Here is a list of software that I have used, and that you should definitely consider using:
- A GNU/Linux or Linux in combination with other free userspace components. I suggest Mint for newcomers, and Arch or Void if you're already comfortable or wish to become immediately comfortable with the terminal. Some great resources that will help you along your journey are:
- DistroTube: Makes lots of in-depth tutorials about various Linux topics, great for newfriends and veterans alike.
- Mental Outlaw: Makes great videos about technology in general, also pokes fun at big tech a lot and sometimes makes cooking videos, give him a follow.
- The ArchWiki: An extremely useful wiki, even if you aren't using Arch. Just ignore anything Arch-specific, such as
pacmancommands.
- Ungoogled Chromium, Firefox with telemetry disabled, or if you're feeling adventurous, qutebrowser.
- Suckless Software, such as dwm, st, and surf.
- IRC, XMPP, or Matrix instead of proprietary solutions such as Discord. I know IRC may seem antiquated, but it still gets the job done well without all the bloat when dealing with a web/electron application.
- GIMP, Inkscape, Kdenlive, and other free &/or open-source alternatives to the Adobe creative suite. It's free and legal!