hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2834.txt

Episode: 2834
Title: HPR2834: My favorite desktop and android applications
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2834/hpr2834.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 17:33:07

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This is HPR Episode 2834 entitled My Favorite Desktop and Android Applications.
It is hosted by Christopher M. Hobson and is about 29 minutes long and carries a clean
flag.
The summary is, moving right along with shows from the request list, I combine two program
lists.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by archive.org.
Research Universe will access to all knowledge by heading over to archive.org forward slash
donate.
Hello again, HPR.
That last little recording I did on my introduction to Linux went well enough even with the technical
difficulties that I figured I would go back and review the list of, I mean, double
check the recording here.
Again, I'm in a precarious simulation, pardon the noise bumping around.
I figured I would go back and review the list of requested topics and I saw two topics
next to each other.
Your favorite desktop applications and your favorite Android applications and I figured
I would just combine the both of those together while I still had access to a recorder.
And again, I apologize that I don't have any more technical episodes ready.
I will do my best to work on some of those and get them out.
So I'll start with my favorite desktop applications and these are probably instead of favorite
desktop applications.
I'll just say the applications that I currently use note that I do run Linux.
I don't really run anything else.
My work laptop that's provided for me is an Apple laptop but I typically just run Linux
virtual machines on it.
And about the only thing I use on that to be quite honest is the virtualization software
they provide and a web browser because all of the company applications, the business
applications are web things which is unfortunate but that's where we're at.
So on my desktop, I've got a late 2013 iMac that's running MX Linux and I'll start with
the things that are always running on it.
First off, XFCE4 terminal.
I use XFCE, I won't get into window manager battles.
I've used lots of window managers in the past with a preference for tiling window managers
but at the moment I'm done ricing, I don't really care, I typically roll with the default
and XFCE is the default window manager for MX Linux and that's what I'm using.
So XFCE4 terminal, I live in terminals on my personal machine right now, I have somewhere
between 6 and 10 terminals open which is the average, sometimes there's more, sometimes
there's less and in several of those I'll be running Biobu, usually some sort of terminal
mix multiplexer like GNU screen, Biobu, DTachin, DBTM, TMAX, didn't already say that, anyway.
So terminals everywhere and I prefer XFCE terminal, I do like ROX terminal, ROX term.
And sometimes LX term depends on what system I'm on but definitely the terminal.
I always run global time because I work across multiple time zones and I do a lot of amateur
radio stuff so I have current time, UTC and several other time zones and I use UTC predominantly.
I like XFCE notes, I leave myself little motivational notes to stop consuming garbage
and start consuming intelligent things.
I really like Thunar, Thunar, every say that, XFCE's file manager, pretty easy to use
file manager, Firefox, use that regularly if I'm not using the Tor browser bundle, EMAX.
I'm not going to start a holy war, I used Vi and VIM for 15 years or so, had a common
list contract and VIM slime just didn't do it for me, found EMAX, stuck with EMAX when
I learned about org mode and that's where we are right now, pardon my sniffling and stuff,
I've got some congestion due to allergies but hopefully it won't pick up too bad on
the recording.
So for email I use clause mail, it kind of reminds me of Pegasus mail from years ago and
I really enjoyed it, it's lightweight, it's minimal, I used to get my email in EMAX and
before that I used MUT, but I don't know, just find the pointy clicking nature of clause
to be easy, it's intuitive, GPG is built into it, system tray icon gets the job done.
These days I'm running WeChat instead of IRSSI, now that's not a desktop application,
I do run it in a terminal but it's one of my things that's always open.
Redshift is always running, specifically GTK Redshift so I can have the system tray icon.
I also use KepassX constantly, KepassX is a password manager, works really well and those
are the applications that are typically always open on my desktop.
Now from there here's a giant list of applications that I like to use just in general.
I like MUPDF for viewing PDFs, I like a Sunder for ripping CDs, I really like a Sunder,
it's been really nice for cataloging my CDs.
Even though it's QT, I typically don't like QT applications but I really enjoy lucky
backup, it makes backups pretty easy for me, it's just an R-Sync front end and I enjoy
it quite a lot.
