Mike D's Tech Stack | PithyCyborg.com

MY TECH STACK

Here is the exact tech stack I use to run Pithy Cyborg | AI News Made Simple and stay safe online. I recommend these tools to friends and people I respect. Most are free and open-source. I also include a few of my favorite premium tools that I promote as an affiliate to help cover hosting costs. Thank you. 🩵

Tool	Why It's Here
Signal	Signal is a secure instant messaging client that doesn't spy on you or your contacts. Their Signal Protocol is open-source. Ditch WhatsApp and use this.↗
Tuta	My primary encrypted email provider. Clean, affordable, and uncompromising on privacy.↗
Proton Suite	Battle-tested Swiss privacy suite that I use alongside Tuta. The full Proton stack includes encrypted email, calendar, password manager, VPN, secure cloud storage, encrypted video meetings, and a private LLM chatbot.↗
Firefox	My favorite web browser. I'll ride with it for life.↗
uBlock Origin	The undisputed champion of ad and tracker blocking. Essential on Firefox.↗
Tor Project	Privacy-focused, portable browser for anonymous web access. Overkill for most situations, but unbeatable when you need maximum anonymity and censorship resistance.↗
VeraCrypt	The world's best cross-platform open-source disk encryption tool. It's the spiritual successor to TrueCrypt... which disappeared under mysterious circumstances. 👀↗

Tool

Why It's Here

Signal

Signal is a secure instant messaging client that doesn't spy on you or your contacts. Their Signal Protocol is open-source. Ditch WhatsApp and use this.↗

Tuta

My primary encrypted email provider. Clean, affordable, and uncompromising on privacy.↗

Proton Suite

Battle-tested Swiss privacy suite that I use alongside Tuta. The full Proton stack includes encrypted email, calendar, password manager, VPN, secure cloud storage, encrypted video meetings, and a private LLM chatbot.↗

Firefox

My favorite web browser. I'll ride with it for life.↗

uBlock Origin

The undisputed champion of ad and tracker blocking. Essential on Firefox.↗

Tor Project

Privacy-focused, portable browser for anonymous web access. Overkill for most situations, but unbeatable when you need maximum anonymity and censorship resistance.↗

VeraCrypt

The world's best cross-platform open-source disk encryption tool. It's the spiritual successor to TrueCrypt... which disappeared under mysterious circumstances. 👀↗

Tool	Why It's Here
Duck.AI	Anonymous, free, no-login access to lower-latency models from OpenAI, Meta, Mistral, and Anthropic. Pure signal. Zero surveillance.↗
Apertus	Free, open-source Swiss AI. Fast, ethical, and refreshingly unfiltered.↗
Perplexity	My go-to all-in-one AI research and reasoning engine.↗
Lumo	Proton's privacy-first, cloud-based AI assistant with powerful, zero-access encryption. Chats stay confidential. Proton can't read them, doesn't log them, and never trains on your data. A convenient choice for productive, easy-access private reasoning without feeding the surveillance machine.↗
Ollama	If you're technical and want to run powerful LLMs on your own hardware with zero cloud involvement, start here. Lightweight, fast, and 100% private. (I treat cloud AI as a power tool, not a confidant. Sensitive work stays local.)↗
Jan	Free and open-source ChatGPT replacement that runs entirely on your device. Supports a wide range of local models. No tech skills or command line required. This is your pick if you want full sovereignty and a clean desktop experience.↗
LM Studio	The most beginner-friendly way to discover and run local AI models. Not open-source, but 100% free for personal and work use. Download it, pick a model, start chatting. No terminal required.↗
Magica	Access over a dozen popular AI bots from one central hub for around $15 per month. Includes premium chatbots, video generators, voice cloning, music engines, and autonomous AI agents without subscription fatigue.↗

Tool

Why It's Here

Duck.AI

Anonymous, free, no-login access to lower-latency models from OpenAI, Meta, Mistral, and Anthropic. Pure signal. Zero surveillance.↗

Apertus

Free, open-source Swiss AI. Fast, ethical, and refreshingly unfiltered.↗

Perplexity

My go-to all-in-one AI research and reasoning engine.↗

Lumo

Proton's privacy-first, cloud-based AI assistant with powerful, zero-access encryption. Chats stay confidential. Proton can't read them, doesn't log them, and never trains on your data. A convenient choice for productive, easy-access private reasoning without feeding the surveillance machine.↗

