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LibreOffice: How to change page orientation in Writer, Calc, and Draw
Choose the orientation that suits your document
LibreOffice is an open source and free-to-use office suite you can use to write essays, create spreadsheets, and edit presentations. It's a popular alternative to Microsoft 365 with a range of abilities, including tools to change the page orientation.
Hardware devices like smartphones and laptop computers rely on software behind the scenes to function correctly. Software is a set of codes and instructions. Without it, the hardware doesn't know what to do, rendering it useless. Some focus on the hardware aspect and how powerful a device is. However, the software is equally important to the experience. For example, some of the most affordable Android phones from different manufacturers offer unique software features not found anywhere else.
15 best free open source apps on Android in 2024
Dig into the best open source alternatives to your favorite apps to gain freedom
Open-source apps give users additional power over their favorite Android phones, whether that's through improvement upon existing services, altering source code, or ensuring privacy on the best Android apps. While official apps are nice, immersing yourself in a community-developed and run service presents a great alternative to paid options. So unlock your device's potential with some nifty open-source apps available right now on the Play Store.
The best open source alternatives to Google Calendar
Escape the clutches of Google with our favorite open source calendar apps
If you're worried about your digital privacy, you probably know that using Google apps is not ideal. Although the tech giant has taken steps to give people more choices about the data they share, it still has a lot of work to do. Fortunately, open source apps can help you keep your data secure, as none of your data within the app can be tracked or shared without your knowledge.
The internet is a great place for people to connect and learn about anything. As much as there are safeguards built-in to the web and the devices you use to access it, it's probably a good idea to use a VPN to keep yourself extra safe. There are a number of great VPNs that work on all devices, including the best Chromebooks available. If you want an open source option that works differently from the main-stream VPNs, Google's Jigsaw group created Outline VPN just for you. Here we look at what Outline is and how to set up a Server and the Client on your devices.
VPNs are essential to keep consumers safe while browsing the internet. Several services are available, such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, or SurfShark VPN, and all work on the best Android phones. Google's Jigsaw group, which makes solutions for a safer internet, has its own open source VPN called Outline that's a bit different from traditional VPNs. This article discusses what Outline is, how it compares to other VPNs, and how you can use it to browse safely.
This Android app developer wants to create its own open source phone
It’ll likely only appeal to enthusiasts, but it’s one of the few ways to survive in the competitive smartphone market
Simple Mobile Tools is well known in the Android community for its open-source applications that provide viable alternatives to mainstream software. Its suite ranges from basic contact, dialer, and calculator apps to more robust software like a file manager and a gallery. The brand is even working on a camera app that focuses on privacy and simplicity while providing a consistent user experience. The company is now looking to expand beyond apps and spread its wings into the highly competitive smartphone market.
Despite Google's moves to add more proprietary features to its Android build, the underlying software is still open source. That means every Android phone release is followed some weeks later by a less notable open source code dump. Today, Samsung has gotten to that phase, releasing kernel source for the Galaxy S22 family. Not all of it, though.
Google kicked a FOSS app off the Play Store for linking to its own website
Google isn't messing around when it comes to payment processing
While the Play Store is generally the more accepting and pervasive of the two big mobile application platforms, it still needs a fair amount of moderation to keep out the riff-raff. Malware, spyware, annoying apps that put things like [Free Download] in the title, it's all got to go. But it looks like Google is getting more aggressive in enforcing its more general developer terms, especially when it comes to payments. Case in point: Language Transfer.
F-Droid: the definitive un-Play Store
An app store for Android that appeals to FOSS-heads. What's not to love?
Most Android devices (at least those that are decidedly not made by Huawei) come equipped with the Google Play Store. Sure, there are notable outliers, like Amazon Fire tablets, which are somewhat locked into Amazon's parallel app ecosystem, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule. While other device vendors and mobile carriers have historically offered their own app stores, there's also a carrier/network independent distribution system for Android apps: Say hello to F-Droid, the free and open alternative to commercial app stores.
