Here are all the toots I posted for this year’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent.

1

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent - 24 days of toots about Free software that I value - is a off to a strong start, since you get not one, not two, not three, but four pieces of software:

yt-dlp: command line tools for downloading from various online sources: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

Handbrake: ripping DVDs you’ve bought: https://handbrake.fr/

SoundJuicer: ripping CDs you’ve bought: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/sound-juicer

Libation: downloading audiobooks you’ve bought: https://github.com/rmcrackan/Libation

Each is a useful starting point for building your own media library.

2

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is Libreboot.

Libreboot is a Free and Open Source BIOS/UEFI boot firmware.

It is much to my chagrin that I do not have a Free software BIOS/UEFI on my machines :(

https://libreboot.org/

3

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is Cryptomator.

I use Cryptomator for end-to-end encryption of files which I store/sync on Nextcloud.

It means that, if my server were compromised, all the attacker would get is encrypted objects.

(In my case, my own instance of Nextcloud, which is not publicly accessible, so this might be overkill, but there we go…)

https://cryptomator.org/

4

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is tmux, the terminal multiplexer.

I know that tmux will be second nature to many of you, but I’ve been gradually learning it over the last year or (https://neilzone.co.uk/2025/06/more-tinkering-with-tmux/)), and I find it invaluable. Although I had used screen for years, I wish that I had known about tmux sooner.

I use tmux both on local machines, for a convenient terminal environment (from which I can do an awful lot of what I want to do, computing-wise), and also on remote machines for persistent / recoverable terminal sessions.

https://github.com/tmux/tmux

5

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is the Lyrion Music Server.

While there are plenty of great FOSS media services out there, Lyrion solves one particular problem for me: it breathes life back into old Logitech Squeezebox units.

What’s not to love about a multi-room music setup using Free software and reusing old hardware! :)

https://lyrion.org/

6

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is forgejo, a self-hostable code forge.

Although I use a headless git server for some things, I’ve been happily experimenting with a public, self-hosted instance of forgejo this year.

I look forward to federation functionality in due course!

https://forgejo.org/

7

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is Vaultwarden.

Vaultwarden is a readily self-hosted alternative implementation of Bitwarden, a password / credential manager.

It works with the Bitwarden clients.

Sandra and I use it to share passwords with each other, as well as keeping our own separate vaults in sync across multiple devices.

https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden

8

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is all about XMPP.

Snikket (https://snikket.org/) is an easy-to-install, and easy-to-administer, XMPP server. It is designed for families and other small groups. The apps for Android and iOS are great.

Dino (https://dino.im/) is my desktop XMPP client of choice.

Profanity (https://profanity-im.github.io/) is a terminal / console XMPP client, which is incredibly convenient.

Why not have a fun festive project of setting up an XMPP-based chat server for you and your family and friends?

9

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is a double whammy of shell-based “checking” utilities.

linkchecker (https://linux.die.net/man/1/linkchecker; probably get it from your distro) is a tool for checking websites (recursively, as you wish) for broken links.

shellcheck (https://www.shellcheck.net/; available in browser or as a terminal tool) is a tool for checking bash and other shell scripts for bugs.

10

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent (better late than never) is “WG Tunnel”, an application for Android for bringing up and tearing down WireGuard tunnels.

I use it to keep a WireGuard tunnel running all the time on my phone.

I don’t do anything fancy with it, but if one wanted to use different tunnels for different things, or when connected to different networks, or wanted a SOCKS5 proxy for other apps, it is definitely worth a look.

https://wgtunnel.com/

(And available via a custom F-Droid repo.)

11

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is another bundle, of four amazing terminal utilities for keeping organised:

mutt, an incredibly versatile email client: http://www.mutt.org/

vdirsyncer, a tool for synchronising calendars and address books: https://vdirsyncer.pimutils.org/en/stable/

khard, for interacting with contacts (vCards): https://github.com/lucc/khard

khal, for interacting with calendars: https://github.com/pimutils/khal

Use with tmux to get all you want to see on one screen / via one command :)

12

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is LibreOffice.

I know that I’ve included this in previous #FreeSoftwareAdvent toots, but I use LibreOffice, particularly Writer, every day.

Better still, this one isn’t just for Linux users, so if you are thinking about moving away from your Microsoft or Apple office suite, you can give LibreOffice a try, for free, alongside whatever you use currently, and give it a good go before you made a decision.

13

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is Kimai, a self-hostable time tracking tool, which I use to keep records of all the legal work that I do, as well as time spent on committees etc.

It has excellent, and flexible, reporting options - which I use for generating timesheets each month - and there is an integrated invoicing tool (which I do not use).

https://www.kimai.org/

14

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is another one which might appeal for ##freelance work: InvoicePlane which is - you’ve guessed it - an invoicing tool.

