I will never go back to Mocrosoft Wondows ever again. The ONLY need I've had was a minimal secondary partition for a VR headset that requires Windows Mixed Reality. Garuda Linux is my daily driver and I am very happy with it.

Check out the different editions to choose the best for your needs: garudalinux.org/editions. I go with the "Dr460nized" edition.

Explore Garuda Linux »

Using this in both my personal NAS (Ak5) and the commmunity server (Prisma). Coupling it with the Docker plugin makes for an incredibly easy setup. Please use this guide Docker in OMV 7 and you will have good times ahead. Look for these plugins:

• BorgBackup — Deduplicating backup program
• Docker Compose — Maintain and execute docker-compose files
• ZFS — File system and logical volume manager

Explore OpenMediaVault »

Kali Linux is an open-source, Debian-based Linux distribution geared towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security Research, Computer Forensics and Reverse Engineering.

Learn more about Kali Linux »

This has a very distinct layout, with the side panel on the left and the main content on the right. This makes it so you can have a better view of the 99 tabs you forgot to close. You also get more vertical space to work with, kinda useful with today's internet.

Learn more about Zen Browser »

Check out Floorp »

I learnt programming with C and later on Java. I like both: I am fond of C because it was my first love, and I actually enjoy object oriented programming. However Rust was the first language I actually felt passionate about using in my projects. People way more knowledgeable than me praise it on different levels that I do not comprehend. However, I can tell you that I am a big fan.

The package management feels awesome, the tooling is great, and the performance is amazing. There is an ambitious -and sometimes dumb- community around it, you will often read a "rewrite it in Rust" and there is an evergrowing list of projects that bring life to the language. Play with it and learn, it is a very exciting moment to be part of!

Now, with the technical boilerplate that I don't really understand:

You can define Rust as a systems programming language that emphasizes safety, speed, and concurrency. It guarantees memory safety through its ownership model without relying on a garbage collector. Projects built with Rust often exhibit high performance and reliability.

Highlights:

• Ownership and borrowing for zero-cost abstractions:

  What this means is simply put that the compiler does some vodoo to track who "owns" what and when it can be deallocated, so it does its own memory management without a garbage collector. This tracking makes Rust memory-safe (no dangling pointers, no data races) but also efficient. The "zero-cost abstractions" is a horribly complex expression that I do not understand, but apparently means that you can build complex structures and the compiler will optimize them without making them more complex than they would be in C.

• Powerful Type System and Fearless Concurrency:

  Concurrency hard. However, counterpoint: use tokio. You can try to force a race condition with unsafe and std::mem::forget but like, are you stupid? Ask someone who knows what they are saying, but in conclussion: Rust can into multithreaded or async code with no fear.

• Nice Tooling (Cargo, rustfmt, etc.):

  Cargo combines package and dependency management, build scripts, testing and documentation generation into a single command-line tool. Adding a new crate (Rust's term for a library) is as simple as typing its name and version in Cargo.toml and running cargo build. Cargo downloads dependencies, compiles everything in the correct order, caches things, and creates the binaries.
  There is also rustfmt automatically formating code to a consistent style, which is nice.

• High Performance and Predictability:

  Because the is no garbage collector and there are ownership rules at compile time, benchmarks often show Rust performing on par or even outpacing—equivalent C and C++ implementations. Cool.

• Rich Ecosystem and Ever-Growing Community:

  The Cargo ecosystem already hosts tens of thousands of crates for everything from web servers (e.g., Rocket) and async I/O (Tokio) to cryptography, game engines (e.g., Macroquad), and embedded firmware. Crates.io (the public package registry) makes it easy to discover and reuse proven libraries. Official documentation, the Rust Book, and community guides will guide you.

Learn more about Rust »

Rocket is a fast minimal framework for web development. The learning curve is very low, the documentation is very good, and the community has very good support. Coding with it is quite simple and fun.

Although I have been using it for a while, there is a new framework called Axum that looks promising. I will probably be using Axum in the future, but I just haven't got the time yet, so for the moment my "official" framework is Rocket. Axum and Actix Web are apparently faster, but nothing you will notice in small projects. I recommend this comparison by Mark Ai code that I found so you can choose the best option for you.

Highlights:

• Fast enough and minimal
• Async
• Developer friendly

Learn more about Rocket »

Yew is a modern Rust framework for creating client-side web apps with WebAssembly. You write components in Rust, and Yew compiles them to highly efficient WASM, allowing you to build fast, reactive single-page applications without JavaScript.

Highlights:

• Component-based architecture similar to React
• Built-in support for async/await and futures
• Excellent performance thanks to WebAssembly

Visit Yew's official site »

This has been my go-to for some years. It is decently looking and has very useful tools for importing and exporting data. Most importantly, it is easy to use. I use HeidiSQL for a very niche use case when I need the "Search in Everywhere" feature. Other than that, DBeaver it is.

