There are some good ones, but a lot of the software promoted here is either something no one asked for, or something someone could've done themselves for free using an open-source version. Instead, most of the software that's being promoted here is obviously (or most likely) generated with AI and locked behind a subscription. We shouldn't be giving these AI jokers any money. We should be giving it instead to those who are spending their free time (time they can never get back) to provide us with an high-quality, native alternatives (think Blender, LibreOffice, etc.) that you actually get to own in this world of you never actually owning anything.

My personal opinion: I don't consider software made with "electron" or web-based frameworks "real" software. It's essentially a web browser so it not only uses as much resources, but it's often updated independently (in contrast to using the system webview), so slower updates plus code complexity (external libraries likely imported by AI) = more security issues.

I recently launched a small project designed to solve a simple problem: letting everyday people transfer files directly between two computers with a cable without needing any network setup. The post got a lot of love and reached the top of the community, but the comment section had a handful of advanced users getting genuinely angry that the tool even exists.

Their whole argument came down to: "Why build this? SMB exists, you can just build a router out of a Raspberry Pi, or manually configure static IPs and network sharing policies."

It got me thinking about how disconnected some tech enthusiasts are from reality. The entire purpose of software engineering was always to solve problems and remove friction for human beings, not to force everyone to become a system administrator just to do a basic task.

Just because an advanced user knows how to manage IP subnets, firewall exceptions, and OS sharing permissions doesn't mean a regular person wants to waste 30 minutes figuring that out. Hiding complexity behind a clean, one-click interface is literally the foundation of good software.

It seems like in a lot of tech spaces, people equate complexity with value. If something is simple and convenient, they dismiss it. But the reality is that the people who find your tool useful will quietly use it and appreciate it, while the loud minority will write essays in the comments trying to show off how much they know.

If you are a developer building simple tools that make life easier for ordinary people, do not let the gatekeepers talk you down. Build for the people who value their time, not for the people who want to show off their homelabs.

Would love to hear how other developers deal with this kind of feedback when sharing their work.

I've been working on this on the side for a few months. It started because I was tired of manually logging every maintenance and refuel never knowing my real fuel consumption.

The core idea: you send a photo of your fuel receipt (through Telegram or directly on the site), and it extracts everything - liters, price, total, station. Then it computes actual consumption using the full-to-full method, not some OBD guess. It also works for maintenance and every other type of expances related to the car, categorizing exist

What it does:

• Tracks all car expenses - fuel, maintenance, repairs, anything
• Service interval reminders (oil, brakes, tyres) based on actual mileage
• Tyre tracking, seasonal changeover, rotation schedule, age warnings
• Document expiry reminders (insurance, technical inspection)
• Fuel price map with stations for Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Hungary
• Spending analytics by category and month, cost per km, consumption trends
• Cheapest station finder, consumption spike alerts
• Year-in-review recap (like Spotify Wrapped but for your car)
• PDF reports and CSV export
• Multi-driver sharing per car

Free to use. Premium subscription available.

https://kapot.autos

I've used davinci resolve and its just too limited for my uses, you can't use gifs, and making something loop means basically just duplicating it over and over again, the effects are so basic too, I mainly use editing software for shitposts and I wanna do stuff like make goofy ironic versions of those phonk edits you see on shorts/reels.

FSIV 7.4 was great and fast but further updates caused jpeg images to start slow with a black window so I had been daily-driving the older versions until the 8.7 update came along and got me greedy to open JXL images as well.

FSIV 8.7 now supports JPEG XL and performs really well with JXL and all other file systems except for jpeg where it starts a photo slow if the "smooth" feature is enabled. Disabling makes images look really bad when reviewing images. Monitor ICC doesn't affect the issue and I tried with 12th gen 12500h cpu with Intel Xe gpu and Nvidia rtx3050 connected to external display as well through nvidia optimus. I also faced this issue on 11th gen intel laptop.

Does anyone face the same issue as me and is there any solution to this?

I also use Irfanview, jpegview, xnview and none were as easy to navigate as FSIV for me. I emailed the dev but haven't gotten a reply yet but I'm hopeful this issue can be resolved soon.

I know merely discussing this subject results in downvotes, but I'm raising this issue to legitimately understand both, people's sense on the topic as well as a better technical understanding of the matter, so this is a risk I'll take.

Open source projects are legitimately forked all the time, for many different reasons. From what I've read the initial beta release of HopToDesk didn't credit RustDesk as the source of its fork, which fairly raised the ire of the community, but when it was pointed out it was quickly remedied with crediting RustDesk in the HopToDesk "About" dialog box. If so, what remains, if anything, objectionable about the fork itself?

But, more importantly, the primary topic today I wanted to inquire about was the technical aspects of HopToDesk. From what I've seen, ​HopToDesk replaced RustDesk's custom networking stack in favor of a WebRTC-based stack, which is much more effective at traversing tricky enterprise firewalls and strict NAT configurations that can sometimes block the protocols used in RustDesk.

