Uses

A non-exhaustive list of things I use day-to-day I think is worth sharing. Other people have posted similar pages.

Software

Operating system

  • Linux1
    • Arch Linux for high-contact devices (desktop & laptops)
    • Debian for servers (where things have to be stable)
  • Windows2

I’ve been using Linux on-and-off since roughly 2011. I’ve become increasingly familiar with the way it works over the years and decided to take the full plunge as the daily driver on my desktop in August 2025.

Desktop environment

On Linux, my go-to desktop environment is KDE. It retains the desktop metaphor and way of working I had become accustomed to ever since I started using computers, and everything tends to be fairly well integrated.

Also, honourable mentions to GNOME, XFCE, Niri and i3, where I’ve also spent a good amount of time.

Development

Editors & IDEs

  • Visual Studio Code — the default
    • (also toying around with AI-integrated forks, like Cursor and Kiro)

  • vim — the default (terminal)
    Learnt it for the lols when I was ricing, and has now ended up as the default while I’m operating the command-line. Haven’t gotten to the point where I use vim bindings everywhere yet.

  • IntelliJ IDEA and friends — Java, Rails and C# projects
  • Visual Studio — Windows C# projects
  • GNOME Builder — Desktop Linux projects

SDK managers

Game development

Design

Graphics

CAD

Hardware

Computers


Mercur (desktop)
Venus (laptop)
Model (custom built) Lenovo ThinkPad T480
OS Arch Linux Arch Linux
Windows 11
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Intel Core i5-6XXX
RAM 64 GiB 12 GiB
GPU AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (integrated)

The desktop I have initally build in 2019 to have a solid workstation to use at home and access while I’m at university, upgrading it over time. The guiding principle for part choices initially was “it should run Linux well”, and has been triple-booting Windows 10, macOS and Arch Linux for most of its life.

Laptop-wise, I got a Lenovo ThinkPad because it happened to be the best for my allocated budget when I was looking at off-lease laptops at my local electronics retailer.

At the moment, my laptop is a glorified terminal for web services and remote shell connections to my desktop or development virtual machine.

Onto peripherals:

  • Keyboard: Logitech G512 Carbon Lightsync — I found to prefer clickier mechnical keyboards, and tend to use 102 of the 104 keys PC keyboards have had since 1995.
  • Mouse: Logitech MX Vertical — Most mice I’ve had in the past are too small for my hands, this one was the first comfortable one I’ve had.
  • Camera: a crappy 1080p one I can get my hands onto early-2020.
  • Microphone: Logitech Blue Yeti USB — Been told too many times I sounded as if I’m speaking into a can.
  • Displays: 2× DELL P2214H (1920×1080 @ 60Hz) — 1080p is all you need3. Fairly cheap4, too.

Homelab


Marte
Ceres
Model (custom built) HP Proliant DL20 G9
OS Debian (todo)
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Intel Xeon E3-1240 v5
RAM 32 GiB (todo)
GPU AMD Radeon RX 580

I’m working on building out my homelab to store personal data and library5, and plan to also add capabilities for running development tools remotely, play around with cloud tooling, and just toying around with networking.

Marte was built with components that had been rotated out of my desktop when they were upgraded, with the GPU used for video transcoding and AI inference tasks.

Ceres (currently not in use) is a proper server with its only shortcoming being having 2.5” (laptop-sized) drive bays instead of the more common 3.5”. I plan for it to be a dedicated NAS once I get an array of SSDs to use with it, leaving Marte to be an application server.

Services

Here are some services I use and get a lot of value from:

  • Proton6 — email, cloud storage, VPN proxies
  • Bitwarden — (mostly) open source and good value for $10/year
  • Vultr6 — web hosting

  1. some people may want it to be called GNU/Linux or GNU+Linux, but I’m not into libre purism. ↩

  2. now permanenly relegated to my slower, secondary SSD. ↩

  3. not really, a HiDPI display (4K/2160p) would be nicer. These are ex-lease, like my laptop. ↩

  4. roughly NZ$100 each. ↩

  5. collection of software, games, books, and media ↩

  6. this is a referral link. ↩ ↩2