megathread

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

• Table of Contents
• Internet
  • Web Browsers
  • Password Manager
  • Browser Extensions
  • Search Engines
  • Email
  • Torrenting client
  • VPN and Proxy
  • Useful Sites
• Software
• Operating Systems
  • Windows
  • Linux
• AI
• Piracy
• Mobile
  • Android
    • Custom Operating Systems
    • App Stores
    • Two Factor Authenticator
    • Anime/Manga
    • Social Media

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.
• 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.

• 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
• 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.

• Windows LTSC 🌟 - The best version of Windows. More debloated and no useless “feature” updates for many years. Use Microsoft Activation Scripts to activate.
• Chris Titus Tech WinUtil 🌟 - Chris Titus Windows utility, use it to debloat and tweak Windows. It’s almost always a good idea to run it during each update/install of Windows.

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.

• 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

• Fdroid 🌟 - Find open source apps.
• Aurora Store - Alternative to Google Play Store.
• Obtainium - Get Android App Updates Directly From the Source.

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.

Social Media

• 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.

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