Ollama

If you're technical and want to run powerful LLMs on your own hardware with zero cloud involvement, start here. Lightweight, fast, and 100% private. (I treat cloud AI as a power tool, not a confidant. Sensitive work stays local.)↗

Jan

Free and open-source ChatGPT replacement that runs entirely on your device. Supports a wide range of local models. No tech skills or command line required. This is your pick if you want full sovereignty and a clean desktop experience.↗

LM Studio

The most beginner-friendly way to discover and run local AI models. Not open-source, but 100% free for personal and work use. Download it, pick a model, start chatting. No terminal required.↗

Magica

Access over a dozen popular AI bots from one central hub for around $15 per month. Includes premium chatbots, video generators, voice cloning, music engines, and autonomous AI agents without subscription fatigue.↗

Tool	Why It's Here
Substack	The premier platform for newsletters, podcasts, and independent publishing. It's where I run Pithy Cyborg, and it's also the most affordable newsletter platform I've found.↗
HighLevel	All-in-one marketing, CRM, and automation that replaces bloated enterprise tools at a fraction of the cost. HighLevel also hosts tons of training, so marketers and small business owners aren't left guessing how to use it.↗
HighLevel AI Agents	HighLevel AI agents can help you automate lead generation, handle sales calls, reply to incoming DMs, and manage your reputation. Designed for small business owners, agencies, creators, and marketers.↗
Namecheap	Reliable and affordable domain registrar and WordPress hosting I've trusted for over a decade. (This page is hosted on Namecheap.)↗
Beehiiv	Beehiiv is a world-class newsletter platform. It's not as affordable as Substack. But its Boosts feature lets you buy and sell leads, which is useful whether you're growing or monetizing your list. If I were ever going to leave Substack, this is where I would go.↗
Supabase	The easiest backend most indie hackers, solo devs, and small apps will ever need. Postgres database, built-in auth, realtime subscriptions, file storage, and Edge Functions, all in one place. Extremely newbie-friendly, with great docs and a clean dashboard. The free tier is genuinely usable, and it scales cheaply when you grow. No need to stitch together five different services.↗
Cloudflare	Low-cost protection, speed, and DNS for nearly any site. Also one of the best, and most affordable domain registrars I've found. Handles DDoS protection, load balancing, web application firewalls, and CDN so your projects stay fast and online even under pressure. The free plan punches way above its weight. If I didn't use WordPress, I would move all of my websites to Cloudflare without hesitation.↗

Tool

Why It's Here

Substack

The premier platform for newsletters, podcasts, and independent publishing. It's where I run Pithy Cyborg, and it's also the most affordable newsletter platform I've found.↗

HighLevel

All-in-one marketing, CRM, and automation that replaces bloated enterprise tools at a fraction of the cost. HighLevel also hosts tons of training, so marketers and small business owners aren't left guessing how to use it.↗

HighLevel AI Agents

HighLevel AI agents can help you automate lead generation, handle sales calls, reply to incoming DMs, and manage your reputation. Designed for small business owners, agencies, creators, and marketers.↗

Namecheap

Reliable and affordable domain registrar and WordPress hosting I've trusted for over a decade. (This page is hosted on Namecheap.)↗

Beehiiv

Beehiiv is a world-class newsletter platform. It's not as affordable as Substack. But its Boosts feature lets you buy and sell leads, which is useful whether you're growing or monetizing your list. If I were ever going to leave Substack, this is where I would go.↗

Supabase

The easiest backend most indie hackers, solo devs, and small apps will ever need. Postgres database, built-in auth, realtime subscriptions, file storage, and Edge Functions, all in one place. Extremely newbie-friendly, with great docs and a clean dashboard. The free tier is genuinely usable, and it scales cheaply when you grow. No need to stitch together five different services.↗

Cloudflare

Low-cost protection, speed, and DNS for nearly any site. Also one of the best, and most affordable domain registrars I've found. Handles DDoS protection, load balancing, web application firewalls, and CDN so your projects stay fast and online even under pressure. The free plan punches way above its weight. If I didn't use WordPress, I would move all of my websites to Cloudflare without hesitation.↗

