Hey guys! This is a quick rundown of some software and hardware recommendations that I can make based on my own personal usage for various use-cases! For some context, I will be recommending a mix of open and closed source software based on different usecases, and I will label each as such if you want exclusively open sourced options! I will progressively update this page as I try out different software and hardware!
Debian 12:This is my daily driver OS on my workstation/gaming PC, and where I do most of my work for this website! Ideally, I would have debian on all my devices, but for simplicty in configuration, I do run a few different operating systems on a few different computers. This is my favorite OS in general, specifically I run with the desktop environment KDE plasma, which I've customized only minorly, since the defaults for KDE plasma are pretty close to my preferred workflow. I used to daily drive gnome on all my devices, but now that I've switched to KDE, I don't think I'm gonna be able to go back. I still love gnome, but KDE is just so good for my workflow.
Antix Linux: I run this OS on my super low-power devices, since it is very light weight, but has some tools and programs preinstalled that I use regularly, and I would just install anyway if I had a super barebones debian install (which is basically all that antix is). I also like the cause of an anti-fascist distro, although eventually I'm gonna modify an ISO of debian that has everything I want, and nothing that I don't to replace this and my other OS's that I use, but for now this is easier.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS:I run ubuntu on my 2015 Macbook Air that I use as my work laptop, since wifi works out of the box for me with ubuntu, and not other distros for some reason. I'm not sure why, but I also don't care to check, since its just fine for a work lappy. I also run ubuntu on my entertainment center PC, out of convenience since I happened to have an ubuntu boot drive at the ready when I was setting it up, and its worked well enough that I haven't felt the need to replace it with anything more specialized, like gentoo configured for the specific purpose of entertainment center needs.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS:Similar to 22.04, Ubuntu is a widely supported, easy to work within OS that pretty much anyone can pick up and get working. Although I still don't like it as much as Mint, I do prefer Gnome, particularly Ubuntu's flavor of Gnome, more than Cinnamon. That being said, Snaps kinda suck, and flatpaks are not as well supported this time around, as it is a bit of a headache to get them working by default. However, the speed improvements from the newest version of Gnome are nice, and I REALLY like the general look and feel of Ubuntu, so all told, I recommend! You really can't go wrong with any distro, and even if Ubuntu isn't my favorite, it absolutely gets my recommendation.
Linux Mint:This is the OS that I put on PCs that I give to family members or friends who are used to windows if I'm getting them a computer. Its super easy to use and learn, and you never really have to interact with the terminal at all, making it very good for beginners who just want a GUI for accessing the web.
Arch:I haven' t ran an Arch system in years, and although I don't personally enjoy it, I can definitely recommend it for people who are more interested in taking control of their system from the ground-up. Although it isn' t exactly gentoo, Arch still takes more effort to maintain than a debian-based distro, and I am LAZY. If you are not lazy, then Arch or an Arch-based distro might be for you! UPDATE: I recently got a new lappy (an old Inspiron), and decided it was perfect for an arch install (it is super jank, the thing is scratched up and dirty-looking, and the dvd drive has the raw eject button just sitting there). So I am technically running arch on a system now, but I'm just using it as a little coding box, so nothing intensive. I forgot how fun it is to set up Arch, although the continual maintenance and more careful updating just isn't for me, as I am lazy. Just gonna stick with debian as my main machine.
Haiku: I've been using Haiku now on an old Thinkpad for a while now, and it has been a great experience! Although it doesn't nearly have the software support that Linux has, and it was a little bit of a learning curve getting used to how things work in Haiku rather than Linux, it is super solid! Out of all the OSs that I tried with the Thinkpad, the only one that worked reliably and was snappy was Haiku, so other than having a Linux distro that is solely ran through command line, in terms of modern operating systems, Haiku is the eastiest usable OS to run on older hardware. Highly recommended. NOTE: the OS is in beta, but is totally usable in its current form, but keep that in mind.
