What I use

Not that you should care what I use, but maybe you’ll find something you like here. Generally I don’t update hardware often, if it works, it works, right? As for software, I also don’t like updating, but do so because of bug- and security fixes.

Some nice software I use

Some call me terminally terminal, but hey I do use some GUI programs! But yea, I grown to like my workflow in the terminal. I think it’s better for many things, but clearly not all. I wouldn’t want to edit images or make 3D and CAD models in terminal.

Currently I am using Void Linux as my main OS. I used to run Arch, but fed up with all the useless changes and grew to dislike what systemd became.

Here’s a selection of software I that I like enough to remember off the top of my head:

• Linux - even though it’s a mess, it’s still better that most other kernels
• i3 - customizable tiling window manager, what’s more to add?
• kitty - a nice HW accelerated terminal emulator with good font features support
• zsh - power user’s shell of choice
• nnn - comfortable and fast terminal file manager
• neovim - fast, customizable and composable text editor, and not an OS!
• syncthing - syncs files between different devices auto-magically. Best thing since sliced bread!
• newsboat - a terminal, local RSS/Atom aggregator. It has many nice features like filters, tagging and more.
• cmus - “cmus is a small, fast and powerful console music player for Unix-like operating systems.”

As well as, a selection of standard *nix tools like bc, sed, awk (I really need to get better at it), grep, which, and of course man. I can’t stress enough the convenience of local documentation.

Perhaps I should write more about my Linux desktop setup, if anyone would be interested in that.

Hardware I own

I like to call my main PC a Computer of Theseus as I upgraded it so many times it has only a few original components. (Enough for 1.5 another computers) As I mentioned previously I don’t upgrade often unless there’s a specific need.

Here are some basic specs:

• Fractal Design Core 2500 PC case
• Asus PRIME B350-PLUS motherboard
• AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
• 64GBs of DDR4 RAM
• 3x 256GB SSD + 512GB HDD
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
• 2x Dell P2214H (one in portrait)

I also own an old Fujitsu LifeBook UH572 laptop with terrible battery life and meh screen, but it’s so pretty! :D I upgraded it’s HDD with a (you guessed it) a 256GBs SSD and added a stick of RAM getting her to 6GBs. She really needs a battery swap!

I barely use my phone, but it’s a Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017). I just really wanted a waterproof phone, after my Galaxy S2 was taken by a rainstorm. It’s not a good thing when water is pouring out of the microUSB port of your phone, after you get it out of your pocket…

I run LineageOS on my phone, no Google or anything, perhaps I should write a more detailed post about this.

Side note: modern phones suck so much, there’s no phone close to having all the things that my old phone has (like dual SIMs, IP rating) that’s in the midrange cost for a phone, you have to go top of the line now to get those features. It’s so annoying. Let alone the stupid design choices of modern phones. I’d rather take the break my screen in a year OLED flip phone just for the novelty/nostalgia than get the ugly slab that they sell in $current_year = 2024.

Anyyyyways… You’d think a phone can do it all so why would you need the next item?

That’s right, I use an MP3 player in 2024. It’s a FiiO X1 gen 1. And I use it with my Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear, also first gen. I guess I just prefer to have separate devices for some things that modern smartphones can do. Because I found often single(-ish) purpose devices do their job better than the “multitool” that is the modern supercomputer in your pocket. Often it’s the tactility factor for me. That MP3 player has rotary encoder for its wheel, it’s just fun to use, and has pretty good sound, even though I am no audiophile.

As well as, MP3 player I also use an ebook reader. It’s a Pocketbook Inkpad 3. E-ink sure has a monopoly, but damn do they make good screens for reading. The Inkpad also has a very tasteful amber backlight(or rather front, side? -light) which I love. And not even because of the “it’s good for the eyes”, which is a myth (as far as I know blue light just messes with your perception of daytime, not strain the eyes.) Rather because I just like the color. If you’re browsing this website in dark mode, you might’ve noticed. I am quiet fond of the old, amber “glass terminal” look.

There are many more things I could write, and maybe I will in the future, but these are the things I use day to day. I could share about my small retro computing devices collection one day.