VLC media player
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plays back anything on all desktop platforms. And it comes with no ads,
tracking, or spyware.
Kodi
Kodi has become the serious open-source media center. Run the software in one
place, and stream all your media to other devices. It’s all about content, so it’s
the best option in many ways for a home media center.
Plex
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videos and music collection around the house—Plex is for you. Install it on all
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available on everything. Even remotely over the internet.
MESSAGING
Discord
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mainly while kicking one another’s arses in online games. It’s such a big deal
with gamers that Discord even launched a game store to compete with Steam.
(Maybe because Steam also has a chat option.)
Telegram
One of the new class of messaging services with an ecosystem of
apps for every platform, Telegram delivers not only easy communications but
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people for broadcast.
Signal
Our favorite messaging service takes security seriously using its own
open-source protocol to do end-to-end encryption, even on voice calls. It’s not
as much fun as some of the others, but it supports sending photos and video,
plus group messaging.