Uses

Uses, 2021 Edition

Earnest Ma

• 2 min read
Tumblr post screenshot - michaelgovehateblog: I would like to wish everyone an uneventful new year - It's only November and this is already...

As 2021 wraps up, I thought I’d do an update on the various things I’ve been using. This year has been more heavy as I continue online learning and programming more. Oh, I also moved off Windows and did a tiny amount of distro-hopping during the summer! (Happy to interact with Windows only in a VM, pretty much for audio editing only)

I also selfhost or use hosted services for a few things.

Hardware

  • Asus 15 F512D (AMD, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD) with Fedora 34 Workstation and a random Logitech mouse
    • This machine went through Windows, then Ubuntu, NixOS, Pop!_OS, then 2 installs of Fedora lol
    • 2 spare laptops that don’t work very well
  • LG Monitor
  • iPad Air 4th generation (Space grey, 64GB) + Apple Pencil 2
  • iPhone 11 (Purple, 128GB)
  • Samsung Galaxy Active Smartwatch
    • Works ok with iOS, I had an Android before, and if it weren’t for the price, I’d consider an Apple Watch next
  • AudioTechnica AT-2005 microphone (mainly for podcast recording)
  • 2018 Kindle (the battery is starting to go, so next year I may get the 2021 Paperwhite)
  • MINISO bluetooth speaker that works fine, but don’t use that often
  • Sony earphones

Software

  • Firefox, for web browsing
    • Considering moving to Vivaldi
    • Chrome for work
  • VSCodium for most of my coding, sometimes Neovim
  • GNOME Terminal with zsh (you can find my dotfiles here)
  • Email: Thunderbird
  • Music: Spotify
    • I used to use Navidrome and might take a look at it again/ other solutions in the future
  • Chat: Discord, Element
  • Conferencing: Zoom
  • Budgeting: Buckets
  • Office: Google {Docs, Sheets, Slides}, although I did set up a private Cryptpad (Nextcloud + ONLYOffice is a headache)
  • File syncing: Nextcloud*
  • Livestreaming: OBS Studio

Mobile apps of note

  • iPad apps
    • Note-taking: Goodnotes
    • Scores: Piascore
  • Reddit client: Apollo
  • Fediverse clients: Fedi, Metatext
  • Livestreaming: Twitch or Streamlabs
  • Podcast: Pocket Casts

Final Thoughts

I do need to:

  • Upgrade to Fedora 35
    • The only thing I’m aware of is some GNOME extensions I use not supporting GNOME 41 yet
  • Migrate two of my families laptops off Ubuntu 21.04
  • I don’t feel comfortable with giving them 21.10 and the snaps situation
    • Currently, I’m thinking of Fedora Workstation
  • If someone has suggestions, please let me know 🙂
  • Configure Restic? for backups, probably during Winter break
  • Possibly find something better than Nextcloud for main cloud storage. I occasionally use Google Drive, but there’s no client for Linux; but I feel uncomfortable with both (Nextcloud is sometimes quite unreliable, and, well, Google…)
  • Again, suggestions for anything are welcome!