Uses

The software I actually run — desktop, terminal, browser, phone, and the server doing the quiet work. Nearly all of it free.

The desktop

Linux · GNOME

Mission Center processes, resources and services, watched in one window

Gear Lever AppImages installed and updated like native apps

Ferdium every chat client in a single window

Obsidian notes as plain files, linked like a graph

Ludusavi game saves found, backed up and restorable

Rustdesk remote desktop without an account

LocalSend files between devices; nothing leaves the network

Another Redis Desktop Manager Redis keys, browsable and editable

Bruno API calls without the auto-save Replaces Insomnia. Bruno allows changing requests without auto-saving. Insomnia auto-saves changes.

Czkawka duplicates, empty folders and lookalike photos, found

Flameshot screenshots with annotation built in

Copyous clipboard history with tag groups

Caffeine the screen stays awake through long builds

Editor + terminal

VS Code · zsh

Distrobox any distro's packages inside a container, host untouched

Ghostty GPU-accelerated, tiling, GTK4-native — the default terminal

Zsh the shell; completion and spelling that mostly behave

Atuin shell history, searchable and synced

Oh My Posh the prompt: git state, battery, no ceremony

Zoxide cd, if cd had a memory

Lazydocker containers, logs and stats in one TUI

Presenterm slides written in Markdown, run in the terminal

Pandoc one document in, any format out

Hugo the static site generator this blog is built on

PlantUML diagrams from text, rendered anywhere

Borg Backup deduplicated, encrypted snapshots I use this to create deduplicated backups of both my servers and personal computer.

Rclone what carries the backups off-site, 40+ providers deep

Rsync mirrors and incremental transfers I use this to securely sync Borg backup archives to Google Drive for offsite redundancy, and for efficiently mirroring and synchronizing photo directories between multiple hard drives.

AI tools

Agents · plugins

OpenCode the AI coding agent that lives in the terminal

Orca an agent per git worktree, reviewed before it merges

Ponytail the agent told to write the least code that works

The browser

Firefox

uBlock Origin the ad blocker; filters, not vibes

Multi-Account Containers identities separated into colour-coded containers

Dark Reader dark mode for the sites that never shipped one

LanguageTool the same grammar checker, inline in the browser

Obsidian Web Clipper pages and highlights captured to the vault

The phone

Android

Fennec Browser Firefox with the trackers left at the door

Droid-ify the F-Droid client that doesn't hurt

DAVx5 calendars and contacts, synced properly

Haven SSH, VNC, RDP and SFTP, from the phone

Wallabag the read-it-later queue, offline

Jellyfin the media library, in the pocket

Zerotier the home network, reachable from anywhere

Nextcloud files and photos, synced to my server

Home Assistant the house, switchable from the phone

Bitwarden passwords autofilled from Vaultwarden

Paperless the document archive, searchable on the go

Paperless Share scan in any app, share it, it lands in Paperless

OSS Document Scanner the scanner: edge detection, PDF, no ads

Koreader the same reader, on Android

The server

Docker · self-hosted

Paperless scanned paper, OCR'd and searchable I use this to manage scanned documents and ensure they are searchable, well-organized and not lost. It integrates seamlessly with my home lab setup for document storage and retrieval.

BentoPDF PDF surgery that never leaves the machine Replaces Stirling PDF. BentoPDF processes files client-side; Stirling sends data to cloud.

Vaultwarden my passwords, on my hardware I self-host this to keep password data under my control and reduce exposure to online threats like polymorphic extension attacks that target cloud-based password managers.

Authentik SSO, MFA and user lifecycle for everything proxied

Adguard DNS for the whole network — blocking, DoH, caching I use this as my DNS server for local DNS resolution and caching, providing fast lookups and enhanced privacy for all devices on my network. It provides DNS over HTTPS (DoH), which encrypts DNS queries and prevents my internet provider from seeing or logging browsing activity.

Adguardhome sync keeps the second AdGuard instance honest

Grafana dashboards and alerts over the homelab metrics I use this to visualize metrics collected by Prometheus and set up alerting rules to notify me via Telegram whenever critical thresholds are breached.

Prometheus the metrics store everything reports to I use this to collect detailed metrics from both containers and the host system, using cAdvisor for container-level insights and Node Exporter for system metrics.

Uptime Kuma health checks with a Telegram shout when something dies I use this for real-time health checks of all my services, with immediate Telegram alerts if any become unreachable.

ChangeDetection.io watches pages for the change that matters

Netalertx knows what's on the network before I do

Dozzle container logs, live, no database I rely on this to view container logs in real time. It's lightweight and simple, which suits my needs since I don't require long-term log retention.

Home Assistant the house runs on this; 1000+ integrations

Mosquitto the MQTT broker the sensors talk through

Frigate cameras with local object detection

Wallabag read-it-later that keeps the articles

Medassist medication reminders and dose tracking for the household

Nextcloud files, calendars and contacts on my own server

Nginx Manager the reverse proxy, with certificates that renew themselves

Zerotier One the peer-to-peer VPN into the homelab I use this as my peer-to-peer VPN solution for securely accessing my home lab from anywhere without exposing ports or relying on traditional port forwarding. It uses UDP hole punching to create encrypted, direct connections between devices, even behind NAT or firewalls.

Watchtower containers update themselves on a schedule

Forgejo the git server this blog's pipeline runs on

Dockge Compose stacks, managed from a browser

Huginn agents that watch, scrape and act

Bichon email archived, searchable, compressed

Immich the photo library that replaced Google Photos

Jellyfin films, series and music, streamed from home

Audiobookshelf audiobooks and podcasts, progress per device

Komga the comics and manga shelf

Calibre Web the ebook library, browsable and downloadable

Atuin Server shell history, stored and synced on my own hardware

LanguageTool the grammar engine, served to my apps and extensions

ezBookkeeping the household ledger: accounts, transactions, import

The reader

Kindle · KOReader

Koreader the reader: PDF reflow, dictionaries, gestures, night mode

Kosync reading position synced between every device