age encrypts a file to a small public key, or to an SSH key you already have. Filippo Valsorda designed it to avoid OpenPGP’s ceremony. One command encrypts, one decrypts. The format is documented and several apps speak it. Keys look like short strings starting with age1. It does not do the web of trust, […]
Deluge splits the BitTorrent work into a daemon and a face: a desktop window, a web page, or a terminal. Plugins add labels, schedules, and stats. It is open source and community run. A home server that downloads while the laptop is closed is the usual reason to pick it. The interface looks dated. Plugins […]
BiglyBT is the continuation of Vuze and Azureus, a Java BitTorrent client with a huge surface: tags, swarm tools, remote control, plugins. If a torrent feature exists, it is probably in a panel somewhere. The project is open source. Java and the dense window are the cost. New users get lost. Many switches interact. The […]
VeraCrypt encrypts a whole disk, a partition, or a file that mounts as a drive. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is the maintained fork of TrueCrypt, which stopped in 2014. Hidden volumes exist so a forced password can open a decoy container. That feature is easy to get wrong and dangerous to […]
PhotoPrism is a self-hosted photo library with search for faces, places, objects, and colors, including RAW files. The recognition runs on your server. It is happy to index a folder you already sync with Nextcloud or Syncthing. It is a catalog, not a phone-backup service and not an offsite copy. The indexer is heavy. A […]
Stingle is a small open-source gallery with end-to-end encrypted backup for photos and videos. The project is not a large cloud company. Devices sync through storage that is supposed to be zero-knowledge, meaning the server holds ciphertext. Small means the apps are plainer than Ente or Immich, and a thin team is a bus-factor risk. […]
qBittorrent is a free, open-source BitTorrent client without ads or bundled offers. Search plugins, RSS, and sequential download are built in. It runs on the major desktops. The protocol is legal. The files you share may not be. That part is yours. The swarm sees your IP address. A VPN does not help until you […]
Transmission is a small open-source BitTorrent client, common on macOS and Linux desktops, with a daemon for a server that has no screen. It does less than qBittorrent on purpose. Remote control exists for a headless box. In 2016 the project’s Mac website was compromised and served a malicious installer. That was the download page, […]
Ente is an end-to-end encrypted photo library. The apps are open source. Keys stay with you. Ente says the encrypted data is replicated across providers in more than one country so one outage is not the end of the archive. Face and object search run on the device, because the server cannot see the pictures. […]
Immich is a self-hosted photo system that feels close to Google Photos: phone apps, automatic backup, albums, and on-server face and object search. You run the server. The machine learning runs there, not at a vendor, which means the server has to be allowed to see the photos. That is the opposite of Ente. Development […]
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