Programs and Equipment

2021-11-12

The programs and equipment I use on a daily basis.

1. Programs and Equipment I Use

I’m about getting things done quickly and having as little latency between my thoughts and actions on the computer.

I like having keyboard bindings for programs I use the most, and prefer running programs in the terminal for simplicity’s sake. That said, I’m very much against the cringe meme that things in the terminal are “cooler” or “nerdier”.

1.1. Software I Use

1.1.1. OS Distribution - Server

NixOS. NixOS is an immutable OS where you are only allowed to modify the system via declarative config files.

I’ve distro-hopped between Manjaro, Void, Debian, and Fedora, but since NixOS this has largely stopped as I’m quite happy with my NixOS + Home Manager setup. I did like Debian, and Fedora as well.

You can find my configs here. There is a dedicated post about this.

1.1.2. OS Distribution - Desktop/Laptop

Fedora

NixOS.

1.1.3. OS Distribution - Mobile

GrapheneOS.

1.1.4. Desktop Environment

Gnome. It’s fine.

dwm.

1.1.5. Text Editor

vi / vim / (neo)vim

Helix. Think of it like batteries included (neo)vim. No, I’m not going to ever switch to Emacs.

Emacs.

1.1.6. Web Browser

Firefox / Helium / the past.

Always with the Vimium extension.

1.1.7. File Manager

yazi. Yes, I’ve tried nnn and others.

Dired (part of Emacs).

1.1.8. File Viewer

Zathura for PDFS, (N)Sxiv for images.

Emacs Reader (part of Emacs).

1.1.9. Email Client

Thunderbird

Neomutt

Mu4e (part of Emacs).

1.1.10. News/RSS Client

Newsticker (part of Emacs).

1.1.11. File Sync

Nextcloud

Syncthing.

1.2. Where can I find good software options?

The program of your dreams is probably listed below:

• The suckless website’s list of programs that “rock”. Generally minimalist programs.
• A more comprehensive list of minimalist software.
• FSF’s Free Software Directory. Emphasis on libre software (although most software in the links above will have free licenses as well).
• Gentoo Wiki Recommendations A good mix of programs for novices and advanced users.

1.3. Hardware I Use

1.3.1. Laptop

ThinkPad X200 Tablet

MacBook Air 2013

ThinkPad T420s

Framework 13

ThinkPad T420s.

1.4. What I don’t use

Proprietary software.

I do not endorse proprietary services that have gone out of their way to spy on or politically suppress their users, just as Facebook, Discord etc.

There are philosophical reasons for this I talk about here.