Programs and Equipment

Programs and Equipment I Use

Priorities

What I want is something that works well and puts privacy first. No code in the tool should extend past basic functionality (this means no telemetry without my consent, no auto updates without my consent, no DRM, etc.). After that first concern the extensibility of the tool is second; if the tool isn't fast minimalist, and gets the job done I rather not use it. I do make exceptions for some things (such as web browsers), but most of what is on my computer falls under those categories.

Software

Operating System/Distribution

I use GNU/Linux, and to be specific, GNU Guix System Distributed on most of my computers. I also run Debian on all my servers.

The choice of using Guix is very particular. I formally used Gentoo and fell in love with the ebuild system it had since you could port any software to your system with minimal effort. The problem was that it had no way of ensuing updates worked properly and it led to me getting into an update loop due to two pieces of software depending on two different versions of Ruby

Guix fixes this by setting up environments for each program so that conflicts are very rare, and when they do happen, it can inform you of them before you update and break your system. It also has a roll-back feature so you can go to previous iterations of your set up so that you can undo any mistake you made. Since Guix is source-code based like gentoo, you can make any package. However, it does offer pre-compiled binaries so long as the builds are reproducable. This gives you the speed of a binary-based distro like Debian and the flexability of a source-based distro like Gentoo. It's the perfect tool for anyone who likes to have a particular workflow.

Terminal

The Suckless Terminal is my terminal of choice. It is fast, hackable, and minimalist. It simply gets the job done, has everything I need, and what it doesn't have I can easily implement myself. It is perfect for user customization as it comes only with what you need. You can fork someone else's terminal and set it up as you wish.

Shell

My Terminal uses zsh, its just bash but better. Nice syntax highlighting, better tab completion, and much more customizable. I use dash as my actual login shell so scripts don't run horribly slow.

Window Manager

Openbox is my Window Manager. I swapped over to it after I updated and didn't read the bug logs. I ended up accidently ruining my Cinnamon config and thus had an excuse to swap. I swapped to OpenBox and made my computer look a bit more like Windows 98 (as computers should be). I like the less flat design, the brick look makes everything easy to see.

Text editing and programming

NeoVim turned into an IDE with coc.vim. Some would say "just use Emacs", but I like working in short sessions rather than long ones, something Emacs is not neccisarily prone to. I also like the keybindings that nvim offers (yes im aware of evil mode and god mode, but I would need to spend time setting them up). I have some compiling binds for java, latex, c++, etc., and a couple simple binds that make life over all easier. Its a text editor, not a life-style so I make it good for what it is.

Web browser

Tor Browser Bundle (shortened to Tor here) and Librewolf. Tor for every day, anonymous browsing, searching, and forum going. Librewolf is for logging into accounts. Librewolf, when hardened, is simple: just a vector to load web-based-programs (erroneously called Websites at times). To those claiming that "TOR IS COMPROMISED", I would like some evidence of a total and 100% compromised. If you can muster this up for me, I will cease using it. Until then, please do not spread and claim knowledge when you have none, it just makes you look like an easy to manipulate moron or an actively malicious asshole.

File manager

PCManFM. However, file managers, for the most part, are simply not useful. Even your terminal file manager has few reasons to exist when you have a shell language to navigate your system. Of course though, I have a file manager, pcmanfm, for the few gui programs that want drag and drop or getting a good visual overview of a file. The cli is simply much faster at navigating around the system. If I must do something visual though, I will open PCmanFM.

Mail client

Aerc, but with mbsync so I have local mail. I used to use mutt, but found that Luke Smith's set up was not easily supported on Guix, so I swapped to using Aerc.

Music/audio player

mpd + ncmpcpp is something I have recently swapped to. The Server-Client model works fine for what it is (though it does need a bit of configuring, I'd suggest just taking Luke Smith's config for starters).

Video player

mpv is the only good option, install it, config it, and forget. The Arch Wiki has plenty of good information on this video player.

RSS reader

newsboat. It has great integration with macros, easy to edit config files, and is able to be put on a cron job with updates. My only issue is that you can only have one instance of it up at once, so when its on a cron updating your lists and you try to open it, it will fail until that cron jobs is done. I have wrote a script that deploys my Video downloading and playing system.

Torrent client

Transmission, with the transmission-remote-gtk as the interface. Its nice to be able to just look at your files, review over them, see what is and isn't seeding.

Video and Audio Editing

ffmpeg for light work; shotcut and audiacity for heavy work. Not everything can be a terminal application, especially when its visual. All are comfy, all are nice to use.

Writing documents

LaTeX and latexmk as the compiler is the best choice for any form of formal writing. Make a template, configure it to your needs, and forget you are using LaTeX until you need to press one button to compile it. Automatic Bibliographies, mass editing, and ability to use vim as the text editor makes LaTeX my document compiler of choice. If I am forced to use a .docx format or similar, I will usually just use LibreOffice.