Highlights:

• Easy to use
• Useful import and export tools
• Multi-platform
• Free and open source

Learn more about DBeaver »

Ionic is an open source framework for building cross-platform mobile apps with web technologies. It provides a set of tools and libraries that make it easy to build native apps with web technologies.

Highlights:

• Build native apps with web technologies
• Easy to learn
• Fast development

Learn more about Ionic »

This library attempts to avoid any Rust-specific programming concepts like lifetimes/borrowing, making it very friendly for rust beginners. I have used it in Fallen God and it was pretty easy for someone with no game programming experience.

Highlights:

• Same code for all supported platforms, no platform dependent defines required
• Efficient 2D rendering with automatic geometry batching
• Minimal amount of dependencies: build after cargo clean takes only 16s on x230
• Immediate mode UI library included
• Single command deploy for both WASM and Android

Visit Macroquad's official site »

Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone. I use this on a regular basis for any edits, logos and any other artistic needs I may have. Even though I am no artist, I can recognize it's potential, and you should try it out. I even managed to make some simple 2D animations with it! More relevant information below.

This right here is Kiki, the Cyber Squirel and Krita's mascot. Her name comes from "squirrel" in Albanian. If I didn't already have a fiancée she would be my girlfriend. And you know what? Would. Don't judge me, this is my website. What are you going to do? You can't judge me. I mean, you can. But not in here, bitch.

I will shamelessly thirst over Kiki, for she is beautiful and cute. You can't stop me nor can you deny this fact. I will never stop loving Kiki. She is the best mascot of all the open-source universe. Who needs a muse when you've got a cyber squirrel who doubles as the goddess of art software? Bow down, peasants.

I'm not even an artist and I still know her potential. Hell, I'd code a whole VR experience just so I could pet her and watch her digitized whiskers twitch in awe. Even if the only thing you've ever drawn is a stick figure, Krita will make you feel like the next digital Da Vinci simply by letting Kiki reign over your canvas.

Let's be real, you're not here for the tools, you're here for the mascot. So go on—download Krita, cuddle up with Kiki's pixelated cuteness, and let the cyber-squirrel goddess guide your every stroke. Your creative destiny awaits!

I command you to click here »
Learn more about Krita »

Explore Inkscape »

Download qBittorrent »

Get FileZilla »

Learn more about RustDesk »

Synergy is a virtual KVM that lets you control two or more computers with a single keyboard and mouse. Simply move your pointer off the edge of one screen, and it appears on the next. I use this almost everyday and it keeps my desk clean.

While Synergy itself is not free, Deskflow is its community upstream and is maintained regularly.

Highlights:

• Clipboard sharing between machines (copy on one, paste on the other)
• SSL/TLS encryption for secure data transfer
• Configurable hotkeys and per-client settings

Visit Synergy »
Visit Deskflow »

Filelight is a KDE application that generates interactive pie charts of the filesystem. You can quickly see the directories and files that take the most space and click through them.

Highlights:

• Clickable “rings” to navigate directories
• Color-coded segments to differentiate sizes
• Free and open-source, part of KDE Utilities

Learn more about Filelight »

This is a clickable terminal, mind you. Just look at this image OMG:

Learn more about btop »

Learn more about CoreControl »

This is the best manager we have used for out certificates and reverse proxies. Previously we went with Swag, and while it worked well, it lacked an easy-to-use GUI and most importantly, the ability to separate the certificates of each domain. With NPM we can add separate certificates for each domain and have them automatically managed. Very easy to use once you set it up. The only downside is that you must reserve the main ports 80 and 443 for NPM, as it only listens externally on those.

I specially recommend this guide. Here is our docker-compose:

# https://github.com/NginxProxyManager/nginx-proxy-manager
services:
  app:
    image: jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest
    container_name: npm
    network_mode: YOUR_NPM_NETWORK
    environment:
      - PUID=YOUR_PUID
      - PGID=YOUR_PGID
      - TZ=YOUR_TZ
    ports:
      - <host-port>:<container-port>
      - '80:80'   # Public HTTP Port
      - '443:443' # Public HTTPS Port
      - '81:81'   # Admin Web Port
    volumes:
      - YOUR_DATA_PATH/nginxproxymanager/data:/data
      - YOUR_DATA_PATH/nginxproxymanager/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt
    restart: unless-stopped

networks:
  default:
    name: YOUR_NPM_NETWORK

Learn more about NPM »

Learn more about nikto »

Learn more about Gobuster »

Learn more about dirsearch »

Learn more about Metasploit »

Learn more about Burp Suite »

Learn more about Hashcat »

Learn more about John the Ripper »

Learn more about Hydra »

Learn more about Ghidra »

Learn more about Volatility 3 »

Learn more about socat »