Recommended Distributions for a Reliable and Supported PhD System

Why Linux reigns for privacy; our recommendations for secure tools from chat to DNS.

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• Privacy friendly ESP32 smart doorbell with Home Assistant local integration — This project is aimed at being simple while allowing a ton of customisation and flexibility. To get started, you’ll need an instance of Home Assistant running with the ESPHome add-on as well as the Home Assistant companion app on your mobile phone to receive notifications when someone presses the doorbell button.
• Alex in Chicago, Aug 10, 2023 | Meetup
• The U.K. Government Is Dangerously Close to Eroding Encryption and Normalizing Mass Surveillance — "The U.K. government wants to grant itself the right to scan every message online for content related to child abuse or terrorism—and says it will still, somehow, magically, protect peoples’ privacy. That’s simply impossible. U.K. civil society groups have condemned the bill, as have technical experts and human rights groups around the world."
• U.K. civil society groups
• human rights groups around the world
• WhatsApp, Signal, and the UK-based Element
• Now Apple takes a bite out of encryption-bypassing 'spy clause' in UK internet law — "End-to-end encryption is a critical capability that protects the privacy of journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats," Apple argued in a statement to the media.
• Privacy | Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Snowflake ❄️ — Snowflake is a system that allows people from all over the world to access censored websites and applications. Similar to how VPNs assist users in getting around Internet censorship, Snowflake helps you avoid being noticed by Internet censors by making your Internet activity appear as though you're using the Internet for a regular video or voice call.
• Pi-hole – Network-wide Ad Blocking — Instead of browser plugins or other software on each computer, install Pi-hole in one place and your entire network is protected.
• AdGuard Home
• NextDNS - The new firewall for the modern Internet
• UnifiedPush — UnifiedPush is a set of specifications and tools that lets the user choose how push notifications* are delivered. All in a free and open source way.
• NextPush - Server App — UnifiedPush provider for Nextcloud - server application
• UnifiedPush: a decentralized, open-source push notification protocol
• Proton Drive — Proton Drive is an end-to-end encrypted Swiss vault for your files that protects your data.
• SimpleLogin — Open source anonymous email service
• Simple NixOS Mailserver
• Proton Calendar
• EteSync - Secure Data Sync — Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and privacy respecting sync for your contacts, calendars, tasks and notes.
• Nextcloud + DAVx5 — DAVx⁵ has been successfully tested with Nextcloud.
• Syncthing — Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it’s transmitted over the internet.
• Nextcloud - Online collaboration platform — Regain control over your data
• Send — Send lets you share files with end-to-end encryption and a link that automatically expires. So you can keep what you share private and make sure your stuff doesn’t stay online forever.
• nitter: Alternative Twitter front-end — A free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy and performance. Inspired by the Invidious project.
• FreeTube — The Private YouTube Client
• NewPipe - a free YouTube client — NewPipe has been created with the purpose of getting the original YouTube experience on your smartphone without annoying ads and questionable permissions.
• yattee — Privacy-oriented video player for iOS, tvOS and macOS
• libredirect — A browser extension that redirects YouTube, Twitter, TikTok... requests to alternative privacy friendly frontends and backends.
• Aegis Authenticator - Secure 2FA app for Android — Aegis Authenticator is a free, secure and open source app for Android to manage your 2-step verification tokens for your online services.
• SimpleX Chat: private and secure messenger without any user IDs (not even random) — Other apps have user IDs: Signal, Matrix, Session, Briar, Jami, Cwtch, etc. SimpleX does not, not even random numbers. This radically improves your privacy.
• Element — A secure communications platform built around you.
• PrivacyGuides.org
• PrivacyTools.io
• Surveillance Self-Defense - EFF
• Funding Developers With Lightning
• Tailscale on GL.iNet Routers — Tailscale feature available since V4.2.
• Nix-on-Droid — Nix-on-Droid brings Nix package manager of NixOS fame to your mobile device.
• InvidTUI — InvidTUI is an invidious client, which fetches data from invidious instances and displays a user interface in the terminal, and allows for selecting and playing Youtube audio and video.