Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS are both malware and spyware. They slow down over time, they prevent me from configuring my computer system the way that I want to, and they report back to an uncountably large number of different people all about the activities that are undertaken on them. As such, Linux and BSD are the only viable options for me. Right now I'm rolling with Debian, since it gives me a lot of freedom to build my system from the ground up, they way I want. Below is a list of programs that I use on my computer.
1. Consistency - if the software works today, it should continue to work in perpetuity.
2. Completion - Solid, non-updating software.
3. Freedom (as in speech not beer) - obviously.
4. Proper Software Packaging - use APT/PACMAN/AUR or offer to let me compile from source. None of this Snap/Flatpak/AppImage/Docker nonsense.
I used Arch Linux for a few years and got quite a bit of mileage out of it. But ultimately, it was irritating to have to update so very often. After years of lost time spent updating Arch Linux, I switched to Debian 12. Honestly, I feel like this has been a fantastic switch. APT has the vast majority of the software packages that I use built in, and I am not at all afraid of installing the outstanding pieces of software from source. Plus updates are small and rare. Perfect!
What programs have I explicitly installed on my system?
abook - TUI Address Book amfora - TUI Gemini Browser base - Minimal Set of Programs for an Arch Linux System base-devel - Basic Tools to Build Arch Linux Packages bdf-unifont - Status Bar Font bluetuith - TUI Bluetooth Manager bluez - Bluetooth Support bluez-utils - Utilities for Bluetooth brightnessctl - CLI to Control Device Brightness bspswallow - Window Swallowing for BSPWM bspwm - Tiling Window Manager btop - TUI Resource Monitor calc - CLI Calculator checkbashisms - Script to Check Shell Scripts for Bashisms cmus - TUI Music Player cronie - Crontab Daemon dmenu - A Menu for Use in X dosfstools - Tool for Creating FAT Filesystems dunst - Notification Daemon ebgaramond-otf - Garamond Font for Documents exfat-utils - Tools for Working with FAT Filesystems fbset - Tools for Modifying the Framebuffer ffmpeg - CLI for Video Manipulation fontconfig - Tools for Working with Fonts fontforge - Tools for Editing Fonts fpm - Fortran Package Manager Similar to Rust's Cargo fzf - Fuzzy Finder gcc-fortran - GNU Fortran Compiler gdb - GNU Debugger git - Source Control Management System git-delta - Improved Git Pager glow - TUI Markdown Viewer gmnitohtml - Tool to Convert GMI Files to HTML gnuplot - CLI Plotting Utility grap - groff Plotting Preprocessor groff - Document Creation Tool groffhl-git - Code Highlighting Tool for groff grub - Boot Manager highlight - Colourizes Text hors - CLI for Querying Stackoverflow imagemagick - CLI for Image Manipulation isync - Email Downloader jq - CLI JSON Parser lcov - Code Coverage Report Generator ledger - CLI Accounting Tool lf - TUI File Manager linux - Linux Kernel linux-firmware - Linux Firmware Modules lowdown - Markdown Translator lynx - TUI Web Browser maim - Screenshot Utility man-db - Manual Pager man-pages - Linux Manual Pages mpv - TUI Video Player msmtp - CLI SMTP Client mutt-wizard - Minimal Email System Wizard neomutt - TUI Email Client networkmanager - Internet Access Utility notmuch - Email Indexer ntfs-3g - Tools for Working with NTFS Filesystems openssh - Secure Shell openssl - Crytography Tools otf-jost - Status Bar Font pam-gnupg - Tool that Unlocks GPG Keys on Login pamixer - CLI Pulseaudio Mixer papis - Scientific Article Organization Tool pass - UNIX Password Manager pavucontrol - GUI Pulseaudio Volume Controller polybar - Status Bar pulseaudio - Sound Server System pulseaudio-bluetooth - Bluetooth Module for Pulseaudio pulsemixer - TUI Pulseaudio Mixer python - Scripting Language python-adblock - Brave's Adblock Library python-weasyprint - PDF Creation Tool qutebrowser - GUI Web Browser rsync - CLI for Incremental File Transfers sagemath - Computer Algebra System sagemath-doc - Documentation for Sagemath sc-im - TUI Spreadsheet Tool sdcv - CLI Dictionary/Thesaurus sent - Simple Plaintext Presentation Tool siji-ttf - A Status Bar Font st - Simple Terminal sxhkd - Keybinding Daemon sxiv - TUI Image Viewer taffy - CLI Audio Tagger tcc - Tiny C Compiler the_silver_searcher - Tool for Searching Code tmux - Terminal Multiplexer ttf-anonymouspro-nerd - Coding Font ttf-dejavu - Document Font ttf-fantasque-sans-mono - Coding Font ttf-iosevka - Coding Font ttf-symbola - Status Bar Font ueberzug - Tool for Previewing Images on the Commandline unclutter - Utility that Hides the Mouse Cursor urlview-xdg-git - Tool for Extracting URLs from Text vim - Text Editor xclip - Clipboard Manager xcompmgr - Compositing Manager xdotool - Fake Keyboard/Mouse Input xf86-video-intel - Intel Graphics Driver xorg-server - The Graphical X Server xorg-xdpyinfo - Display Information Utility for X xorg-xinit - X Server Initialization Tool xorg-xrandr - Monitor Management for X xorg-xset - User Preference Utility for X xorg-xsetroot - Tool to Manage Root Window in X xorg-xwininfo - Query Tool for X Windows xwallpaper - Wallpaper Setting Utility yay - AUR Helper yt-dlp - Media Downloader zathura - TUI Document Viewer zathura-pdf-poppler - PDF Plugin for Zathura zathura-ps - PostScript Plugin for Zathura Back to Blog