Priorities

I like getting things done efficiently and without having to think about anything other than the direct task at hand. This, to me, also means things like vim-like bindings and terminal interfaces are practically required as they are easy to script and modify to better fit how I work and think. I also use as much open-source software as possible as it is easier to customise when I want to get something done that is not supported by default.

Software

Operating System & Distribution

I use Arch Linux because it’s a very minimalist distribution and the community is very well established. I have been repeatedly tempted to run Linux From Scratch, but haven’t actually done it yet.

Terminal

I use Alacritty as my terminal emulator at the moment, since it’s nice and fast, and hasn’t given me any grief after setting it up.

Shell

I use zsh as my shell. It’s POSIX compliant, and has some nice features like fast-syntax-highlighting and well implemented tab-completion.

Window Manager/Desktop Environment

These days, since Xorg is dying and Wayland is coming in, I use Hyprland. It’s pretty decent, it’s got most of the features I need, but I do think it may be a little to complex for my liking in the long run. Once I get time to rework my setup again, I’ll probably look into DWL. I used to use DWM, which is an extremely customisable window manager that had all the features I needed and any that it doesn’t are either in patches on suckless’ website or I just implemented them myself.

Text Editing and Programming

I use neovim, which I have customised to be a very practical programming environment.

Web Browser

I currently use vivaldi, but I am still looking for a minimalist alternative which is actually usable with modern webpages.

File Manager

I use lf, as it is terminal based and has vim-like bindings which make it very easy and efficient to use.

Music/Audio Player

I use mpd with ncmpcpp for the client, it’s just a nice choice and I see no compelling reason to use anything else.

Video Player

I use mpv because it does exactly what you want it to do, and nothing else, but still stays configurable.

RSS Reader

I use newsboat as it is a decent terminal based rss reader that is reasonably extensible. I do however think it’s handling of podcasts is sub-par so I am looking for a good terminal podcast client.

Torrent Client

I use Transmission with transmission-remote-cli or transmission-qt depending on how much I need to customise the trackers. The qt version is mainly because I don’t torrent enough to properly configure the cli way of performing these tasks.

Document Writing

I use either Rmarkdown or Latex based on how much I need to customise the formatting. For most tasks I’ll use Rmarkdown because of the ease of writing, but if I need to write a resume or an academic paper, I’ll use Latex.

PDF Viewer

I use zathura as it’s basically the optimal minimalist document reader

Image Viewer

I use sxiv as it handles images, animations, and is very extensible and has a bunch of different modes that are occasionally useful.

Hardware

Desktop

I built my own PC and specced it out on pcpartpicker, you can find the list here.

Laptop

I use a Thinkpad P51 as my main laptop (released in 2017) as it was cheap, and it’s powerful enough that I can do all my daily tasks with no real issue.

Keyboard

I currently use a Keychron Q10 Alice Layout, it serves reasonably for now. I’m looking at getting either a Kinesis Advantage360 or a Glove80 once I can justify spending a large sum on a new keyboard.

Pointing Device

I use an Elecom HUGE trackball as it’s much nicer to use than a mouse as I have limited desk space and it is more ergonomic as I can just put it on an angle and thus have a more natural position if I do need to use it.

Audio

For my microphone I use a Blue Snowball iCE. For my headphones I have Bose QuietComfort QC45’s. I also have a 5.1 speaker system at my desk, but sadly it’s not setup in proper surround as my room is not setup to allow that yet.

Webcam

I use a cheap 1080p USB webcam that I got on sale, it has a built-in ringlight and it’s surprisingly decent.