Weeding out the slop programs from my daily computing

[pyrrhic7]

I don't want any LLM slop in the tools I rely on. It's hostile to humanity, the environment, critical thinking... need I go on? (I'm not ready to unleash the vast rant gathering steam within.) Just as critically, I want to trust my software a smidge more, especially software handling sensitive things like my software packages (brew...).

Anyway, I want to share a cool project I came across, documenting slop in open-source software & even suggesting slop-free alternatives: Open Slopware. They've recently included color-coded labels categorizing the presence of slop; how sparkling!  Another list of slop-free software I like to check on is Starlight Network's No-AI list.

[Why am I particularly scrutinizing open-source software in this post? Because I want that load-bearing word to actually hold weight. "Vibe-coding" even portions of the codebase suggests to me not even the prompter has reviewed those lines of code, and LLM generation infamously optimizes for plausibility, logically resulting in the most subtle (for humans to spot) bugs.]

There's a range of upsetting and/or baffling entries (brew, git, Neo/vim :( curl?? rsync??) that I'm slowly working through (or gritting through). I've ditched vlc in favor of SMPlayer, stopped installing/updating with brew, and might give Classic Vim a spin. My partner migrated our personal software forge (wow didn't know they were called that) from Gitea to Forgejo. Investigating the alternatives has also pushed me to learn Zig, even if none of my projects require system-level programming... but hey, a bright spark.

I recognize it isn't possible to excise 100% of the slop, and I'm navigating this journey bearing in mind what I can personally handle, and my threat model of trust. I mean, I necessarily rely on closed-source software—I'm still on macOS because there's software vital to my workflow—and I'm even considering a media server with a lengthy, sensible-leaning "permissive AI policy" unless I can find reasonable alternatives. But I honestly feel lighter with any change for the better.

Anyone else here switch open-source software specifically to escape LLM junk? (Also asking as I'm hoping to hear other alternatives!)

[lakes]

I'd like to add some stuff about my attempts to avoid AI summaries in search engines.
Duckduckgo has a special url that disables AI by default.
Startpage doesn't have AI in their search engine but has it in their mobile browser I think.
Meanwhile decentralized meta search engines like SearXNG & 4get don't have AI summaries as far as I can tell, but the quality of the search results with them varies & they can get rate limited. Although the link does say SearXNG has AI generated code which is unfortunate.
There's also search engines that prioritize non-corporate results like Wiby, Marginalia, and Searchmysite.net. But their search index is limited because it relies on submissions.

Anyone else here switch open-source software specifically to escape LLM junk? (Also asking as I'm hoping to hear other alternatives!)

I was already switching to open source alternatives before all this LLM stuff, but it was the final straw for me and I switched to Linux because of it.
That said, I'm disappointed that so many FOSS advocates and devs are fine using LLMs even if I understand a lot of FOSS devs are overworked & that local AI isn't as bad for the environment, or perceived as such. I'm glad to see most of the stuff I use on here tends to be more "AI permissive" than "AI generated code." But I still wish it was different & I'm glad my browser & video player choices don't use LLMs either. I'm actually in the Librewolf Matrix rooms. The Librewolf devs seem pretty nice.

[Watanabe_1994]

Duckduckgo has a special url that disables AI by default.

Man I missed when the first thing that would pop up was a Wikipedia page

[klungus]

I'm actually in the Librewolf Matrix rooms. The Librewolf devs seem pretty nice.

I second the LibreWolf recommendation. Firefox has stayed strong for so long against all the enshittification taking over browsers but recently has started adding in unnecessary and un-askedfor AI features :/. Other than minor inconveniences (which I'm sure I can disable if I took the time to figure out how) such as having to log into websites like YouTube each time you book the browser, LibreWolf was a pretty pleasant experience. I don't need much from a browser I just want it to load a webpage quickly  .

My current quest is to find a nice alternative to Spotify. I think I may purchase some sort of MP3 player with Bluetooth and just download all of my music because the amount of AI music and just pointless features being shoved into that app (plus all the price increases) have really turned it into more of a hassle than a convenience. If anyone has any nice recommendations (I've been looking at Tidal as an alternative streaming platform but I think I'll go with the downloaded music route) please let me know!

[lakes]

My current quest is to find a nice alternative to Spotify. I think I may purchase some sort of MP3 player with Bluetooth and just download all of my music because the amount of AI music and just pointless features being shoved into that app (plus all the price increases) have really turned it into more of a hassle than a convenience. If anyone has any nice recommendations (I've been looking at Tidal as an alternative streaming platform but I think I'll go with the downloaded music route) please let me know!

If you're looking for places to download music, I know a couple of options that aren't as well known:

• Bandcamp: Bandcamp is a website which offers you to buy songs/albums and merch. All albums are available in the FLAC file format. Some albums give you the option of buying physical media and you get the option to listen for free. The only downsides are: there's no way to support an artist for free AND the selection of music is smaller than Spotify.
• Free Music Archive: self-explanatory, music that was made for free use
• Soulseek network: a peer to peer network for music file sharing, this way is less legal than the 1st 2, I'd also recommend the Nicotine+ app instead of the official one
• Youtube to MP3 downloads: self-explanatory, I use Ultimate Media Downloader for youtube downloads: it's a program that uses ytdlp, so no need for a shady website; also it can download full playlists even though the "playlist" feature is supposedly locked
• RawkBawx: a torrent website for rock & metal music
• The official Vintage Obscura Radio website lets you download songs from there. You can also use "radio capture" on some audio players like AIMP.

