uses
I often get asked about my computing setup—my computers, the software I run on them, how I host my services, and other choices of personal technology. This is a relatively up-to-date list detailing what I’m currently using.
personal laptop (lapis)
My primary laptop that I use for everything non-work is my Asus ROG Flow X13 (2021). It’s got a Ryzen 9 5900HS, Nvidia GTX 1650 Max-Q, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. I bought this machine in early 2022, when I was working remotely as a contractor. The 4K display doesn’t help with its battery life (about 7 hours) but it looks absolutely fantastic.
This laptop currently runs NixOS. I would ideally like to run OpenBSD, but I figured I’d make use of its GPU for the occasional game and run Linux instead; NixOS just seemed like the least-shit choice. I like its declarative approach to system configuration, but I won’t pretend—I’d have much preferred a more sane language like Lua.
Other software I use on this machine:
KDE Plasma: It’s been alright as a desktop environment but I only care to use it for Wayland and I don’t have time to dick around with a window manager. But that might change.
tmux: Most of my actual “window” management happens here. I have it configured to show my current working directory and git info in the statusline—this helps me keep my actual prompt clean and quick.
neovim: My editor of choice. I made the switch to the famously awaited 0.5.0 branch that introduced Lua support very early and haven’t looked back since. I use a custom duotone colorscheme.
QtPass: Frontend for passwords managed using GPG.
Firefox: It works; not much else to say. These are the add-ons I use:
- Don’t F* with Paste: for those pesky bank logins that block paste in the password fields
- Refined Hacker News
- Sidebery: tab-tree on the left
- Simple Translate: for Finnish/Russian
- SponsorBlock
- uBlock Origin
- Web Scrobbler
- Multi-Account Containers
work laptop (kvothe)
For work, I use a 14” M1 MacBook Pro. I use nix-darwin to configure most of my basic applications (neovim, tmux, bash, …). Software of note:
iTerm2: I don’t use 90% of its features but I like that it lets me cofigure terminal padding. I prefer to run a single instance of iTerm, full-screened and without any borders. I use tmux for everything else.
Rectangle: For the occasional window management.
home server (denna)
My latest addition. I bought this HP EliteDesk on Tori.fi for a princely sum of 60 EUR. It has an i5 6500, 8GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD. I installed OpenBSD on it at work by wiring it up to a monitor using DisplayPort (it does not have HDMI). It now runs very quitely under my table, plugged into the router.
I didn’t feel like paying my ISP for a static IP and since I work for a cloud provider, I spun up a VPS with a public IP and setup a quick Nginx TCP proxy to forward traffic to my home server.
stream {
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
proxy_pass denna:80;
}
server {
listen 443;
listen [::]:443;
proxy_pass denna:443;
}
}
Then, using httpd(8) and relayd(8) I run a few services (with more to come):
- This website.
- legit: Web frontend for git, written in Go.
- honk: ActivityPub server.
- fsrv: File hosting and upload server, written in Go.
- radicale: Contacts and calendar (Cal/CardDav) server.
other technology
Some hardware and software that are in frequent use across all my devices:
Ferricy: 34-key wireless split keyboard designed by me, based on the Ferris Sweep. I have both the MX (Gazzew Boba LT switches) and the Choc (Kailh Sunset switches) variants, but I find myself favoring the low actuation force of the MX one more. Some pictures here.
Logitech Ergo M575: Wireless ergonomic thumb trackball mouse. I’ve written about it in depth.
realme Buds Air 3s: El-cheapo truly-wireless earphones. They look pretty slick, and fit very comfortably. I mostly use them at the gym or while commuting in the metro.
iPhone 13 mini: It’s unfortunate that I have to use an Apple device but it’s also the only real small phone in the market. I quite enjoy how it fits in my palm, and being able to reach the top of the screen with one hand. I plan to stick to this until Apple stops updating it.
Kindle KT4: Jailbroken using WatchThis and running KOReader.
Tailscale: I used to setup WireGuard networks by hand, but that got unweildy after 3 hosts. With Tailscale I now have around 8 different machines running Linux, OpenBSD, macOS and iOS all seamlessly connected. It’s incredibly handy.
Migadu: I too, like everyone else, gave up on self-hosting my email. Migadu is very straightforward, and very cheap (19 EUR/year). Works great with all my email clients.