Wikipedia.

Though I could do without the endless donation blockups.

Linux

It just keeps getting better and more polished.

Voicemeeter

Overwolf

Reaper

VLC

PCPartpicker

Ninite

There’s probably some others I’m missing.

Steam

Local library

• VLC
• Winamp
• Audacity
• 7Zip
• Openoffice
• Steam
• Firefox
• Wikipedia
• Duckduckgo (the search engine)

7zip and VLC.

Actual paid services? Basically only Steam.

FOSS is the only software you can count on to not start nickel and diming you once the subscriber count starts to level out.

Signal is good so far. Firefox is teetering on the edge, but it's also good so far (poor little fox). Lemmy and Mastodon are both great, but maybe that's EZ mode because they're built as alternatives to proprietary social media sites.

I pay for ArsTechnica and I feel that I get a lot of value out of doing so. And keep in mind, being a paying subscriber of a service does not safeguard the service from enshittification, so that's quite great

Linux has become better and better and now its incredibly good, better then windows and mac OS if you just spend a few weeks learning the small differences.

My regular open source tools:

• Inkscape
• GIMP
• OpenShot
• Synfig
• Firefox/derivatives (currently using Waterfox)
• Terminal emulators
• OpenSCAD

Kiseido Go Server (KGS)

If KGS's UI looks like it hasn't been updated in 20 years, that's because it's already perfect. There's no ads, it's purely functional, it does exactly what it needs to do and nothing more. If you click on "KGS Plus" you have the option to spend money on lectures given by human pros. Otherwise it's completely free, and it's still an active go server that's been around forever.

The Pirate Bay

PiHole

Not an overly surprising one, but the arch wiki has been an incredible source of info with no ads, tracking, or any of the modern web bullshit for as long as I’ve used it.

They’ve been hit with some pretty major DDOS attacks recently and they’ve done a really good job of keeping the important parts of the service as accessible as possible - they haven’t resorted to buying into cloudflare’s monopoly or blocking vpn users despite either or both being the easy way out.

For anyone else who’s relied on them as much as I have, now would be a great time to donate!

• Dropout.tv
• Davinci resolve
• Obsidian
• Jellyfin
• Airgradient air quality monitor

Agnostic:

• VLC

Windows:

• TotalCommander (Android too!)
• Irfanview

Mac:

• A better finder rename
• Daisy disk
• Iterm2

My local ISP. They are not a monopoly, they are local only, they provide fiber and great customer service. You call and they answer instantly, they don't treat you like an idiot when you call. They don't restrict anything and you have unlimited data. It's very simple.

Last month T-mobile bought them after years of great service so I expect the enshittification to come any day now, but so far nothing has changed.

Irfanview https://www.irfanview.com/

It's literally one of the only reasons I'm still using Windows.

No other image viewer is as fast and as useful.

Craigslist

Hasn't changed much at all, and their app is exactly what it needs to be, nothing more--i think the only thing I wasn't able to do in the app was clear a saved search, but there's no bloat, no ads, don't need an account unless you're posting or saving searches.

Rss.

Do RSS feeds count as a "service"? I fear one day they will go away and that will be the end of my efficient way of keeping up with things I am interested in.

Steam. I think a lot of people are unappreciative of how user friendly and open it is. When Gabe bites the dust I think it's going to get very shit very quick.

• audiobookshelf
• gluetun
• homeassistant
• immich
• invidious
• jackett
• jellyfin
• kavita
• lazylibrarian
• lidarr
• mylar3
• mumble
• navidrome
• podman
• prowlarr
• qbittorrent
• radar
• sonarr
• syncthing

foss stuff - slackware, seamonkey, emacs, keepassxc, fvwm, etc

nonfree stuff - xnview, wacup, winrar

websites - wallhaven, hackernews, etools

Stack Exchange. I know, controversial, as people complain about rules being there too strict and community not being too welcoming nowadays, but still a real goldmine of knowledge. All of that with no ads, no spam, no dark patterns.

Soma.fm

A bit more niche, but I'd say Roll20 for online TTRPG's. It has quirks, absolutely, but it has gotten better overall and is free with optional paid plans that offer good benefits which are not necessities.

Fastmail. Getting better and better, profitable and charging for services.

Posthaven. Not getting better and better but started good and staying good. Profitable and charging for services.

Unraid. Getting better and better. Not cheap, but a lot simpler to operate than TrueNAS for day to day stuff.

Kickstarter. Yes they’re a virtual monopoly but so many awesome things I’ve joined through it (though fuck you Eve/Dough for roping me into your shitty monitor which never really worked).

Virpil controllers. Rock solid, made by fanatics and rightly loved by fans. Cannot speak highly enough about their hardware (though their attitude to customer service is … Eastern European).

Affinity products. They might be cresting though and about to roll steeply downhill towards enshittification valley. But I still love them for now.

Linux. What’s not to love.

Lemmy. In fact so so many open source products. Honestly, it’s hard to grasp the quality.

Toilet