Software

What I use(d)

Previously:

• Void Linux - very fast, BSD-inspired operating system using the Linux kernel. I'm too scared to use Linux, though.
• wmii - window manager inspired by ACME, an environment for programmers from Plan 9 OS. Nothing bad about it, but cwm is all I need.
• neovim - vim fork with Lua scripting. Still bloated IMO.
• Iridium - Chromium build without the spyware. On OpenBSD, it has pledge(1) and unveil(1) integration, meaning it's only able to access my downloads folder and some system resources.
• uMatrix - the only extension giving you nearly total control of what is loaded on the site.
• dvtm - dynamic tiling window manager for the console. For some reason copy mode does not work under OpenBSD. Sad.

Current:

• OpenBSD - well engineered Unix-like secure-by-default operating system.
• cwm - one of the default window managers on OpenBSD. Floating + basic tiling. Very good documentation, as with everything OpenBSD.
• st - fast and small terminal emulator.
• tmux - terminal multiplexer. The reason I don't really need a tiling window manager and multiple workspaces.
• vis - text editor inspired by vi and sam. Lua scripting. Only 30k of C, a little more than vi.
• qutebrowser - scriptable browser with vi(m) like keybindings written in Python and Qt (C++).
• jmatrix - umatrix for qutebrowser.
• mpv - video player with Lua plugins and one-key shortcuts.
• mpd + mpc - music player daemon + the command line client. I can play my playlist from any device, save it between reboots, and script it however I want.
• nsxiv - neo simple X image viewer. Keyboard-centric scriptable image viewer.

Maybe in the future:

• Pale Moon - if only I was successful in building it for OpenBSD. It's sad that the devs were in a big conflict and now we can't get any official support for this beautiful browser.
• ladybird - a web browser originally made for SerenityOS, but ported to Qt6. A web engine completely made from scratch, under the 2-clause BSD license.
• Arcan - "desktop engine". Replacement for Xorg, Wayland, Pipewire, dbus, and other projects. Security hardening is promised in the 0.9 release. Has Lua scripting. Inspired by Android and Plan 9.
• uxrt - a Linux-compatible microkernel-based OS for workstations and embedded systems. Inspired by Plan 9.
• 9front - right when I retire with enough money to sustain myself.

My recommendations for you

Operating systems

If it's possible, use OpenBSD or 9front. If you have an Nvidia graphics card, use FreeBSD.

Linux is not as well designed as BSD. And Plan 9 is the best OS if you need several devices to work together as a single entity. In case you still need Linux (e.g. for gaming or Windows compatibility), you can virtualise it using qemu, vmm(4) or vmx(1). Also, Wine is available on FreeBSD.

Newbie:

• AntiX

Not afraid of the terminal, can read docs:

• Void Linux
• Slackware

I want to delete dbus and polkit:

• Gentoo
• Exherbo (if you prefer C++ over Python)

I want to develop my own distro:

• T2 SDE

and read Linux from Scratch & Beyond Linux from scratch.

Documents

Format

You should use some variation of TeX (LaTeX, XeTeX, LuaTeX, ConTeXt, etc.) for tech heavy works. Otherwise, write stuff in Markdown or some variation of roff (troff, nroff, etc.)

Encoding

Use UTF-8, the only sane text encoding.

Text editors

If you want to quickly edit some text and don't want to learning anything, use micro.

If you want to use your mouse efficiently, use acme. A comfortable 3-button mouse recommended.

If you want to stop using your mouse, you should probably learn vi. After that, choose between neovim and vis. The first is compatible with Vim plugins, the second is using structular regular expressions. Both have Lua scripting support.

If you want your editor to be an operating system, learn Emacs. You can try mg instead.

Web browsers

Overall, the best browser right now is Pale Moon. It has the best extensions (based on the old Firefox ones), the most configurability, opensource, very fast and resource-efficient, but there is one problem. One of the developers is crazy, and he was a source of conflicts. It's good news he decided to leave the team.