The Gear I Use
Tags: mygear, productivity, developertools
Published: 2019-07-23 15:40:56

---
title: The Gear I Use
published: true
description: 
tags: mygear, productivity, developertools
---

I was inspired by this post...

{% link https://dev.to/maxpou/apps-tools-and-gear-i-use-7cd %}

Honestly, I figured sharing this would be a fun trend! (Use the tag `#mygear`.) So, here's mine...

# Hardware

![](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ha7ikhx35ietyjnflsjb.jpeg)

* **System76 Gazelle Pro** (15 inch)
* Extra monitor, so I can have code or a manuscript on one screen, and research or documentation on the other.
* **[CODE Mechanical Keyboard](https://codekeyboards.com/)**, which is every bit as awesome as advertised.
* **Logitech M510** Wireless Computer Mouse
* **JVC HA-NC250** noise cancelling headphones. These things are *great*, and the detachable cord means they'll have a long life.
* **TI-89** calculator -- I LOVE this thing!

As a writer, I also have *The Chicago Manual of Style*, *The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference*, and *Strunk and White's Elements of Style* close at hand. (I usually also keep a couple of programming reference books there.)

And yes, off to the left, that *is* a Palm Tungsten T. And it works. I sync it to my laptop with [JPilot](https://github.com/juddmon/jpilot). As far as handheld devices go, it's delightfully useful and distraction free.

I don't know if it officially counts as hardware, but you can see my Doctor Hooves figurine just under my monitor. He usually just stands guard, but that's what I use when I need to do some rubber-duck debugging.

# System

I work entirely on **Ubuntu MATE**. I organize my windows into separate workspaces to help minimize distractions.

* **Guake** is my main everyday-usage terminal, which I can bring up with F12
* **Terminator** (or occasionally [cool-retro-term](https://launchpad.net/~vantuz/+archive/ubuntu/cool-retro-term)) for a dedicated terminal environment.
* **[Mycroft.ai](https://mycroft.ai)** is installed on my system for timers, reminders, and checking up on things while working.
* When I need a VPN, I use **[ProtonVPN](https://protonvpn.com/)**. I also use [1.1.1.1](https://1.1.1.1/dns/) for my DNS.

# IDE

I use **[Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com)** for almost everything, and have it packed with a host of extensions for C++, Python, Java, HTML, CSS, RestructuredText, Markdown, and XML. That said, no matter what I'm working on, I use:

* Bookmarks
* Bracket Pair Colorizer
* Codealike
* Code Spell Checker
* Comment Anchors
* Contextual Duplicate
* Indent-rainbow
* Overtype
* Peacock
* Reflow Paragraph
* VSCode Great Icons
* Wakatime

I also tend to cycle through a half dozen or so themes depending on mood. Most recently, I use Sea Green Theme, LaserWave, and skGRTT.

# Writing

I do almost all my writing in LibreOffice, although I sometimes fall back on Focuswriter or Visual Studio Code.

When I really want a distraction-free environment, I actually pull out my Royal Heritage manual typewriter.

# Browser

I mainly use the **[Brave web browser](https://brave.com/)**, with...

* Privacy Badger (in case I need to disable the main Brave shields)
* MyWOT
* Leechblock
* Stylus

On occasion, I fall back on Firefox.

# Productivity

* **[DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com) is my search engine all the way!**
* **[Hexchat](https://hexchat.github.io/)** is my IRC client, for connecting to Freenode and OFTC.
* I use **[Rambox](https://rambox.pro/#home)** to gather all my other chat service accounts into one unified place.
* Despite a couple of pesky bugs, I use **Evolution** for my email, calendar, contacts, and to do list...
* Syncing to my personal **Nextcloud**.
* **[Simplenote](https://simplenote.com/)** is my favorite service for storing notes.
* **Calibre** for managing and reading my massive library of eBooks.

# Coding

For C++, I use...

* C++17
* LLVM Clang 7
* GCC 8
* cppcheck
* CMake

For Python, I use...

* Python 3.7/3.8
* venv
* pip
* Flake8
* Mypy
* Pytest
* Bandit
* Black

And, of course, I use **Git** for all my VCS needs.