https://audiobookbay.fi/ for audiobooks

Z-library and libgen for ebooks

Tell us about your favorite sites

CHINA has ordered central government agencies and state-backed corporations to replace foreign-branded personal computers with domestic alternatives within 2 years, marking one of Beijing’s most aggressive efforts so far to eradicate key overseas technology from within its most sensitive organs.

Staff were asked after the week-long May break to turn in foreign PCs for home-made alternatives that run on operating software developed domestically, people familiar with the plan said. The exercise, which was mandated by central government authorities, is likely to eventually replace at least 50 million PCs on a central-government level alone they said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a sensitive matter.

The latest central government directive is likely to cover only PC brands and software, and exclude hard-to-replace components such as processors from Intel and AMD, the people said. China will mostly encourage Linux-based operating systems to replace Microsoft’s Windows Shanghai-based Standard Software is one of the top providers of such tools, one person said.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/china-orders-government-state-firms-to-dump-foreign-pcs-sources

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-06/china-orders-government-state-firms-to-dump-foreign-pcs

wanna do some dunking? check the r/linux thread

Stremio is a one-stop solution for your video entertainment. It's an app available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.

It instantly plays whatever you want without waiting for it to download.

With Stremio you don't have to worry about all these streaming services or bother going to a torrent site :) You can turn Stremio into a piracy hub with only a couple of clicks.

You must use it with a VPN cuz piracy

Stremio will be connecting to torrent sites like thepiratebay and 1377x and using torrents on these sites.

How to set it up

• Download it from here and install it.

• It'll ask you to sign up when you open it. Don't sign up with Facebook. You can also click on Guest Login to use it without an account but you'll lose a couple of features.

• Now you'll see a puzzle piece, click on it to go to the addons page.

• From the Community Addons section you will add a couple of addons and that's it! The addons:

  • torrentio Commonly refered to as the best addon for stremio.
  • 123movies 123movies is a streaming site which can be better than torrenting for more obscure movies that don't have many peers.
  • The Pirate Bay catalog Adds a catalog for the pirate bay with extra sort options
  • jackett Lets you add and manage your own set of torrent sites
  • If you want more (there's a lot) check out this list of addons. It's really good. Almost all of them can be added from the addons section in the app.

I've tried to keep the post short so feel free to ask whatever questions you might have

Stremio has a lot more features (recommendations, calendar and notifications for new episodes) that you can discover on your own.

So cancel your subscriptions and donate the money to libre software :sicko-hyper:

Thank you @Windows97 for your help with this post!

This spyware's common name is Windows 10 but people of high culture call it NSAos. This software disguises itself as an operating system but ask yourself this; who is operating who?!!! :think-about-it: Ads, forced updates, bloatware and the fucking data collection!! You aren't in the driver seat, this spyware is doing the driving!

Today is your lucky day though as I come with good news :meow-fiesta: there is a free open-source and privacy respecting operating system called Linux. This Linux thing is the backbone of the whole internet and Android is based on it.

You can do everything on Linux; from using Firefox or Spotify to playing your games... there is even a Linux program called WINE which allows you to run quite a lot of Windows games and programs as if they were native to Linux

With Linux, you are in full control, you doing the driving yourself, comrade!! So come to the penguins' side :penguin-dance: and reject the evil corporation.

I suggest you check out the Linux distribution Kubuntu... Manjaro KDE for those feeling a bit brave.

This post is for you to share your concerns about Linux with us or why you are hesitant. If you are a Linux user then tell us about how lovely it's been.

PS: any negative comments about Linux will result in a ban, the mods are onboard with this :)

Edit: and join us at !libre for everything open source.

Edit: on Linux, you get all your software from one place and you can easily update them from there.

Thought some of you might wanna engage in the conversation :) A libreddit link for privacy.

The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android!

First thing to do is install F-Droid which is an open source alternative to Google Play that only contains FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) apps. This way you can easily update the apps and find new ones... All the Android apps are available on F-Droid unless otherwise stated.

One common feature among the following apps is being privacy-friendly.

This list isn't in anyway exhaustive so feel free to ask for other apps.

If you don't like F-Droid's design then you can use an alternative client like Aurora Droid. Aurora Droid also comes with a lot of repositories that you can easily enable.

Repositories: F-Droid is very strict about the apps that are included in the official repository but there are other repositories you can add to have access to more apps. Izzy's repo is a popular one which you can easily add.

Browser

• Fennec which is Firefox on F-Droid

  • tracking protection, dark theme, pic-in-pic mode and extensions e.g. uBlock Origin (adblocker) and Dark Reader (force dark themes on any site)

Youtube

• Newpipe

  • Lightweight, background playback, video or audio download, no accounts needed, subscriptions and more.

