A dump of some of my favorite tools. They run the gamut and many most people have heard of. Some are common, some are obscure. in no meaningful order.

Linux

• iopaint (use AI models to remove/clean up images)
• LoRd (Lora Extractor)
• Ungoogled Chromium (Chrom* stripped of Google spyware)
• scrcpy (screen mirror your android on your pc)
• scrapy (complex but hands-down best web scraper)
• ComfyUI (draw your AI workflows and run them)
• Epson firmwares (downgrade your printer to firmwares that don’t try to own your printer after you bought it)
• WTP Dataset destroyer (for images)- funks up images when you need to stretch out your datasets. Also useful for training against a certain flaw (e.g blur). So good for creating say, a radial blur remover.
• Diffusion-pipe (afaik the best diffusers model trainer on GH; uses Deepspeed)
• OneTrainer (honorable mention but not quite as diverse- only for diffusers)
• llama.cpp (swiss army knife of AI/ML inferencing)
• DeepSpeed, naturally
• RemBG (simple and excellent, small, and fast background remover- good for image datasets)
• EveryDream2 (trainer)- Seems like the repo is no longer or lightly maintained but I got my start training diffusers with it so..

Obviousness to many: FFmpeg, FFprobe, VLC, Mediainfo, VapourSynth, iostar, sar, etc.

Windows

• Wiztree (best for removing 36Gb models you downloaded 4 years ago and forgot about)
• Everything (great for dataset searching organizing; file indexer with thumbnail viewer)
• Jdownloader2 (pretty good for downloading stuff en masse but can be annoying with updates and unnecessary overengineering)
• EasyTether (good for tethering your mobile to computer w/o “notifiying” of tethering). (ttl workaround basically although becoming less and less necessary)
• Ungoogled Chromium, again.
• Avidemux (quick video editing/chopping/transcoding w/ UI)
• Mediainfo (media format info, good for sussing out metadata)
• privacy.sexy (thorough Windows de-spyware and de-bloatware’er)
• Free2x webcam recorder (as described)
• Netron (AI model layer viewer)
• $R-Studio (partition and sector recovery)
• Linux Filesystems for Windows (Paragon) (mount ext* on Windows)
• Eraser (file/folder wiper)
• $Vuescan (for those that still use hardware scanners)
• Faststone (pretty good drop-in for Windows default image viewers)
• Irfanview (need I say more? The best freeware image viewer/whateverer if you’re asking me)
• windows 10 debloat (no longer maintained but still does the job for windows 10)
• Fastflix (transcoder with a UI for technically minded folks) the converse may be Handbrake

$ == worthless without buying

There’s a lot more but all for now.

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