Because all my normal usernames were taken

Why is it more fun to do what is literally my day job but for free.

A list of some of the things I find myself constantly suggesting to people. Mix of Windows and Linux stuff.

For Windows

Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil Can install multiple applications, tweak a bunch of system settings, and on Windows Pro systems alter update schedules.

O&O ShutUp10++ https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 Turn off tracking and telemetry as well as annoying features. Has a suite of options for disabling and removing AI related components as well, however since Microsoft is actively adding and reinstalling these it needs to be run again periodically to catch changes. (There is a button for this tool in the Chris Tutus winutil)

AdwCleaner https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner Can catch some pre-installed "user experience program" type rubbish on pre-installed laptops/all-in-ones

Rufus https://rufus.ie/en/ For creating bootable USB drives for installing Windows/Linux/Whatever. Has built in options to disable RAM, CPU and TPU, and online user account requirements in Windows 11. More reliable than the official Windows Media Creation Tool in my experience.

Helium https://helium.computer/ An interesting web browser project to keep an eye on (Not just windows, also for Mac and Linux). It's a privacy centric de-googled lightweight chromium fork. It's still early days but I've got a lot of respect for the team from their previous work. Depending on how things go with Firefox over the next year or so I could see myself using this as a primary browser.

MassGrave Dot Dev Don't worry about this if you don't know what it is. It's such a shame that Windows 10 extended support is a pain to get working. And it sucks how expensive Windows and Office are. Real shame. Yep. If only it didn't cost money or something. I don't know why I'm even mentioning this specifically under this heading ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's a mystery.

For Linux Linux Distro Links

Linux Mint https://www.linuxmint.com/ Beginner Friendly. Old reliable, nothing fancy but very consistent. Default UI is a little bit older in design (This isn't a bad thing) mirroring more of the Windows 7 era. It's the standard recommendation for newcomers for a reason, though it has more competition now. Especially good for slow/weaker hardware.

Fedora (KDE Plasma Edition) https://fedoraproject.org/kde/ Beginner Friendly. Rapidly becoming the distro I recommend for people new to Linux. Typically sees new toys and updates sooner than Mint. The Gnome edition is also good if you like that sort of thing (If you're coming from a Mac you may find it more natural than the KDE one).

Bazzite https://bazzite.gg/ Gaming specific option. Has specific quirks but good for handheld/newer hardware. Atomic and immutable, which often means it's harder to break in a big way. In some ways similar to SteamOS. A relative newcomer compared to what I usually recommend, but it covers it's niche so well that I want to mention it.

Debian https://www.debian.org/ Stable as a rock once set up and working, but often takes more tinkering that the above options. Requires customisation, and runs LTS versions of most things but my go-to for older clients who need something basic that will work without intervention for several years. Flatpak on top for newer stuff where needed. Probably not quite what the average Tumblr user is going to want, but for people who are find with older software version and just want consistency it is like a dream come true.

CachyOS Honorable mention. Not as beginner friendly as the others, but with how much buzz it's had the last year there are loads of help resources and videos on how to work it. Fancy heavily optimised gaming focused distro based on Arch. No link for this one because if you can't work that bit out you are not the target audience. It's biggest benefit from my point of view is that it's a very approachable way to learn Arch without jumping in at the deep end. It's performance benefits over a well configured Arch setup are often overstated, but it strips out all the prep work required to achieve that. A key rule to remember is that software optimisation is no substitute for upgraded hardware, chasing a couple of FPS more performance is usually not worth the effort unless you enjoy the process.

Software/Utils

Rescatux https://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/ If your shit won't boot. Can make problems worse if you don't know what a button does before you click it. Read the docs before getting ahead of yourself.

Flatpak https://flatpak.org/setup/ For distros that don't ship it by default.

Flathub https://flathub.org/ Online browser for Flatpaks. A little quicker/nicer than some distros software managers for browsing the list. Also lets Windows users see what's out there.

Bottles https://flathub.org/en/apps/com.usebottles.bottles Containerised Wine/Proton instances. Less fiddly than something like Lutris for basic applications. Has an analysis tool that can identify issues with running Windows applications.

Boxes https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.Boxes Basic Virtual Machine application for running other systems inside of Linux. Note that they will have strictly worse performance than running natively.

ProtonPlus https://protonplus.vysp3r.com/ Install and update custom Proton versions to potentially improve Windows game performance.

KDE Connect https://kdeconnect.kde.org/ Android and iPhone sync/control util. Loads of cool features

Warp https://flathub.org/en/apps/app.drey.Warp Send files over the net. Handy for moving stuff between machines when you can't find a USB stick. Or for quickly sending something to someone that won't fit in an email. Apps that support the Magic Wormhole protocol exist for almost all devices.

Easy Effects https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects Digital audio processing toolkit with significant plugin support. Filter, noise gate, post process, pitch shift, graphic EQ, you name it, it's here or in a plugin. The Flatpak version comes with more plugins included out of the box, and due to dependency hell it is often worth just sticking to the Flatpak to keep that self contained.

qpwgraph (or Helvum, but it's unmaintained) https://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/2896 Digital audio patch bay to reroute audio. Let's you mix and redirect sound outputs per-source and per-device. Let's you do things like mix sound effects into a microphone feed, or help capture sound for recording in uncooperative programs.

Rust Desk https://rustdesk.com/ I only include this with some hesitation due to the security implications of remote desktop applications. Cross platform remote control util. I'm moving to this in preference to Anydesk due to their rubbish Linux support.

Timeshift https://github.com/linuxmint/timeshift System snapshot and restore util. Native to Linux Mint. Theoretically has some issues with non-grub bootloaders but still handy to know about. ClamUI https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.github.linx_systems.ClamUI Pretty front end for the ClamAV antivirus engine. Also has a section suggesting additional optional security tweaks to harden the system - These are optional suggestions, not a to-do list, so don't go nuts with it unless you know the what and why of it's suggestions.

Graphic design / Editing / Paid software substitution stuff GIMP = raster image editing, similar to Photoshop but less expansive. Inkscape = Vector image editing, similar to Illustrator but less expansive. Scribus = Layout stuff, probably closest to InDesign but more bare bones. Krita = Digital painting and editing. I mainly use this for it's good CMYK support. LibreOffice = General purpose office suite. Requires changing save file types to docx, xlsx for seamless cross generation compatibility with MS Office. OnlyOffice = More recent general purpose Office replacement. As close to MS Office UI as they can get without trouble. Slow compared to LibreOffice, but more familiar for less savvy users. Theoretically better cross compatibility with MS Office. FreeCAD = Parametric cad software. I suck at using it, definitely requires a bunch of practice and reading to be good with. LibreCAD = Basic 2D cad. Very lightweight, quite barebones. If you need something more more oomph consider QCAD. PixiEditor - This is an odd one. Vector, raster, pixel art, animation, node graph editing and processing. Has a lot of promise. It's closest equivalent is probably Paint Dot Net.

Websites

ProtonDB https://www.protondb.com/ Linux compatibility reports for the entire Steam catalogue including user suggestions. Useful for Windows users considering Linux but worried if their games will run

Astronomy Picture Of The Day https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ This isn't tech stuff, it's just because I'm an astronomy nerd.

RadioBrowser https://www.radio-browser.info/users Web radio index. SomaFM is well worth checking out.

Pure Bash Bible https://github.com/dylanaraps/pure-bash-bible Bash scripting reference.

Commandlinefu https://www.commandlinefu.com Handy bash snippets for Linux.

The Awesome List Of Lists https://awesome.re/ A list of lists of tech things