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Our list of free software for remote work

puri.sm

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Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#21

Post by LeoTinnitus »

Polylactic_acid wrote: post #12
john61 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find much better, simpler and successful to get started with. It is a trap. Traps are especially effective and harmful in panic mode when everyone catches the first bait. In the long run, free software (not as in beer) is much better for everyone. Especially in panic it is essentiel to think thoroughly through your decisions.

Especially zoom which is insecure spyware. Not long ago there was an exploit that allowed any website to grab your webcam feed from zoom. Even if you had uninstalled zoom because the app leaves behind a web server service listening on localhost so the malicious website can just reinstall zoom and grab your webcam.

Wow. This kind of crap is one of the reasons I just hate windows. I still don't understand why installing and uninstalling stuff isnt as simple as it should be.

Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#22

Post by LeoTinnitus »

pathseeker wrote: post #9
daniel_iversen wrote: post #8

Not sure if we are in a tech, “like to fiddle with things” echo chamber, but I would not recommend any of these tools to a team in general (even if it was a small product team).. slack and zoom and the likes (who all have free tiers) I find much better, simpler and successful to get started with.

"free software" in the freedom open source sense. Not money

I'd have no problem with funding bits of OSS if there was a guarantee on it's lifespan. Although Linux it's generally rarely an issue. Mac it almost always is if a dev stops developing and suddenly apple makes a change that just invalidated your purchase.

Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#23

Post by waste_monk »

LeoTinnitus wrote: post #18
wiradikusuma wrote: post #13

Is the best, free (not necessarily open source), email desktop client still Thunderbird?

Dealing with exchange is a pain. OWL or something charges like 10 a year to get it to work with a 30 day trial. Works flawlessly but I just can't be bothered to pay for it right now. I may hit a point though where I I just will do it. Also a unified calendar is out of the question.

Evolutions-EWS provides good support for exchange. Not perfect, but fine for most day-to-day use e.g. mail and calendar.

Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#25

Post by SkyMarshal »

In case any PureOS people are reading this, consider making the info on PureOS security in your wiki easier to find.

You say in your blog post to "See the PureOS wiki to learn more about the extensive security features in PureOS." You link to your wiki's front page[1], but the word "security" is nowhere to be found on that page.

And if you click through to the only page that seems like it might have section on security, the "Overview and some general information about PureOS" [2], the word "security" is nowhere on that page either.

I'm still not clear where in the wiki this info is, but the security features and defaults are one of the most interesting things to me about an OS.

[1]:https://tracker.pureos.net/w/

[2]:https://tracker.pureos.net/w/pureos/

Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#26

Post by gramakri »

daniel_iversen wrote: post #8

Not sure if we are in a tech, “like to fiddle with things” echo chamber, but I would not recommend any of these tools to a team in general (even if it was a small product team).. slack and zoom and the likes (who all have free tiers) I find much better, simpler and successful to get started with.

Using Discourse, GitLab, Phabricator, WordPress, NextCloud, Jitsi etc is hardly fiddling. These are really well tested tools and work nicely.

Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#27

Post by ncheek »

LeoTinnitus wrote: post #21
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially zoom which is insecure spyware. Not long ago there was an exploit that allowed any website to grab your webcam feed from zoom. Even if you had uninstalled zoom because the app leaves behind a web server service listening on localhost so the malicious website can just reinstall zoom and grab your webcam.

Wow. This kind of crap is one of the reasons I just hate windows. I still don't understand why installing and uninstalling stuff isnt as simple as it should be.

This was an issue on macOS too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20387298

Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#28

Post by acidburnNSA »

l0b0 wrote: post #16
wiradikusuma wrote: post #13

Is the best, free (not necessarily open source), email desktop client still Thunderbird?

If you don't need a calendar, PGP support or [censored list of broken features so that the trolls don't descend], then it's certainly one of the most popular ones. But how would you even quantify "best"? I personally migrated to Evolution at a particularly frustrating moment relatively recently, and it's been less painful for a lot of things. It has built-in calendar and PGP support, which certainly help. Unfortunate…

Not trying to troll but I use Thunderbird for calendar (synced with phone and family via my radical server) and PGP (for the one friend who has a public key). Are you saying these need to be built in and not provided as plugins?

I find the search in Thunderbird to be amazing. I have archives going back 20+ years and it searches them instantly.

Self-hosting email with dovecot, if that makes a difference.

Re: Our list of free software for remote work

#30

Post by MarcellusDrum »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #25

In case any PureOS people are reading this, consider making the info on PureOS security in your wiki easier to find. You say in your blog post to "See the PureOS wiki to learn more about the extensive security features in PureOS." You link to your wiki's front page[1], but the word "security" is nowhere to be found on that page. And if you click through to the only page that seems like it might have section on securi…

Searching for this on Google give back 5 results, with only 1 that is semi-relevant[1], which is their FAQ page. They don't have a question specifically about security, but they talk briefly about it while answering other questions.

    inurl:tracker.pureos.net/w/ "security"
[1]: https://tracker.pureos.net/w/faq/
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