downloadable 'stuff' to use offline?

We are going to disconnect from the internet at home soon and I found I can put 'gimp portable' on a flash drive and use it on my pc while off line...perfect!

Are there any other things like that? mostly in the editing photos area but maybe other areas also?

I'm not interested in games at all and have lots of books and information stored on flash drives already although there is always space for more text.

We plan to go back to checking out movie dvd's at the library and use their wifi on a tablet if we need to (or when visiting our sons).

I just thought while still online I could add a few more things to the offline library?

In case anyone is curious, this decision was a long time coming and the final push was how large that bill was compared to our other more necessary ones...and it kept creeping up as the company has a monopoly here and also just went through a 'restructuring' bankruptcy so of course the customer pays the price.
Our son is going to add us to his cell phone plan but we only want 'talk and text' capabilities there, partly for the cost but also less intrusion.

I caught myself daydreaming about life before the internet and found I was becoming too far removed from that although for the craziness of this past year it has been a life saver.  

For editing audio, Audacity is free and powerful (I use it professionally)

Gimp is my free choice for photos. :)

OpenOffice is a free alternative suite of tools similar to excell/word/powerpoint/etc that doesn’t need internet

Also, not really a “download” item, but if you haven’t made/updated a physical list lately, make sure you have all contact info you might want for services, stores, etc. written down - I find I don’t track that stuff anymore because everyone has a website so it’s easy to look up a number when you need it. Same with opening or holiday hours; it’s been ages since I’ve actually called a place to make sure they were open at a certain time, but pre-internet that was a thing.

excellent! thank you Jennifer

I forgot about audacity...I need to reload it.  I used it to copy some records onto a flash drive for our grandson.

good idea about the contacts also...I have been gathering up all of my passwords as most I've just let the pc remember for me.

We pay utility bills through the mail and don't do any bank business online...just buy things occasionally.

If I were to go offline, I'd definitely look into a physical phone book. Do they even publish them anymore?

I'd make sure I had phone access to my bank so I could keep track of my daily balance.

I'd miss search engines most of all. The knowledge base that Internet gives me is amazing! I'd definitely look into buying physical books. As you intend to visit your library, that'd be another great resource.

Wikihow - Save Articles offline

This could prove useful - I often used this one(and wikipedia app) to look up "how to do something" when I deleted my browser off my phone; but you'd have to "pre-download" any articles you may be interested in in the future.


The worst part of your plan is... you won't be here on Permies, and we'll miss you!

I have always appreciated the voice you bring to this forum :)

Stacie, we still get a phone book through the mail and the phone company the next county over gave us one through their drive through....it's all landlines though, other than businesses so limited.  Just how do folks find cell phone numbers other than asking?
Yes, the search engine


Dustin, I'll check into that...had heard of being able to save things to read off line but did not know how.

and thank you...I still plan to peek in occasionally online at our local library and might even have something to say

We are aiming for May 1....and I'm kind of excited as I've always loved a fresh change of direction.  I'm older than many here so really most of my life was spent without these 'new fangled contraptions'

Podcasts would definitely be on that list.

You can certainly download enough of them to last a really long time, and I find that it's a less "busy" media source. It goes deeper into stories and is less "click-baity". More protein, less sugar

I'm not sure if it's accessible where you are, but Canada's public radio system has a lot of podcasts and audio books available.

You can also download a trove of old classic books at the Gutenberg project.

If you plan on visiting the library frequently, I'd also see if they provide e-books and figure out how to get them on my device. (Book books are also great, of course, but going electronic means you don't have to bring them back, so if you do not visit often, that's useful. )

(I'd also invest in several good local and regional maps. Even with cellphones, I still keep a few of those in my car because nothing beats the information density of a paper map.)

in the areas of permies that I regularly browse, I see lots of people using Sketchup for 3d visulaizing their ideas.  I don't know if Sketchup is free any longer, but I do know of a highly capable 2d drafting app that is free.  it can also do some basic 3d work.
it is called Draftsight, provided by Dassault systemes.  these people also make very high end solid modeling and simulation programs.  the draftsight product  itself is natively based on the AutoCAD dwg format and is in most respects almost identical to Autocad with differences in some features and command names etc.

there are many such programs out there, but this one is by far the best in my opinion.  i have been in the past a CAD manager for a large architectural firm and have used autocad for decades.
the only reason I haven't switched away from autocad is that the  companies I work for do work on government projects and for others that require autocad specifically.
probably the best part of this program is that it is available for windows, LINUX and mac.

I forgot to mention in a previous reply that I'd miss searching for recipes. Do you have hard copy cookbooks?

I have a few tried and true cookbooks, but I more often print out recipes from the Internet and put them into a notebook.

archive.org has quite a bit to DL.

Unfortunately, many things like podcasts may get placed in individually so there may not be a way to grab everything at once. Sometimes they're all there in a huge dump though.

Here's one...
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Soir%C3%A9e-Leone%3A+Gardening+%26+Composting%2C+Canning+%26+Fermenting%2C+Chickens+%26+Ducks%2C+Sustainable+%26+Holistic%22

and then there is this guy...

https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Paul+Wheaton%22