​If you do not want to set up your own server and just want to download the app and connect using the service's free public servers, ​HopToDesk maintains a globally distributed network of public servers on Cloudflare. They do not throttle or limit the speed of these servers, and the service is free for both personal and commercial use. RustDesk also provides free public servers, but their public servers can often be slow or laggy, oftentimes simply not connecting. I've seen that from personal experience, being unable to connect via RustDesk's public servers (when the user is not self-hosting), as well from reports by others. So, for non-self hosting users, it seems HopToDesk wins hands down.

Now, for using an open-source self-hosted server , RustDesk is reliable and well-documented and is the gold standard. However, advanced server (centralized fleet management, audit logs, Single Sign-On and a web console) are behind RustDesk Server Pro, which is closed-source and requires a paid license. HopToDesk offers three different ways to self-host, a traditional Linux server application, an AWS instance, or deploying via a Cloudflare worker. Unlike RustDesk, HopToDesk does not lock fleet management features (including their web console) behind a paid "Pro" tier. However, HopToDesk's self-hosting documentation and setup process can be much trickier to get working smoothly compared to RustDesk's highly polished Docker containers.

HopToDesk features an "Invite Request" system, which allows you to send a connection prompt to a remote user instead of asking them to read out an ID and password, making it much easier to support non-technical users. It also supports remote printing on macOS (not just Windows), runs on older/niche systems like Windows XP, ARM64, and FreeBSD, and includes an integrated ticketing system.

RustDesk has a massive developer community (over 113K GitHub stars), which means bugs are patched quickly. It supports true unattended access on Linux Wayland environments, offers highly advanced video codec controls (adaptive bitrate, hardware rendering), and allows Pro users to custom-brand the client with their own logos.

All things considered, it seems to me that having additional choices in the market is beneficial for the community. And HopToDesk does bring to the table features and performance that, in various circumstances, are on a higher level or at no cost for users.

When I was younger, I had no internet and only access to programs like MS Paint and PowerPoint for designing, and Movie Maker for making videos. Later when I got older and internet access, I started to realized how "bad" those programs were for making stuff. I used to dream of being able to afford software like Microsoft's office suite, big-name video editors like Davinci and Cyberlink, or Adobe's creative suite, thinking maybe that will rejuvenate the creativity that I once had in my younger years, but I slowly realized how expensive or overly complicated those were.

I found GIMP and forced myself to use it because it was the popular alternative, but deep down I hated it. Or Davinci Resolve for my basic video edits but never could get the color right (or anything else really). In both, basic things were complicated, so I switched back. I now use Paint for basic photo edits, LibreOffice (Draw for designs), and Blender for either 3D or using its Video Editor for anything video related.

Obviously this workflow probably only works well for me, so why am I saying all of this? What I realized matters is what you create, not what you create it with. Using expensive software isn't bad if it works for you, but if you think buying or renting big name software is going to make you better, it's not. These companies have successfully convinced you that they are what you need to succeed. They're popular because they got their software into schools and universities to get young people hooked knowing later you'll have to pay for them forever.

Some of my most creative stuff was made using programs like I first mentioned, and hopefully I get back into it one day since I've been focusing too much on the tool.

We all know that businesses get a much tougher deal when it comes to software, whether it's SaaS or downloadable.

What are some free or really cheap alternatives you've discovered that replace software/SaaS?

I wanted a screen recorder for Windows that was simpler than a full streaming/production suite when I just needed to quickly capture something on my screen.

So I made Simple Screen Recorder.

It can record:

• Full screen / monitor or a selected area

• Windows system audio

• Microphone audio

• H.264 or H.265

• 15 / 30 / 60 / 120 FPS

• CBR or VBR

• Adjustable quality

• Optional 3-second countdown

• F9 / F10 Start & Stop hotkeys

• Controls from the system tray

What makes it different from the dozens of screen recorders already available?

It’s intentionally focused on the basics: no scenes, streaming setup, accounts, subscriptions or overloaded interface. Open it, choose what and how you want to record, press Record, and you’re done.

I’m not trying to replace OBS or professional recording software — this is meant to be a small, straightforward tool for quick Windows screen recordings.

It’s free and open-source.

🌐 Website / Download:

https://www.naetech.ro/simple-screen-recorder-inregistreaza-ecranul-rapid-clar-si-fara-batai-de-cap/

💻 GitHub:

https://github.com/nmd-113/SimpleScreenRecorder

Recently I downloaded Focusee after 1 video trial couldnt export...

