Title: Using the right tools as non-technical people
Date: 2015-09-21 18:00

Not all my friends are super-technical geeks that are spending
their life in a terminal, but most of them are using computers on a daily basis,
often with the sempiternal same suboptimal tools and practices,
especially when it comes to collaboration and project management.

There is of course a myriad of different tools available on the internet,
but this list will only contain [libre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software) ones,
for a [lot of reasons](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html),
one of them being that you may want to switch to other services,
or to deploy them on your own infrastructure instead of trusting the 
[cloud]( https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/files/2014/11/there-is-no-cloud-pack.jpg ).

The goal is obviously not to list every libre software that you
<s>should</s> could use, but only the main ones that everyone should at least know about.

Please keep in mind that when you're using third-party services (aka the *cloud*),
you're trusting them to avoid doing nasty things with your data, so don't be silly.

### We want to take notes together, or share ideas

For real-time notes taking (like during a course),
a cool solution could be to use a pad, an online text
editor providing collaborative edition, in real-time.
[Etherpad ]( http://etherpad.org/ ) is the most famous implementation and has
[a lot]( https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/wiki/Sites-that-run-Etherpad-Lite )
of public instances available.

If you prefer to use [mindmaps]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map ),
there is [wire mapping]( http://www.wisemapping.com/ ),
with public instances on its [website]( http://www.wisemapping.com/ ),
or [framamind]( https://framindmap.org/c/login ).

If you don't care about collaborative edition,
there is [mindmaps]( http://drichard.org/mindmaps/ ),
that can run offline, and is completely client-side.

### We want to pick the best date for an event

Instead of using Doodle to pick the best date for an event,
there is [framadate]( https://git.framasoft.org/framasoft/framadate ),
based on (the now unmaintained) [stud]( https://sourcesup.cru.fr/projects/studs/ ).

### We want to write some spreadsheets together

Instead of using the infamous Google Documents,
there are alternatives like [ethercalc]( https://ethercalc.net/ ),
with public instances on [ethercalc.org]( https://www.ethercalc.org/ ) or
[framacalc]( https://framacalc.org/_start ).

### We want to have an online meeting with a lot of people

Instead of using [Skype]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_security###Eavesdropping_by_design ),
you can use [irc]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat ),
with clients like [pidgin]( https://pidgin.im/ ), [hexchat]( https://hexchat.github.io/), …
You can connect on any servers you want, [freenode](https://freenode.net/),
[oftc]( http://www.oftc.net/ ), … pick the one you prefer, connect to it,
create a room, and that's it.

### We didn't use a pad, and now we want to merge our notes

Shame on you. Fortunately, there are softwares like [meld]( http://meldmerge.org/ )
to help you merge your mess in a simple and foolproof way :)
You can also use [mergely]( http://www.mergely.com/editor ), who offers the same feature,
but online.

### I want to write a report/take some notes

Instead of using Microsoft™ Word™ to write simple things,
you can write them [markdown]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown ),
in a sweet editor like [REtext]( https://github.com/retext-project/retext )
or [MarkPad]( http://code52.org/DownmarkerWPF/ ), …
and export the result into a nice-looking PDF.

Don't forget to combine this with *meld* if you work with emails ;)

### We want to do some planning/project management

Instead of using Trello, you can use [Wekan]( https://github.com/wekan/wekan ),
an open-source and collaborative [kanban]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban) board application,
that you can use on its [public instance]( http://try.wekan.io/sign-in ).
You can take a look at its [roadmap]( http://try.wekan.io/b/MeSsFJaSqeuo9M6bs/wekan-roadmap )
if you want to see how it looks like.

### I want to send pictures/files to all my friends

Instead of sending your pictures by email (No one likes to have 100MB of pictures
in their mailbox, no one.), you can use [lut.im]( https://lut.im/ ) either on
its own website, or on [framapic]( https://framapic.org/ ).

If you want to share files, you can use [coquelicot]( https://coquelicot.potager.org/ )
on the [immerda.ch]( https://dl.immerda.ch/ ) instance.

Of course, don't do that if your pictures are private.

### Conclusion

I wrote this blogpost mainly for linking it to my friends,
but I hope that it will serve you too. Feel free to [email]( https://dustri.org )
me other alternatives if you think that I missed some.