Removing Distractions – Using FreeTube on Linux

I’ve been using FreeTube on Linux ever since I switched to Linux. (It’s also available for Windows and Mac at the same link.) However, I haven’t been using it consistently. I decided now is the time to change that.

I avoid CensorTube (YouTube) as a company on principle and had greatly reduced my use of it not so long ago. However, that use has crept back up again over the past several months. What has made it worse is that the CenstorTube algorithm has become awful and an increasing distraction. When I go on there, my feed is filled with stuff I don’t want to see and it is so easy to get sucked into scrolling and mindlessly staying on the website.

I’ve tried to watch more on CensorTube in order to support the creators with ad revenue. I don’t turn off ads for that reason. However, I’m so thoroughly sick of the propaganda on both the platform and in the ads that I decided it was time to make the change.

Today I went through my history on CensorTube and scrolled the feed a bit. I typed up a list of channels I actually want to see and came up with 25. Some I watch regularly, some every so often, and some only occasionally because they rarely post (so I don’t watch 25 channels a day!). But these were the channels I didn’t want to lose track of when I switched.

So I’m kicking CensorTube to the curb and making the deliberate choice to focus on using FreeTube again.

Customizing FreeTube

If you’ve never used FreeTube, it functions very much like CensorTube. The best part is you have control over all kinds of things they never give you on CensorTube. This is what the settings panel looks like. Each of these pops open with many options.

If you don’t want to see related videos, you don’t have to. You don’t have to see channel info, comments, etc. You control pretty much everything you see on your screen while using FreeTube. It has settings for colors and display options. It’s very customizable.

I don’t subscribe to any channels on FreeTube. There is a subscribe feature, but I prefer to simply go to the channel I want to see by typing the name in search. I don’t like going on FreeTube and seeing my feed full of videos I haven’t watched. I find it stressful. If I’m in the mood to see if a particular creator has a new video, I simply look up the channel.

(This is also one of the reasons I dislike CensorTube and am ditching it. I’m tired of seeing my screen filled to overflowing with videos and shorts. It’s overwhelming the way they push all of these choices on you. You have to sit there and make a decision about every single video and short they throw at you, even if it’s just the decision to keep scrolling. It’s not necessary and does nothing to bring peace to my life.)

My goal with FreeTube has always been to make it work for me and it does work very well for me when I use it this way. Again, the desire to support the creators financially led me back to the main website. But I’m opting out again for my own well-being. Perhaps if CensorTube ever becomes a more user-friendly platform with more options to control what we see, I will reconsider. But I don’t need their annoying algorithm, blue fact-checking propaganda boxes, and the rest.

If using FreeTube on Linux (or another system) sounds like something you might like, I encourage you to check it out.

You can see more of my Linux favorites here: Switching To Linux Mint From Windows – My Mega Resource List.