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Over the top, under the radar

If it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing.

I like things that are simple, repairable, and modular.

I like plugging things together, each device/program doing a single task.

I think privacy is a good thing.

And I like old(er) tech for its reliability and charm.

Retrotech

Things I use

Preface:

I prefer command line programs
I don't do social media
I try to avoid sites that require JavaScript
I don't play video games
I don't use bluetooth (except on my phone)
I only watch DRM-protected video on a dedicated streaming device
I think blindly using "oh-my-zsh" without trying to understand it is a symptom of what's wrong with computing

All of these factor into my hardware/software choices.

cwm

cwm ("Calm Window Manager") is both highly configurable and tightly constrained. Pairs well with a three-button mouse.

/cwm.gmi

Three button Mice

A holdover from the 90s? Maybe. But very powerful when using software that relies on a dedicated middle-button.

/three-button-mice.gmi

Unix (and friends)

If I could live with a single OS, it would be OpenBSD. It's got excellent documentation and runs particularly well on an older ThinkPad. I love the simplicity of the package manager and init system.

For running mainstream software, I like NixOS, Artix, and Void.

I am also a not-so-secret Plan 9 fanboy, but I'm not proficient enough to use it daily. (I do, however, regularly use the Acme text editor via plan9port.)

Operating Systems I've known and loved

ThinkPads

Yes, I've got a serious ThinkPad addiction.

/thinkpads

Framework Laptop

I love this laptop - it was created to be repaired and upgraded.

Mine runs NixOS, but I occasionally try different OSes on it by installing to a 250G expansion card. (I hibernate NixOS and manually choose the 250G as the boot devices - no need to configure dual booting if you're just going to wipe and change the second OS from week to week.)

(I only wish it had a trackpoint and three mouse buttons.)

https://frame.work/

pfSense

You guessed it! One of my ThinkPads serves as the router/firewall for my home network

Since it only has one built-in Ethernet port, I added an Expresscard Gigabit Ethernet card. (According to the pfSense community, USB Ethernet adapters don't perform well.)

Proxmox

Yeah, on yet another ThinkPad.

Here are some of the containers/VMs it runs:

Home Assistant (with a mapping to the physical Z-Wave USB stick)
syncthing (with a mapping to the second physical hard drive, used exclusively for data)
Zoneminder (for security cameras, with a mapping to an external drive)
An OpenBSD VM for this gemini server (with a mapping to the gemini directory on the data drive managed by syncthing)
vs-code server + Dendron (with a mapping to the notes directory on the data drive managed by syncthing)

I was doing pi-hole for a while, but have since switched to experimenting with running various DNS servers with blocklists on my daily drivers (on OpenBSD and NixOS).

Ethernet

I've sorta run Ethernet through my house - not through the walls, but by running very long cables along floors and ceilings.

Ethernet means no slowdowns from frequency crowding, and no dead spots where I want to set up a computer.

ssh

Not just for remote shells, but also:

mounting remote filesystems via sshfs (mostly for editing code running on a dedicated docker machine)
quick transfers with sftp
making regular backups with rsync (using the ssh transport)
tunneling and port forwarding to access services on my home network when I'm away from the house
X11 Forwarding for using GUI programs from other machines (usually when I'm at home)

The X11 Forwarding is especially useful for things like:

while using my $DAYJOB computer, controlling music streaming on my Linux box that's plugged into the stereo
trying out software installed on an OpenBSD vmd virtual machine
accessing Linux GUI programs from OpenBSD

One thing I appreciate about having an Android device is that I can ssh tunnel from Termux and I can use both port forwarding and X11 Forwarding.

Termux

Graphical Environment for Termux (X11)

Zettelkasten (via Dendron)

I know. Gemini, ThinkPads, Plan 9...and I also keep a Zettelkasten. What weird trend am I not into?

I was using org-roam on Emacs, but switched to Dendron (which runs as a VS Code extension and as a Node.js command line tool).

Some nice things about Dendron over org-roam:

Using markdown instead of org-mode is easier to use with other editors
I can use the command line tool for simple note management tasks (instead of having to be in Emacs).
I can access the full UI via web browser. (I have code-server running on my Proxmox machine.)
I can ssh tunnel with port forwarding to access the code-server if I really need to

The notes (and VS Code workspace) are in a syncthing folder. On any machine with VS Code and syncthing, I can just open the workspace file and work locally.

Misc

And, speaking of text editors, I was an Emacs lover for the longest time, but have since moved on to Acme, neovim, and VS Code (depending on what task and which OS I'm on).

I still spend some time in `mg` when using OpenBSD.

Text Editors

For source control, I prefer fossil to git, even though git is ubiquitous. The sub commands make more sense (to me), repos are a single file, and the command is a single binary. That, and it has a built in wiki, a built in web interface, and every instance is also a server (which you can access via ssh).

Fossil SCM

Lastly, I use xterm. It's fast and uses very little memory.