Uses

Development

I do all my development, writing and note taking inside Neovim. I’ve been using Vim (and later Neovim when I wanted async code) since 15 years ago, and I don’t see myself ever switching away. I have quite a few plugins and tweaks, here’s a list of some notable ones:

• lazy.nvim as the plugin manager.
• telescope.nvim for fuzzy finding all the things.
• nvim-cmp as a completion engine.
• conform.nvim to format files on save.
• nvim-treesitter for better syntax highlighting and nvim-treesitter-textobjects for jumping between parts of the code.
• neogit, vim-fugitive, and gitsigns.nvim general git handling.
• Basic LSP setup with nvim-lspconfig, mason.nvim and mason-lspconfig.nvim.

See my config files for more.

The colorscheme I use is melange-nvim that I try to adapt outside of Neovim as well. If you find something you love you just have to have it everywhere.

My typeface of choice is a customized Iosevka. I love the general look of it and the character variants where you can customize individual characters is just gravy. But the absolutely best feature is how narrow it is while still being legible to me. This allows me to use four splits on my main monitor instead of three, giving me a huge value add compared to “just” looking nice.

I don’t use a desktop environment and I rely on xmonad as my tiling window manager to spam alacritty terminals powered by fish or firefox instances all over the place. I sometimes use neovide as a Neovim GUI, as it has nicer scaling and some cursor effects that makes it a little easier to follow the cursor when it’s moving around windows a lot.

As for the OS, I run Void Linux on all my machines at home (Arch Linux on the Steam Deck though).

Computer hardware

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the amount of software developers that always work on a laptop. I get that it’s necessary if you travel a lot, or if you work at an office and want to use the same computer when you work at home, but if you don’t then a laptop is just so limiting to me.

That’s why I’ve invested in a really good desktop as my main workhorse.

(I also have a laptop that I use from time to time, but when it’s time for some serious work there’s nothing better than a dedicated desktop.)

Inputs

You also need some things to interact with the computer.

The main attraction is the Cybershard, a minimalistic keyboard with only 35 keys and an integrated trackball that I built for myself. Controversial I know, but I don’t think you need more keys (except if you’re gaming, then a number row is probably more ideal). All you need is a well-designed layout and a lot of dedication to internalize it. See my custom made layout for the layout I use with the keyboard.

For voice input I have a Blue Microphone Snowball iCE. It would be cool to have an awesome podcasting microphone, but that’s just overkill. Maybe if this one dies on me.

Laptop

I use Framework Laptop 13 as my travel laptop and when I want to code in the sofa in the evenings. I have the variant with the AMD Ryzen™ 5 7640U processor and matte display but I’ve been very happy with it so I’ll probably keep upgrading the laptop in the future.

Other software tools

• I use Fastmail for emails and my calendar.

• I try to use Todoist to track my tasks and todos, but sometimes I keep them in my personal wiki folder instead.

• After trying out tons of habit trackers I’ve settled on Habit loop tracker to help me add and continue the habits I want to have.

Other hardware & Gadgets

• For note-taking I use the reMarkable 2.

  I don’t use it for anything fancy, it’s just nice to sometimes write notes or plan things “on paper”. The writing experience really does feel good on it.

• My phone is the Fairphone 4.

  It’s a great phone and I love being able to super quickly replace the battery. But honestly, I should use it less (don’t we all?) so I’ve tried to remove all but the most essential apps.

  I’ve installed CalyxOS with microG for a de-Googled experience. I can can warmly recommend it, CalyxOS is great.

• A Garmin Instinct 2X Solar smartwatch to keep track of time and give me notifications.

  I used to care more about measuring steps, heart rate, sleep etc but I’ve lost interest a little. I still glance at them from time to time but I’d say 95% of the value is in the time and notifications, reducing the need to look at the phone.

  Why not a simpler watch then? Because I get almost 30 days of battery life with this one. I hate charging things all the time.

• A Whoop to track my overall health and fitness.

• A VORON Trident and a VORON 0 3D printer.

  For when I want to do something creative away from the computer. Check out the in-depth build log of the Trident I made.