I have gone through a lot of personal issues in the first four months of 2026, and in response to that, I have also changed the way I use computers a lot. So I thought I would share with you the main programmes I am currently using.
Obsidian
Obsidian is, in its basic form, a note-taking app that can be expanded in functionality with plugins.
I use this app every day as my journaling app, blogging app, and an information gathering app. I also use it as a task manager of sorts as well.
I like this app for a few reasons: it’s fully cross-platform, it’s open source, and it uses Markdown in its file structure to store all my data.
I have customised it to suit my needs and use a few plugins to help with the tasks, including Calendar, Notebook Navigator, Bases, Daily Note, Omnisearch, Periodic Notes, Typewriter Scroll, Templater, WordPress, and Better Word Count.
Bases is an especially powerful plugin as it allows you to sort your notes into databases based on the notes properties. I use this for a database of quotes, the photos I take with my DSLR and to organise the blog posts I post into a searchable format.
Obsidian is Free and available for iOS, Android, iPad OS, macOS, Windows and Linux.
Libre Office/Collabora Office
When I need a full office suite, I use LibreOffice, or its web-based version, Collabora Office.
While I don’t use this a lot, I do like the fact that its default file format is an open format, and the program is also open source.
Collabora Office recently released a version that is also available to run on desktops, and it is also the default web-based office suite in Nextcloud Office.
Libre Office is Free and is available for macOS, Linux and Windows
Collabora Office is Free and available for iPad OS, iOS, Android, macOS, Linux and Windows
Sunshine/Moonlight
Think of this duo of apps like your very own GeForce Now, but using your own hardware. Sunshine is the server part, where Moonlight is the client. Both are open source.
These programs allow me to stream games from my gaming laptop to my Mac mini M4, iPad Pro M4 13” and MBA M1. As my gaming laptop is always connected to my TV in my living room, I use an Xbox controller with it, the games that need a keyboard and mouse I stream via these two programs.
Sunshine and Moonlight are free and is available for Windows, Linux, Mac and iOS, iPad OS
Affinity Photo 2
This year I want to start photography as a hobby again, so I will use Affinity Photo 2 a lot more than I have been doing recently. I know that Affinity has released a free app, but you have to register with Canva to use the app, and I am not comfortable with that. I have been using Affinity since it first came out and used Serif applications before that. Affinity was made by Serif.
For my simple needs Affinity Photo 2 is plenty powerful enough for me.
You can no longer buy Affinity Photo 2, but the new Affinity app is free and available for Windows and macOS
Typora
Typora is a good, clean and simple to use markdown editor that used to by my main writing app, though Obsidian has replaced it. I now use it for Nextcloud Note’s, as Nextcloud stores all its notes in the markdown format.
I dont like the Nextcloud Note’s app on macOS or Windows that much, so I use Typora as I already had it and it would be a waste of money if I didn’t use it.
Typora costs £30 for 3 installs at the same time and is available for Linux, macOS and Windows.
iA Writer
iA Writer is yet another markdown editor. This was the first one I got when I started to use markdown as my primary file format of choice about 2 years ago.
I hardly use it these days however and only have it installed for long term projects that I don’t want cluttering up my Obsidian Vault.
iA Writer costs £50 for the Mac, £40 for Windows and £50 for iOS/iPad OS
Apple Intelligence
While not an app exactly, I do use Apple Intelligence for the proofreader option in the writing tools to check my punctuation and spelling on my blog posts.
Apple Intelligence comes with every Mac and iPhone
Free File Sync
Free File Sync is a cross platform backup program. It’s free to use and there is a paid version that allows for unattended backup.
I use the paid version to back up all my data to external hard drives as well as backing up specific things like my obsidian vault from iCloud Drive to Proton Drive and Nextcloud Drive.
It does this every night automatically.
Free File Sync is Free, or a lifetime licence for extended features for a donation
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