this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Thread to discuss webbrowsers, important utilities, and apps that we have forgotten about previously but cannot live without. In short , all apps you want to see on the final megathread.

Next week, I will open a thread to discuss some details and thoughts with the entire community to build the megathread.


Previsouly discussions

Discussion about Contacts, SMS and Dialers app is here.

Discussion about Calculators, Cameras and Calendars apps is here.

Discussion about Manager files, Recorders, Galleries and Video editors apps is here.

Discussion about Keyboards, Notes, Maps and Music Players apps is here

Discussion about Weather, Stores, social media and related stuff apps is here


Little context

spoilerWhy not build a megathread with the best and most reliable FOSS apps too help someone who want to join on the bright side of open source?

We (because this is not from me, this is from us) need to share thoughts, ideas and all things you want to say. Dont be shy. Upvote the comments you like and agree; disagree and tell why you disagree. This is will be different from others threads because this need a proper user opinion, and your opinions will be VERY important to build this. In short, your opinions and thoughts will be the fundamental source to build this.

I will read ALL comments to build this. Even if this has a million comments, I’m going to waste time reading it. Whatever it takes.

Your opinions about it are CRUCIAL and FUNDAMENTAL, because your opinions is the main-base to build the megathread.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Cromite has been my main browser, with zero trackers, according to Exodus, and has a sandbox incorporated.

Audile has been my Shazam, and I use RethinkDNS to block some apps. It also has more features.

AntennaPod is amazing for listening to podcasts.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I switched to Antenna pod a few month ago. It is a very solid podcast client with 2 exceptions. One is a bug that means hitting the play button on notifications only works half the time, and the other is Android Auto not allowing you to just pickup where you left off, you have to go into your queue and find the thing you were last listening to every time. Neither are a deal breaker, but both are quite annoying.

I really should sit down and see if I can help with the code, but I have zero Android programming experience. I would hope that auto play on Android Auto connect would be rather simple, but I have no clue at this point.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

antennaPod +1

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I like AntennaPod but wish it would play Podcasts in Sequential Order. It's a highly requested feature but the Dev does not want to implement it. The Smart Queue is anything but.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

The general inability to manually order Podcasts and playlists is the only real serious drawback to the app.

Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic. I'm not a FOSS purist, and it's still my primary podcast app. Just hoping one day to get that feature.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Cromite is great, it's still Chromium

RethinkDNS is fantastic, and actually FOSS

I know nothing about Shazam or podcasts.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
  • Browsers

Mull is my go to browser, based on Firefox with proprietary blobs removed and since its Firefox uBlock Origin can be installed

Mulch is chromium based for when websites ~ break ~ with Mull. Both are by the same Dev that makes DivestOS

  • Utilities

I'm not really sure what is meant by utilities but these are some apps that I utilise pretty much every day

URLCheck for easily removing tracking from URLs either manually or automatically

Bitwarden is my go to password manager, you can add their repo to your fdroid client to get auto updates

Aegis for 2FA with easy backup and restore to and from files and supports importing files from so many other 2FA clients

Insular utilises the work profile to separate out apps. Some people in my life still use WhatsApp so I have a whole profile just for it, I can't wait for the DMA to fully kick in so I can get rid of WhatsApp

Librera opens all of my documents for me and I can choose between scroller mode for PDF type stuff or reader mode for ebooks. It also has amoled black which I love.

QbitController to easily manage all of my qbittorrent instances. It also automatically opens magnet links I tap on so I can add them to one of my instances easily

RHVoice TTS that integrates with OSMand, I find I have better voice results with this compared to espeak

Syncthing Fork to auto sync folders on my phone, PC and NAS

Termux terminal emulator I use for SSH, it also runs Zotify and YT-DLP

KDE Connect for controlling my cursor on my PC, quickly sharing files to and from my PC and for seamlessly sharing clipboards between them

  • Forgotten Apps

Showly OSS Integrates with trakt(.)tv to keep track of shows and also has a discover tab for TV and movies

Unexpected Keyboard I missed the keyboard discussion so I'm going to mention it here. It supports function keys! So I can use htop in SSH to kill processes on my PC when I break something and my screen freezes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

In this thread, you can share what you want. And ty for your suggestions.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
  • Aegis 2FA Authenticator
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Only saw these megathreads now, thank you for the great work. If you don't mind I'm just going to past my comment of a recent post with a similar question, but add some more that I use. If you want I can delete it

I use a variety of FOSS tools for both personal and work productivity.