OS	Why It's Here
Ubuntu	My daily driver. It's an easy-to-use, elegant, and reliable Linux distribution. Beautiful, stable, and built for daily sovereignty. If you want to explore Linux, Ubuntu is the best place to start.↗
Raspberry Pi OS	Perfect lightweight Linux distribution for Raspberry Pi and other ARM devices. Works well as a desktop OS and shines in projects like robots, garden sensors, and portable systems.↗
Tails	Tails is a lightweight Linux distribution designed from the ground up for privacy and anonymity. It's the gold standard for paranoid-level operational security. Hacker and sysadmin approved.↗

Why It's Here

Ubuntu

My daily driver. It's an easy-to-use, elegant, and reliable Linux distribution. Beautiful, stable, and built for daily sovereignty. If you want to explore Linux, Ubuntu is the best place to start.↗

Raspberry Pi OS

Perfect lightweight Linux distribution for Raspberry Pi and other ARM devices. Works well as a desktop OS and shines in projects like robots, garden sensors, and portable systems.↗

Tails

Tails is a lightweight Linux distribution designed from the ground up for privacy and anonymity. It's the gold standard for paranoid-level operational security. Hacker and sysadmin approved.↗

Tool	Why It's Here
Audacity	Industry-standard for professional audio recording, editing, podcasts, and narration.↗
KeePassXC	Rock-solid, offline, portable password vault. No compromises.↗
Ghostwriter	Clean, distraction-free Markdown editor built for serious writers.↗
Joplin	Open-source note-taking and to-do app with end-to-end encryption. Notion without the surveillance.↗
VLC	The only media player you will ever need. Plays everything, asks for nothing.↗
Kdenlive	Professional-grade open-source video editor. Powerful, flexible, and completely free.↗
Shotcut	Sleek, cross-platform video editor with a clean UI and no watermarks. Solid pick for creators.↗
OBS Studio	The gold standard for live streaming and screen recording. Free, open-source, and battle-tested by pros.↗
Krita	Elite open-source digital painting and illustration tool.↗
Pinta	Lightweight, delightful image editor. The spiritual successor to classic Paint.↗
GNOME Boxes	The free, easy, open-source way to run virtual machines on Linux. There's no terminal and no bloated licensing to worry about. Spin up a fresh distro, drop into a sandboxed Tails session, or test sketchy AI bots in an isolated environment. Zero friction. Total control.↗
GNOME Characters	Sometimes the best things in life are simple. GNOME Characters is proof. It's a no-frills emoji and character finder. It's exactly what I use to sprinkle Pithy Cyborg with nerdy emojis, lol. Zero bloat, zero learning curve, just search and copy. 🤖✨↗

Tool

Why It's Here

Audacity

Industry-standard for professional audio recording, editing, podcasts, and narration.↗

KeePassXC

Rock-solid, offline, portable password vault. No compromises.↗

Ghostwriter

Clean, distraction-free Markdown editor built for serious writers.↗

Joplin

Open-source note-taking and to-do app with end-to-end encryption. Notion without the surveillance.↗

VLC

The only media player you will ever need. Plays everything, asks for nothing.↗

Kdenlive

Professional-grade open-source video editor. Powerful, flexible, and completely free.↗

Shotcut

Sleek, cross-platform video editor with a clean UI and no watermarks. Solid pick for creators.↗

OBS Studio

The gold standard for live streaming and screen recording. Free, open-source, and battle-tested by pros.↗

Krita

Elite open-source digital painting and illustration tool.↗

Pinta

Lightweight, delightful image editor. The spiritual successor to classic Paint.↗

GNOME Boxes

The free, easy, open-source way to run virtual machines on Linux. There's no terminal and no bloated licensing to worry about. Spin up a fresh distro, drop into a sandboxed Tails session, or test sketchy AI bots in an isolated environment. Zero friction. Total control.↗

GNOME Characters

Sometimes the best things in life are simple. GNOME Characters is proof. It's a no-frills emoji and character finder. It's exactly what I use to sprinkle Pithy Cyborg with nerdy emojis, lol. Zero bloat, zero learning curve, just search and copy. 🤖✨↗

Affiliate Disclosure

90% of the tools on this page are free and open-source. I also promote a few of my favorite premium apps as an affiliate to help cover the cost of running Pithy Cyborg. If you make a purchase through my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support independent, ad-free AI news. Win-win.