AI Tools
Online Chatbots
Please note that these chatbots are hosted on somebody else's hardware, and as a result your conversations may not be private. Never enter anything sensitive into a chatbot that you do not have control over.
LMSYS' Chatbot Arena
A place to freely explore different open source AI models, and chat with them. LMSYS has been responsible for creating some of the more interesting open source models this year.
OpenAI's ChatGPT
The AI chatbot that set the news world on fire. If you register a free account, you're able to test out ChatGPT 3.5. It's quite capable, though it suffers heavily from censorship. But it's fantastic for innocuous or non-creative tasks. The paid version ($20/month at time of writing) allows you to access ChatGPT 4, which is far more capable. The paid version also affords access to their API, which can be used with some other really neat tools.
Online Image Generators
Online tools that you can use to try out image generation with AI.
Stable Diffusion Demo Pages
This is a collection of demos for Stable Diffusion, created by StabilityAI, the makers of Stable Diffusion. These are free to use for the public.
Stablediffusion.fr's Public Instance
I'd use an adblocker going here, but their actual instance of SDXL does let users mess with parameters a bit more. Good stepping stone as you get more familiar with how image generation works.
Leonardo
This is an online tool that allows users to generate images using Leonardo.ai's custom-trained version of Stable Diffusion. They let you do some for free, then eventually you need to pay. From what I can tell, it's not cost-prohibitive, but offers far less customization than running Stable Diffusion on your own computer.
Self-Hosted Chatbots
This is a collection of interesting tools for hosting your own chatbots at home.
GPT4ALL
An all-in-one and easy-to-install chatbot application, created by nomic.ai. GPT4ALL allows you to download and try out different models that Just Work™ without having to install or configure much of anything else, though they do offer some options you can tinker with if you're so inclined. A great first step for beginners.
oobabooga's text-generation-webui
Also known simply as 'ooba' in AI communities. Moderately difficult to set up, but produces far better results than GPT4ALL if your machine is powerful enough. It also provides a handy API for hooking other frontends into it.
Silly Tavern
One of the better frontends for interacting with chatbots using personas implemented via 'Character Cards'. Has extensive documentation and a boatload of features. It was forked from another project called TavernAI, whose development has (relatively speaking) stalled.
Avakson's AI Character Editor
A character card editor, making it far easier for non-programmers to put together their own characters. While SillyTavern, ooba, and other frontends offer means of editing character cards, they can be clunky. This is a nice one to keep in the back pocket.
Self-Hosted Image Generation
Automatic1111's stable-diffusion-webui
One of the most commonly-used WebUIs for Stable Diffusion. It offers a nice API that allows for interfacing with other applications like SillyTavern (allowing your chatbot to generate images for you, useful for brainstorming), though its workflow is a bit clunky.
ComfyAnonymous' ComfyUI
The new kid on the block, ComfyUI is gaining popularity in the image generation community, particularly since the release of SDXL.
CivitAI
A large repository of image generation AI models (and other useful tools). Here you can find custom-trained versions of SDXL that specialize in different kinds of images and art styles. I highly recommend perusing what they have.
Warning: While blurred out by default, there are a good number of NSFW (Not Safe for Work) preview images on the site. Bear that in mind before you browse.
Royalty-Free Media
It's hard to use AI to create anything without media you don't have a license to use. Hell, royalty-free stuff is useful for projects in general.
Creative Commons Search
A search engine for all sorts of open-license media. I usually start my own searches here.
Openverse
A search engine for open-licensed images and audio, for reuse and remixing. There's also a filter for stuff that can be used commercially, or you can filter by specific licenses (like different flavors of the Creative Commons license).
Unsplash
A massive collection of freely usable photos, collected by a community of hundreds of thousands of photographers. There's a lot of great stuff here.
Really Good Software
These days, the open source community is doing some really cool stuff.
Open Source Software
Free (as in beer) software! Stuff that actually works, and can genuinely make your life easier.
KeePassXC
One of the problems with being a massive tech nerd is that you end up with lots of digital accounts. Which means lots of passwords. Moreover, when you work in security, that means lots of secure passwords. The point I'm getting at here is there's no way in hell I'm memorizing all of those.
And that's where KeePassXC comes in. Using an open standard, KeePass keeps your passwords safe behind serious encryption, stored locally on your own machines. Personal, private, free. I've been using it for years, and strongly endorse its use. No, I'm not getting paid to shill for it like this. It's just really damn nice.
KeePassDX
Like KeePassXC, DX uses the same standard for your password database. What's even cooler is that it supports 'biometric unlocking' (fancy nerdspeak for 'you can use your fingerprint'). I've been using this for years, and it's freaking awesome. Super convenient. Oh, and for you nerds out there, it has OTP (One Time Password) support (those annoying 'we sent a code to your email' things companies make you use to login).
LibreOffice
A solid alternative to Microsoft Office 365 or the macOS office suite. Ships with every version of Linux, and is available for all major platforms. Can open and edit most major forms of office document.
Librewolf
A privacy-focused, lightweight browser. Has a built-in adblocker, and forgets whatever you were doing between sessions (intentionally). Very useful for troubleshooting when your main browser decides to crap out on you.
Greenshot
Windows-only! A screenshot utility for Windows that is much, much better than the one that comes with the OS.
7-Zip
Technically cross-platform, but the Linux and OSX versions are commandline only. One of the best file compression tools around (for making Zip files and the like).
AnyType
A secure note-taking application with a ton of features. Works on all major mobile and desktop operating systems, and can synchronize between your devices pretty easily.
OBS Studio
OBS, or Open Broadcaster Software, is a fantastic, cross-platform, open source solution for capturing audio and video on your computer. Good for recording video calls, streaming your screen to other users on platforms like Twitch, or capturing gameplay in videogames. I've used it both personally and professionally, and have to say it's an impressive offering.
Krita
Krita is a photoshop alternative. I've used it on Windows, Linux and - le gasp - Android (yes, I can totally draw with pressure-sensitivity on my Android tablet in this program). If you're someone like me who hates Software as a Service subscriptions and ended up leaving Photoshop in the dust, this is your best if you're looking for comparable features with a familiar interface.
Closed Source Software
Stuff that's closed source or paid, but genuinely works well. Certified Not Shit™ by yours truly.
Typora
One of the best Markdown editors around, very useful if you're dealing with AI content. Unlike most other Markdown editors out there, which are targeted more at engineers, Typora has aimed for a friendly user interface. It also exports nicely to PDF, HTML, and EPUB. I've used it to write some of the guides on this site!
Vivaldi Browser
A nice, feature-rich browser. It runs on the same engine as Google Chrome, but has been somewhat de-Googled. Has a built-in adblocker, which I seriously appreciate. This one is my daily-driver, so far as browsers are concerned.
ShutUp10++
Windows only! Great little tool for turning off a bunch of the bloated, useless aspects of Windows. Make sure you tread carefully using it, but the developers have done a good job incorporating everything even a newbie should need to know in the application itself.
DaVinci Resolve
A free, professional-grade video editor. After years of Adobe and Apple having dominance in the video editing software scene, DaVinci came in and changed everything. Numerous feature films have used DaVinci in production. While they do have a paid version, the community version comes with a crazy number of features. There's no sacrifice being made by choosing this over competitors.