Presentations

None whenever possible, if you can get away with a video or just yourself, its way more impacting than some slideshow. The higher in grades you get, the less presentations you get as well. When absolutely needed though, I use LaTeX's Beamer package. When working in a group though, I am usually forced to use Google Slides (much to my dismay) for the "collaborative benefits". If there is something similar to Google Slides in collaboration, but under a libre license I would swiftly pick it up.

Excel-like spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are good for visualizing data, thus I don't use a terminal-based application for this. I use LibreOffice-calc, despite its bloat. If there is a good alternative to this that is very similar (including auto completion of functions, colored highlighting, etc.) I would love to adopt it.

E-Document viewer (PDF+Epub)

Zathura just works. You click on a pdf or epub and it opens, simple as that.

Image Viewer

feh comes feature complete while still not being bloat. Its small and functional.

Image editing

GIMP for most things, but imagemagick commands for file conversions.

Hardware I Use

Computer Tower

Yes, I sadly have a prebuilt. My boomer parents bought one for me ages ago and I stuck with it. I'm not going to give up a good gift beacause "muh prebuilt status". The machine is anchient and only as of 2024 got an upgrade to its graphics card. I like my hardware even if it sucks compared to modern standars. The parts that matter inside are as follows:

16 GB of Ram
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (12) @ 3.200GHz
AMD ATI Radeon RX 7900 XT

If anyone cares for more of a comprehensive breakdown, I'd be willing to post more.

Laptop

My personal laptop is a Thinkpad T420 that I got for 250 dollars, a bit overkill, but I wanted it as a mobile computing station, not a Facebook machine. If I want to render, compile, or even draw I want it to be with me on the go. I have a docking station with it that I have yet to use, but it seems like it would be nice if I am going to somewhere like a library. It runs an Intel i5, 500gb SSD, an extended battery, and a nVidia GPU. I will probably libre/coreboot my laptop when I get a chance.

Hard drives

I own a myriad of hard drives, most donations from family who pawn their old tech onto me for me to experiment with, part, and recover data from. My main hard drives are a 1 TB SSD, 2 500 GB SSDs one for my server and one for my thinkpad, and my two 1 TB HDD drives I use for backups and general storage.

Microphone

A friend of mine bought me a Tonar microphone. Don't know the model, but it works for what its supposed to be.

What I don't use

Proprietary software*: Proprietary software is something I am a massive advocate against, but there are some concessions I am willing to make for social reasons or I am gun-to-head forced to use it. I have to use proprietary JavaScript to browse the web most of the time, have to use proprietary web-based software for schooling, use proprietary video chatting software for schooling, and use the non-free chatting application of Discord to communicate with others for buisness purposes. Whenever possible I will ditch these things in favor of software that respects my freedom. As stated before, I do make exceptions for purely social reasons (I do realize the security issue with this, but I seldom do this). I do very rarely play Minecraft with others or stream a game I have downloaded. I would prefer if this game was free softwre, infact, I would think this would help the longevity of the game due to the freedom given to moders to keep the game alive forever, but alas it is not and I must simply live with this.
non-IRC like and non-anonymous social medias: If there was one things more cancerous than proprietary software, it would have to be social media. Social media is a privacy hazard that you trade your time, freedom, and attention to only to be given chains in return. It discourages moderation, it discourages productivity, discourages independent thought, and discourages searching for media to enjoy. "Sit back and consoom content" is the social media montra. I only use these trapforms in a superficial way, I will scrape art I like off twitter after going to mirror to browse it, I will keep an RSS feeds of people I care about up to date to download what I care about, I do not post on these sites, even if I do enjoy the creators of the content, I, whenever possible, try to follow alternatives/mirrors of where the content is hosted to make sure that a tech company can't siphon anything off of me. I will take what I want and give back nothing. I would hope these creators create their own websites, have RSS feeds, and be more decentralized than this, but, as of now, these massive trapforms are the only areas where you can get outreach, so they will flock to it more.
The only reason I draw an exception for non-anonymous social medias is that you aren't overtly giving up information. A *chan will have maybe your IP, browser fingerprint, and that's it. If it allows tor-posting then it is quite anonymous and interesting to go through. No names means no one is held accountable. You can say what you truly feel. The reason I give IRC-like chats a pass is due to the fact that, when a community can self-regulate, it can breed genuine relationships. I have met many people through these areas, had many long, thoughtful discussions with them, and would firmly say that they are my friends. I wish they were here so I could do more, speak to them more, and enjoy life more with them, but alas distance is a part of reality, so this must suffice.