Check out these great projects!

At Nikisoft, we deeply care about topics like privacy, freedom, digital independence and reducing unnecessary bloat. We don't have the manpower to rebuild the whole internet and software world in a way that respects these ideals, but luckily there are many projects and services that follow all or at least most of our ideals. We want to show them here, maybe you'll find some of them useful.

Everything we recommend for download must be free software/open-source. For network services, that's not a hard requirement, but we strongly prefer it. If something also has some downsides, we'll tell you about it and it's up to you to decide if you can accept that. We don't get paid for listing stuff here and most projects or services probably don't even know that we recommend them. It's just our honest opinion, nothing else.

Operating Systems

Haiku - The modern retro-style desktop

Haiku is a open-source operating system dedicated to desktop computers and laptops. The project was started in 2001, one day after it was clear that BeOS had no future. Haiku is a full operating system that consists of its own kernel, desktop environment, libraries and a good set of default applications built by the Haiku project itself. Many applications known from Linux can be used as well. It's actively maintained and supports modern technologies. Its oldschool but timeless design lets you get work done without getting in your way and may remind you of the good old days when functionality was more important than bloat and effects. For Haiku, it still is.

Downsides: Driver support is sometimes a problem, especially on very new devices.

Marathon OS - BB10-inspired smartphone OS

Marathon OS is a open-source operating system for smartphones based on Linux. It aims to recreate the user interface of Blackberry OS 10 and contains some own applications that look very similar to those of Blackberry. Additionally, it supports most other Linux applications and plans adding support for Android apps in the future. If you think that Blackberry had the best phones that ever existed, like we do, you may like that project. Also, the current duopoly of mobile operating systems, both being awfully locked-down walled-gardens, is disgusting and has to end.

Downsides: Early development stage, only few phones supported currently.

FreeBSD - The power to serve

FreeBSD is the operating system that powers our servers. It's a open-source multi-purpose operating system that can be used for anything ranging from servers over desktop computers to embedded devices. FreeBSD was forked from 386BSD in 1993, with history dating back to the original Unix. The system is very fast and stable. Some of the worlds biggest websites are using BSD. It offers a huge selection of applications, many of which you will probably already know from other operating systems. You can also use FreeBSD on your computer if the command line doesn't scare you.

Downsides: It's not desktop-first, and installing a working desktop environment can be tricky. We recommend it primarily for servers.

Webbrowsers

LibreWolf - Privacy-focused Firefox fork

LibreWolf is a open-source webbrowser for desktop computers and laptops that puts privacy first. It's based on Firefox and removes AI-enshittification and telemetry, enables fingerprinting protection by default, enhances settings to avoid unneeded network requests and ships with a preinstalled uBlock Origin ad+tracking blocker. It's a must-have application if you want to surf the modern internet without being at the permanent risk of being stalked by some shady Big Tech corporation. LibreWolf is a community project with no corporation behind it.

IronFox - Like LibreWolf, for Android

IronFox is like LibreWolf, but for Android. Both projects are indepent from each other, but have the same goal. IronFox removes some proprietary blobs that the default Firefox ships, it disables AI-enshittification as well as telemetry and routes Safe Browsing requests through own servers to avoid leaking data to Google. Like LibreWolf, IronFox also ships with the must-have uBlock Origin extension that protects you from ads and trackers by default. It's also a community project with no corporation behind it.

NetSurf - The lightweight option

If you want to surf the web in a more lightweight way, or if your machine has low hardware specs, you should give NetSurf a try. It's a small community project to create a browser with a own rendering engine. Websites load blazing fast with it. It's available for all desktop/laptop platforms (no mobile version) and even offers a native user interface on Haiku. NetSurf does not support Javascript and support for CSS may not be 100% accurate. The open-source project was started in 2002, progress is now rather slow but it's still maintained.

Downsides: Modern websites that rely heavily on Javascript won't work.

Search engines

Mojeek - Independent without tracking

Mojeek is a privacy-respecting search engine with its own search index that operates own crawlers, rather than relying on Big Tech. It has been around since 2004. Both the company and their servers are located in the United Kingdom. The website is clean and lightweight, it doesn't require Javascript to view results. There's no forced AI-enshittification, but summaries are available on request.

Downsides: For complicated/very specific questions, the result quality may be not as good as Big Tech. Closed-source.

4get - No-bloat metasearch

4get is a open-source metasearch engine that scrapes results from Big Tech search engines without letting them track you, and without showing you their ads. It has a clean and lightweight website that doesn't require Javascript to view results and it's free from AI-enshittification. You can use it on one of many servers or host it on your own server.

Downsides: Depends on Big Tech to get results, some instances have a complicated CAPTCHA.

