Here are some of the programs I use, recommend and some I dislike. You can get my configuration for most of these programs here.
Criteria
For software to be usable for me it has to be:
- Free and Open-source
- Uncomplicated, simple to use
- Lightweight
- Fast
Operating systems
- Arch Linux: The best linux distro for most people, since installing packages is very convenient using the AUR and has a great wiki.
- Gentoo: Unique operating system with a proper wiki, see my post about it.
- Void: Great linux distros free from filthy systemd and glibc.
- Debian: Easy to install and use, the best distro for beginners.
- FreeBSD: Simple operating system with a clean and elegant codebase.
- Ubuntu: Debian done wrong with snaps.
- Manjaro: Same as ubuntu except even worse doesn't even work properly.
- MacOS: BSD done wrong, with apple garbage.
- Windows: Graphical trash.
Programming languages
- C: Portable assembly, basically the default programming language for unix.
- Go: Modern version of C, very convenient and safe to write programs in.
- Posix Shell: Concise and convenient for scripts and small programs.
- C++: Bloated, not safe and a mess, literally every bad piece of software I've ever used was written in C++.
Window managers
- DWM: At first a little hard to configure but at the end totally worth it.
- BSPWM: Best static window manager, easy to configure with and an extraordinary tool called bspc.
- i3wm: An average window manager, good for beginners.
Text editors
- vim and nvim: Just way too convenient to be real.
- JetBrains IDEs: Bloated, heavy, overcomplicated and costs money(?).
Browser
- Qutebrowser: Has vim-keybinds making it very convenient to use.
- Firefox: Sometimes, you need a bloated browser to view bloated sites.
Terminal and terminal Utilities
- st: Terminal emulator though a little hard to configure.
- alacritty: Terminal emulator which works perfectly fine without any configuration.
- cmus: Music player.
- zsh: Interactive shell.
- dash: Shell script interpreter.
- lf: File manager.
- translate-shell: Cli translator.
Xorg utilities
- dmenu: Interactive menu to select items.
- slstatus: Status monitor.
- mpv: Media player.
- nsxiv: Image viewer.
- zathura: pdf viewer.
Other
About hardware
I don't really care about hardware because it is easily replacable and I am fine with whatever just works, as long as it not overpriced. If you use proper software any hardware should get the job done.
I am not going to shill thinkpads like everyone else, though I think they are fine, to me only 2 things set apart thinkpads from all the other laptops, firstly, the fact that they are librebootable and, secondly, they are really cheap.