Switching Software

2021-12-02 | Tech

Microsoft Word. Adobe Photoshop. Whatsapp. Some software is so ubiquitous that you don’t even think that an alternative might be a good idea, or even exist. But often they do exist, and you should consider switching.

Why do I think you should switch? The two biggest reasons, are Google and Adobe. Adobe removed the ability to purchase software outright, forcing users into a monthly subscription. Google are just…well…Google. They sell your soul to the highest bidder.

I stopped using Google Analytics a few months ago on here, opting instead for a locally hosted Matomo analytics plugin, which does everything I want it to (and more). What it doesn’t do, which is the real drawcard, is send the analytics on to anyone else. The analytics are for me, and for me only.

I subscribe to a daily email called The Sizzle (https://thesizzle.com.au/), and today it alerted me to the website called Switching Software (https://swiso.org/). It’s super simple: look for the program you use, click on it, and it will tell you what the open source/free/non-evil/ethical alternatives that are available.

I’ve written about Signal before here: Why do I use Signal?, and it is one of the alternatives to WhatsApp – the one that I recommend. It has an edge over WhatsApp in that it will take over (if you want it to) as the default SMS app and allow you to keep SMS and Signal messages in the same encrypted database on your phone.

Switching Software mentions Matomo as the replacement for Google Analytics, along with another few options – a switch I already made.

I dumped Adobe for the Affinity software suite – which isn’t free, but all three applications cost $150 all up when they were on special, for a permanent licence.

I use OwnCloud instead of Dropbox. This is a faff, and not for everyone, because you have to host your own server. But if you have access to a machine that’s always online, it’s a good option.

I host my own mail server using Mail In A Box (https://mailinabox.email/) rather than relying on Gmail. Also a faff, because spam restrictions are so tight these days that if you aren’t one of the big players (Microsoft/Google) you’re very much a second class netizen. With patience and some polite emails to whatever spam filter is blocking you and it’s possible to get unblocked and then it works a treat.

It’s worth while investigating these. I’ve just downloaded kdenlive, a non-linear video editing application to replace Adobe Premiere Pro. I’ll see how it is and maybe post a review down the track.

Getting an A+

2021-11-10 | Tech

If I run this domain through Qualsys’s SSL Server test, I get an A+. Which feels like a good score. I followed someone else’s instructions on how to do this, but I can’t remember where that was, so I figure putting the configuration here will be handy for me and, potentially, you.

SSLEngine		on
SSLProtocol		all -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
SSLCipherSuite		HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5:!3DES
SSLHonorCipherOrder	on
SSLCompression		off
SSLOptions		+StrictRequire
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15552000; includeSubDomains; preload"

Ghost

2021-11-10 | Tech

Background

I had a reason to see if I could get Ghost running alongside this WordPress install today, and it turns out that once you follow the correct and up-to-date instructions, it’s quite simple. I run Apache rather than nginx, so the default instructions don’t work. The magic happens with the RequestHeader line and the whole https component of the VirtualHost looks like this:

    <VirtualHost *:443>
            ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

            ServerName ghostblog.domain

            ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
            CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

           ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:2368/
           ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:2368/
           ProxyPreserveHost On
           RequestHeader Set X-Forwarded-Proto "https"


            Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
            SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/ghostblog.domain/fullchain.pem
            SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/ghostblog.domain/privkey.pem
    </VirtualHost>

There’s also the redirect from http to https but I do that in a separate VirtualHost with a permanent redirect. Without the RequestHeader line, you end up with a lot of internal redirects when you try to access the site over https.

Following the official installation works well, and if it detects that nginx isn’t installed, Ghost-CLI will let you skip that part of the configuation and it trusts that you’ll figure it out some other way.

Ghost-CLI also performs the database configuration and stuff for you, assuming you know the/a MySQL username and password on your server.

Thoughts

I only had a cursory look inside Ghost and my first thought is that it’s so quick. Really, really quick. I’m tempted to move this site there. Or maybe I’ll make bitterswede.com a thing in Ghost and slowly migrate across. The main thing that’s getting in the way of moving over is that I’ve used a theme called Divi which I suspect has inserted a lot of garbage into posts made with the Divi Builder.

One day, maybe.

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