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Signal has always been heralded as the security-aware alternative to WhatsApp and Co. due to its open-source nature, but the nonprofit behind the chat app hasn't always stuck to its original open-source promises. While it regularly publishes the code of its client apps, Signal failed to update the Github repository for its server for almost a year, as reported by German publication Golem — though earlier today, the company pushed out an update with a more recent release.
Going Google-less: How to install a custom Android ROM with no Google apps or services
microG is almost a perfect Play Services replacement
If you're an Android user, Google has a scary amount of information on you, and matters get worse if you're deeply embedded in the company's app ecosystem — getting locked out of your Google account can have serious consequences then. Thankfully, Android is open source, so it's possible to evade Google without having to leave the platform altogether — just look at Amazon's tablets or Huawei's Google-less phones. But if you'd rather be completely independent from big corporations, going for a free and open-source custom ROM built on top of Android's core might be the best solution.I personally accept that there's always going to be some inherent privacy trade-off when you're using an always-connected mobile device that you carry with you everywhere you go, but I'm curious if there's a way to remove the ad company from the equation. It's probably still not feasible to use nothing but open-source apps, but you might be delighted to learn that it's possible to reduce your dependency on a single data aggregator like Google.
This company will sell you a modified Galaxy S9 without any proprietary Google software
Previously available in Europe, two refurbished models running /e/ OS are now shipping to the US and Canada.
We're big fans of Google, obviously. But we also live in the real world, where Google does a lot of stuff that's unambiguously bad. If you want to use open source Android without getting its parent company involved, then you have a few options. Previously only available in Europe, the eSolutions shop is now selling versions of the Galaxy S9 scrubbed clean of all proprietary Google software to the US and Canada.
OpenMTP picks up Samsung phone support, dark theme, and faster file transfers
The macOS tool for connecting your phone is much better than Google's sorry Android File Transfer application
Fellow Mac users know what a pain in the bum Google's official Android File Transfer application is on macOS. Luckily, there are tons of alternatives, and the most accessible one just got even better. OpenMTP version 3.0 gives the open-source tool long-awaited improvements like Samsung phone support, a dark theme, and drag-and-drop from Finder.
How to run ADB shell commands via your browser without installing drivers
The open-source project is still in early beta
If you've ever used the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), you know that it's such a hassle to set up (if you don't happen to be a developer who installed Android Studio already anyway). But with new web tools like the WebUSB API, there's no longer a need to rely on local software to fulfill the most basic ADB needs. That's where WebADB comes in, a free and open-source web service spotted by XDA Developers that allows you to debug Android devices from any supported browser.
Check out this third-party YouTube Music uploader for Windows
In lieu of an official replacement for Google Play Music's automatic desktop uploader
Google Play Music is still superior to YouTube Music for people who just want to listen to their own uploaded songs, even if YouTube Music has been catching up a lot lately. But with the demise of the Google Play Music Manager ahead of the full shutdown, users are left without an automated solution for uploading their local library. That's where an open-source tool comes in: The unofficial YTMusicUploader replicates the Music Manager's capabilities and lets you choose a path on your Windows computer for automatic uploading to YTM.
Here's what's changing as Google hands off Science Journal to Arduino
A new app is out, the old one goes away on December 11, and you can expect no functional weirdness except more Arduino board integrations
Like the world at large, schooling is a bit of a mess right now in these pandemic times. For students at home, that means missing out on precious laboratory time. Science Journal was a Google app that let amateur scientists use the sensors on their phones to perform simple, yet valuable experiments. We say "was" because open-source microcontroller designer Arduino has acquired the app and we have just learned from Google when a big transition will take place.
Ireland opens up its coronavirus contact tracing app for other governments to use
The company behind it built a white-label solution that's easier to customize
After publishing the source code of its COVID-19 tracing app, Ireland's Health Service has now additionally donated the code to the Linux Foundation. To make it available to other governments with as little modifications as possible, the company behind the application, NearForm, has built a white-label solution called "COVID Green."
We've taken a look at open source alternatives to Gmail and Google Calendar, but those are digital lifestyle staples that don't require a whole lot of smarts to work. What about something more complex and data driven, like mapping? Believe it or not, there are open source alternatives to Google Maps out there.