I’ll start by plugging Harvard’s free courses catalog as well as Udemy
Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-
Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous “Donut Tutorial” once!
Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!
Syncthing.
Connect any two devices’ folders together wirelessly, from anywhere.
Don’t have a server? You don’t need one. Every device is an individual node.
Backup? If you do have a server, offload some of your content and keep on rolling, or set scripts to move files by age.
Cleaning after yourself before you leave the property as a tenant.
Not free as in freedom, but gratis. Also only works for people who are on Discord - FreeStuff Bot will notify you every time a game on one of the popular PC platforms is available for free.
The cats and dogs out in the street are free. You can just bring a friend home. /hj
/hj = hand job?
I’ve like never seen this abbreviation used any other way 🧐
I believe it’s “half joking”.
This is a great thread!
Not foss, but PortSwigger Burp Community
I know its a major security tool widely used but it bugs me it’s not open sourced
Bugs me, too. I only use it when I absolutely have to. But it is free.
Me
Porn
People that pay for porn on the Internet are like people that pay for WinRAR
Well, yeah, if you’re lucky enough to find an old magazine in the woods, but that doesn’t count, because it’s not usually free otherwise.
I know you’re trolling but the idea of someone not knowing about free internet porn and paying for it while somehow being on lemmy is so funny to me
You gents have convinced me to click around a bit more. I have my research cut out for me this evening.
How goes the research? I’m genuinely mind blown by this haha
If you can’t find something to get off to for free you’re either incompetent or a degenerate
Where!? Are you peeping on folks?
gestures broadly at the internet
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Libraries. Most even rent video games, power tools, audio/video hardware, baking utensils…SO MUCH STUFF. All free.
Nope. 15 Euro a year (Freiburg, Germany), which doesn’t automatically renew and it’s a bloody pain.
Adding the library-libby nexus. Most libraries have an eBook collection connected through Libby. I’ve got a Kindle and zero books bought from Amazon. It’s great.
Protip, if you went to any form of formal education (college) then you probably have alumni library account access. My Libby has three library cards logged in. I never wait for a book.
Our library loans out state parks passes for a month so you can go to parks for free. It also loans out hiking gear, provides immigration resources, and oddly, a ukulele.
I have questions
This is amazing, I had no idea.
I once rented a whole reflector telescope.
That is…fucking crazy awesome.
On a whim I googled my city’s library and “tools” and I found a non-profit society that specializes in lending of hand and power tools! This is incredible and I wouldn’t have known about it without this prompt: thank you!
Can you share the name of this non profit society, is it a part of your local public library or it’s own independent thing?.
I need a spanner for like single hex nut and I don’t want to buy one for it to collect dust in my drawer lol
My local library loans dongles! Now if I can just manage to check one out without snickering …
👍
Free Office Suite which is excellent for personal use. If you are on mobile Collabora Office if you want an Android/iOS version
I’ve been using it for over a decade. Prior to that I used open office but it quickly became clear Openoffice couldn’t match the development of LibreOffice. There is no concrete reason to buy microsoft’s bloated ever changing garbage.
OnlyOffice is even better in several ways.
It’s Russian software so yeah… 🤢
It’s also worse in that they hide the fact it’s made in Russia.
wow thanks! I haven’t been able to use LibreOffice as it is hands down one of the ugliest pieces of software I’ve looked at, and despite retrying for years, I genuinely could not tolerate it. OnlyOffice looks so great!
I hear you. It’a almost as bad as Gimp vs Krita.
How so? I’ve been moving between the two for years.
I find it faster, more stable, and just generally FEELS better than LibreOffice. Which I’m sure is because it isn’t carrying 30 years of Java baggage with it from the Star office/OpenOffice.org days. And ive had better luck with document compatibility in some cases.
The only complaint ive heard about it is just a smaller feature set than LibreOffice. But it does everything I want it to do.
Both are great, though.
Awesome thanks!
Your local city college may or may not offer free classes (in San Francisco, you just need to show proof that you live in the city with some legal status).
Some public transportation is free for certain groups (youth and folks experiencing homelessness can get free passes here).
“First X of the month” at the zoo/a museum/whatever — lots of venues have free events.
A jog, bike ride, hike — lots of great stuff outside!
Public Transport is always free for everybody.
I live in the Philly area. Senior citizens can use SEPTA (buses and commuter trains) for $1 a ride.
I second the biking … but that shit ain’t free. Even used bikes cost some money to buy and maintain, and brand new bicycles are solidly in the “insane” category these days.
Good point — it is “incrementally free,” although I guess if you count tire wear and tear that’s not even true.
In most eu countries the law requires businesses that give out food to also allow you to order free tap water. If youre in a city and dont want to spend money on a bottle of water, walk into mcdonalds and ask for free tap water. A lot of european countries also have strict laws about tap water so for example in france unless otherwise indicated with a warning, tap water is always potable.
Yep, can confirm for Portugal.
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Here in the US, this seems so normal that it didnt even occur to me that this may not be true everywhere else. And not need to be enforced by law.
Arizona has several long-standing laws on the books requiring both public government properties and businesses to provide drinking water without cost or other barrier to access. Businesses can’t even charge for the cup.
Common courtesy unfortunately doesn’t go far enough, especially when it matters most, so law is required.
A lot of places in the US will charge you for the cup or say they only offer bottled water for sale.
Ive definitely never, ever run into that. But I’m sure it happens.
Edit: I guess ive seen places that charged some nominal fee for the cup but it’s so rare
I went to Philadelphia and there were hardly any places to get water at all. There were always stores selling water bottles literally $8 in one instance around nearly everywhere you looked
And even if they do give out free tap water … they might not mean lead-free.
Not true everywhere, actually never heard of it here (Germany and Austria).
But if you walk into a place and ask for a paper cup of tap water, a lot of workers are willing to give it to you, regardless of the laws.
Vienna has tap water straight from the mountains btw and it tastes amazing. Recommended.
I love how chill and helpful everyone is here.
Not being a dick is free too.
Yeah, I found some cool stuff for audio/music production
Pretty useful… when one site fails the other usually work.
what is it
A little late but OpenTaxSolver - free desktop tax software that gives you a printout of tax forms that you can mail in. And it includes a few states too. Way easier than the annoying corporate sites that constantly log you out and charge a fee for every little thing.
Edit: To my non-American friends, you don’t need to worry about this
Since you mention states and the site mentions federal taxes and the IRS, I assume this is for the tax system of the USA, it’s funny that it isn’t stated anywhere though.
the USA is the only country that I know of that requires such ridiculous measures to file your taxes tbh
Here in Switzerland, tax law is different per canton. So for our ~9 million people we have 26 tax laws! We pay taxes on three levels, communal, cantonal and federal taxes. And who collects which part depends on your canton. In mine the commune collects the communal and the cantonal part, and the canton collects the federal part. Yeah… it makes no sense to me either.
Though regarding the filing that part is not so bad;you only make one tax declaration from which the taxes on all three levels are calculated. And as far as I’m aware each canton offers a free software application for filing. The filings are a little complicated compared to some European neighbours from what I hear. For instance we aren’t source taxed directly out of our pay-checks, so we have to list our earnings and possessions manually and list various deductions.
Still, from what I gather we have it a little better than the US Americans
26 tax laws? You mean 26 volumes, right? /S from the US.
I mean 26 separate sets of law regarding what is taxed and how highly in each of the 26 cantons. Not one law with 26 paragraphs.
Thanks! I was pretty annoyed at having to pay TurboTax over $100 something to have my taxes filed. Opportunistic assholes.