Peertube is a decentralized Youtube alternative:

• Newpipe also supports Peertube.

Google Play

If you still have to use apps not avialable on F-Droid

• Aurora Store

  • Update and explore apps without a Google account.

If you wanna completely get rid of Google Play Services, check microG out.

Reddit

• Infinity for reddit

  • Modern material design, very customizable themes, multiple post layouts, lazy mode (auto scroll) dark mode, multiple account support.

Lemmy is a federated Reddit alternative:

• Lemmur

Twitter

• Twidere

  • Libre twitter client, classic material design, supports mastodon as well, very customizable.

  A completely new version of Twidere, called TwidereX, is being actively developed.

There is now an app that support Nitter (a FOSS front end for Twitter):

• Fritter
  • No account needed, Twitter doesn't get to track you at all.

Mastodon is a federated Twitter alternative:

• Tusky

Email

• Tutanota

• ProtonMail The app isn't available on F-Droid but ProtonMail is open source and very good privacy-wise.

Google

Password manager

You should absolutely use one.

• KeePassDX

  • Material design, Biometric recognition, 2FA, Auto-Fill and more.

Shelter

• Isolate the nasty apps that you can't get rid of (e.g. WhatsApp) and control the data they have access to. The app uses an Android feature called Work Profiles.

Messaging

• Element

  • Client for the decentralized Matrix protocol. It's E2E encrypted by default. Supports bots and bridges and is an alternative to WhatsApp and Discord.

• Telegram

  • Very convenient and easy to use, lots of features, group voice chats similar to Discord's and more. It isn't E2E encrypted by default.

Zoom alternative

• Jitsi Meet

  • No accounts needed, E2E encryption...

Music player

• Vinyl Music Player

  • light, customizable, slick material desgin with multiple themes (including a dark one), sleep timer and a tag editor

• Metro Music Player

  • Feature rich, customizable, uses the modern material design, sleep timer and multiple unique themes.

Video player

• VLC

  • ton of supported formats, beautiful interface, dark theme, subtitle support, playback speed control and more.

Ebooks

• Librera Reader

  • great interface, customization, night mode, support for popular offline dictionaries and a lot more.

Adblocker

• Blokada 5

  • doesn't need root

Launcher

• Omega Launcher

• OpenLauncher

Gallery

• Simple Gallery Pro

• PhotoChiotte

Maps

• OsmAnd+

File sharing

• KDE Connect

  • Share files and clipboard via WiFi, notifications sync, supports Linux, Windows and MacOS.

• Sharik

File syncing

• Syncthing

  • Check the features here.

Keyboard

• AnySoftKeyboard

  • Modern design, Swipe typing, okay autocorrect, suggestions, themes, incognito mode and more.

• OpenBoard

  • More like gboard, modern design, no swipe typing, good autocorrect, incognito mode.

Notes

• Standard Notes

  • supports E2E encryption, cross platform, notes can be automatiacly synced.

• Joplin The app isn't available on F-Droid but it's open source.

Memes

• MemeTastic
  • Meme creator with many customization options.

Weather

• Weather
  • Open source weather client, very small >5MB
  • YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO USE NONFREE SERVICES TO GET WEATHER DATA

Document scanner

• OpenScan follow the instructions here to add Izzy's repository to F-Droid

  • Scan anything, simple and powerful cropping features, great user interface, share as PDF/JPGs

Calendar

• Simple Calendar Pro

Camera

• Open Camera

Scrambled Exif & ImagePipe

Remove metadata from your pics before sharing them. Very important for opsec.

Podcasts

• AntennaPod

Anki

• A powerful flash cards app.

Games

• Minetest

  • Inspired by Minecraft, multiplayer, mods, being actively developed and more.

• Lichess avialable on Izzy's repository.

Facebook

Avoid using Facebook if possible

• Frost for Facebook

  • Multi account support, full theming, PIP videos and more.

Instagram

Avoid using Instagram if possible and use Pixelfed instead

• Barinsta

  • alternative FOSS client for Instagram which you can use with or without an account. It has a lot of features you can check out.

Pixelfed is a federated Instagram alternative

Twitch

Don't engage with gam*rs!

• Twire

  • Ad-free Twitch client that supports accounts

Office

• Collabora

RSS reader

Use the search feature in F-Droid, :LIB: I use an RSS bot on Matrix so I don't know about the RSS apps on F-Droid and there are a lot.

TO-DO

This is on my to-do :)

For websites that don't have an app

you can use PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) instead by clicking on Add To Home screen in Firefox's main menu.

Contribute to F-Droid:

• Become a reviewer
• Donate

Which apps you still can't replace? Do you have any FOSS recommendations? Questions?

Huge thanks to @kitten & @SirLotsaLocks for their contributions to this post!