Free And Open Source Software (Use Computer Technology For Happier Living)

This thread might be of limited interest but I discovered tonight that TauPhi and Cleveland Okie share an interest with me in Linux and Free Open Source software. We've previously discussed this topic at least in passing in a couple of places, and I may be posting this in the wrong forum (if so we'll move it).

But in the meantime while the iron is hot I wanted to invite Clevelan and Tau and anyone else with an interest in this to add to this thread. For the moment I will just say that all my computers have been Linux for at least ten years, and I find the whole "Free and Open Source" software movement to be something that fits neatly into my ideas that Epicurean philosophy should be spread as freely and openly as possible. The methods used t coordinate volunteer projects in building software (using GIT and similar methods) seems to me to fit hand in glove with methods we can use to coordinate volunteers in propagating Epicurean philosophy. The Epicurean viewpoint is inherently personal and doesn't lend itself to tight central control, and it seems to me that the same methods people have found successful for working together freely on software are a good model to follow in our philosophic work.

Maybe one more example -- I find that two current FOSS software projects -- Obsidian.md and Logseq - lend themselves directly to outlining and organizing the Epicurean material, and I use them most every day.

Ok that's a general intro to the topic but people can get as specific as they want. Apologies to those who are not interested, but this is a good example of a topic that is at least tangentially related to philosophic work, and we invite others with similar specialized interests to do the same in this "Lifestyle and Self-Improvement" section.

Good idea for a list of the open source software we use. The major ones that come to mind that I am currently using:

• Linux (Arch / Garuda)
• Obsidian.md
• Logseq
• Libreoffice (especially Draw)
• Audacity
• Openshot and KDEnlive
• Nextcloud
• Thunderbird (email/calendar)
• and too many other smaller utilities to recall at the moment.

Quote from Godfrey

do you use LibreOffice Draw for your highlighted and underlined text clips that you post? For your other posted graphics? I use other aspects of LibreOffice but haven't tried Draw.

Godfrey:

I have never really been able to settle on a paint/draw program or really get comfortable with a graphics editor. I occasionally try GIMP and Inkscape but never take the time to learn it properly. I have found Libreoffice draw to be an easy to use compromise on putting together graphics, but I keep looking for a major graphics program to really take the time to learn.

So as to Libreoffice I don't really use the text and spreadsheet much (I use the Softmaker Office linux programs instead for maximum Microsoft compatibility) but I do use the Libreoffice Draw regularly.

My screen shots with underlined text are done with Ksnip https://github.com/ksnip/ksnip

When I want to combine several screenshots or pictures into a larger picture, I take the screenshot with Ksnip and then I paste into Libreoffice draw where I move things around and then add annotations.

Quote from TauPhi

A lot of these programs are terminal based but I prefer them to GUI programs because of their extensibility and speed.

Well that list shows how hard core you really are, and far advanced ahead of me.

I have heard of most of those and occasionally tried them, but I still use mostly GUI - based programs on an XFCE desktop.

I don't have the occasion to do so much anymore, but I used to like to show my friends how they could better use Linux than windows, so I still mostly use the GUIs and options that look mostly like Windows so I could work with my friends who will never go full terminal-based.

The one thing that I have not found in native linux is outlining programs, and I am a big outliner. The two I mentioned (logseq and obsidian) are electron apps - which I don't care for - but they work well. In addition to those I still daily use "Ecco Pro" which was abandoned in 1997 but still runs fine in linux/wine.

But I'll repeat here again: I think we have a significant use case in Epicurean philosophy for the use of outlines (which Epicurus pretty much recommends verbatim). I am trying to organize my public domain Epicurean materials into markdown files for use in either an obsidian or logseq database which we could let people download for free so as to get a head start on collecting the sources.

In the meantime, that's how I have made this website: https://epicuruscollege.com/coursematerial/

That's a series of markdown files organized through obsidian and then turned into a website with Mkdocs-Material, which is also a FOSS program for assembling documentation. I am also experimenting with Docusaurus, but I think the Mkdocs-Material system works a little better for turning the markdown files into a website.