Fedora Linux:Similar to Ubuntu, but made by Redhat instead of Canonical, and with flatpaks instead of snaps, Fedora is a gnome-driven OS that is squarely in the "just works" camp. If you're looking for a more default gnome experience (or are willing to install some extensions if you prefer the Ubuntu look), or you prefer Flatpak to Snaps (understandable), then Fedora is definitely the superior choice to Ubuntu. However, they are both corporate distros, so that is something to keep in mind. All told, just like Ubuntu, if you want something that just works that comes with an attractive Gnome desktop out of the box, Fedora is for you!
KDE:This is my favorite desktop environment, purely due to its flexibility. I can make it function pretty much exactly how I want it to, and make it look exactly how I want super easily. If you want to heavily customize your DE, KDE makes it easiest to customize! UPDATE: I switched to using MATE on my debian workstation, since I've gotten so used to using it on my work laptop. I realize that I end up just making KDE function either like windows (which is largely the KDE default), or function closer to MATE anyway. That GNOME 2 look and feel is just closer to how I feel comfortable. Although I do like how flexible KDE is in respect to changing the GUI without pulling your hair out (unlike Windows, where you need third-party applications like classicshell to do any of that--which I also could not get working on windows 11 at all), I don't feel the need to change the MATE DE much at all, with how comfy I am with the basic GNOME 2 GUI. I might be old school, and ignoring a bunch of fancy features that comes with KDE Plasma 6 (which I still need to try out), and GNOME, I just like MATE as it is.
GNOME:GNOME is my favorite DE for laptops, since it functions fantastically well with a trackpad that has multitouch gestures. It is also exceptionally clean and functional, and I love how it looks and feels by default. The Ubuntu variation on Gnome is my favorite look for it, and as such if I am interested in a GNOME system, and don't feel like costumizing anything, I'd probably just install Ubuntu.
LXQt:As far as light DEs go, LXQt feels a lot like KDE. It has plenty of easy customization, and is super flexible, if not as flexible as KDE. Although it is literally LXDE-lite, it feels a lot like a KDE-lite as well in terms of design and functionality. Like KDE, it approximates Windows in a way that is comfortable for me, since I grew up on Windows systems.
MATE: This is my favorite light-weight DE. If I'm not just using a window manager, I'm gonna go with MATE in most all cases. I just love how it looks and functions, as I much prefer the classic GNOME look. It just feels both nostalgic and comfy.
VIM(OPEN SOURCE):VIM is what I currently use to do much of the coding for my website and my various programming projects. I have finally started to work with it more, beyond just making quick edits to config files and minor code alterations, and there's not much to say about it! Its fast, efficient, easy to pick up and use once you learn the basic commands, and it is fun to work within! Although not as feature-rich as vscodium/vscode out-of-the-box, it does plenty to be about as light-weight of an IDE/text editor as you can get. Certainly better than my text editor!
Visual Studio Codium(OPEN SOURCE):This is the open sourced verison of VScode, which I finally decided to swtich to so I can get away from microsoft telemetry, and to use as much open-source software as possible. I haven't been using it for a long time (but wrote this within it!), but it really does feel identical to VScode, especially since I don't code in C#, which would cause problems if I did. So I definitely recommend it above VSCode, just so you can get away from telemetry and closed source software. All of my opinions about VSCode also apply to VSCodium, in much the same way a review of Chrome v Chromium would be the same, so I'll leave the details for the next listed recommendation, VSCode.
Visual Studio Code (CLOSED SOURCE(kinda??)):This is the IDE that I do my work in(formerly), since its what I'm comfortable with, and it has a lot of extensions that are super useful for me. Its not exactly lightweight, so I don't use it on all my systems, but the bulk of the code for zazilicious.com was written using VS Code! Although it is open-sourced at its core, in respect that the software that underlies VS Code is open source, it is not exactly fully open sourced,as the plugins that you use within VS Code are closed source, and there is telemetry baked in (which is closed source). It is also a microsoft product, so bare that in mind. It has a lot of costumization in terms of the GUI themes that I like, specifically a high contrast mode that is easily accessable, and its also super easy to change the behavior of the program through javascript, which is fun!
