Notes & Thoughts
Full Articles & longer lists
- File Managers
- Why I Use so many CLI/TUI tools
- Client-side search & database options for static sites
- How to choose a config file format: YAML, JSON, TOML, INI, or XML
- Why I Use nvm for Node & npm (and fnm, nvs, Volta)
- Open source alternatives to Power BI: what's worth self-hosting in 2026
- Pretty, mostly working, and shipped anyway: what went wrong with software development
- Why I switched (mostly) from Make to go-task
- Tools and applications i always install on a new computer broken down by Operating System
- Security tools and software I use and recomend
- Windows isn't that bad with the right tools
- Python
- AI — useful sites today and notes about use.
- rsync — The awesomeness of rsync today
- List of CLI tools
- List of TUI tools
- Task Managers — Tuxedo, Taskwarrior & Super Productivity
- VIM docs
Notes on VIM
VIM is a welcome return to the keyboard and departure from the annoyances with slow mousing around.
While there are many nice plugins avilable to Vim and especally for NeoVIM I would recomend still getting used to it plain without plugins first so that you get used to the core commands and know what you really want out of a plugin. If you jump right into using plugins you will likely end up installing many plugins that you don't want or need.
- Main VIM quick ref sheet
- using Marks in VIM to move around quickly to saved locations
- Jumping quickly around in VIM
- Working with files and multiple files
- Common plugins to vim
- Lua for NeoVIM
- Emacs vs. Neovim + LazyVim — running both and making them feel like one editor
- VIMWIKI: a nice easy to use personal wiki format for notes etc that work inside VIM
- publicly shared dotfiles for NeoVim
- Random but useful notes on vim, vim commands that you might not know.
VIM keybindings in other places
Once you get used to the basic VIM keybindings you'll be able to find them useful in a lot of places other then just VIM. Many editors have options to use VIM keybindings for example but also many other applications also have options to use them.Zed editor
- Zed Comment extension for Zed editor
• great for custom commenting for comment codes like TODO, HACK etc
Extentions
Quick opensource charting software
Excalidraw
quick easy to use and has a collaborative mode.New to me Mac stuff
AeroSpace
New awesome tiling window manager for Mac
SketchyBar
Fast and powerful status bar replacement
Logseq: opensource notes
- logseq -- opensource, privacy-first note-taking app with block-based structure and bi-directional linking
Slides from markdown
This is awesome for quickly creating some slides.
- marp -- html slides from markdown
Charting
- d2Lang -- simple charting Language
APIs that are interesting
I Love Regex
KVM software
Snippets for use in many diffrent code editors
Chat apps that have some sortof secure messaging
- Element
- end-to-end encrypted messaging for groups
- open-source
- main website
- Tox
- end-to-end encrypted messaging for groups and colleagues
- main website
- Telegram
- Signal
- Video confrencing and messaging app that offers end-to-end encryption
- WhatsApp
- Offers secure end-to-end encryption
- Threema
- secure messaging with end-to-end encryption
- Wire
- secure messaging with end-to-end encryption
- Rocket.Chat
- secure messaging with end-to-end encryption
- Kaizala
- secure messaging with end-to-end encryption
- session
- new
Moding in Games
Static Sites
Mastodon
- What is Mastodon?
- Join Mastodon
- Getting started
- PC Mag article on how to leave twitter
- Easy list of what emojis your server supports
- unoffical Guide to gettings started with Mastodon & Fediverse
- Some interesting accounts you might want to follow based on interest
- Confused in Mastodon how to grow your follow list? Excelent resource here.
Clients
TUI clients
- https://xn—gckvb8fzb.com/gomphotherium-a-command-line-mastodon-client/
- https://toot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/#
- tootstream Python-based command-line interface
- tut Command-line interface written in Go
Other Fediverse stuff
- Pixelfed — instagram like
GUI clients
Cli Tools that I use regularly and are not standard linux commands
- zsh and other help with the commandline
- List of tools with install links
- Nodemon — listen for file changes and do something
- ranger — Extendable CLI based filemanager with VIM like keybindings.
- timewarrior — simple time tracker
- create directory `.timewarrior` and then all data for command will be stored inside
- github
- terminal-notifier — easily set notifications for the mac
Mac Tools
Rust cli tools
all are installed with cargo install such as `cargo install toolname`
- alacritty — gpu accelerated terminal
- bat — like cat but better
- du-dust — disk usage (nicer du)
- vimv — bulk rename using the power of vim
- macchina — machine info
- yazi — a fast filemanager with good UI
- skim — skim a project with lazy finder
- ripgrep — modern grep util
- tokei — count of files/langauges etc in your code
- zellij — modern screen/tmux
- tclock — terminal clock (works well in a tmux pane)
- csvlens — simple cli tool to view csv files
- Rustdesk — remote desktop & file
- termscp — terminal based SCP client for remote file transfers
- taws — TUI tool for AWS CLI
- more RUST CLI/TUI Tools
GoLang cli tools
can be installed with `go install git address`
- podman — container tools (opensource replacement for docker)
- fzf — fast fuzy search
- Curlie — curl/HTTPie replacement
- resterm — TUI REST client
- wtf — configurable display for personal information dashboard
- timer — a simple cli timer (like sleep command with more)
- lf — a great filemanager that is extreamly fast and configurable
- f2 — file renaming tool
- portal — an easy way to send and recive files quickly between any OS.
- walk — simple replacement for ls and cd
- fzf — fast fuzy search
- gdu — disk usage analyzer
- esbuild — fast bundler for the web
- go-grip — render markdown files.
- GoReleaser — release made easier for Go, Rust, TypeScript, Python, and Zig
- more Go CLI/TUI Tools
Web Browsers
Most browsers today are built on one of a few rendering engines. Grouped here by engine, with the license each browser is released under. Browsers marked with 🪶 are good choices for older or slower computers.
