Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T480. I love it. It works very well with OpenBSD and has more than enough power for my modest needs.
Mini-PC: Lenovo ThinkCentre M710Q Tiny. Works with OpenBSD just as well as my laptop.
Keyboard: CHERRY KW 9200 MINI. Beautiful compact 75% layout keyboard (though not a mechanical one).
Mouse: INPHIC M1P Wireless Mouse. Simple rechargeable mouse serving its purpose.
In general, I prefer tools which are leightweight and fast and do one thing well. If I have to choose between two tools for a job, I will opt for the one which is more lightweight, has fewer dependencies, or which (being an OpenBSD user, see below) is part of OpenBSD base.
Operating system: OpenBSD. After having used various Linux distributions for many years, I feel like I have finally found my (close to) perfect operating system. It is small, clean and simple, and perfectly suits my needs. It just feels right. More information on OpenBSD can be found on my OpenBSD page.
Editor: vi/Neovim. I was a Vim user for many years, but recently Vim started to feel too bloated to me. Therefore, I switched to nvi and never looked back since then. It turns out that many features I once thought were indispensable are in fact very easy to live without. For instance, read this if you think you can’t do without syntax highlighting (as I did), and this if you think it is a drawback that (n)vi lacks all the features Vim has to offer (read it even if you don’t). The only thing I really miss is Unicode support, which is why I have to revert to nvi-iconv instead of being able to use the default version, vi(1), from OpenBSD base. More information on the vi editor can be found on my vi page. Update: I recently started using Neovim – something I never wanted to do (remember: I turned away from Vim because it felt too bloated; see above). Feels better than expected though.
Window manager: cwm. I have used many different window managers in the past, most recently xmonad, which I was quite fond of (not the least because it is written in Haskell). cwm(1) is part of OpenBSD base, and I didn’t even know it before I switched to OpenBSD. Finally a window manager which is simple, minimalistic, effective and unobtrusive.
Browser: Google Chrome. I am really reluctant to use Chrome and do so only because of a lack of alternatives. Waiting impatiently for the Ladybird browser to become mature enough to be usable.
Email: aerc. “a pretty good email client”, according to the website, and I can only agree.
Menu bar: polybar. Small, fast and easily customizable status bar which works well with cwm(1). I used to use my own variant of a termbar (i.e. a status bar which is created by a script which prints information to a terminal window; see e.g. A simple shell status bar for OpenBSD and cwm(1) and A Terminal Status Bar updated), and while the advantage of a termbar is that it has very few dependencies, it also has some caveats.
Shell: ksh. I spend a lot of time in the terminal, and OpenBSD’s default shell ksh(1) delivers everything I need. Part of OpenBSD base.
Terminal multiplexer: tmux. Since I spend a lot of time in the terminal, a terminal multiplexer is a must, and tmux(1) is the obvious choice. Part of OpenBSD base.
PDF viewer: MuPDF. Fast and lightweight with vi-like keybindigs.
Image viewer: feh. Fast and lightweight.
Media player: FFplay. I rarely need a media player, but if I do, I will use FFplay from the FFmpeg multimedia framework.
sct, a small tool which sets the color temperature of the screen. This makes it possible to have warmer screen colors at night, when the surroundings are dark. It is similar in functionality to f.lux and Redshift, but much smaller and with much less dependencies. Created, somehow fittingly, by OpenBSD developer Ted Unangst.
Ledger, a double-entry accounting system for the command line. I use it mostly for tracking larger transactions. See also plaintextaccounting.org.
Asciidoctor. Very fast text processor for the AsciiDoc markup language written in Ruby. It has great documentation and can directly generate PDF as output. I haven’t used traditional text processors in a long time, mainly for two reasons: First, there is no separation of form and content whatsoever, which implies that content written in some text processor is always bound inextricably to the text processor itself. And second, they are much too complex and bloated for my taste, and in almost every case employ a GUI. Having used LaTeX a lot during my studies of physics – doubtless the best markup language and typesetting system for mathematical documentation –, it was also my first choice for creating other forms of documentation (like letters) for a long time. LaTeX is not really lighweight though, and while it is practically indispensible for creating mathematical and physical documentation, it is overkill for my typical purposes these days. Therefore, I have come to use AsciiDoc in most situations, which involves little markup at all.
Tools in /usr/bin. So many tasks can be handled by the tools in /usr/bin,
like grep(1),
cal(1),
less(1),
find(1),
sed(1), or
tmux(1) (see below) – to name just a few
– that often there is no need for any other tools.
OpenBSD Amsterdam. I couldn’t be more happy to have this site hosted on an OpenBSD VM hosted on an OpenBSD server from OpenBSD Amsterdam. They donate a fraction of each booked VM to the OpenBSD Foundation, which is definitely worth supporting.
Porkbun. Domain name registrar with a very special appearance, which I cannot help but like somehow – indeed “an oddly satisfying experience”.
Let’s Encrypt. Nonprofit certificate authority providing free TLS certificates, thereby helping to make the web a safer place.
Codeberg. Nonprofit collaborative software development environment, for managing and hosting my git repositories.
Posteo. Very security and privacy focused email provider. While it is not free like so many other email providers, I am more than happy to pay for their service, knowing that they respect my privacy and data – after all, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.
Ecosia. Ecologial search engine which uses the income generated by searches for planting trees all over the world. Besides, it is very privacy-focused. Another step away from Google. For a more elaborate rationale for using Ecosia, see Switching your search engine by Seth Godin.
exquisite.social. Mastodon instance run by h3artbl33d and Mischa (from OpenBSD Amsterdam) and OpenBSD.
Leuchtturm1917 Notebook Medium (A5) Hardcover, dotted, black & Staedtler pigment liner 308 for journaling. As Leuchtturm1917 put it: “Writing by hand is thinking on paper.”