Geany(OPEN SOURCE):I use this IDE on my lower-end systems, and used it a little bit on my main debian machine, since it is super super easy to use and lightweight. There are a few things that it lacks compared to VS Code, which is why I don't use it as my only IDE ,but I do love it. I know I should just learn VIM, but I haven't gotten around to it because, once again, I am lazy.UPDATE: I learned vim, and now use it almost exclusively.
Pycharm(OPEN SOURCE):I used to dailydrive Pycharm during my compsci research internship, and did all my coding work through pycharm. Although I think it isn't as good as VS Code for my personal needs, Pycharm's workflow is super easy and comfy to use, and I very much enjoyed writing models in Python within Pycharm. I haven't tried other Jetbrains IDEs, but Pycharm is super solid!
Steam client(CLOSED SOURCE):Okay, disclaimer, I actually kind of hate steam. I would not use it if I didn't have to for a number of reasons, but it is unfortunately the easiest and most convenient way of buying and playing PC games. That being said, I don't like digital market places for games as a rule, as I think they are gradually degrading the nature of game ownership and shifting them towards games-as-a-service, but Steam is now essential for most physical game purchases, as they just come with a steam activation code, typically. That being said, Steam is the only PC gaming market place with a functional GUI, which can't be said for Epic, or even GOG, which I am going to recommend next.
GOG Galaxy (CLOSED SOURCE):I love GOG galaxy in principle, alhtough I wish it was open sourced. However, the actual store and library system is so ugly, and lacks the basic functionality of the Steam client. It also doesn't have a native Linux version, so you either have to run the client through something like Lutris or through something like Heroic game launcher.
Libre Office(OPEN SOURCE):This is my only productivity recommendation,as it is so ideal. Its open-source,free, and completely replaces all of the base functionality of Microsoft Office (and in some cases, is way better). I have used Libre Office on all my systems for years now, even when I was stuck with Windows on my old Gaming PC.
Ryzen 7 1700x:This is the CPU that was in my primary gaming PC since 2018, and it has been extremely reliable, fast, and usable for most of my uses. It stopped being amazing last year, where it has started to show its age, but for games up to 2023, it has been fantastic.
Zotac GTX 1080:This is the card that lives in my old gaming PC that I gave to my boyfriend because I can't stand windows, and it is fantastic! I really have barely felt its age, and it has been insanely reliable in the time that I've had it. Highly recommended.
AMD Firepro W5100 Pro:This is the GPU in my current workstation/gaming PC, and it is super reliable! It being an AMD card, works out-of-the-box on linux, and it is perfectly servicable in all the games I play most of the time. Its also very low power, and is super reliable. That being said, it is not going to handle new games at all, I just barely ever play new games, and if I am gonna play reasonably new games, I usually play them on my steam deck.
Steam deck:This is my primary portable gaming/emulation machine, and it is awesome. It runs Linux, and has totally changed the game in terms of linux gaming, I love it so much. It handles pretty much everything I throw at it at what I would describe as "good enough" performance for a device with a small screen.
Thinkpad t470s:God, I love this laptop. It has been my favorite laptop I have ever used, and if the screen didn't break and I wasn't too lazy to replace it, I would still be daily driving it whenever I'm on the go. It has the best keyboard I've used on a laptop that has come out in the last 15 years, is super snappy and responsive on every distro I've thrown at it, and is the god of reliability. If you're in the market for a laptop, this one gets my Gold Star recommendation.
2015 11 inch Macbook Air:I never thought I'd daily drive an apple product, let alone enjoy it enough to recommend it to others, but here we are. The small, sleek, and light-as-a-feather design is super nice, and the unibody aluminum chase really sells how premium the lappy is. That being said, it is a 4 gig i5 model, which means that it is forever limited by RAM since it lacks in even the most basic upgradability, it is still perfectly usable within Linux. I do not recommend MacOS, I hate MacOS with a burning passion, but installing a linux distro is easy, if a bit more complicated than other laptops due to the base incompatibilty of the Wifi card (although it did work out of the box with Ubuntu for me, but not so with Debian, oddly enough). For less than 100 dollars used, you really can't do better in terms of premium feel than an old Macbook Air.
