New trisquel user, a question about evaluating software, in this case Zen Browser

The Free Software Directory is indeed an excellent catalog of free software applications. New contributors are welcome: https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Participate

Searching Firefox there, you end up with https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Gnuzilla presenting GNU IceCat, which is a derivative with "a focus on freedom and privacy". The Zen browser probably suffers from the issues listed on that page: Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), third-party cookies, leaking of the LAN IP, etc.

The Trisquel project modifies as well packages to solve freedom issues (such as recommendation of proprietary software) and enhance the privacy of its users. Here is the so-called package helper that modifies Firefox for Trisquel 11: https://gitlab.trisquel.org/trisquel/package-helpers/-/blob/aramo/helpers/make-firefox

Notice that, in its vast majority, the software in Trisquel comes from Ubuntu and the software in Ubuntu comes from Debian. If you want to help with adding packages to the Trisquel repository, you may start with Debian and, in the process, help the users of all the Debian-based distributions.

About side tabs, instead of installing the Zen Browser (which includes proprietary software such as EME), you may get the feature on Trisquel's default Web browser, Abrowser. To do so, you can install an extension. Sidebery is apparently popular: https://gnuzilla.gnu.org/extension.php?id=999984

You may want to contribute to that repository of free extensions for Firefox-based browsers, checking the license status of (popular) add-ons on https://addons.mozilla.org

The "License" is indicated in the "More information" box in the left-hand corner of an extension page such as https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sidebery/ and you already know https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

> As a new user of Trisquel and someone early in the process of learning to evaluate software,

Welcome! That’s a valuable skill to develop, just like learning how to pick the best fruits and vegetables at the market takes practice, evaluating software to consume also takes time and experience to recognize the ones that meet your needs.

Usually, by looking at the license, formats or features you can recognize if a software might have issues.

> Are the apps in the Trisquel app managers limited to only vetted libre apps?

Indeed. By default, Trisquel only uses DEB binary packages from the official repositories, which are actively maintained. Snap support is removed, Flatpak requires manual user setup to add the repository. Guix package manager is also available, though personally I'm not brave enough to go that route, I prefer to stick with DEB packages. I'm not much of a bleeding-edge guy either.

So by default, you'll only get prompted to install packages that comes from the oficial repositories, that's what our trisquel-app-install thingy uses. Please forgive the slightly messy package data in Trisquel 11; you might prefer Synaptic for now. In Trisquel 12, we've done a much better job, and the experience is closer to a fully maintained package manager.

As for Discovery, for KDE folks... well, that's another story, it requires a bit (or a bunch) of love. We recycled trisquel-app-install there too. There is a short thread about it on devel mailing list:
https://listas.trisquel.info/pipermail/trisquel-devel/2025-June/001365.html

Cheers!

Since Abrowser 136 (April 2025) you can change the tabs to the sidebar in the browser preferences.

With the new Abrowser 139 (released today) you can also organize your tabs in groups.

> > As a new user of Trisquel and someone early in the process of learning to evaluate software,

> Welcome! That’s a valuable skill to develop, just like learning how to pick the best fruits and vegetables at the market takes practice, evaluating software to consume also takes time and experience to recognize the ones that meet your needs.

I second Akr74 on this. I myself switched from MacOS to Trisquel a few years ago; the process I use to choose software is constantly evolving. There is a lot to learn (in a good way!).

> So, my question is, do folks have advice for evaluating the software they use? [...] When stepping outside of that, do you rely on the FSF software directory? I'm guessing folks generally rely on https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html?
>
> Are there any other considerations?

I sent this message below to someone who asked me what heuristics I, as a non-technical person, use to choose software.

First, when I think I need an additinal programme/tool/extension to do something, I ask myself these questions:

- can I avoid downloading a new programme? Can I do what I need to do with a software I already have installed on my laptop? Or, can I do what I need to do by using utilities grep, pipe, cut, etc. I follow the heuristics I got from Nassim Taleb, I paraphrase: we improve systems by removing, not by adding.

If I need to install a programme:

- can I do what I need to do with a software that only does that task (Unix philosophy, instead of downloading a monolith)?
- can I do what I need to do with a software that is in the repository of the GNU/Linux distribution I use? I avoid installing from source. I don't install from other repositories.

If I have the choice between 2 or more programmes, I ask myself these questions:

- which software has the smallest size?
- which software has less dependencies?
- which software is the oldest? I tend to prioritise usage of old programmes. I keep the Lindy Effect in mind:

> The Lindy effect is the idea that the remaining life expectancy of a
> non-perishable good is equal to its current age.
>
> For example, cars which have existed for the last ~140 years are
> expected to exist for another ~140 years; an application that was
> released 2 years ago is expected to exist for another 2 years.

I pick old programme with the hope I won't have to switch anytime soon.

I wrote a short blog post about it: https://yctct.com/old

I also think of the relation between a programme and the know-how I'll be able to develop (or not develop) using that programme. For example, programmes that stick to the Unix philosophy, I feel, allow me to further develop my abilities to use a computer.

Next:

- can I run this software locally?
- in other words, can I avoid running this programme on the server of someone else?

If I can't run it locally:

- what's the license of that software? Permissive? Copyleft? I prioritise copyleft. This question only comes now because I know that all programmes in the repository of the distribution I use are free.
- can I prioritise using this software on the server of a non-profit or a cooperative, instead of a private company? I follow those steps: https://copyleftculture.com/tree.html

Things to consider:

- I only have one device (I don't have a smartphone), which makes things a lot simpler because I don't have to synchronise devices. I have very few accounts on third-party servers. Most of my data lives on my laptop, and on local backups.

Happy to clarify any of the above.

> That's helpful advice, thank you!

You're welcome.

> Interested in the choosing of old programs.

There is, at least from my perspecitve, a relation between the ability to develop know-hows and the "age" of a programme. I might try to develop on this in a blog post at some point.

> In general I'm moving in the direction of simplification, especially in regards to the cloud which was a part of my transition away from Apple-based computing.

I'm in the same boat. I started 8 years ago; still learning. I've posted milestones there: https://yctct.com/twtxt.txt