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Programs and Resources I Use

Generally, I try to use Free and Open Source software, but I accept some proprietary and pirated programs and services. Not that I like them, but because can't avoid them, especially when it comes to professional stuff and gaming. Still, I'm trying to escape all this abuseware we found ourselves in bit by bit.

Modeling, art:

Blender for 3D modeling, because what else? It's actually a miracle that program of this scale, with so many features, ACTUALLY usable for artists, exists as a Free and Open Source software. Nevertheless, I use latest LTS release with these addons:

Blender is such a jacked program, that you don't actually need any additional addons, other than built-in stuff and more Import-Export options.

F3D - model viewer. Can generate thumbnails for file explorer!!!

Marvelous Designer to make realistic clothes. If there will be good, free (hopefully, as in freedom) alternative to it, maybe a blender addon, I'll jump on that.

GIMP for image/texture editing. Previously used photoshop, but I got tired of pirating it all the time. DON'T draw in GIMP - layer boundaries will choke you to death

AzPainter - probably the closest we have to suckless digital art program. Opens up INSTANTANEOUSLY (as any suckless software does), but requires really getting used to.

Media

MPV for playing videos and music. Requires a little bit of configuration (it pays off greatly). Can play YouTube videos with yt-dlp. Has SponsorBlock plugin. Speaking of YouTube...

gtk-pipe-viewer for consuming YouTube. I no longer visit the website, actually. Saves system resources :D

feh image viewer. Opens up INSTANTANEOUSLY but can't play GIF's. A bit clunky.

Kid3 - audio tagger (edits metadata such as artist, title, genre and even album cover)

Kdenlive - video editor.

ffmpeg - also video editor (but in console).

MIXXX for DJ'ing. If you're interested, decade old Pioneer DDJ-SB works fine, newer stuff like DDJ-FLX4 will work too.

Everyday Stuff

arkenfox user.js for firefox - since mozilla's browser becoming more and more trash just like chrome, user.js tweaks are needed to shape it back into something sane. Firefox addons:

NetSurf web browser for slow devices. My website optimized to work with it. Has very cool history window, that you can acces beside "back" button. Also check out even smaller thing: Dillo

qrcp - transfer files through local network. Receiver only has to be in same network as you and copy url in their web browser - true no bs solution!

📄️StevenBlack hosts to block malicious domains.

nnn file manager, along with xfce's default Thunar

dwm tiling window manager. I use it as floating window manager which is completely wrong. Patches:

Elemento - amazing GTK+ theme

Tango! icon theme. Available in your distro's repository.

Debian GNU/Linux - has been my daily driver for four years

Void Linux. Manages to be stable while being a rolling release (for lunix users words "stable" and "rolling" are mutually exclusive terms), also rumored to have BSD vibes.

Configs

PS1 bash prompt:


# .bashrc
PS1='[\e[0;36m\W\e[m]\$ '



[~]$ cd Downloads/3d_models
[3d_models]$ ls

yt-dlp


-N 10 --downloader aria2c
--embed-chapters
--embed-thumbnail
--sponsorblock-mark "sponsor,selfpromo"

nnn


export NNN_PLUG='d:dragdrop;m:mount_udiskctl'
export NNN_COLORS='6513'
export NNN_BMS='t:/tmp;s:~/Downloads;d:~/Documents;m:/media/user'
export NNN_SEL='/tmp/nnn.sel'
export NNN_TRASH=2

Desktop rice pic:

Things I would recommend

Materialize - PBR material creator, free alternative to CrazyBump. Unlike CrazyBump, you cannot load custom meshes, but it does its function

Krita as a drawing application. Very good overall, except for writing text (why the fuck does it spawn new window to write text in when I should be writing on canvas???????)

Flat Remix Icon theme

Luakit web browser. Uses WebKitGTK, which is a bit laggy, but VIM-like (keyboard only) navigation is a life-saver on laptops with shitty trackpads.

fff - fucking fast file manager, similar to nnn, but written entirely in bash. local copy

FreeBSD, a.k.a. FreeBased

WindowMaker window manager. Is a close relative to MacOS's UI grandfather. I absolutely like the idea dockapps, maybe because I like old things, or some kind of nostalgia

Enhanced Motif Window Manager. Like WindowMaker, has a feature of per-app window decoration.

Toryumon V2 Koshirae Iaito

XMPP messaging protocol. Gives control over communication back to people as opposed to services like Discord. Unfortunately, does not have one good client that does everything protocol offers well.

Stuff I DON'T recommend to use

Sorry if there will be something offensive - I'm just looking at things from different angle.

Substance Painter - Blender can do that too. If you are making models as a hobbyist, blender has everything you need. Learn your software.

Unity - turned into rapeware that forces electron soyftware (unity hub) on you, as well as making installation harder just because. Sad thing is that It's still needed to make avatars for VRChat.

Literally anything that requires making an online account - I hope I'm not the only one who is getting tired of keeping a whole zoo of accounts in web browser. Can we just stop wasting people's time on that?

Social media like Twitter X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, Discord etc. - I believe that social media has destroyed our society. Not sure if it is social media as a concept, or a current realization of social media by corpos that is at fault (probably latter), but it damaged us somehow and I can feel it. You can try removing it from your life, except for messengers, maybe.

🔥️RAGING IN VIDEGAMES🔥️ - remember: vidyas exist to have fun, and if you don't have fun - you just reque to another match where you will or just leave. Ragequitting is actually good thing because it saves your nerves :)

[matrix] messaging protocol (A.K.A. Element messaging app) - it glows, and it is full of nasty stuff

AI stuff:

Yes, I do mess around with AI, yes, I know it is trash, but I'll never force it on you - all the slop will be contained here, and you will be notified if it spills out of there.
I use only local AI models that can be downloaded onto PC and be run without internet (and so should you).

ComfyUI for image generation. AUTOMATIC1111 is good too if a spider web of nodes confuses you.
Both have danbooru tag autocompletion addon.

CivitAI to get shiny new models from. Requires an account for a big portion of models, but you can make it with 10 minute mail with no problem.

👋️ jan.ai for language models. Ollama is more stable, but jan.ai is just simpler to use.