It's Friday! I've got VPN for you today.

Firefox and Cloudflare came together and created a VPN that's built into Firefox Desktop browser. I tried it out yesterday and it is pretty fantastic.

First you have to set up a Firefox account. If you don't want to use your real email account, set up a free account at one of the myriad providers available (Proton, AOL, Yandex, Mail. com, etc.) and then set up an account at Mozilla/Firefox.  After you do this you will be asked to verify the account at Firefox. (This is not as involved as it sounds.)

After you've verified the account, head on over to The Firefox Private Network.

It's dead simple to use. On and off. If you need more granular control, you should seek out a paid VPN. When I used it yesterday, the speeds were excellent. Upload suffered a bit, but download speed was nearly as good as my non-VPN connected speed. Unlike most of the other free options for VPN, this one is actually usable.

The Firefox Private Network is in beta and it is free right now as an extension. Mozilla says that they may have a paid version in the future, so this is an opportunity to give it a try for free.

Mozilla is doing some awesome stuff lately. I am pleased.

It's FOSS Friday!

I've been using Libre Office a lot lately and I'm completely impressed with how far it has come and how beautifully it renders documents coming from Microsoft Office. I can actually use templates from MS Office now.

The documents created on Libre office also save and open in Microsoft Office flawlessly. It's super impressive how far the programs in the Libre Office Suite have progressed since the last time I used it years ago.

The Suite includes:

• Writer – word processor
• Calc – spreadsheet
• Impress – presentations
• Draw – diagrams
• Base – database
• Math – formula editor
• Charts

If you have used Libre in the past and been unhappy with it, give it another go. I sincerely think that you will be pleased with it now. Plus, what have you got to lose? It's free and open source.

Download the office suite today and give it a try. It's easy and free.

There is a Libre Office Viewer (editing is still in development) Android Play Store. Google Docs have no problems with files from Libre Office though, so the native Google programs should handle them just fine if you don't want to bother with another program on your phone.

There are paid versions of the suite on the Microsoft Store ($10) and Mac Store ($8) apps - both are LibreOffice Vanilla. (As an aside, this is how FOSS works. The developers took the free and open source software and developed it as an app for the MS and Mac platform stores. Developer then charges for the convenience of having it available on the platform. Yay for Open Source!) Again, Libre and native Microsoft play fine together, so it may not be necessary.

There are other options for the program and plenty in development. If you are interested in Libre Office for business or personal use, but have questions, contact us and we'd be happy to talk about it with you.

Today's freebie is a website.

I don't suppose anyone will be thanking me for this, so I'll apologize in advance for your wasted day. Sorry.
One of the problems coming to the Internet soon is the lack of Flash. Most browsers are already reluctant to support Flash and they certainly won't after Adobe stops development of the platform in early 2020.
Flash has been a dangerous component of the Internet for a long time. After support stops, every criminal and their brother-in-law will be drooling over getting into your computer while you are playing solitaire at that Pogo mirror site. So, don't download that pirate extension and don't go to that mirror site.
There are are already new sites that are far, far better than the old flash sites. I'm going to recommend one today.

​Neon Games.

Tons of HTML5 and without the need for Flash. There are loads of clicky games to play that are fun, addictive and simple. Mahjong, Solitaire, Match3, Time Management, Hidden Object, Classic, Action and more. None of them require Flash to work and they all play right in your laptop or desktop browser.
The site is well managed, new games are introduced regularly, the ads are not obtrusive and it runs smoothly on every browser I tested it in.
​
Neon Games gets a huge thumbs up from me. And a completely wasted afternoon. Yeah, Maya Bubbles has like 120 levels.

Happy Friday! I'm here to spread some freedom!

In May (weekend of the 4th and 5th) Firefox had a problem that broke almost of their extensions. I am a heavy user of those extensions. The loss of those extensions broke the internet for me. It left me using Chrome and Chromium, which isn't bad, but it's not what I prefer.

So, I decided to give Waterfox, a fork of Firefox, a try!

I also said that I'd give you all an update on my experiences with various browsers. I've been using Waterfox as a daily browser since May and I love it. It behaves exactly like Firefox and I'm able to use all of my lovely extensions. Some of the extensions take a bit of fiddling, but if you aren't a power user, you probably won't need to.

One of the nice things about Waterfox is the lack of corporate apps included on install. There's no Pocket.

I like it because it lends itself to choice and risk. It doesn't tell you what you are allowed to do because you will be taking a risk. I can easily install extensions and plug-ins that are not on the Firefox white-list. Waterfox treats you like a grown-up.

In addition to the extensions available at the Mozilla site, Waterfox maintains a collection of archived addons.

The devs are responsive and have a subReddit for support. They post frequently on their blog.

Waterfox is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

All in all, it's a great substitute for Firefox.

It's Friday! Yay!

Is there anyone who hasn't heard of (Get)Paint.net? You haven't? Oh my. You are in for a treat.

Have you ever looked at Adobe Photoshop and thought that it would be nice, but it's too expensive? Looked at Microsoft Paint and said to yourself, "Well, it's okay for making 4chan memes."

GetPaint(dot)net is in between. It's free and it's a powerful, yet simple image and photo editor tool. It's extendable and has loads of intuitive features, including easy to use special effects. There is clear documentation and support for a wide userbase, including an active online community that posts tutorials and plugins.

I used GetPaint.net when back I used Windows and I was always happy with the program. If you are looking for a full-featured, native image editing program that's free and a step up from MS Paint, but not quite Photoshop (or The GIMP), GetPaint.net is probably what you are looking for.

​Click on the screenshot below to take you to GetPaint(dot)Net.