I have all the blobs, I like my hardware to work
On my home PC everything is FOSS. I'm a serious hobby user of Inkscape and GIMP. No advantage to using commercial alternatives.
Work PC is all commercial software. For me FOSS CAD doesn't come close.
My PC is mostly foss, the exceptions being that I use YouTube and discord. still working on my phone though.
other than games/steam pretty much everything else is FOSS.
It's hella foss!
Currently running majority FLOSS, and glad for the excellent options that these very capable people have released.
Desktops, laptops, HTPC:
Trisquel GNU/Linux on Libreboot BIOS hardware
--//--
Phones and tablets are:
GrapheneOS + Fdroid only apps
--//--
Rockbox audio players
(+ Open Tunes from FMA, Argofox, CC netlabels, jamendo, bandcamp etc)
--//--
Gadgetbridge + Amazfit Bip (watch)
[Looking to switch out this watch for a FLOSS smartwatch like: pinetime or bangle.js]
--//--
and dd-wrt on the router
FOSS-y
- 3D: Blender
- Automation: Python, Ansible and Bash
- Calendar: ProtonCalendar
- Chess: Lichess
- DesktopOS: Pop!_OS
- Drive: ProtonDrive
- eBook: Calibre
- E-Mail: ProtonMail
- FOSS Android Apps Center: Droidify
- Flashcards: Anki
- Git Repos: Codeberg
- IDE: AstroNvim
- Keyboard: Keychron Q1 HE QMK
- Laptop Firmware: Coreboot
- Maps: OpenStreetMap and OrganicMaps
- Messenger: Signal
- Music Player: cmus
- Office: LibreOffice
- Password Manager: Bitwarden
- RaspberryPi: Raspbian
- Raster: GIMP
- Recording: OBS and GPU Screen Recorder
- Shell: Fish
- SmartphoneOS: GrapheneOS
- Terminal: Alacritty
- Torrent: qBittorent
- Tried Game Engines: Bevy and Godot
- Typing Test: Monkeytype and Keybr
- VPN: Mullvad
- Vector: Inkscape
- Video Player: mpv and VLC
- Virtualization: Quickemu
- Weather: OpenMeteo
I don't know what to say about people who I told about lichess but still think chess.com is better
Maybe just say why it is better:
- No ads / subscriptions
- No tracking
- Free software is really fast
- You can do many projects with Lichess
- Clean non-cluttered UI
So, in summary, it's not hyped up (marketing), clean, no tracking, free chess.com experience.
I don't know what are the advantages' chess.com has over Lichess right now. The chess should be free.
I try but games are important to me, though I don't play modern games these days. I al as o make an exception for speaking/playing with friends.
OS
- Linux on my laptop, had hackintoshed a 2015 MacBook Pro before to run macOS Sonoma, and that ran on this device before
- Windows on my desktop to play games from studios that are owned by a certain Chinese investment company starting on T.
- stock Android on my SM-A536B since LineageOS isn't ported (yet) to this device.
(Semi)Libre Software
- Zed
- Eternity for Lemmy
- Tubular (NewPipe + Sponsorblock and ReturnYTDislike)
- Tusky for Mastodon
- Rust (the language)
Proprietary software
- GSuite (for collaboration)
- Games and game launchers (namely Steam on PC and on laptop and Epic
shittygames launcher on PC)
I'd consider my setup 8/10 FOSS.
Hard to pin a number on it, percentage-wise.
- Desktop and laptop are both running Linux.
- Chromebook wiped and running Linux.
- Most software, but definitely not all. Steam, Resolve being the two biggest non-foss items on my desktop, while my ex-Chromebook has a proprietary screenwriting program, as well as OnlyOffice instead of LibreOffice because I need much better Excel compatibility for work and LO still isn't quite there for it.
- Phone android. But not entirely de-googled. Replaced drive with syncthing, keep with Joplin, photos, phone, and messenger with their Fossify equivalents and disabled the originals. Replaced gboard with heliboard, etc...
But can't/won't completely replace the OS yet because both google pay and android auto are essential to me and getting them working on most replacements is still a royal pain in the butt.
So let's call it 80%, maybe a bit more?
It's just the firmware, my work-necessary programs, and steam.
I love arch, but i'm planning on moving to atomic fedora eventually, but I use a bunch of niche things because i'm an early adopter
i'll switch to fedora atomic when pwvucontrol, tofi, hyprland, hyprland-autoname-workspaces, citrix workspace (work necessary), notiflut-land, bato, wljoywake, wayland-pipewire-idle-inhibit, ananicy-cpp, easyeffects, wl-mirror, gtk3-classic, keyd, iwgtk, qtalarm, kvantum and subliminal are all available, haven't checked which are yet
couple of those (pwvucontrol and notiflut-land) aren't even in the AUR yet so it'll be a while.
