Buy Local - the online way

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 This post is about buy local, but not the way you might think.


It fact, it's more of a 'Think Local', and by that I mean supporting the 'small business' in the tech industry.

We all know who the tech giants are out there, so not much point of me linking to them (and advertising them for free). You can get your social networking for free, your email for free. I'm willing to bet the very web browser you are reading this on now was guess what -- free!

The internet, for all it's positives and negatives, is effective at bringing people together, at letting us communicate with others half way around the globe, like they were a neighbor in our own back yard.

So when offered something for free many people jump on it downloading he latest free browser, signing up for free webmail, joining large social networks - and why not right?

The thing is none of this is really for 'free' these big companies are in it for big profit, and they do it simply by selling your personal information.



And what really blows my mind about this - is if you ask people - 'Would you pay just $12/year' to not have your information stolen' - people will say 'No', that they 'demand it for free'

As a developer myself, with three kids, I can tell you I am grateful for my job, it let's me pay to support my family, but it would also be nice to put out their some of my own creative works, that others find interesting... dare I say useful even, and be supported by it. But just like it's hard for the local small business competing with 'big tech' who give things for free (again by selling your personal information) to actually make products can be almost near impossible.

Here are some 100% completely free tools (that don't steal any personal information), that setup their software as 'donation' ware. Consider showing them, as well as the local geek you know some love by donating to help support their work, the same way you donate to buy local.

 

Product

 

 

Description

 

Cost

 

KeePassXC

 

 

A password manager with tonnes of features. Keep all your passwords secure. Plus it stores your 2FA/MFA codes as well!

 

Free. Donate to 

https://keepassxc.org/donate/

 

KeePass2Android

 

 

A password manager that can read same password database as KeePassXC

 

Free. Just Buy him a beer

http://philipp.crocoll.net/donate.php

 

OpenShot

 

 

An amazing video editor, easy to use full of options

 

Free. Donate at https://www.openshot.org/donate/

 

OBS Studio

 

 

Capture your desktop, stream your games to Twitch, YouTube. Excellent for making How to videos

 

Free – Make your Donation here:

 https://obsproject.com/contribute

Paint.NET

An advanced image editing program for Windows. Easy to use, “photoshop” things.. without Photoshop

 

Donate to the project here

 https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html

Clue Notes

Run out of paper for clue? – Clue Notes, let’s you paperlessly find the culprit. Fully customize your card for any version of the game (android phone)

 

He doesn't even ask for a donation, but if decides to he tells me it will be on his GitHub page @ https://github.com/BenJeau

VLC (VideoLan)

One of the most amazing audio and video players ever created. Can play any type of media you through at it.

 

Donate through their page @

 https://www.videolan.org/contribute.html

LibrePay

Donation App for fundraising / pledging for other’s creative works.

LibrePay is actually funded by it’s own LibrePay fund 

https://liberapay.com/Liberapay/donate

Mastodon, PeerTube, and Friendica (The Fedivserse)

Social Networking systems that don’t advertise! Run by local admins. Sign up to any server your want, and your content is shared with all other servers in the network (run by other admins)

 

Just Donate to your local admin for the cost of them running the server. Donate to other admins too if you want. Do all your social networking for free, without anyone tracking you and without any ‘fancy algorithms’.






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