If I'm doing virtualization I like VirtualBox and KVM, I use X-Log to log my amateur
radio contacts and while we're on the subject of amateur radio I like to use G-Perdict
to predict satellite passes and I use its internal TLE updates and then I also have a script
that fetches TLEs for me.
So it's not as automatic as I would like it to be but I enjoy it and I get a lot of
information out of it.
I use the Arduino IDE, I use a ledger wallet for my cryptocurrencies, I have a hardware
ledger NOS and I use their wallet for that, it is proprietary but it's what I use to
interact with that wallet.
I like X-MAME, if I'm playing games I'm usually playing various ROMs and I enjoy X-MAME
a lot for that because I can use game controllers with it.
I also have a few emulators and their names escape me right now and on the game front I
like FreeDoom a lot and Rootage, R-R-O-O-T-A-G-E which is a bullet hill game and tons of other
games just look up LibreGameNight.xyz or join I think it's either LGN or LibreGameNight
on FreeNode and they have a ton of wonderful free games and I play most of what they play.
I like DIA for my diagrams DIA which I just learned yesterday I guess is a Gnome project
I was unaware but I like that a lot.
I use FB Reader if I'm trying to read some of my ePubs.
I use Gnumeric when I want to do spreadsheets but every now and then I have to use LibreOffice.
I find LibreOffice to be really bloated.
I don't like word processor formats like Doc and ODF and I really don't like spreadsheets
but I prefer to use OrdMode for that sort of thing, tables in OrdMode and I prefer to
just write things in plain text but sometimes my clients have stuff and I have to make
invoices and that sort of thing so if I can I use Gnumeric and if I have to I use LibreOffice.
I don't really like either one of those but Gnumeric is much lighter.
They're the day I just found out about Mandel Bulber 2, M-A-N-D-E-L-B-U-L-B-E-R2 and it
is a really cool program for generating three-dimensional fractals, very cool, been playing
with that a little bit.
I use GQRX to work with software-defined radio, RTL-S-D-R specifically.
I use Transmission for Torrents, mostly downloading various Linux distributions.
I use XASTER that's X-A-S-T-I-R for doing APRS Amateur Radio Packet Service.
I may have messed up that acronym, anyway.
Packet stuff with Amateur Radio and I really like YouTube Deal GUI.
YouTube Deal works well on the command line but I can do batches of things a lot better
with YouTube Deal GUI.
I use ZINMAP in place of NMAP because I like the ability, I like its preset scans so
I don't have to type all that in most of the time and I can save some preset scans and
I like its ability to draw host maps and their relations to one another.
And then for most of my media, well I guess for DVDs I use VLC but if I've got video
files or audio files or internet streams I like to use MPV for that and I like it better
than in-player though the two are not that much different.
So that's all of the things I could think of for my desktop.
Now granted there's probably thousands of programs that I use.
If I strolled through the things that are installed it would be pretty long list but
I think that's a long enough list.
So let's move on to the Android stuff.
So prior to my current phone I was running a Nexus S with Replicant back when I was trying
to do all free software all the time.
Well that phone took a dive and I really enjoyed it because I could replace the battery
in it and it was all free software and I controlled everything but unfortunately I think
a free software phone is an exercise in futility.
So I try to keep things as free as I can.
What I got when I replaced that was a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 phone and I'm probably butchering
that pronunciation I don't speak Chinese but it's x-i-a-o-m-i.
In this phone was pretty interesting.
I had to actually contact Xiaomi directly to ask for permission to unlock it and root
it so they could give me a code so I could do that.
So I went ahead got that code from them and installed Lineage OS on it so that I could
get away from the Google E things.
So open source not entirely free but it works.
So the app locations that I use on here almost cut myself.
I really dislike the word app really frustrating.
Anyway the programs I'm using on here of course the built-in phone I use that most.
I use Signal for both my text messages and for speaking with other people who have Signal.
Let me state that I do not fully trust Signal's encryption because it is a third party that
I have nothing to do with and I don't entirely know whether or not they really can or can't
break my messages so I don't ever send anything sensitive over the phone to begin with.