Dell Inspiron 11 3000:This is my former daily driver, which I now use as a secondary laptop for backup stuff. It kinda sucks, only has like 60 gigs of internal storage, and absolutely chugs trying to do something as complex as running a 1080p video, or an OS as bloated as Ubuntu (and forget about something like Windows, completely unusable), but for just writing HTML code, or productivity with Libreoffice. All the same, unless you can find it sub-50 dollars, it really isn't worth it.
HP Prodesk 400 G3:This is the main body of my workstation/current gaming PC, which I got for 50 dollars on Ebay. It came with an i5 6500 and 8 gigs of RAM, but I upgraded it to 16 and threw in my AMD Firepro W5100 Pro, and now it works great with pretty much everything I use it for! It was a bit of a headache working within the super limited BIOs (which came BIOS locked, but that was relatively easy to fix, just had to take out the CMOS battery and then put it back in), but once I got through the nightmare of getting the BIOS to let me install linux at all, it worked great!
ASUS UN65H Micro PC:This is my entertainment center, and it works great for that purpose. It was super easy to work within, despite its small size,which I was surprised to see!
Keychron V1 (Brown switches):This is my main keyboard, and I love it! It sounds great, is super fun to type on, and gets the job done without costing a billion dollars or requiring a bunch of mods!
Keychron K4 Pro (Brown Switches):This is my secondary keyboard, and although it feels a little worse to type on than the V1, it is still fantastic, and I recommend it highly!
Logitech G502:This is my main mouse, and my absolute favorite. It suits me perfectly, I love the scroll wheel, it has some nice weight to it, it is just so good.
Lenovo Y-40:This was one of the first gaming devices that I had, which I got by saving up for a while as a kid, and then winning an auction to get it for much cheaper than it typiucally went for at the time. As a result, I have very positive feelings towards it, although I recognize that in the modern day, it doesn't have much use in respect to gaming performance. It had an HDD, a low-powered 2 gig GPU, and an aging i7. I remember I was so impressed that it could run The Witcher 3 at low settings and 1366x768 at 30ish FPS. To me, that was the gold standard, since the only other way that I could play The Witcher at the time is through modfiying the config files to far below the graphical level that CD Projekt Red had ever intended on the old desktop that I used to have that had an AMD A8 CPU (don't remember the specifications). All the same, it had a great keyboard, decent trackpad, and nice metal body (with the exception of the top of the clamshell, that was made of plastic,although a very durable plastic. It served me well for years until my nephew wripped of the spacebar, and that was the last gaming-centric lappy that I ever had. Long anicdote asside, if you happen to find one, it would make for a decent little linux machine, and can do gaming up to mid-2012 pretty well.
Dell Latitude D630:I got this laptop at VCF East(Vintage computer festival) last year, and relatively recently upgraded it with an SSD, and in install of Antix Linux. I'm a big fan of it, as it is one of the last great lappies of the mid 2000s that is still completely usable as a daily driver laptop, esp. since I got a new battery, so now it actually holds a charge. The keyboard feels amazing, way better than contemporary laptop keyboards, and is super snappy when paired with a light-weight distro. If you happen to come across one in good condition, definitely check it out if you're looking for a low-cost, totally usable mobile computing solution!
IBM Thinkpad t43:I just recently got this laptop (although it is not my first IBM-era thinkpad), and I absolutely love it. Although it is far too low powered to function as a daily driver if you, at any point in time, need to access the web, the keyboard, upgradeability, hardware (for legacy software), and general build quality is of such a high quality, that I cannot help but recommend it. They simply do not make laptops like this one, and this laptop is, to some extent, the final true Thinkpad in the traditional sense, and perhaps the last great Thinkpad. That being said, it is not suited for most usecases, but for people who love that era of computing (like myself, for whom it is exceptionally nostlagic), or for those that don't need to access the internet much beyond sending a few emails, or maybe some backend stuff, you really need something newer. A 32-bit CPU does not cut it anymore. It came with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS installed when I bought it, but I quickly replaced it with Antix 23 32-bit, which dramatically improved usability. If you can find one for a good price, and/or you collect this era of computing, do not hesitate, it is a fantastic machine!
