// MIKE D. | PITHY CYBORG //

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. 🩵


🔒
Privacy Tools
ToolWhy 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 Overkill for most situations, but unbeatable when you need maximum anonymity and censorship resistance.
VeraCrypt The world's best open-source disk encryption tool. Perfect for securing your physical devices. It's the spiritual successor to TrueCrypt... which disappeared under mysterious circumstances. 👀

🤖
AI Tools
ToolWhy 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.
Ollama The easiest way to run local LLMs offline. Fast, lightweight, and completely private. (I treat cloud AI as a power tool, not a confidant. Sensitive work stays local.)
Magica Access over a dozen popular AI bots from one central hub for around $15 per month. (Includes chatbots, video generation, voice cloning, music, and AI agents.)

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Marketing & Business
ToolWhy It's Here
Substack The premier platform for newsletters, podcasts, and independent publishing.
HighLevel All-in-one marketing, CRM, and automation that replaces bloated enterprise tools at a fraction of the cost.
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 If I were ever going to leave Substack, this is where I would go.

🐧
Operating Systems (Free & Open-Source)
OSWhy 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.

🛠️
Free & Open-Source Tools I Love
ToolWhy 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.

THIS IS HOW I RUN PITHY CYBORG.
SOVEREIGN AND PARANOID.

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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.