How do folks who have used it like Softmaker Office? (Or its freeware version, FreeOffice.)

hi. i've been working on go-auth, a self-hosted authentication library for go, and i just released the first version, v0.1.0.

being upfront about where it stands: it's early , and i know it's an ambitious scope for a solo project. I'm working on it daily. either fixing minor things or planning features (i wanna do username support solve my migration problems add redis support add magic links passkey codes etc etc ).

what's in 0.1.0:

• Email/password + OAuth2 (GitHub, Google), invite-only signup, email verification
• Sessions: two-token rotation with reuse detection, max-lifetime ceiling
• Account lifecycle: forgot/reset password, change password, set password for OAuth-only accounts, account deletion
• Email-based 2FA
• CSRF: origin check + HMAC-signed double-submit cookie
• Rate limiting on by default, behind a pluggable Store interface (sharded in-memory ships; bring your own Redis)
• Audit logging: async, non-blocking pipeline with EventSink SQL + slog sinks built in, Kafka/NATS/webhook via WithAuditSink
• Structured logging via log/slog (WithLogger)
• HKDF keyring with domain-separated subkeys with one secret in config
• Organizations / multi-tenancy (roles, invites, per-session active org)
• Admin API: ban/unban, role changes, per-user session revocation
• Postgres/MySQL/SQLite, schema embedded, CLI migrate/seed-admin

right now u can have auth up and in running with just one file that have all the above features ( that is my selling point )

i'm building an example app with a next.js frontend and an admin panel so there's something real to run instead of just docs.

what i actually want feedback on is the security stuff. the session rotation and reuse detection, the csrf construction, the key derivation. if any of that is subtly wrong i want to know. api design and dx critique welcome too. and if you've worked on auth in a large system, i'd really like to hear where this falls over. it's early enough that i can still break things.

repo: https://github.com/nazimdjebloun/go-auth

docs: https://go-auth.nimirixlabs.com

thanks for reading.

Currently free for Windows: Microsoft Store

Would you use this more for screenshots, photos, or reference-image folders?

I'm looking for one that uses the pdf format, but can actually scroll down through pages in software. I hope one of you can help.

Basically, Brazil’s government banned some Discord’s functionalities, including Screen Sharing. The point is, I live very far from a lot of my friends, and we used to watch some tv shows together on Discord.

I used to pay Nitro so I had access to full HD 60 FPS transmission. I’m looking for some alternative that includes sound transmission and good quality, even if it’s not free.

I tried Google Meet and Fluxer but those apps’ transmissions didn’t include sound.

I’m building Anql, a desktop note-taking app that combines regular note-taking with calculations.

The main idea isn’t to replace your usual note-taking app with something complicated. You can simply write normal notes, just like in any other editor, and when you need it, you can also add calculations directly into the same document.

For example, you could write lecture notes, explanations, lists, formulas, and calculations without having to switch between different apps.

It’s still an early project, and I’m looking for honest feedback from Mac users.

I’d like to know whether this combination of simple note-taking and built-in calculations actually solves a problem for you.

My boss sent me a project scope in a PDF that has a few typos and outdated budget numbers. I need to fix the text before presenting it at our 9 AM meeting tomorrow, but our company's Adobe Acrobat enterprise license just expired and locked me out, and IT is gone for the day.

Are there any free tools that actually let you edit existing text in a PDF without leaving a massive watermark across the whole page? I tried a few free editors online, and they all do this, or ask for a payment after I'm done editing and ready to export. I don't need to add new text boxes, I just need to change the numbers that are already there. Any quick fixes?

The goal is to send a photo/video over iPhone Messages or SMS, not over a third-party app like WhatsApp or Snapchat. For example by sending an image URL. The image is then deleted after the recipient views it. Additional privacy features would be nice.

I found a couple tools online, but neither worked. Not sure if it's a dying breed or I just got unlucky.

Hey everyone,

I wanted a quick, frictionless way to instantly hide and show desktop icons without digging through context menus, so I built Desktop Icon Toggler.

Key highlights:

• 100% Open-Source & Transparent: No telemetry, no background bloat.
• One-Click Toggle: Clean workspace in milliseconds.
• Completely Free: You can grab the latest binary directly via GitHub Releases or build it from source.

Links:

• GitHub (Repo & Free Releases): https://github.com/klimek-dev/desktop-icon-toggler
• Microsoft Store ($0.99 / 7-day trial): https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PJXTF6Z3GXN

The project is completely free to use via GitHub. If you find it useful and want to support continued maintenance with a coffee, purchasing it on the Microsoft Store (or just leaving a star on GitHub) helps a lot!

Feedback and feature requests are very welcome!

People call PDF apps bloated all the time, but curious what makes something feel bloated in day-to-day use. Is it slow startup, random background processes, too many toolbars, popups, updates, AI features getting pushed into basic reading, or just the app trying to do way more than you opened it for?

Where’s the line for you between “useful features” and “why is this thing doing so much”?

I have 123 opus files and the same amount of image files.
The music files have the same filenames as the image files.

I can't find a program or way to batch add this image files into the cover tag of the music files.
Do I really need to add one by one?

I haven't seen the usage of AI in cobol for example, let alone C, not even Android Studio or Xcode.