Linux on all my computers and GrapheneOS on my Google Pixel 6a with 99.8% FOSS applications. Maybe 96% FOSS softwares on my stationary computer and 100% on my laptops.
With GrapheneOS do you still get the same quality photos as you would with the stock OS?
I use Open Camera and the quality is very good. Especially the night mode! What you see with your eyes in a dark room with the TV on, that's what you will see in the photo. Not the same quality on the TV in the photo, of course, but very close.
FOSS for everything on my laptop and server, except discord and Spotify, but I’m migrating away as much as possible. I have a Pixel 7 with GrapheneOS and use mostly FOSS there too, but have Google play installed to the sandbox for some social media apps. Not perfect but pretty good and improving
Libre hardware:
- Turris Omnia router with their OpenWrt-based distro. Bought in 2017, upgraded to Wifi-6 in 2022. Great product.
- 3x system76 laptops with Coreboot and Debían
- The desktop is a system76 darter pro with a broken hinge, so it's connected to a widescreen monitor and external mouse, keyboard. Also Debían.
The non FOSS systems are:
- HP Dev One running proprietary UEFI, and Pop!_OS
- a couple of Pixel phones running stock OS
- an iPad Pro with keyboard from 2018
- X201 Thinkpad with AFFS upgrade running Debían. Connected to some AudioEngine speakers and Spotify, this is our media player.
- a Thinkpad T43p with XP for Age of Empires and Freecell
- an Apple TV.
A bunch of older Chromebooks now running a Free firmware, and Debian.
Which chromebooks? if you don’t mind my asking… thinking of going this route, but I’ve read not all chromebooks are created equal wrt installing Linux.
I had some chromebooks from 2014 to 2019, and these specifically worked with the MrChromebox's firmware. There's a list on his website about the models supported.
As much as I can get it, and more every year.
All my computers run Linux exclusively. Gaming desktop, personal laptop, Steam Deck, work laptop, and all my servers in my home lab.
Hypervisor is XCP-ng, VMs are a mix of Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and some random other Linux distros for testing and experimenting.
My NAS is a TrueNAS Core box.
I'm in the process of switching my router to PFSense.
Phone is a Pixel 6a with GrapheneOS.
Email, VPN, and cloud storage is Proton.
Password manager is Bit Warden.
Office docs are all Libre Office & Only Office.
The only non-FOSS software I use constantly is Discord and Steam, and of course, most of the games I play. On my phone I have majority FOSS apps for everyday stuff, but some things are still proprietary.
Id say around 80% since I use a lot of foss programs and only use linux/android/openwrt/brother printers. The other 20% is random proprietary stuff like steam I guess to be generous.
Arch on every box in the house, including the primary router. Mixed Intel and AMD. Openwrt on every AP (unfortunately Mellanox and MediaTek firmware blobs for the radios). GrapheneOS on my daily and LineageOS on my legacy phone.
Aside from occasional games, I don't install anything I don't have the source to. My phone is the only exception, for apps required to interface with the rest of the world.
What is your "legacy phone"?
On my main profile on GrapheneOS there are 7 closed source apps and 1 self build technically closed source (for now) all out of total 71 apps.
I wish it was more, but the paid/closed options in a few categories are just significantly better than anything foss
What are those categories/apps?
I run bone stock default Fedora.
Like sub 10% maybe.
Phone 1: iPhone
Phone 2: Android (pixel 4, stock rom)
Desktop 1: Windows
Desktop 2: Mac OS
Laptop 1: Windows
Laptop 2: Mac OS.
Laptop 3: Windows/KDE Neon, no attention paid to whether or not the drivers are foss.
Server: Proxmox with Debian and Truenas VMs.
Router: pfSense.
I just use what works for me, and what license the software uses is not at all a factor in that choice.
Is there a reason to us pfsense insteaof opnsense?
No.
A good 90% I'd say. All my devices run Linux (NixOS laptop, Ubuntu server, LineageOS phone).
Non-FOSS stuff:
- AMD GPU in my Framework 16 laptop means the only unfree package on my laptop is Steam.
- The proprietary apps I do run on my phone are TooGoodToGo and my bank as I'm not aware of alternatives.
- I wear a Pebble Time Steel smartwatch, also not aware of any alternatives.
- PS5 controller firmware has no replacement.
