★ SOFTWARE RECOMMENDATIONS ★

Welcome to our page for personal software recommendations. Although some of these suggestions are niche, we use pretty much all of these programs in our day-to-day life. so we hope maybe they'll help someone find something new and cool.

We plan on slowly updating this with new things over time, so check back every now and then to see what's new.

This is all subjective! If you disagree, feel free to let us know on one of the social platforms on the sidebar. ;)


APPLE MUSIC

We're a pretty dedicated Apple Music user, and have been for a while - so here are a few pieces of software across multiple platforms that can really help enhance the Apple Music experience.

    AMWin-RP: A companion for the new native Apple Music client for Windows, that allows for a Discord Rich Presence status and Last.FM scrobbling. It's a bit janky, but it gets the job done.

    apple-music-discord-rpc: A small, lightweight background app for macOS that adds Discord Rich Presence status support. Incredibly easy to set up and runs entirely silently, making for a near seamless experience.
    NepTunes: A phenomenal free Mac app that integrates with the Music app. Incredibly simple, and the most reliable Last.FM scrobbling on the Mac. For a very cheap yearly price, it has fun extra cosmetic features as well.
    Marvis Pro: An exceptional third-party Apple Music app designed for iOS and iPadOS. Incredibly powerful and customizable, with even more UI features, and the most reliable way to scrobble songs to Last.FM on iOS. Price of admission is a bit steep but is entirely worth it. Also runs on Apple Silicon Macs.

ANTI-RECOMMENDATION: I highly advise against using Cider, the third-party Apple Music client. Although at one point it was a good alternative, that was before the official web app became quite usable, and before the new native Windows app was released. Cider 2 is no longer open-source, instead going the full commercial route, and offers a worse experience than any of the official clients. On top of this, the developers are absolutely reprehensible people. Due to these comments and the commercialization of a once open-source project, I cannot recommend this app to anyone as safe-to-use. Use the web app or official clients with extensions instead.

LINUX DISTROS

Although we're not a hardcore Linux user - we're writing this from a MacBook - we do run it alongside Windows on our desktop machine, and think it's very viable as an OS for many people. These are our personal recommendations - we're always running one of these distros!

    Nobara Linux: A version of Fedora created and maintained by GloriousEggroll, developer of the ProtonGE project. Has a focus on gaming and performance, with a laundry list of custom tweaks made to the OS and software out of the box. Fairly beginner-friendly, though with a bit more tinkering than Mint.

    Linux Mint: An incredibly performant and intuitive Linux distro. Perfect for those switching from Windows, with an easy-to-understand interface and vast software support. Also a great distro for those who don't want to tinker much.

BROWSERS

The browsers we personally recommend and daily-drive on our own. We suspect most people reading this are already fairly opinionated about these, but I kinda just wanted to write this anyway.

    Vivaldi: A well-rounded browser with many, many power user features. Includes a very functional built-in ad and tracker blocker. Although the version of the Chromium engine it uses is open-source, and it seems to be fairly private, Vivaldi itself is closed-source, so you'll have to decide for yourself if Vivaldi is worth trusting.

    Firefox: The tried-and-true Chrome alternative with a reputation for privacy and security. Although it may not be as feature-filled as Vivaldi, it's very stable, and fairly secure and private, as well as being fully open-source. It also has a wide range of extensions to add functionality to the browser itself.

    Ungoogled Chromium: A version of Chromium (not Chrome) with any reliance on Google servicecs removed, as well as being hardened for privacy and security. Features an identical look-and-feel to Chrome or Chromium, and is a good option for those who want privacy without learning a new browser.

macOS users: I don't personally recommend using Vivaldi or Ungoogled Chromium for performance and battery reasons, especially on Apple Silicon systems. If you want Safari but with support for Chrome or Firefox extensions, check out Orion. If you want an interesting new browser experience that's a lot like Vivaldi with better performance and much less bloat, perhaps also check out Arc Browser. Otherwise, stick to Safari or Firefox.

EXTENSIONS

    uBlock Origin: A must-have blocker for pretty much any browser. Open-source, incredibly thorough, and great for both speed and privacy. For Firefox and Chromium-based browsers.

    Control Panel for Twitter: An open-source extension that makes Twitter usable, by hiding many elements, disabling the For You feed, makes it easier to identify paid Blue subscribers, and is very customizable. For Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. Available for Safari on macOS and iOS as well, but is paid and requires purchase through the App Store.

    TamperMonkey: An easy-to-use user-script manager, which allows for quick and easy mods for individual websites. Available for Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. Also on Safari for macOS as a paid app.

    AdGuard for Safari: The best free adblocker for Safari on macOS. As good an alternative to uBlock Origin as there is for Safari users.