker containers.
- VCS-independent, does not even require VCS.
- YAML syntax for builds, a language you already know.
- Write resource types to do almost anything ².
- Easy to configure and run, thanks to Docker.
- Beautiful and intuitive CLI (fly) and web UI.
- Actually makes sense.
WireGuard VPN
- Minimal, fast and secure VPN protocol.
- Now built into the Linux kernel.
- Clients and servers available on all platforms.
- Easy to configure and run.
- Actually makes sense.
SearX
- Metasearch engine that respects your privacy.
- Aggregates results from multiple search engines, privately.
- Uses POST by default.
- Easy to configure and run.
- Actually makes sense.
https://searx.github.io/searx/
CryptPad
- Zero-knowledge ³ alternative to Google Drive and Docs.
- Real-time collaborative document editing.
- Excellent web UI, nothing gets sent unencrypted.
- Teams have their own CryptDrives.
- Lots of features.
- Easy to configure and run.
- Actually makes sense.
Syncthing
- Sync your files across computers, locally.
- No server required, works completely peer-to-peer.
- Lightweight, secure and cross-platform ⁴.
- Actually makes sense.
Snapdrop
- Good alternative to Apple AirDrop, no platform lock-in.
- Transfers files peer-to-peer using WebRTC.
- Works entirely in the web browser.
- Scans devices in the WiFi network connected to Snapdrop.
- Easy to use, minimal and clean web UI.
- Actually makes sense.
Lagrange
- Beautiful, powerful and fast desktop Gemini client.
- Cross-platform, lightweight, written in C.
- Tabs, and lots of features and customisation.
- GUI is powered by SDL, no platform dependencies ⁵.
- Actually makes sense.
Oragono
- A modern IRCd for the 20’s and beyond.
- Lightweight, fast, written in Go.
- All batteries included, no need for separate stuff.
- Easy to configure and run.
- Actually makes sense.
Convos
- All-in-one, always-online IRC solution.
- Persists your IRC connections.
- Nice and intuitive web client that looks like any IRC client.
- Multi-user: each user can create multiple connections.
- Admin can manage users from the admin panel.
- Easy to configure, run and use. Easily shareable.
- Actually makes sense.
ed(1)
- The standard text editor ⁶.
- Extremely minimal, fast and line-oriented.
- Available in most Unix-like systems.
- Few but powerful commands.
- Edit right to the point, no distractions.
- Actually makes sense.
https://www.gnu.org/software/ed/manual/ed_manual.html
Footnotes
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Github-in-a-box, as described in section 2.1 of the wiki article “Fossil Versus Git”.
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I wrote a resource type to monitor and pull Fossil repositories.
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Zero-knowledge encryption means the server has no knowledge about the private encryption keys. CryptPad, for instance, hashes your password before uploading it to the server, and the web UI encrypts your private keys with your plain-text password client-side before uploading them.
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No official client for iOS yet. You can use Möbius Sync (commercial, non-free-yet).
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Some GUI frameworks and toolkits, such as GTK+ (now GTK) are heavily dependent on platforms like GNOME or KDE. SDL is not a GUI toolkit or a framework, but a library that provides low level access to hardware and accelerated graphics. Lagrange has its own UI widgets built in, rendered using SDL and provided by the_Foundation, a C11 library written by Lagrange’s developer.
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While it was part of the first UNIX operating systems, the reference to it as the “standard text editor” is used as a joke, in part because of the fact that vi is now more common than ed in Unix-like systems.