Note - I keep updating this article as I start using a new FOSS application/software.

Journey began in late 2016, when free laptop was being distributed by my alma mater with Ubuntu Operating System on it. But no one told us what exactly is Ubuntu. Prior to that, I had used Windows extensively for over a decade. Like everyone else I was clueless about this, and like everyone I also got it formatted with Windows. But something weird happened, and my system got infected with virus. As far as I can remember, system started behaving weirdly, language got changed(to Mandarin/Korean I guess) and so on. It was painful to operate. I couldn’t disinfect my system with my limited knowledge and internet bandwith back then(no broadband connection, and just 2GB data per month on 3G on my smartphone). And few weeks later, we have to return our laptop as semester got over. I had no personal laptop back then. One thing that I clearly remember is that, I loved the simple and fast, but unfamiliar Ubuntu over bloated and slow, familiar Windows. So, I had decided that whenever I’ll buy a new laptop I’ll install Ubuntu on it. Fast forward few months, I bought a laptop, unsurprisingly Windows installed on it. Since the laptop was a very old model with poor specs, it couldn’t handle the Windows bloatedness.

I decided to install Ubuntu on it but I had literally no idea how to do it. Windows can be installed at any cybercafe near you but no one was aware of Ubuntu. Neither I had any friend who were using it. So I was stuck. I took help of youtube videos, bought a pendrive, flashed it with Ubuntu. But got stuck at GRUB error. And was stuck there for many days!! Thankfully there was a person in a slack group(Devs and Hackers) that helped me out. I’m so grateful to him. He helped me during his office hours(don’t know how). His lunch got delayed to 5PM, I guess. He has hell-bent to get this problem solved. The slack thread had over 100 messages. Finally, I could see the splash screen. Yeahhh!!! Couldn’t have been more happy that day. This incident also changed me as a person to help others, even strangers, selflessly – just because you love your work. But this will be a separate article.

This was a biggest turning point in my life. I didn’t know back then that I would love this so much that this(programming) would be my bread and butter one day. The sheer joy of knowing that an application is open-source and looking at the source code of the application is beyond any explanation. I can sacrifice a lot on great user-interface, features, latency, stability, and so on just because something is open-source. This level of obsession is not a good thing, I know, but yeah, this is what it is.

List of FOSS

This is a list of FOSS, that I personally use. Note that, I prefer using FOSS but there are some situations where you can avoid the big players. So, when I say I use Organic Maps, that doesn’t mean I don’t ever use Google Maps.

Desktop

  • Ubuntu(primary Operating System)
  • LibreOffice software suite(alternative of Microsoft Word, Excel, etc)
  • Audacity(Voice Recording)
  • Calibre(eBooks)
  • VLC(Media Player)
  • Firefox/Brave
  • SimpleScreenRecorder
  • CopyQ(Clipboard manager)
  • Remmina(Remote Desktop Client)
  • FlameShot(Screenshot)
  • Wireshark(Packet Inspection/Analyser)

Android

  • F-Droid(FOSS repository)
  • Organic Maps
  • Fossify Gallery
  • Harmonic(For Hackernews)
  • Infinity(For Reddit)
  • Librera
  • Conversations(XMPP/Jabber client for Android)

I’m grateful to all the wonderful people behind these projects. In terms of contribution, I’ve done nothing beyond raising few issues and starring a project, but I’ll fix that soon. Being part of a community that’s always ready to help and go extra mile is just awesome. Such experiences have changed me as a person and helped me shape my view outside the techincal field as well.

Happy FOSSing