However I think Signal provides a way for me to keep marketers and other people out of
my metadata to some degree.
And by using Lineage and getting rid of Google services I think I get rid of a huge amount
of the spying that's involved on here.
I love the default FM radio program that comes with this, this phone has an FM chip in
it and it's really nice to be able to listen to the radio independent of any cellular signal
and I use the built-in camera.
So I'm just going to go through the applications I have installed here.
I've used others but these have stuck around with me for a little while now and I find them
to be pretty useful.
I have the 2048 game installed.
I should note that the bulk of these come from F-Droid or their system applications and
I will denote where I got them from.
The 2048 application is pretty cool, it's just the 2048 game and I got it out of F-Droid.
Don't play many games on my phone but once in a while I like to waste a little bit of time.
Then I have acrylic paint from F-Droid which is a finger painting program and I like to
use this to take selfies that my friends have sent me and use that as a reference and then
finger paint a picture of them and send it back so that they are encouraged to quit sending
me selfies but it seems to have backfired and people have started appreciating my art.
So I'm going to have to find something else to do with it.
I have AmsetDroid free which came from the Google Play Store but I use Yelp, Y-A-L-P
in order to download these things so I don't have to do any Google things so there's
less tracking on me and that is just a satellite tracking program.
Much akin to G-Predict but it's put out by Amset, I think it's an American satellite
organization parameter radio.
I use Entenopod, I really love Entenopod for downloading my podcasts.
I think the last time that I mentioned any of my podcast stuff, I was using G-Potter
or PodRacer, something of that nature to download my podcasts and then I would upload them
manually to my phone and play them from there or to my Sansa Clipzip which is running
Rockbox but I've just switched using Entenopod because the only place I listen to podcasts
anymore is on my phone because I take it with me when I mow the lawn or I do the dishes
and those are the only two places I listen to podcasts.
So Entenopod works really well, I've tried a couple of others and stuck with that one.
Then I have APRSDroid installed, APRSDroid came from the Yelp Store or Play Store as it
were and it allows me to do APRS things, ham radio stuff with my radios.
Audio FX is the built-in equalizer, I have barcode scanner for scanning QR codes that
came from F-Droid, BINARAL BEATS which I got from F-Droid.
So I don't know if this is a placebo thing, I don't know if the science behind it works
or not but many years ago in college I was using BINARAL BEATS to help me take naps.
And it plays two different sounds in each side of the ear which produces some sort of
resonance which makes it totally different sound and I have no idea how it all works
but I do know that the noise produced in these BINARAL BEATS does help me take naps.
I take naps every day and I use those BINARAL BEATS to help me get some rest.
I got Blockinger from the F-Droid Store and it is a breakout clone, Love Breakout,
a lot of fun and this is one of the better breakout games that I found that's free software.
I have Blowtorch from the Play Store and I just installed this the other day, it's
for playing MUDs, Multi-User Dungeons.
I've only used it a couple of times and I don't like playing MUDs on my phone, I've
discovered that.
Pretty frustrating, I use MUDLIT on my desktop to play MUDs.
I like to play on the STF mode and I like to play on Sloth mode.
We have the built-in calendar which I really only use to reference dates.
I use a paper agenda so I have no data in here at all.
I just use it to check out what day falls on, what week or whatever.
I have Call Recorder from the F-Droid Store which I use to record calls every now and then
with clients or something of that nature so that I can remember things.
Whenever the built-in camera I have chromados from the F-Droid Store which generates white noise.
The built-in clock, so a couple of these like Cloud Library is an application from the Play Store
where I can check out books from my public library.
I have a few applications like that on here because the library provides audio books which I'm
not really into but they also provide ebooks that you can check out in weird ways because of licensing
and I'm a voracious reader so I enjoy these.
So for that I have Cloud Library and a couple of others which we'll mention in a minute.
A built-in contacts application.
Dan Makudeth.
I really enjoy this one.
I got it from the Play Store via Yelp and it is a bullet hell game.
I really enjoy bullet hell games and this is one of the more fun bullet hell games I've ever played
and it just happens to be on Android.
