This is the things I use on my computer. :)

Conditions for a good software accoridng to me

  • Least number of visual stimulations. No notifications, no sounds, no tons of button everywhere… Best if it can be only used using keyboard.
  • Light, my computer also wants to benefit from minimalism.
  • Respects its users. It needs to be “free software” (free as freedom)
  • Being necessary for you.

The basic stuff

  • Xubuntu is my operating system.
  • dwm (plus dmenu) is my window manager. Everything is done using a few shortcuts and takes no space on the screen. The shortcuts are easy to get, but the installation might be tricky for new linux users.
  • st is my terminal. I use it for coding, writing and managing my system. The only thing I changed to it was to change the fontsize and enable the scrollback patch. But again it might be tricky to install for new linux users.

Browsing online

I already tried other stuff like “surf” but I don’t like it because I want to use an adblocker.

  • Firefox is my favorite browser. I use it because it’s lighter than other browsers, and I can install uBlock Origin.

Writing

I need to write things for school and for myself. So I mainly use Marktext or nano to write my stuff.

  • Marktext is a markdown editor. I like markdown because I don’t want to pass the majority of my time on choosing fonts and stuff like that. Also I think it’s more handy and reliable. I only use this app for exporting into pdf. I write using nano
  • Nano is a terminal-based editor. Very easy to use, only terminal based. I use for both writing markdown and writing code.
  • Libreoffice if I really need to have a “classic” office suite.

Communication

Chatting

  • dino (xmpp client), it is my favorite chatting software. I like it more than Discord because, instead of joining a ton of useless channels, you only join the ones you want. (Also it’s lighter than Matrix.)
  • HexChat is my favorite IRC client. Yes I still use IRC, it’s so simple and stupid, I love it!

Emails

  • Thunderbird, it has a very “brut” interface, but very handy and powerful. You can setup filters to automatically clean your inbox. I never get up to 20 messages in my inbox this way.

Coding

I use nano as my code editor. That’s it, same thing as said above.

  • nano and st is my IDE :)
  • openscad is the cad software I use. Basically, design things in 3D using code.

Video

  • Shotcut is a nice video editor. Pretty straight forward. When I need something more advanced, I use kdenlive.
  • VLC is a nice video viewer.

Photo

  • Firefox is my image viewer.
  • GIMP is my image editor. I don’t want to use photoshop.

Sound

  • Audacity is useful when I need to record sound
  • pavucontrol is the tool I use to manage the input/output audio stuff.
  • Musecore is a score editor I use to digitalize and read piano scores.
  • Yatima
    1·
    4 years ago

    I really like standard notes, especially the ‘rich markdown’ extension. The syncing is easy to set up and it’s FOSS and E2E encrypted. It isn’t as light as all the stuff listed here because it uses electron, but if you need to you can set up https://github.com/tannercollin/standardnotes-fs for syncing and edit notes in any editor you like.