  ____  _     ____  _     ____  _      _     _  __ _____
 /   _\/ \   /  _ \/ \ /\/  _ \/ \  /|/ \ /\/ |/ //  __/
 |  /  | |   | / \|| | ||| | \|| |\ ||| | |||   /|  \  
 |  \__| |_/\| \_/|| \_/|| |_/|| | \||| \_/||   \ |  /_ 
 \____/\____/\____/\____/\____/\_/  \|\____/\_|\_\\____\

Software We Recommend

We don't just tell you what to avoid. Here's what we actually run, and why. Every entry here respects your freedom: you can run it, study it, share it, and change it, without asking anyone's permission.

Operating System

Use a freedom-respecting operating system. Any GNU/Linux distribution is a step up from Windows or macOS, but we specifically recommend:

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
GNU/Guix	A fully free GNU/Linux distribution	Declarative, reproducible, and transactional. Your whole system is described in code you can read and audit, with no hidden state and no non-free software required to boot.

Chat Platforms

Use chat platforms that respect you, not ones that harvest you. Federated protocols mean no single company owns your conversations.

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
XMPP	A federated instant-messaging protocol	No central authority, no ads, no algorithm. Run your own server or use ours at xmpp.cloudnuke.org.
Mumble	Low-latency, free voice chat	Crisp voice quality without the corporate eavesdropping that comes bundled with Discord. Run your own server or use ours at mumble.cloudnuke.org.

Editor

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
GNU/Emacs	An extensible text editor	Not just an editor, an entire environment. Extensible in Emacs Lisp down to nearly every part of its behavior, and it has outlived every editor fad for forty years.

Shell

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
Zsh	An interactive Unix shell	Powerful completion, sane scripting, and a huge ecosystem of configuration frameworks, without needing to leave POSIX-adjacent territory behind.

Media Player

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
mpv	A free, minimal media player	Fast, scriptable, and gets out of your way. No telemetry, no ads, no bundled toolbars, just a video and audio player that does its one job well.

Package Manager

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
pkgit	A source-based package manager	Small, auditable, and configured with Lua instead of a bespoke domain-specific language. Build packages from source without pulling in a mountain of dependencies to do it.
Guix	A functional, transactional package manager	Every package build is reproducible and every install is a transaction you can roll back. No hidden state, no shared mutable system libraries breaking underneath you.

Desktop Environment

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
KDE Plasma	A full-featured Wayland/X11 desktop environment	Mature, documented, and governed by a community rather than a single maintainer chasing the next flashy feature. Auditable, configurable, and stable enough to actually trust.

Window Managers / Compositors

Most Wayland compositors are built on wlroots, a shared library we don't support. It moves too fast to keep a stable ABI, it ties you to freedesktop.org's orbit, and its size and rate of change make it insanely hard to audit. We recommend compositors that implement the Wayland protocol directly instead.

Software	What it is	Why we recommend it
KWin	KDE's own compositor and window manager	Talks to Wayland, DRM, and KMS directly, with no shared framework in between. The same auditability and maturity that makes KDE Plasma a good pick applies here too.
Enlightenment	A lightweight desktop shell and compositor	Built on its own EFL libraries rather than wlroots, staying true to the gizmodic idea of minimal shared dependencies while still offering a real desktop experience.
Velox	A dwm/xmonad-inspired tiling Wayland compositor	A tiny window manager built on swc, not wlroots, and written entirely in C. It doesn't try to be a daily driver for everyone, but it's a great tool to learn from if you want to understand how a minimal Wayland compositor actually works under the hood.

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