Kelson Reviews Desktop and Server Software
- Alpine Linux ★★★★★ Lightweight Linux distribution with modern capabilities and smooth package management despite its low resource requirements. Good for small cloud servers, old hardware, Raspberry Pi, etc.
- BBEdit ★★★★★ Text editor for macOS that's powerful enough to handle multi-megabyte files and still light enough to jot down notes.
- FeatherPad ★★★★★ A lightweight, fast, stable, and capable text editor for Linux.
- Floccus Bookmarks Sync ★★★★★ Very flexible, syncs across many different desktop browsers and mobile devices, and for privacy it can run on your own server or encrypted on another cloud service.
- GoToSocial ★★★★☆ A lightweight Fediverse server, with a clean web interface for viewing public posts. Compatible with Mastodon apps and interacts with other ActivityPub platforms.
- Jellyfin ★★★★★ Great for playing music across my local network, doesn't phone home to a cloud or try to upsell subscriptions.
- KeePass Password Managers ★★★★★ KeePassXC, its browser extension, and KeePass2Android are a nice, clean set of apps to manage your passwords on your OWN desktop and mobile devices, auto-fill websites and apps, and sync over your own server or cloud provider.
- Liferea ★★★★☆ A nice, lightweight feed reader for Linux that does the basics.
- Manyverse ★★★★☆ Takes the pain out of setting up and running SSB. Unfortunately it doesn't overcome SSB's inherent challenges of discovery, data size or multiple devices. (So far?)
- Mastodon – Simplified Federation ★★★★★ A Firefox add-on that automatically opens remote Mastodon users or posts in your home server when you interact with them.
- NetNewsWire ★★★★★ Clean, stable, fast, free, no-clutter and no-nonsense RSS/Atom newsfeed reader for macOS and iOS.
- NewsFlash ★★★★★ Clean, stable, fast, free, no-clutter and no-nonsense RSS/Atom newsfeed reader for Linux that optionally syncs with multiple services.
- Nextcloud News ★★★★★ Simple web-based news reader for Nextcloud, easy to install and syncs with mobile clients.
- Nextcloud Notes ★★★★★ Simpler than Google Keep, more private, with human-readable data that syncs quickly and cleanly with your devices.
- Plex ★★★☆☆ It does let you stream your local media library, but it insists on connecting to a cloud account and pushes you to buy a subscription, even if you're not using its remote services.