Uses
here is the tech and software I use
Updated: 2024-10-28 - changed RSS reader, added keyboard sound software.
On this page I show you what kind of tech and software I use. I don't have a lot of money for stuff, and even I would have some money, I wouldn't spend it on tech. Honestly for a person growing up with computers, I am a pretty techless person. I don't have smartphone or tablet. I prefer desktop computers to laptop (although I would like to have one).
Hardware
Desktop
Just a refurbished Lenovo ThinkCentre 92p. The only thing I added was an nVidia GT1030 card, instead of a very crappy Intel integrated one (HD 2000?). Which later I changed to a GTX1050 thanks to my family. It works very well for what I need (web work, watching movies, and retro games). In the near future I want to add some RAM, because 8 GB aren't really fun anymore.
I have a Redragon K552 RGB keyboard, and a Logitech M525 trackball. Both helps keep my right hand and shoulder pain free.
E-book reader
Pocketbook Touch Lux 4, which is now three years old I think. Works really well, love the e-ink screen. Read many-many books on it in 2022, and I hope it will serve me well for the next several years.
Mobile phone
Samsung S5610, my trusty phone of 10 years, you can throw it, but it will not break. Screen is still clean. Sound is good, and it's important for me, as I mostly use it for call and music/podcast stuff. Supports 16 GB SD card, which is more than enough for my needs. It has a nice 5 MP camera, and that's much more than current dumbphones. I hope I don't have to switch anytime soon.
Controller
I have a now old, Logitech F310 gamepad. I use it mostly for driving games, like Euro Truck Simulator. Or playing something that is just better with controller, in general, like older console games. I am much better with keyboard and mouse, so for me using controller is an added difficulty.
Headphones
I use a wireless Sony WH-CH520 headphones. It has good battery life (around 50 hours), and has good sound quality. You can use it for smartphones as well to take calls, but I use only for music and podcasts.
Software
Linux distribution
Recently I switched to Void Linux, after a short period of Slackware and MX Linux. I like using systemd-less distros, which are usually much faster on my machine.
Window manager
I am a tiling window manager junkie, and my most recent ones I used are bspwm (great!), dwm (good!), herbstluftwm (love it!). Lately I moved to herbstluftwm fully for the first time, and I love some of the window handling stuff.
Terminal emulator
Currently I am using st, the suckless terminal. I previously used kitty, and it is still my alternate terminal emulator.
File manager
I previously used lf, as it is fast and provides easy configuration for my needs. But now I am a big fan of yazi, which is fast and easily configurable with plugins, and with the config file.
Launcher
I still use rofi and dmenu, mostly because of its scripting abilities. I am also experimenting with fzf-nova.
Text editor and other stuff
Emacs. More of a personal assistance, a writing helper and quick gamer buddy. No, I am not going to switch to vim, ever. The more I use Emacs, the more I know the world…
RSS reader
I moved from newsboat to newsraft. I found to be much faster and easier to handle. It's better to watch youtube stuff as well, at least for me.
Web browser
I went back to Brave browser, and Vivaldi is my second choice. Floorp is a nice addition, if you want to see something Firefox based (but not from Mozilla).
Music player
I am using musikcube. It's a terminal based music player, looks fancy, but also useful. Plus it feels fast, despite having hundreds of files to handle.
Graphic editing
Inkscape and GIMP are still my trusted editors. I am not a professional, and these two are perfectly fine to do things.
Smaller Utilities (terminal and text-based)
Keyboard shortcuts: sxkhd - mainly because of bspwm, but you can use it for any system.
Automount: udiskie.
Bookmark manager: buku or org-capture mode in Emacs in the past, but now I just trust I don't lose my browser bookmarks.
Download videos or mp3 from youtube: yt-dlp - I like the terminal based simplicity.
Screen color temperature: (x)sct both are good, but xsct has some extra stuff.
Screen lock: The simple slock is doing a great job.
Video player: mpv (forever and ever)
Youtube: Freetube or ytfzf (terminal)
Gaming stuff: I use GOG most of the time, but if it's not there Steam (Proton too). If I use Wine I create separate prefixes, or use Lutris, occasionally Dosbox. For other games I use ScummVM.
Image viewer: nsxiv or feh
Wallpaper: feh - you can set random wallpapers for every monitor you use.
Bittorrent: Transmission, because I can't make rtorrent work.
Chatterino: for my twitch use. You need streamlink and a video player as well. It's also good if you are a streamer.
Screenshot: I either use scrot, or Flameshot. Flameshot has some extra stuff like taking part of the screen, writing on it, and uploading to a few image sharing services.
Keyboard sound: I sometimes like extra sound in my ear, when I type. I mainly use to software, rustyvibes or Neptune.