Acer Aspire 48030T:I got this laptop about a week ago for 11 dollars on eBay, and I am beyhond impressed with it, not only for the price, but just general usability as well. The laptop is equipped with a i3 2350M, which is a mobile (obviously), 2nd gen intel processor, and is shockingly usable. I'm running debian 12 with LXQt on it, and I've had zero freezes, insanely snappy file creation and managment, reasonably fast internet, and mostly uninterrupted 1080p 60 FPS video streaming. Although it isn't great for gaming or anything, the CPU is more than capable as a daily driver for productivity and coding. In fact, much of my code work has been done almost exclusively through this laptop and it has worked perfectly. As I mentioned in my diary, the laptop has an interesting RAM configuration of 6 GBs, rather than the typical 4 or 8 for this era of laptop (late windows 7, early windows 8), but for Linux, or other light-weight operating systems like Haiku or freeBSD (or even templeOS, if you were so inclined), 6 GBs is perfectly fine for basic usability. The same cannot be said for windows, especially windows 11, which would not support this computer in general, but even windows 10 would be a mistake for a number of reasosn. But, if you're comfortable running a free and opensource OS, chances are you're gonna do just fine with this PC. I'm not sure how the availability for this laptop is looking in general, as this was the first time I had personally seen the laptop for sale online, although that does not mean that it is not available, just in different circles or search terms than I generally use. That being said, if you can find it, then I definitely recommend it strongly. Beyond the speed and functionality in respect to computing, the keyboad itself is also fairly decent. Although its no Thinkpad keyboard, it is definitely much better than most modern laptop keyboards. The trackpad is small, the it doesn't have all the multi-touch gestures that are common today, but has nice clicky buttons for clicking, which is nice! The screen is also surprisingly good, with solid viewing angles, and decent color accuracy, at least to my eye. The body of the lapto pis mostly plastic, although the lid is metal, and the overal build quality feels sturdy. I do not feel uncomfortable throwing the lappy in my bag for my daily computing on the go. The battery is pretty terrible, however, and likely needs to be repalced. That should be easy, however, since upgradability is really solid, with the ram and hdd caddy both easily accessable by removing a single panel, and the rest only protected by a few screws. It does have an internal battery, however, so it isn't as easily upgradable as I would generally like, but is above average considering modern laptops. If you find it on eBay, especially for the 20 total dollars I paid (11 for the laptop and 20 for a cheap SSD to replace the HDD it came with), I would highly recommend picking it up, either as a daily driver if you don't do much in the way of gaming, or as a backup laptop for general computing.
GPD Pocket 3 (Pentium Gold 7505 version):In a very short time, the GPD Pocket 3 has become my favorite computer to use, and has become my daily driver for work, media consumption, and casual gaming. The size, being pocketable if you have man pockets, but not so small that it needs to majorly sacrifice its keyboard, creates a perfect sweet spot for my personal use. The keyboard in fact is the first place I want to touch on, as despite its remakably small size, it is one of the more comfortable keyboards I've ever used; with satisfying key travel and a nice, quiet click with each press. The layout does have some things that are a little strange; a consequence of the small size, namely some common puncuation marks being in different locations than is standard with a typical US QWERTY keyboard. It did not take me long to adjust to these differences, however, and in fact, they became outright comfortably to type with after a while. The touchpad is a little small, and the mouse buttons are in a strange location, but that can mostly be forgiven for every-day use as it has a very responsive touch screen, and can swivel into a tablet with a surprisingly study hinge. All of this is paired with a very sturdy unibody alluminum chasis that makes me feel safe to through the lappy into my bag when going to work. All in all, it is a truly fantastic machine, and I cannot recommend it more.
Back