Writings for the drawer

How Open Source Improves My Quality of Life

This morning I was thinking about computer networks, as one does, and I realized something. Since I installed Pi-hole, I have seen next to no ads on my phone. While yes, it only applies to my home network (at the moment) I use some FOSS on my phone that also does not display ads. It got me thinking about my usage of open source projects and how musch it makes my life better compared to commercial solutions.

Note that I have not been compensated in any way to talk about the things mentioned in this article. I just think they're neat.
P.S. The buttons in this article actually work!

Pi-hole

I know I already mentioned it, but I should talk about it in more detail. Pi-hole is network-level ad and internet tracker blocking application, acting as a DNS sinkhole. What that means in praxis is that it is an application that block ads network-wide. Once I set it up I saw less ads on my computers, my phone, tablet, even on our smart TV in the living room. I set it up on Raspberry Pi Zero 2, so that it can run 24/7 with low power draw, but you can install it on basically anything with CPU and access to network.

Newpipe

I can't remember the last time I used the official youtube client on my phone. I've been using Newpipe for a long time now. It is a lightweight youtube client, without ads, that allows you to play video in the background. It also comes with it's own system for subscribing, meaning my youtube subs are not automatically transferred. It is easy to set it up, I just never bothered, it results in me watching less youtube anyway. There was a push from google to block alternative yt clients, but Newpipe team found a way to overcome it in a few days. Amazing work!

Gadgetbridge

Hold onto your chairs cause this is a wild one. Have you noticed that nowdays every single gadget released that is meant to work with your phone needs it's own app? I'm the kind of guy who likes his phone as minimal as possible (Minirant: My school is moving from having students ID cards to having an app, I hate it.). Last month I got a cheap smart ring from aliexpress, that somebody python clinet to read data from it. Absolute mad lads, if I do say so myself. And it was integrated to Gadgetbridge, meaning I don't need to get that weird app that came with it.

That is just one usecase, I know. Gadgetbridge integrates much more things. Headphones, smartwatches, smart home sensors and stuff, it really is awesome. Go check it out!

Rapid fire of cool software that everybody knows but still deserves shout-out

• VLC - Lightweight media player that plays anything and everything. Do I need to say more?
• GIMP - Powerful image editor that at one point I used daily
• qBittorrent - Torrent client without malware, unlinke μ***
• Firefox - The best web browser there is. There is also mobile wersion with support for extensions (adblocking on the go!)

Unix60

Okay, this might not be FOSS, but it is still open source. It's just hardware. A mechanical keyboard, to be exact. I love mechanical keyboards. I've built and modded several boards over the course of last few years, and I'll make sure to post all of them here sometime, but right now I'm focusing on my favorite Unix60. It is a HHKB style 60% keyboard, with all of the files free and open source. You can order all of the parts seperately, with the PCB and stuff. I just bought it from local keyboard store. It came as a kit with PCB, some components and modest case. I had to get switches, keycaps, and Pro Micro seperately. But let me say this, it is my favorite board for everything, even gaming (only newer titles though, games like the original Deus Ex use almost whole keyboard and I have seperate gaming board for that).

I refer to this keybaord as a Schizoboard, since I got very cute UFO keycaps, with alien alphabet, and made bits of the case using old redbull cans. It is exactly my aesthetic and typing on it feels soo good.

I love this keyboard so much I got two more of them. One with silent switches for work, and one experimental, with hotswap sockets. I can't get it to work yet but I'm not giving up! My Schizoboard is almost perfect, but the switches could be a bit lighter. I don't want to desolder all of it.

My favorite keyboard with Ploopy Adept next to it

Jellyfin

I used to store all of my media on external HDD. There are many problems with that, but the main thing I wanted to solve was accessing my media collection from whichever device I wanted. My tablet does not support external HDDs and it was a chore to choose what I wanted to watch, connect the HDD to my computer, copy the files to computer, disconnect HDD, connect tablet, copy files to the tablet and pray it does not fail...

This lenghty process resulted in me not using my tablet for watching movies, which was why I got it in the first place. After my HDD died I realized that that is not the way. I had some spare money and I built a small Linux server, running Ubuntu server edition, with Jellyfin Now we're finally getting to it. Jellyfin is a media management and streaming service, that you host on your own hardware. Basically home-made netfilx. You have to provide your own collection of legally obtained media, but once you got it all you get your own private netflix with movies and shows you care about, without the fear of some lincece expiration and not being able to access the content you wanted.

I have it set up so it only works on my home network. You can access it externaly, but personally, I don't bother. When I'm out and about I usually have better things to do than binge the X-files. I go to school, work, spend time at libraries and coffee shops, or hang out / travell with friends, and not once did I wish I could just watch Spiderman 2 on the go.

But really, Jellyfin is a brilliant piece of software, with streaming clients for all operating systems imaginable. If you have the time to tinker check it out.

Linux :)))

Look, I don't want to be the stereotypical linux user telling you that my way of doing things is the superior way and you should switch yesterday. I just wanna say it's really nice to have complete control over your computer. Something we're loosing a bit of whenever new major update hits whichever OS you're currently using, be it Windows, Mac, Android, iphone/ipad os...

The reason why I got into Linux in the first place was curiousity at first. I distrohopped for a while, but then returned back to windows. Howerver after microsoft announced that the requirements for windows 11 were so high that my laptop at the time could not officialy run it, I figured that it was the best time to finally properly learn how to use linux. I fell in love with how lightweight and customizable it is. I can change almost everything about it. All the software I need works, but you know, I was using FOSS before I switched to Linux. And I love how simple it is to update all of the aplications. Just one commnad away. Also gaming on Linux is awesome. I am a fan of single player games, and since the release of proton I have yet to find a game that does not run.

Linux gaming on my steam deck :)

Closing thoughts

You may have noticed that I am a fan of open source stuff. And you are right, I love me some open source. I did contribute to some projects with my own smelly code and financially supported others. In my opinion, it is the way software should be. Yeah I know there are tons of money to be made on blackbox projects, but open source just hits different, you know. You get to be a part of community. Open source is people helping each other out and that is without a doubt the best thing you can do.