# Reduce and Simplify Over recent years I have gone through phases of consolidation and reduction in all areas of my life and that has inevitably included the hardware and software choices I have made. Consider with care that which you truly would not want to be without and know that it will continue to serve you tomorrow as it did today. ## Hardware considerations Try to buy hardware which adheres to standard form factors, like ATX, and uses common discrete components (not everything on a single board). This gives the largest scope for repairability and sourcing of replacement parts. At one point I had 3 computers running 24/7 eating up electricity. I now just have one computer running 24/7 which serves as my desktop pc, gopher server and NAS. Thinking about it I could probably switch it off over night if I moved the gopher server to my VPS and changed my backup strategy ... If items use batteries, buy ones that use standard cell batteries (AA , AAA, C, D) that are easily replaceable or at least ones that are removable and fairly easy to source (Nokia BP-4L / BL-5C). ## Software ### Operating System I migrated to Devuan linux from Debian because I didn't like the fact that systemd was becoming much more far reaching than just an init system. It was ceasing to be something that was an option and was fast becoming an ever more inextricable part of many linux distributions. This was a simple transition for me as Devuan is Debian based. The primary reason I started using Debian all those years ago was due to its advanced package management system. Void linux was also on my radar when I was looking to move from Debian and systemd as it provides init system options and there is also a Musl library based version. I decided against it as it has its own package management system and I didn't really want to have to learn a new one. I also like and would consider using any of the BSD family of OS, having spent a little time using all of them over the years. pkgin now seems to offer all the functionality of Debians apt package manager. ### Window manager Xfce -> i3wm - I started using a tiling window manager to maximize usable screen real estate and minimise distractions, along with CLI application replacements for any GUI ones that I happened to still be using. I have recently been toying with the idea of giving ratpoison a try. My typical desktop[0]. ### Terminal xterm -> urxvt - Urxvt is a lot smaller in size and has some nice extras. It allows you to configure URI recognition so you can click on URI's in any terminal application to open them. Using this in combination with a plumber program, which decides on the correct application to open them with, makes for a very slick integrated feel: I click on youtube links and it opens them with mpv, I click on gopher links and it opens them in lynx, http and it opens vimb etc. Kudos to __20h__ for the plumber utilities. I use tmux in combination with the terminal application to essentially give myself virtual workspaces with different applications so I can easily switch between them. Also it means I can detach tmux and restart my windowmanager if there's an issue and reattach without having to re-open everything. ### Editor Vim - I use vim for everything and use vim keys to control other applications wherever possible (vimb, ksh, lynx, ...). For years I used vim commercially and without a clue as to its power, not even scratching the surface of its features. A text editor is a vital part of your tool kit, invest the time and learn to use it well. ### Email Thunderbird -> Mutt - It was a coin flip between alpine and mutt. I found a few good tutorials on setting up the mutt config file so after all the time invested in setting it up how I like it, I've stuck with it. ### RSS Newsboat -> sfeed_curses - Brilliant RSS feed reader, kudos to Evil_Bob for such a great piece of software. I use it every day and it saves me from the tyranny of the WWW by bringing content I'm interested in to me. ### WWW + Gopher Firefox -> Lynx/vimb - I find myself using Lynx more and more as it's a great text based browser which also supports Gopher out of the box. All modern graphical web browsers are huge and bloated and there's no way around it. Firefox, I started to have some ethical as well as usability issues with. Fortunately after a bit of searching, keeping in mind my love of vim keys, I discovered a webkit based browser called vimb. For the most part is has been nice to use and has changed the way I browse the web. I no longer leave lots of inactive tabs open. ### IRC Xchat -> weechat ### Music Rhythmbox -> mocp ### Video VLC -> mpv + yt-dlp ## Programming languages Perl was the first programming language I learned, and my general go-to language, but it has quite a large footprint. There are worse options, but I know now that there also lighter alternatives. I will certainly be looking at using Lua in place of Perl for future projects. Although in the meantime I have found myself using shell a lot more for small jobs. I should also put some real effort into improving my C programming as many projects are written using it in the open source world. Forth looks an intriguing, minimalist, low level language, maybe I will dabble with it a bit too at some point. ## Conclusion I hope the above will give some inspiration for those looking to reduce and simplify their hardware and software footprint. If you manage to have a more focused computing experience or get a few more years service out of your existing system from anything I've written then, to me, it's been worthwhile. If you have any suggestions or alternatives to any of the above software, that you think I should take a look at, then please get in touch. [0](gopher://gopher.icu/I/files/desktop.png)