Duel of the Defaults: My List
I've been wanting to do one of this posts for a long time. This was one of my first drafts before I opened this blog, actually. Back in February, I spent some time trying to put order on my storage. I had important stuff laying around on my computer, on iCloud, on Google Drive, on my bookmarked Instagram posts, a gazillion smartphone notes and documents on my SD Card. I couldn't find anything and I needed a better system. I made some online searches and swiftly felt in a rabbit hole of reddit threads about deGoogling, "how to build a NAS from home" tutorials (I didn't do that), small web advices, note taking softwares and so on. My first actions toward a more ethical use of technology were emptying my Google Drive, learning how to use Obsidian and opening my blog.
I keep delaying this post because I thought I couldn't publicly admit I still use ChatGPT sometimes, or that I enabled back Google Play services not long after disabling it, because some of my Apps wouldn't work anymore. Well here it is, it's the 25th of May, I've been on this journey for 4 month and it's not perfect. See below what works for me and what doesn't. To be honest, I like using opensource individual apps, but my phone is still under Android-Google embargo and my computer runs on Windows. I think shifting from these is a big step I'm not technically ready to take. Looks like I still have learning opportunities ahead! I'm open for advice via e-mail, <3 here <3.
| Category | Default | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 📨 Mail Client: | Proton Mail | I don't like getting pop-ups about subscriptions and I'm not ready to pay for an e-mail service, but it works for now. |
| 📮 Mail Server: | Proton Mail | |
| 📝 Notes: | Open Notes on my phone, Obsidian on my computer | Perfect. |
| ✅ To-Do: | Open Notes | Perfect. |
| 📷 Phone Photo Shooting: | FreeDCam | Best app I used so far, lets you tinker with a lot of parametres. Not the easiest to use though. |
| 🟦 Photo Management: | Aves Gallery | Good! |
| 📆 Calendar: | Fossify Calendar | Minimal, pretty, works well. |
| 📁 Cloud File Storage: | Proton Drive | Meh. |
| 📖 RSS: | None. | |
| 🙍🏻♂️ Contacts: | Google Contacts | Meh. |
| 🌐 Browser: | Zen on computer, DuckDuckGo on phone | Perfect. |
| 💬 Chat: | SMS, Whatsapp, Instagram, Discord | I'm not really okay with that but I follow what ma friends are using. |
| 🔖 Bookmarks: | None. | |
| 📑 Read It Later: | Chaotic note taking. | Perfect for losing stuff you don't really want to read. |
| 📜 Word Processing: | Word | Cracked version |
| 📈 Spreadsheets: | Excel | Cracked version |
| 📊 Presentations: | None. | |
| 🛒 Shopping Lists: | My husband's note taking app | |
| 🍴 Meal Planning: | My husband's brain | |
| 💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: | Excel | Cracked version |
| 📰 News: | None. | |
| 🤖 LLM: | None. | Erratic anxiety-induced ChatGPT use. I don't recommend. |
| 🎵 Music: | Harmony music | Not-so-legal, works well, occasional lagging. |
| 🎤 Podcasts: | Antenna Pod | Good. |
| 🔐 Password Management: | Proton Pass | Perfect. |
| 📸 Photo Editing: | Darktable for RAWs, GIMP for jpegs | Opensource, easy to learn, works well. |
| 📺 Movies and TV: | oldschool free streaming on my browser and Jellyfin client with media selfhosted by a friend | |
| 📍 Phone maps: | Organic Maps and Google Maps | OSM-based maps are not good for driving and public transportation, couldn't find a better option than GMaps sadly. |
| 🪲 Data management and maps: | QGis | My favorite painful activity. |
See other people's App Defaults on Hemispheric Views, set up by Robb Knight.
P.S.: I don't have a GitHub nor a Mastodon or a Signal account. Would anyone help me add my post here? Any help would be greatly appreciated ._.