[klungus]

If you're looking for places to download music, I know a couple of options that aren't as well known:

Thanks for all the recommendations!  I'll definitely check these out. What I'm mostly interested in finding are nice software replacements for Spotify itself. I'd like to keep listening to music in the car so some bluetooth mobile app would be nice. Alternatively I keep seeing posts about modern mp3 players which would be a nice touch.

For desktop, I need to look more into some terminal apps that could run music or otherwise super simple and functional players. I'm trying to simplify my life lol.

[mini]

What I'm mostly interested in finding are nice software replacements for Spotify itself. I'd like to keep listening to music in the car so some bluetooth mobile app would be nice. Alternatively I keep seeing posts about modern mp3 players which would be a nice touch.

If you can self-host, Navidrome allows you to host your music with bells and whistles (playlists, automatic transcoding so that you can listen even with slow internet...). You then pair it with some nice frontends (i.e: Feishin for desktop and Tempo for mobile) and you have basically rolled out your own spotify.

Also, if you wanna download music, look into Soulseek :P

[Horsey Chobunso]

What I'm mostly interested in finding are nice software replacements for Spotify itself. I'd like to keep listening to music in the car so some bluetooth mobile app would be nice.

I have not used it myself, but I've been told by a few friends that Qobuz is decent as a Spotify replacement. They said the sound quality and streaming are great, but its not as good for finding new music. The catalog isn't as big either, but that can change over time.

[klungus]

I have not used it myself, but I've been told by a few friends that Qobuz is decent as a Spotify replacement.

If you can self-host, Navidrome allows you to host your music with bells and whistles (playlists, automatic transcoding so that you can listen even with slow internet...). You then pair it with some nice frontends (i.e: Feishin for desktop and Tempo for mobile) and you have basically rolled out your own spotify.

Also, if you wanna download music, look into Soulseek :P

Thanks for all the recommendations! Gonna really start looking it these next few days. I have an old Thinkpad that I recently replaced that I am gonna turn into a home server with some external hard drives. Def gonna check out Navidrome for music hosting plus all the sites yall have sent to download music :3.

I'm still pretty new to this site but thanks for the help 

[lakes]

For desktop, I need to look more into some terminal apps that could run music or otherwise super simple and functional players. I'm trying to simplify my life lol.

Not an audio player, but if you want a terminal program, I'd recommend yt-dlp for youtube to mp3/mp4/webm downloads.

[pyrrhic7]

Duckduckgo has a special url that disables AI by default.
Startpage doesn't have AI in their search engine but has it in their mobile browser I think.
Meanwhile decentralized meta search engines like SearXNG & 4get don't have AI summaries as far as I can tell, but the quality of the search results with them varies & they can get rate limited. Although the link does say SearXNG has AI generated code which is unfortunate.
There's also search engines that prioritize non-corporate results like Wiby, Marginalia, and Searchmysite.net.

Neat, thanks for sharing Searchmysite and Wiby; hadn't heard of either! Wiby's HTML-predominance requirement makes it some truly niche stuff, nice. For the small web, I've only ever used Marginalia. My LibreWolf's default search engine is DuckDuckGo's "lite" version—I'm partial to the stripped-back look of its search results! Also discovered a similar "html" version (more styling than "lite"). But a good reminder that I can use their noai version for image search, thanks a bundle

I'm definitely interested in switching to Linux... one day hopefully soon. (It's also rather perplexing to see some of the core Linux team openly invite LLM usage, per the links referenced by Open Slopware—of course, the proprietary OSes certainly aren't better in that regard)

I'm actually in the Librewolf Matrix rooms. The Librewolf devs seem pretty nice.

This is tangential but now I'm terribly curious (if you feel like answering), is it mostly LibreWolf development and support/help, or are there other topics discussed?

[lakes]

Neat, thanks for sharing Searchmysite and Wiby; hadn't heard of either! Wiby's HTML-predominance requirement makes it some truly niche stuff, nice. For the small web, I've only ever used Marginalia. My LibreWolf's default search engine is DuckDuckGo's "lite" version—I'm partial to the stripped-back look of its search results! Also discovered a similar "html" version (more styling than "lite"). But a good reminder that I can use their noai version for image search, thanks a bundle

I'm definitely interested in switching to Linux... one day hopefully soon. (It's also rather perplexing to see some of the core Linux team openly invite LLM usage, per the links referenced by Open Slopware—of course, the proprietary OSes certainly aren't better in that regard)

Thanks. Also I know what you mean by Linux because I started hearing them incorporating AI stuff after I switched. I will admit they have been more cautious and slower about it than the proprietary OSes. But I feel like a lot of people in the FOSS space tend to think privacy is the "main issue" with LLMs and that that can be fixed by local models. So it makes sense that Linux devs would think it's "ok." Combine that with the fact a lot of FOSS devs are overworked for little to no pay & it adds even more justification. I think a Lutris dev said they started using AI-generated code for the app even though they hate AI's effects on society in the current system because the work was too much for them. I'm not sure if this developer still is though.

This is tangential but now I'm terribly curious (if you feel like answering), is it mostly LibreWolf development and support/help, or are there other topics discussed?

There's 3 separate rooms for Librewolf: one is for support, another is for off topic things & another is related to development I think (I don't know I'm not in the 3rd room).