What I use
I am usually very interested in other people’s setups, especially when they have a highly personalized environments that make them be highly efficient while working. Because of this, I believe my workflow could be of interest to someone.
Software
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Linux
I’m currently using Artix (runit) and Arch Linux on my systems. Although I used Gentoo in the past, I had some problems that made me abandon it.
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NeoVimEmacs (WIP) -
dwm & slstatus
dwm is a dynamic window manager. That means that it will automatically move your windows for you given a layout. Its source code is less than 2000 SLOC, that’s because you are supposed to add the functionality you like through patches. Personally, I use: fakefullscreen, noborder, pertag, status2d (needed for my slstatus fork), swallow and vanitygaps.
dwm includes its own bar, that shows the name of its process (the dwm process). In order to draw things to the bar you have to change the process’ name (e.g. with xsetroot -name
your bar here
). There are programs that do this automatically, I use a slightly modified slstatus.The thing I love about the dwm + slstatus combo is that my environment is always two git clones away. You can’t say the same for other software like polybar that needs dependencies to be built.
I also spent nearly a year with bspwm but returned back to dwm because I usually don’t have more than three windows on the same workspace and prefer the idea of tags over workspaces (also the reason of the paragraph above).
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dmenu / rofi
Very handful as launchers and for custom scripts.
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st
Minimal terminal implementation. Once compared it with alacritty and st resulted a bit faster.
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tmux
st only gives basic terminal functionality. When doing intense work, the ability to split, tab and infinite scroll comes in handy. In addition, thanks to the attach/detach functionality I can easily stop working and later resume on other location over SSH.
In my machines I have mod4 (windows’ key) mapped to modkey in dwm, and mod1 (alt) as the modkey of tmux. Also, to see the insert cursor of neovim inside tmux when using st, add this to your .tmux.conf:
set -as terminal-overrides '*:Ss=\E[%p1%d q:Se=\E[2 q'
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newsboat
RSS reader. A nice replacement to social media.
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calcurse
Simple but complete calendar in the terminal.
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syncthing
Fantastic program that synchronizes your personal folders across LAN or even internet.
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pass
The standard Unix password manager. Stores your encrypted passwords on a git repository. Very easy to use on Android and iOS as well.
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detach
Lets me launch independent X applications on the terminal without being swallowed due to the dwm’s patch.
Hardware
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Thinkpad x200
Cheap, durable and easy to find replacement parts. With a new extended battery of 94WH (knock-off, as originals don’t exist) it lasts for about 6 hours of work. I use it mostly at university for note-taking and surfing the internet, although it handles CPU heavy work quite nice (not looking at you, rustc).
Don’t ask it to do anything GPU related. It supports up to GLSL 1.2, that means that a lot of modern software won’t work (e.g kitty/alacritty).
The keyboard is excellent, as it is small yet has 7 rows. The lack of trackpad is a feature as I would disable it if it had one. The trackpoint is just precise enough, and when you get used to it you’d wish every keyboard had one.
This is also the last Thinkpad that can be librebooted, and I’m planning on doing it soon.
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Ideapad y700-15ISK
Got it for sale for uni and work because I need a portable computer with a GPU. The Linux support is decent. The only thing I’m missing is the driver for the subwoofer. Digging in some forums, it seems to be an ALSA bug that wrongly identifies the audio chip for other similar that has the subwoofer on other pin. As far as I know, some users tried to create a bug bounty to fix it without success.
Also, the thing weights a LOT. I hate having it in my bag.
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Tower Desktop
The beast:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 1600 @ 3.8GHz
- GPU: Asus Turbo Nvidia GTX 1070-Ti
- Motherboard: ASUS Prime B450m-a
- RAM: 16Gb Ballistix DDR4 3000MHz cl15
- PSU: Corsair RM550
- Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L
The CPU is second hand and from China, but works flawlessly. Best bang for the buck of the whole system (60$). The GPU is also sencond hand, and again 0 problems. I chose to invest in a good PSU because I want it to outlive every other component. The difference with a normal PSU is massive: I can have 100% of CPU and GPU usage and still the PSU fan won’t spin (maybe on summer).
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Custom made Dactyl Manuform