I have used InvoicePlane for decoded.legal’s invoicing for coming up ten years now, and it has been great. Dead easy to back up and restore too, which is always welcome. I think that it is designed to be exposed to customers (i.e. customers interact with it), but I do not do this.

Kimai (yesterday’s entry) also offers invoicing, but for whatever reason - I don’t remember - I went with a separate tool when I set things up.

(I’ve also heard good things about InvoiceNinja, but I have not used it myself.)

https://www.invoiceplane.com/

15

Today’s #FreeSoftware advent is EspoCRM, a self-hostable customer relationship management tool.

I use it to keep track of my clients, their matters, and the tasks for each matter, and I’ve integrated various regulatory compliance requirements into different steps / activities.

It took me a fair amount of time to customise to my needs, and I’m really pleased with it.

https://www.espocrm.com/

16

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is espanso, a text expansion tool.

You specify a trigger word/phrase and a replacement, and, when you type that trigger, espanso replaces it automatically with the replacement text.

So, for instance, I have a trigger for “.date”, and whenever I type that, it replaces it with the current date (“2025-12-16”).

It also has a “forms” tool, so I can trigger a form, fill it in, and then espanso puts in all the content - so great for structured paragraphs with placeholders, basically.

I would be absolutely lost without espanso, as it saves me so many keystrokes.

https://espanso.org/

17

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is text-mode web browser, links.

Because, sometimes, you just want to be able to browse without all the cruft of the modern web.

You don’t have to stop using your current GUI browser to give elinks, or another text-mode browser, a try.

I find browsing with links more relaxing, with fewer distractions and annoyances, although it is not a good choice for some sites.

Bonus: no-one is trying to force AI into it.

https://links.twibright.com/user_en.html

18

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is reveal.js, my tool of choice for writing presentations.

I write the content in Markdown, and… that’s it. Thanks to CSS, tada, I have a perfectly-formatted, ready-to-go, presentation.

It has speaker view, allows for easy PDF exports, and, because it is html, css, and JavaScript, you can upload the presentation to your website, so that people can click/swipe through it. Plus, no proprietary / vendor lock-in format.

I have used reveal.js for a few years now, and I absolutely love it. I can’t imagine faffing around with slides these days.

https://revealjs.com/

19

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is perhaps a very obvious one: Mastodon.

I’ve used Mastodon for a reasonably long time; this account is coming up 8 years old.

I run my own instance using the glitch-soc fork (https://glitch-soc.github.io/docs/)), and it is my only social networking presence.

“Vanilla” Mastodon instructions are here: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/install/

If you want your own instance but don’t want to host it, a few places offer managed hosting.

20

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is greenbone/OpenVAS, a vulnerability scanner.

I use it to help me spot (mis)configuration issues, out of date packages (even with automatic upgrades), and vulnerabilities.

It is, unfortunately, a bit of a pain to install / get working, but this script (https://github.com/martinboller/gse) is useful, if you don’t mind sticking (for now, anyway) with Debian Bookworm.

https://greenbone.github.io/docs/latest/index.html

21

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is F-Droid, a Free software app store for Android.

• F-Droid is an app, which provides an app store interface
• F-Droid, the project, also runs the default repository used by the F-Droid app
• But anyone can run their own repository, and users can add that repo and install apps from there (e.g. Bitwarden does this)

I use the GrapheneOS flavour of Android, and F-Droid is my app installation tool of choice.

https://f-droid.org/ / @fdroidorg@floss.social

22

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent are some extensions which I find particularly useful.

For Thunderbird:

• Quick Folder Move lets me file email (including into folders in different accounts) via the keyboard. I use this goodness knows how many tens of times a day. https://services.addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/quick-folder-move/

For Firefox:

• Consent-o-matic automatically suppresses malicious compliance cookie banners: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/consent-o-matic/
• uBlock Origin blocks all sorts of problematic stuff, and helps make for a much nicer browsing experience: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/
• Recipe Filter foregrounds the actual recipe on recipe pages: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/recipe-filter/
• Shut Up is a comments blocker, which makes the web far more pleasant, with fewer random people’s opinions: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/shut-up-comment-blocker/

23

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is Elementary OS.

If I were looking for a first-time Linux operating system for a friend or family member, I’d happily give Elementary OS a try, as I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Plus, supporting small projects doing impressive things FTW.

https://elementary.io/ / @elementary@mastodon.social.

24

Today’s #FreeSoftwareAdvent is paperless-ngx, a key part of keeping us, well, paperless.

It is a document management tool, but I use it in a very basic way: it is hooked up to our scanner, and anything we scan gets automatically converted to PDF and OCRd. We then shred the paper.

It is particularly useful around tax return time, as it means I can easily get the information I need from stuff which people have posted to us.

https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx