Skip Navigation
123 comments
  • 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.

  • 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.

      • How would BangleJs be worse in terms of privacy? You can run both with gadgetbridge, so no cloud data necessary.

      • 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.

  • 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.

  • My PC is mostly foss, the exceptions being that I use YouTube and discord. still working on my phone though.

  • Excluding hardware (microcode, UEFI, etc); within my Linux system, the only proprietary software I have installed are Nvidia drivers and Steam (installed via flatpak). When I first made the switch to Linux, I was actually shocked at the minimal amount of proprietary software I actually used/needed.

  • Edit: I didn't see the community, sorry, feel free to disregard this comment lol

    Phone OS: GrapheneOS Calendar: Fossify Calendar Files: filen.io Gallery: Fossify Gallery E-mail: ProtonMail Notes: Notesnook Keyboard: HeliBoard Maps: OrganicMaps Passwords: Proton Pass RSS: Feeder Step counter: Forest YouTube frontend: NewPipe, FreeTube Weather: Breezy weather

    I still use services like Spotify, FB Messenger, and Play services for some of my banking apps. I'm a bit new to this whole privacy thing and custom ROMs, but so far it feels good. When I buy a computer I'll install Linux on it.

  • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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 shitty games launcher on PC)

    I'd consider my setup 8/10 FOSS.

    • Why is Zed (Semi)Libre Software? Do you know something that I don't?

      • The collaboration feature + the inclusion of GitHub login and Copilot. Though those can be stripped out if you don't want them.

  • Linux desktop with an Nvidia GPU, two Linux laptops, android phone. I'm struggling to think of any closed source productivity apps I still use, and I play games from Steam. NAS is running whatever Synology crap it came with, I haven't tried fucking with the firmware on my Epson, my 3D printer runs Marlin and my laser engraver runs GRBL.

  • 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.

  • Increasingly so over time. Will try to install coreboot on my laptop soon. I avoid proprietary blobs where possible too but for stuff like the kernel, proprietary blobs are kinda unavoidable if you want a fully functional system. Tbf I've not tried linux-libre but I just assume it won't agree with some of my tower PC's hardware.

    Aside from low-level stuff, I do still use Steam (and the proprietary games on there) and Discord—Steam cause all my games are there and it's convenient, and Discord cause a few of my friend groups primarily talk over Discord. Been considering setting up a Matrix bridge for Discord but I don't think that meaningfully achieves anything since it'll still all be on Discord's servers which are proprietary. I also occasionally install proprietary software to read proprietary file formats and would usually uninstall once I'm done reading the file.

123 comments