The stuff I use to do stuff.
Workstation #
My primary workstation is a 13-inch Framework Laptop with a Ryzen 5 7640U processor, 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and a 512GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus SSD. On the software front:
- Operating System: Fedora. I was using NixOS, but it turned out to be more than I need, and of the Linux distributions recommended by Framework I decided to give Fedora a shot.
- Window Manager: I’m currently using KDE Plasma 6 for a desktop environment because I’ve decided to experiment with using Linux on “easy mode” instead of making life more difficult for myself. I’d love to use Cosmic, though, to get back some of that sweet, sweet tiling goodness.
- Terminal: Foot. It’s fast, I like the URL feature, and it works well with tmux.
- Text Editor: Doom Emacs for now. There’s a lot to like–I’m used to Vim keybindings, but having a GUI-based text editor offers its own advantages, and I’m more keen on something like Doom Emacs than I would be on VS Code or the like–but I’m still feeling things out.
- Browser: Firefox with the uBlock Origin, Bitwarden, Vimium, and OneTab extensions.
- RSS Reader: Newsboat.
- Email: Fastmail and Aerc. I also have to use Gmail for work, and maintain the account I’ve had with the service since 2011, but it’s such a spam magnet and I’m so sick of Google’s bullshit that I’ll move everything to Fastmail whenever I have a day that I don’t have literally anything else to do instead.
Gaming Desktop #
My gaming desktop features a Ryzen 5 5600X processor, GTX 1080 graphics card, 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory, and a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD. I’d like to update the graphics card–not least because of the headaches caused by using an Nvidia card–but right now I’d prefer to invest in additional peripherals for my primary workstation. On the software front:
- Operating System: Arch. I have to use a USB-connected WiFi adapter, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get it to work on NixOS. Everything breaks constantly, partly because of the Nvidia graphics card and partly because I can’t seem to stop myself from running “yay -Syu” every chance I get, even though it fucks my shit up half the time. I will probably end up reinstalling Windows on this machine for the better out-of-the-box support for games, controllers, and Discord.
- Everything Else: Same as above, except I also have Steam and Discord installed.
Mobile #
I use an iPhone 14 Pro that I’m planning to replace with a Pixel device running GrapheneOS at some point in the future simply because I don’t want to have to keep up with Apple’s seemingly arbitrary changes to the device. (See: The automatic installation of the Journal app, which silently enables a setting to “Allow others to detect you are nearby to help prioritize their suggestions.”) The camera’s also gotten worse over time–especially in portrait mode–and the only apps I’d miss in moving to Android are Carrot and Drafts.
I also use an 11-inch iPad Pro from 2018. I love this device for reading articles, books, and comics as well as watching videos when someone else is using the TV. My kid loves Pok Pok, too, which is probably the only app I’d miss if I were to switch to an Android tablet. (Which isn’t nearly as high on the priority list; Google needs to ship a worthwhile tablet for me to install GrapheneOS on before I’d consider moving on from this device.) I used to write on this device, too, but the Framework now fills that particular niche.
This Site #
Everything is written in Helix. The static site is generated with Hugo and the Blowfish theme. I’m not using most of the latter’s features–I have no analytics enabled and no Firebase integration. I then publish the site using Sourcehut Pages.