Every few months, folks ask me what tools I still trust—tools that don’t track me, break randomly, or need a machine-learning overlay just to run a spreadsheet. So here’s my short stack, February 2025 edition:

• Debian & Arch Linux – battle-tested, lean, and honest.
• FreeBSD – still the king for firewalls and serious server work.
• Restic – dead-simple backups that don’t choke under pressure.
• Tailscale – for mesh VPNs that Just Work™.
• KeePassXC – because I trust my passwords more on my machine than someone else’s cloud.
• Syncthing – real-time sync, zero cloud creep.

No subscriptions. No nonsense. Just tools that respect the user.