I have Echo Link installed.
This one's also proprietary.
It came from the Play Store.
Echo Link is a means by which amateur radio operators can use voice over IP to speak to one
another and I do several radio nets with that.
I have a Quate which is a conversion calculator.
I do most of my conversions with my Pocket reference.
Thomas Glover Pocket reference that's in my bag.
Thick little black book that's got cool stuff in it if you don't have one.
I highly recommend it but if I need to do one on the fly I have a Quate.
Then I have the F-Droid Store.
Speaks for itself.
FB Reader from F-Droid for reading books.
Firefox in this case Finic F-Droid.
Built-in file manager.
I have the Red Cross First Aid app.
There I go with app again.
I'm really into First Aid and wilderness First Aid and that sort of thing
and being ready for medical emergencies.
So that's a nice reference to have.
I have a fancy flashlight that lets me choose colors.
It's just called Flashlight came from the F-Droid Store.
Fregal Music comes from my library as well.
That one came from Google Play.
Again proprietary but it's isolated through my phone.
That's how I get music from the library.
I have Gadget Bridge from F-Droid which lets me connect my
Xiaomi Mi Band fitness tracker to my phone
or I have an old Pebble Watch that I bought from a friend
and it'll connect the Pebble Watch too.
I don't use those very often but they sure work.
The built-in gallery application then we have Ghost Commander
which is Midnight Commander for Android.
Available in F-Droid.
I have Gobondroid and Gobondroid TV which are the same application.
Those came from F-Droid and those let me play Go and read SGF files.
Go is in the board game like Badook or Wachie.
Really love playing that so that's available.
Hoopla which is movies and books from my library.
I have the that one came from the Google Play Store.
I have the, let's see, India Zulu 2 Uniform Uniform Fox Trot,
IZT, IZ2UUF Morse Code Trainer that I used to help me keep my Morse speed up.
That came from the Yelp store for like a better words.
Libby which is another place where I can check out books from my library.
That one came from Play as well.
I have the Lightning browser from the F-Droid store installed on here.
I used Lightning exclusively when I was using Replicant and I installed it for that reason
and I found that there's a couple of sites that work better with it especially for example
there's an online poker site that I like to play on every now and then and it works well with that.
I don't use the built-in messaging application signal handles that for me.
I have MobileLink DTNC which I downloaded from their website and it's a little
terminal node controller that I use with my radio so that I can beek in my position with APRS.
I have MUPDF on my phone just like on my desktop that came from F-Droid.
I have NetGuard from F-Droid which is a firewall.
I like KinFallon's description of AF-Wall better but I've not been able to get it installed
in the short time that I've tried so one of these days I'll try again with AF-Wall.
NetGuard kind of nags you about donations and stuff but for now it works.
I have the O'Reilly application on here like the publisher because my ACM,
my association for computing machinery membership,
affords me access to Safari and I use that to read technical books and learn.
Again completely proprietary comes from Google Play but it's all isolated.
I'm able to control what's phoning home and that sort of thing with things like NetGuard
so I don't feel so bad about it.
Now I have Orbot and Orfox on here which came from F-Droid and as I understand it there's
going to be or there already is an official Tor browser for the phone for the Android operating
system that will replace Orfox and I'm hoping that I can get that through F-Droid if I can't
I'll find other means once Orfox is no longer supported.
I have OSM Android open street map Android which came from the F-Droid store and I use that
naturally to navigate and get around. I have most of the most of Arkansas there.
I also use their maps on my little Garmin GPS standalone GPS in my car so that's nice.
I have the Red Cross pet first aid app on here. Man I keep saying that hard to get rid of.
This one is the same as the other first aid application but only it's for pets and that's
something I don't know much about so it's nice to have. We're just about done with this list so
stick with me. That one clearly came from Google Play. I have the built-in phone application.
I also have plumble from F-Droid. Plumble is how I connect to mumble and talk to the
hacker public radio folks when I do that on the rare occasion. I have okay I think we're recording
again had another interruption just like last time. Sorry there's people here and they want my
attention. So the last thing we did I think was plumble which is for mumble.