I don't browse the surface web a lot and when I do I tend to disable JS, so I avoid most of the nonfree JS. I have no social media accounts besides Mastodon, Matrix, and Lemmy, which are all free :)
As an extension, all my close family runs Linux on their computers, as it ended up being lower maintenance than setting them up with Windows when time came to upgrade.
For watches you can use the Pine time or BangleJS. The Banglejs doesn't do as well in terms of privacy and freedom but it is better than nothing.
As for banking I usually do it either in person or on there website.
I wore a Pinetime for a while, sadly the touchscreen can't beat the Pebble's buttons. I'd buy a Pinetime with buttons and a non-touch reflective LCD in a heartbeat though! I was looking at BangleJS or Watchy as replacements but I'm really unsure about the durability and how usable they'd be (I need just the time and notifications, maps/navigation is a big plus tho).
Got multiple machines, but I think my most FOSS setup is a corebooted Thinkpad X230. The ME firmware was stripped, leaving it non-functional after the initialization. I replaced the WiFi card with an Atheros one that doesn't require non-free firmware. The GPU is by Intel Ivy Bridge, so no need for proprietary driver. Currently running Debian on it.
With that said, there are some components I couldn't get by:
- the EC firmware is pretty much a blackbox, even though I was able to unlock some part to make it work with aftermarket batteries
- the graphic ROM may still be proprietary (gonna have to recheck what my machine got currently) -- FOSS is an option as well but with less support
- even though non-functional, the ME is still on -- god knows what this thing does exactly
- CPU microcode
The rest of the components are pretty well-documented by the community if not by the OEMs themselves.
I would put 95% for this specific setup. However, if counting everything I got, not even close, as I need some proprietary components for living.
For example, my company gave me a newer Thinkpad to do work, which thankfully I got to install Linux on. I still have to run enterprise stuff from time to time, most of which are far from FOSS.
And don't get me started on tax form submission.
Nearly 100%. All Linux and AMD. The biggest part that isn't is BIOS. As far as programs go I can think of almost nothing I use that isn't FOSS. I guess Discord.
95% paypal, linguee and banking apps
1 FreeBSD server with zfs mirror for storage and various server software
1 FreeBSD laptop for development
1 Linux laptop for software that doesn't support FreeBSD
1 Linux desktop for work.
The rest of the family is 100% windows though :/
aside from my kernel not very much
Production/Laptop
Framework laptop with x86 Intel CPU, running OpenBSD. All drivers are free, non-free firmware includes intel, inteldrm, iwx (intel wireless device), uvideo (webcam), vmm (virtual machine). BIOS/UEFI is closed.
Hopefully intel, inteldrm, and vmm firmware can be removed after I switch to the RISC-V mainboard that is releasing for the Framework 13 inch soon. iwx firmware can be removed as soon as OpenBSD has better atheros drivers, whenever that patch arrives (or whatever other foss wireless card comes along). uvideo firmware might be unnecessary, but I haven't checked.
FOSS score: Medium-Low, after switching mainboard, Good.
Phone
OG Pinephone running postmarketOS. I don't think there's any non-free firmware (GPU maybe?). ARM64 CPU, only closed firmware I know of is the modem, which I've replaced with a free version here. Don't know about the UEFI/BIOS.
FOSS score: Good, Medium if UEFI/BIOS is closed or there is non-free firmware.
Gaming
Steam Deck, x86 AMD cpu, running proprietary SteamOS. May replace the OS at some point if a good alternative comes along, as SteamOS's immutable design and lack of real package manager besides flatpak annoys me.
FOSS score: Terrible, will always be Terrible because of all the games, even after replacing the OS.
RISC V probably doesn't have the performance you will expect. It is equivalent to a budget smart phone from a few years ago
Honestly, good enough for my usecases.
I try to use FOSS as much as possible, but I am not willing to give up video games, so I do have steam installed. I also need discord for communication with friends I am playing with. I only use these two on my desktop computer. On my laptop I don't have any proprietary software running in userspace, but of course it still has proprietary firmware blobs and proprietary UEFI firmware. I also have an old Thinkpad X220 running coreboot and with ME disabled (HAP bit set, ME technically still runs, but halts after hardware initialization) and unnecessary ME components stripped using me_cleaner. And my home server also runs coreboot with ME "disabled" and stripped but it has a BMC with proprietary supermicro firmware and an LSI HBA that also requires firmware.
Quite near 100%. The device driver for the DVB-S receiver card is my exception.
I have a raspberry pi as a print server but that’s about it. I tried a few distros on an old laptop but none really worked that well.
