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’ve quite a few plugins and tweaks, here’s a list of some notable ones:

• nvim-thyme to compile Fennel to Lua.
• vim.pack as the plugin manager and lze for lazy loading.
• snacks.nvim picker for fuzzy finding all the things.
• blink.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, mini-git, 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 a 32” monitor instead of three, giving me a huge value add compared to “just” looking nice.

I rely on Niri as my tiling window manager to spam ghostty terminals powered by fish or firefox instances all over the place.

As for the OS, I run CachyOS on the desktop and Void Linux on the laptop (I should migrate that to CachyOS too). On my homelab I run Proxmox, Talos Linux, then there’s Steam Deck that’s based on Arch Linux and Debian on the 3D printers (Mainsail). A little bit of a mix I guess.

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.

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 Pixel 10a running GrapheneOS.

  GrapheneOS is an excellent way to de-Google your life, add extra security, and regain your freedom of your mobile life.

• A Pebble Time 2 smartwatch to help me manage my day.

  I designed a custom watchface that shows me the time, upcoming events, the next task, and helps me survive the day in our scary, demanding modern life.

• 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.