If you have any suggestions and recommendations or find any errors, feel free to open a request.
Items in this page that have a 🌟 icon next to them represent my top/favourite pick(s) from that category.
Table of Contents
Internet
Web Browsers
ℹ️ Your browser is the most important software you will use. I don’t think there is a perfect browser out there. Your best choice will vary depending upon if you prioritize performance, features, privacy or security.
- Brave Browser 🌟 - Excellent chromium browser with manifest v2 extension support. (Disable the crypto and AI bloat if you don’t like it)
- Helium Browser - A good minimal chromium browser with sane defaults. (⚠️ Still in development)
- Firefox 🌟 - The only real competition for chromium browsers, is highly customizable and still has Manifest V2 support. (You can easily disable all current and future AI bloat with a single button)
- Zen Browser - Firefox fork that is beautifully designed, privacy-focused, and packed with features. (⚠️ Still in development)
- Tor Browser - Great browser for browsing anonymously but very slow and unusable for daily browsing.
Password Manager
- Bitwarden 🌟 - A secure and free password manager for all of your devices.
- KeypassXC - Free, open source, light-weight, and easy-to-use password manager.
Browser Extensions
ℹ️ The lesser number of extensions you have the better it is for privacy and security. It is easier to fingerprint users with many extensions.
⚠️ If you use Google Chrome or chromium-based browsers, you will have to use extensions that support Manifest v3 like uBlock Origin Lite.
⚠️ From my personal testing and observation, I have noticed that uBlock Origin Lite is not as good as uBlock Origin. Please use regular uBlock Origin with a manifest V2 supported browser like Brave or Firefox when visiting piracy sites as some sites are still able to bypass uBO Lite but not regular uBlock Origin.
- Bitwarden 🌟 - A secure and free password manager for all of your devices.
- uBlock Origin 🌟 - Free, open-source ad content blocker. (Only for manifest v2 supported browsers)
- uBlock Origin Lite - uBlock Origin built with manifest v3. (⚠️ See note above)
- Dark Reader - Dark Mode in all sites. Everyone prefers dark mode, right?
- SponsorBlock - SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced browser extension and open API for skipping sponsor segments in YouTube videos.
- MAL Sync - Tracks anime using MyAnimeList, AniList and more.
Search Engines
- SearXNG 🌟 - A privacy-respecting metasearch engine. (I like self-hosting this)
- Brave Search - An independent web search engine developed by Brave Software.
Email
- Protonmail - Secure Email based in Switzerland.
- Tutanota - Encrypted email & calendar service - easy to use, secure by design.
Torrenting client
- qBittorrent 🌟 - An open-source software alternative to µTorrent.
- Transmission - Simple and lightweight open-source torrent client.
VPN and Proxy
ℹ️ I would recommend self-hosting your own VPN on a VPS or a home server to avoid trusting a third-party VPN provider.
- Wireguard 🌟 - Extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN. Easy to self host, also check out PiVPN for an installation script.
- Tailscale 🌟 - Zero config VPN, I use this to remotely access my home server despite being under a ISP CGNAT.
- Mullvad - Probably the only third-party VPN provider I would recommend.
Useful Sites
- lingva-translate - a Free and Open Source Alternative front-end for Google Translate.
- VirusTotal.com - Analyze suspicious files and URLs to detect types of malware, automatically share them with the security community.
- kutt.it - An open source modern URL shortener.
Software
- VLC Media Player - A free and open source cross-platform multimedia player.
- MPV 🌟 - Similar to VLC but is insanely customizable and imo has better video playback quality.
- Anki 🌟 - A free and open-source flashcard program.
- Calibre 🌟 - An E-book management software, I use this to manage books on my ereaders.
- Loseless Cut - Trim and cut video/audio files in a loseless manner.
- HandBrake - A free and open-source video transcoding software.
Operating Systems
Windows
⚠️ Avoid using Windows for privacy and security, use Linux instead. If you have no choice, then use the Windows LTSC version.
Linux
- CachyOS 🌟 - Amazing Arch-based distro with good defaults and optimizations for gaming.
- Arch linux - DIY Linux Distro, great for building lightweight and customized Linux environments.
- Omarchy - Beautiful, Modern & Opinionated Linux created by DHH.
- Linux Mint - Linux Mint is a community-driven Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, excellent choice for beginners.
- Bazzite - Gaming distro similar to steamOS. Really good if you want a “just works” distro for gaming.
- Debian - A free and open source distribution that is the base for other major distros like Ubuntu, MX Linux, Linux Mint, etc. It is the second oldest actively maintained GNU/Linux distribution.
AI
⚠️ I highly discourage the usage of LLMs from large corporations due to their data training policies and lack of privacy. It is highly recommended to self-host your own AI models when possible.
- Hugging Face - A platform to collaborate on models, datasets, and applications.
- Ollama - A CLI tool for running local AI models.
- LM Studio - Easily setup and run local AI models using a GUI interface.
- OpenCode - An open-source AI agent, alternative to Claude Code.
Piracy
⚠️ I do not condone piracy. These links are only for educational purposes.
⚠️ Always use uBlock Origin (NOT Lite) before visiting any of these sites as they may contain malicious redirects. Refer Browser Extensions
- r/Piracy Megathread 🌟 - A very carefully curated list of sites for anything Piracy related. Probably the only site you will need to bookmark.
- FMHY 🌟 - A collection of media piracy sites, tools and guides.
- Wotaku 🌟 - Similar to FMHY but more for anime/manga stuff.
- The Index - A curated list of websites for Japanese media like Anime and other weeb stuff.
- Microsoft Activation Scripts 🌟 - Free and Open-Source Microsoft Windows/Office activator. Who pays for windows license?
Mobile
Android
Custom Operating Systems (Roms)
⚠️ You will need a device that has an unlocked bootloader to install custom operating systems. I don’t recommend doing it unless you know what you are doing, else you might risk bricking your device permanently.
- Graphene OS 🌟 - An open source privacy and security focused mobile OS.
- Calyx OS - An open source Android mobile operating system that puts privacy and security into the hands of everyday users.
- Lineage OS - A free and open-source operating system for various devices, based on the Android mobile platform
App Stores
Two Factor Authenticator
- Aegis - a free, secure and open source app to manage your 2-step verification tokens for your online services.
- Ente Auth 🌟 - End to end, open source and cross-platform 2FA authenticator.
Anime/Manga
- Mihon - Free and open source manga reader for Android.
- Aniyomi - Free and open source anime player and manga reader based on Mihon.
- Signal 🌟 - An open source secure messenger, alternative to whatsapp.
Password Manager
- Bitwarden 🌟 - A secure and free password manager for all of your devices.
- KeePassDX - Secure and open source password manager compatible with KeePass files.