cool free things
Sunday, 14 December 2025 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
themorninglarkThis post exists because good free things should be shared, and I want to gather them all in a place that’s a bit more permanent than a thread on Bluesky. There is no particular order to these recs, just a grab bag of stuff I like. Enjoy!
- Capacities: an incredibly well-designed notes app. Let me preface this by saying that I love and still use Obsidian for writing, but for personal notes—especially those with rich media like links, images and YouTube videos—Capacities clicked with me in a way that nothing else has. There are so many thoughtful small touches that just work and feel good to use. Here’s just one example: when you save a link and Capacities detects it is a tweet, it appears in a special category all beautifully laid out like this (single tweet view). I like the company’s principles, and it has an intentionally generous free tier that will be more than enough for most people.
- Waterfox: a Firefox fork that hits a sweet spot between features and privacy. If you’ve been reading about Firefox inserting more and more AI nonsense into their browser and wondering where to go next, Waterfox is my favourite of the forks. It’s lightweight, has an insanely useful built-in Tree Style Tab sidebar, and this recent changelog about privacy hardening was nice to read.
- iA Winterfest 2025: wallpapers! the folks at iA make some beautiful apps, and this year end they’re giving away a series of equally beautiful wallpaper. They come in dynamic versions for your Mac too.
- Basic Apple Guy’s Ugly Christmas Sweater wallpapers, 2025 edition: speaking of wallpaper, I love these for the holiday season. And I generally enjoy all of Basic Apple Guy’s wallpapers.
- Medito: truly free free meditation app. There is no free tier and then a bunch of paywalled stuff. Everything is free and very high quality. I used to recommend Insight Timer for meditation but I dislike how cluttered it has become, so Medito is my new pick. I like it so much I sent them some money.
- DAREBEE: speaking of things I liked so much I sent some money voluntarily, here is another. Darebee is an exercise resource where once again, pretty much everything is free. If you want to exercise but have no equipment and don’t know where to start, go here. It is super comprehensive and accessible. Some of their programs are very fun.
- Atkinson Hyperlegible Next: I just really like this font. It’s a real pleasure to read and write with. Which leads me to…
- Very good ereader fonts: if you are the owner of a Kobo, grab the these fonts. If you are the owner of any other ereader that lets you load your own fonts, grab these fonts. I really like reading with NV Charter, NV Next and NV Newsreader (available in the Github under extra fonts).
- Singlefile: browser extension that saves any webpage as a single HTML file. This is the easiest and most elegant solution to link rot that I know of. A folder full of HTML files backed up in whatever cloud storage/external HDD you use is a guarantee you will have those pages forever.
- myNoise: the best background noise/music generator on the Internet. I’ve mentioned them before, and will mention them again on any reclist of good free things I make, ever. You can make a one-time donation to unlock everything, but even the free sounds are plentiful and excellent. Some of my favourites are Floating, The Architect’s Eclipse and Silver Drift. If you like a more natural ambience, Japanese Garden is fantastic.