For personal I use:

  • Nextcloud (Calendar, sync files, contacts etc, forms, availability sharing)
  • Thunderbird (Mail & Calendar)
  • Vikunja for managing all my projects/tasks. Also is very useful to have shared tasks with relatives. Another useful feature is that it can share specifics projects to people that do not have an account (for vacancy planning for example)
  • Tasks.org to manage Vikunja tasks in Android
  • Logseq for managing all my thoughts, ideas, tracking content like books, movies, videos watched
  • Nomie (specifically this maintained instance which has some new features). I use it to track myself (mood, anxiety, adhd, symptoms, food and drug consumption, people). It has an API so I for example can automatically insert activities from Garmin API. It is very useful to correlate things in life, or to tell the doctor if a specific symptom has flared up or not and many more things
  • Omnivore is my read-later off choice app, replacing Wallabag. It has an EXTREMELY polished interface, can aggregate RSS feeds, supports tags, comments, many filters and more. But the amazing thing is that it has a plugin for Logseq which automatically syncs all my highlights, notes and tags to it
  • Ferdium to quickly access all my important services
  • Syncthing on my phone, laptops and Kobo to sync Logseq between devices and books/articles from my PC to Kobo
  • Liftosaur for exercise routines (it has script language even) and can also track body measurements.
  • waistline as a substitute for myfitnesspal or cronometer
  • Phoneprofileplus as a sort of Tasker substitute
  • Sayboard for speech-to-text keyboard
  • Cofi to aid in making the perfect cup of coffee
  • Anki for learning things faster. I use a plugin for Logseq to automatically send cards to Anki, and AnkiDroid to access anki on phone
  • ActivityWatch has my cross-device time tracker
  • FindMyDevice but FOSS

For work use:

  • Logseq is my main tool, with the capability of connecting to Zotero, reading papers and taking notes which with queries I can leverage it to see new ideas forming. It also acts as the best logbook I've ever used through its powerful templates and queries which simplifies a lot the work of comparing results since it can all be done automatically
  • Zotero to manage all my papers
  • neovim with vimtex, ltex-ls and ultisnips to write documents in LaTeX very fast. Also have some scripts to manage vector graphics very easily using https://github.com/gillescastel/inkscape-figures
  • Inkscape for doing all the images for my papers since I plot my graphs in SVG. This way I can edit graphs after ploting and never lose quality
  • Ranger file manager
  • Espanso
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

No problem. You can say what you want. Ty for your suggestions!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Forgotten apps: Lawnchair(Release) together with Arcticons. Very minimalistic!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Utilities:

Transportr: Bus and Train Navigation
Change Detector: Notification and diff if a website changes
FlashDim: dim your Flashlight
Linphone: SIP Phone
Librera FD: Full Featured PDF reader and editor
phyBox: Use your Smartphone Sensors
Pedometer: counts your steps
Puls Rate Monitor
UnTrackMe
STools+
Termux
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Honest question. Are there any FOSS Android browsers? I use Mull or SmartCookieWebPreview. Even Mull gets the 'the upstream code is not free' on F-Droid.

Obviously Chromium is out, Webviews are just a wrapper for Chromium.

Does that leave anything?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Firefox is open source last I checked. On Android it runs its own engine and everything. It may not be on FDroid, but that doesn't mean it's not open source.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

https://divestos.org/pages/our_apps

It is compiled from source and proprietary blobs are removed using scripts by Relan from here.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I recently switched from Firefox to Floorp. It is based on Firefox ESR and customizable like Vivaldi. Only downside is, there is no mobile version

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

there's always Mull as a more "private" Firefox

[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

How about free and open source money? Bitcoin has been around for 15 years. Some default suggested wallets for users might be worth including in a list of must-have FOSS apps. Many users just use google to find their first wallet and that can send them down some wildly unsafe paths. The more users know about which are the kind of "standard" open source wallets, the less they'll end up installing some closed-source 'trust me bro' nonsense or worse download a wallet which is an actual scam and just steals their funds.

For custodial wallets for Bitcoin I would suggest Strike (supports the most countries) and for non-custodial I would suggest Phoenix. Custodial means the app developer control the keys to access the Bitcoin, non-custodial means you do.

Strike: custodial, most countries of any custodial wallet, can connect directly to bank account/debit card, closed source (I'm not aware of any open-source custodial wallet)

Phoenix: non-custodial, all countries, can't connect to bank account which means you can't buy BTC with it, you need a custodial wallet or exchange account to do that. That's true of all non-custodial wallets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

All suggestions and opinions are welcome. However, I'll not accepeted any app closed-source. I guess you understand. Ty for the suggestions mate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Fair enough. Just suggest a FOSS non-custodial wallet like Phoenix then.