Then I have the propel graviton app application. Man I hate that word which comes from
the propel website and it is a proprietary little program that lets my son see pictures from his
cheap little quadcopter and you can theoretically control the quadcopter with it but it works very
poorly. Next is radio droid. I use this all the time. Radio droid is an interface that I got
from F-Droid for radio-browser.info. It is this huge list of streaming radio stations and I
listened to that stuff all the time all the time. I wish I could find a way to donate to this person
or something else because it is an invaluable resource. Next I have the built-in recorder
program and it'll either record the screen or it will record just sound and I use that to take
little notes and do little field recordings and that sort of thing. I have Roblox on here
from the Play Store via Yelp again. I don't have any Google services on here. I use
there. I have Roblox installed because my son plays Roblox and had asked me to play with them
a few times so we have that. I have RPN. It is an RPN calculator. I prefer to calculate with RPN.
Algebraic notation. I started using RPN in college and have not been able to get back to algebraic
notation very easily ever since. Got that one from F-Droid. I got seal note from F-Droid which is
just an encrypted little little notes application. Built-in settings app. We've already talked about
signal. A program called SIM card which I got from F-Droid as well and it tells me information
about my SIM card. I used that whenever I was using dual SIM cards and also so I could look and
see the contacts in my that were stored on my SIM card at that time. Next I have Simple World
Clock which came from F-Droid and I use that to display the time on my home screen. I have
Space Trader from F-Droid which is an Android rewrite of the Palm game, the Palm OS Palm Pilot
game Space Trader and it is great fun. I do have Spotify on here which came from the Play Store.
I don't really use it often unless my son wants to listen to something specific or my
wife wants to listen to something. I find that I don't really use these streaming services that we
pay for like Spotify, Netflix and things like that. Instead I prefer to use the services my library
offers or internet streaming radio stations and that sort of thing. Here I have SunTimes and
SunTimes Alarms which are they tell me about civil twilight and you know what time the sun's
going to be up the phase of the moon and that sort of thing. I use that regularly because I do some
bird watching and I do some hiking. We like to know when is it going to be dark, when's the
best time to catch certain things and I also try real hard to wake up at civil twilight or actual
twilight if I can. So I set alarms for that. I have a cool little deal from F-Droid here called
survival manual and it's an army field manual. I don't remember which one. FM3-05.70 but now it's
an entire wiki and this program is basically showing off the information from that wiki. Very cool.
I use termux and it comes with termux failsafe which came from F-Droid. I think it's busy box.
I use that for a terminal on here for SSH and other you know other reasons you would need a terminal
on Android. I have timber from F-Droid for my music. I have a little bit of some MP3s and stuff
on here and I use that to listen to them. I have Sumego Pro TSUMEGO EGO Sumego Pro which gives me daily
go problems that I can do for my entertainment. That one came from the play store but it's free
and it doesn't phone home. Free, sorry it's gratis, not Libre, Libre rather and it doesn't phone home.
I have TTRSS reader from F-Droid which I use to connect to the SDF TTRSS instance so I can read
some news. I have ubiquities unify program on here. Several of my clients run ubiquity access points
and other gear and I run that sort of stuff at home as well. This came from the ubiquity website
and I use it to configure those network devices. I have VLC which should be self-explanatory that's
from the F-Droid store web tube from F-Droid for watching YouTube videos. I have WeChat Android
from F-Droid so that I can connect to my WeChat relay and get on IRC. I have Wi-Fi analyzer
from F-Droid so that I can take a look at the networks around me and look for clear channels
and hidden networks and that sort of thing. Wikipedia from F-Droid have the Yelp store which is
how I've said repeatedly here that I get into Google Play to install programs from there without
really being tracked or anything to the best of my knowledge that also came from F-Droid.
And then I use your cast Y-O-R-E-C-A-S-T for checking my weather which also came from F-Droid.
So there you go HPR, another quick episode here, a whirlwind description of the desktop applications
I use and the Android applications I use. So with that we will go ahead and kill it here and
I'll say happy hacking and thanks for listening and if you get the opportunity please contribute
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