Seek Ninja - Independent with great results

Seek Ninja is a rather young search engine started in 2025. It has its own independent search index whose results are amazing. In most cases, the first result is exactly the thing you're looking for. The page is still relatively clean from AI-enshittification, but sometimes it shows a summary in the sitebar with no way to disable it.

Downsides: Hosted in USA, and shows no results without Javascript. Closed-source.

Haiku-related sites

BeOS & Haiku City - Community site

BeOS & Haiku City is a community page about Haiku and its predecessor. It has a community section that works like a social network, dedicated to Haiku, ideal for posting about your Haiku-related projects. Furthermore, it has a forum to get help about Haiku or discuss ideas. In the download section, you can find the Haiku installation image, some Haiku applications as well as other stuff. The site is a private project and has been around since 2022.

Downsides: Very heavyweight site, needs Javascript to work correctly, closed-source, includes third-party stuff.

Haiku Mail - Mail server for Haiku users

Haiku Mail is a email provider especially for Haiku users. It supports the standard mail protocols IMAP and SMTP, so that it can be used with Haikus built-in Mail application or Beam. The service is based on Citadel, which is open-source software. Haiku Mail is a private project operated by the same person as BeOS & Haiku City and has been around since 2024. You get a nice @haikumail.online email address there.

Downsides: Can't login without Javascript.

Haiku Insider - Blog about Haiku

Haiku Insider is a blog about Haiku. It primarily contains development tutorials showing many details about the different Kits of Haiku. Haiku Insider is the right place to look at if you want to learn programming Haiku applications. Besides that, the blog reports news about Haiku and showcases some application you might find interesting. The site is based on Bludit, which is open-source software.

Downsides: Includes third-party stuff.

BeSly - Haiku knowledge base

BeSly is one of the oldest sites about Haiku that's still alive today. It was started in 2004 and is a important knowledge base with tutorials for Haiku and, in the old version, also for its predecessor. While Haiku Insider is primarily directed at developers, BeSly focuses on normal users. The site is private project by two people from Germany. It's translated into multiple languages. The site respects your privacy by not embedding third-party stuff.

Downsides: Closed-source.

Retro websites

Ytoo! - Retro-style web portal

Ytoo! is a web portal similar to those seen in the early 2000s. It has links to dozens of other cool sites worth exploring, many of them in the aesthetics of the early 2000s. The search bar redirects you to one of five search engines dedicated to small-web content. Unfortunately some of the links don't seem to work anymore.

Downsides: Closed-source.

Blips - Retro-style microblogging service

Blips is a recreation of Twitter how it looked like around 2007-2009. It offers a chronological feed, no algorithms that make you addicted. Blips behaves like a proper website, not a webapp. It does need Javascript for most interactions, however, but at least you can view content without JS and don't see just a blank page. The community is rather small, which reduces the risk of wasting multiple hours a day there.

Downsides: Closed-source, includes third-party ads.

Communication

XMPP - Decentralized messenger

XMPP is a open standard for decentralized instant messaging. It's like email, but for chatting: You sign up at a server of your choice and get a Jabber ID that looks like a email address, then you can chat with anyone else on the whole network by sending a message to their Jabber ID. Rooms/group chats with a unlimited number of members are also supported. XMPP has been around sind 1999 and there are clients for almost every operating system. For Haiku, we recommend Renga, which is open-source.

IRC - Chats that work everywhere

IRC is another open standard for communication, but it's more focused on big public group chats. The IRC standard predates XMPP by 11 years, as it was developed in 1988. A huge advantage for certain use-cases is that it works without authentication. If a project has a help/community channel on some IRC network, you can simply join it by picking a user name and entering the channel name, no need to register. Due to the simplicity of the IRC protocol, IRC clients exist for almost every operation system and there are bridges bringing together IRC and almost every other chat protocol. For example, many channels are bridged between IRC and Matrix, or IRC and XMPP.

Phoenix - Chat like it's 1999

Phoenix is a instant messenger network that keeps the applications of the popular messengers from the early 2000s working to this day. In our BumbleBe app for Haiku, it's the default server. Phoenix may bring back memories from good old times, when the internet was a lot smaller, programs were more lightweight and good user experience was still a thing.

Downsides: Closed source, messenger connection not encrypted.

Usenet - Decentralized forum network

The Usenet is a decentralized network of forums, based on an open standard. It's a really interesting place where you can discuss all kinds of stuff, get help with your computer or programming stuff or simply have fun. All that without ads, tracking or vendor lock-in. Think of it like Reddit, but there's no single company that owns all of it, and you can access it using a variety of native client applications on different operating systems, rather than a massively bloated and slow web interface.