I was recently asked about some software recommendations for a newly setup system to maintain the optimal state of the machine throughout its lifetime and possibly keep it clean and safe from any threats. Apparently the subject matter is a bit complex and there will always be a room to improve on the practices and the tools we use to solve the issue, regardless, I thought out to frame a list of software and practices to go by in order to make best out of the your machine.

I will be updating this list regularly as I get time or come by new better tool. You can also check my uses page to get insight into my personal artifacts choice.

🌱 Software

• uBO - The best ad & unwanted content blocker out there.
• 7-zip - Better than WinRar because free.
• Bleachbit - System Cleaner, safer than CCleaner because FOSS.
• Bitwarden - Open Source Password Management Solution.
• Free Download Manager - Free alternative for IDM.
• JDownloader 2 - Download manager for downloading files in bulk.
• XDM - Another free dl-manager with extension support to grab links.
• Tor - Bypass censorship (won't suffice for VPN).
• FastForward - bypass annoying link shorteners.
• qBittorrent - The best torrent client for personal use.
• Recuva - Recover your deleted files quickly and easily.
• Velocity - Offline API Documentation tool.
• Zsh - A powerful command line shell.
• LibreOffice - Open source office suite.
• Sumatra PDF - PDF, ePub, MOBI, CHM, XPS, DjVu, CBZ, CBR reader.
• Calibre - Powerful software for e-book management and conversion.
• Blender - Fully-featured extensible cross-platform 3D content suite.
• Inkscape - professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
• Duplicati - Free backup software to store encrypted backups online.
• mpv - Multiplatform media player.
• rclone - Swiss army knife for cloud storages.
• NetNewsWire - FOSS RSS Reader for iOS and MacOS.
• NextDNS - DNS resolver with Adblocking.
• Syncthing - an open-source peer-to-peer continuous file synchronization utility.

⚠️ Avoid

• Avast - Notorious for collecting and selling user data.
• CCleaner - Owned by Avast.
• Bittorrent - has ads, trackers, and is unsafe.
• Utorrent - has ads, trackers, and is unsafe.