Blink (Chromium)
Google's fork of WebKit, used by the open source Chromium project and the majority of browsers today.
Google Chrome — proprietary (freeware), built on open source Chromium- the most compatible browser — sites are tested on it first, and it syncs everything with a Google account
Chromium — open source, BSD-3-Clause- Chrome without Google's branding, auto updates or proprietary extras — often in Linux package managers
- GitHub (read-only mirror)
- ungoogled-chromium — open source, BSD-3-Clause
- Chromium with Google services and tracking stripped out — Chrome compatibility without talking to Google
Helium — open source, GPL-3.0- built on ungoogled-chromium with uBlock Origin built in and no telemetry — fast, clean and minimal, from a very small dev team
- GitHub
Brave — open source, MPL 2.0- ad & tracker blocking built in and on by default, so it is private out of the box with no extensions needed
- GitHub
Microsoft Edge — proprietary (freeware)- good memory saving (sleeping tabs), built in vertical tabs, and tight Windows / Microsoft 365 integration
- 🪶 Good for older / slower systems: sleeping tabs and efficiency mode keep memory and CPU use down on low RAM machines
Vivaldi — proprietary UI (Chromium changes are published as source)- the most customizable Chromium browser — tab stacking, tiling, custom keyboard shortcuts plus built in mail, calendar and RSS
Opera — proprietary (freeware)- sidebar messengers, a free built in browser VPN, and the gaming focused Opera GX version
Arc — proprietary (freeware)- rethinks tabs with a sidebar, spaces and tabs that auto archive — no longer actively developed though, the company moved on to Dia
Thorium — open source, BSD-3-Clause- Chromium compiled with performance optimizations — worth trying if raw speed is the goal
- 🪶 Good for older / slower systems: offers builds for older CPUs (SSE3), Windows 7/8 and Raspberry Pi
- GitHub
Gecko (Mozilla)
Mozilla's engine, the main open source alternative to Blink.
Firefox — open source, MPL 2.0- the main non-Chromium browser, run by a non-profit — full uBlock Origin support and strong privacy settings
- GitHub
Firefox Developer Edition — open source, MPL 2.0- Firefox built for web developers — dev tools front and center, early access to upcoming features (based on the beta channel) and a separate profile so it runs alongside regular Firefox
- GitHub (same source as Firefox)
Zen Browser — open source, MPL 2.0- Firefox with an Arc style layout — vertical tabs, workspaces and split view. A really nice calm looking browser.
- GitHub
LibreWolf — open source, MPL 2.0- privacy hardened Firefox — telemetry removed and uBlock Origin included out of the box
- source code
Floorp — open source, MPL 2.0- very customizable Firefox fork with vertical tabs, workspaces and a web panel sidebar (like Vivaldi for Firefox)
- GitHub
Waterfox — open source, MPL 2.0- a plain, familiar Firefox with less telemetry and fewer of Mozilla's add-ons
- GitHub
Tor Browser — open source, MPL 2.0 (Tor itself is BSD-3-Clause)- routes all traffic through the Tor network for real anonymity, and can reach .onion sites — slower than normal browsing
- source code
Mullvad Browser — open source, MPL 2.0- Tor Browser's anti-fingerprinting without the Tor network — meant to be paired with a VPN
- GitHub
Independent Engines
New engines being built from scratch, or older forks.
Ladybird — open source, BSD-2-Clause- a brand new engine written from scratch, funded by donations only — not ready for daily use yet but worth watching
- GitHub
Servo — open source, MPL 2.0- embeddable engine written in Rust (started at Mozilla) — more for developers and experimenting than daily browsing
- GitHub
Pale Moon — open source, MPL 2.0- uses the Goanna engine (an old fork of Gecko) and keeps the classic Firefox interface and old style XUL extensions
- 🪶 Good for older / slower systems: lower memory use than modern Firefox and still runs well on older hardware
- source code
Terminal Browsers
- Lynx — open source, GPL-2.0
- the classic text only browser — tiny, fast and great over SSH
- 🪶 Good for older / slower systems: barely uses any resources — runs on almost anything
- GitHub (snapshots mirror)
- w3m — open source, MIT-style license
- renders tables and frames better than Lynx, can show images in some terminals, and is used as a browser inside Emacs
- 🪶 Good for older / slower systems: very light, even on very old or tiny systems
- Carbonyl — open source, BSD-3-Clause
- full Chromium (Blink) running inside the terminal — modern sites, even video, with no GUI needed
Terminal Multiplex
tmux
- My tmux Quick Refrence
- tmuxcheatsheet.com — great looking and useful
- awesome-tmux everything you need to make tmux awesome
- nord theme (nice blue theme) for tmux
- dracula theme (dark theme) for tmux
- tmate — simular to tmux but made for easy terminal sharing
- Youtube video - tmux in 100 seconds
Zellij
a modern terminal multiplexer that is easier for newbies while still being powerful. Solid and stable but could use a few more abilities for my use.Git
Fonts
- Nerd Fonts — fonts with extra glyphs added
These work well with a lot of cli apps & suggested for a lot of NeoVIM plugins. - new font for programming with some connected chars
GO Language
GO/GOLang is a wonderful modern programming language that is built from the ground up for modern multithreaded computers and the internet.
- About Go Language — if you are not familiar with GO this is a good place to start.
- My Go Language Cheat Sheet
- Learn Go With Tests — basicly a workbook that presents learning go with tests from the start
- fyne GUI library
- console UI library
- Cell based view for text terminals
- bubbletea - charm based full terminal UI framework
- huh - charm based app library for building terminal forms and prompts
- ebiten - 2d game engine
- Awesome Go — collection of good Go resources
