What tools and gear do you use?

I’m using a MacBook Pro without external screen and this is mostly it. On a daily basis, I’m using Emacs for mail, agenda (org-agenda), news (elfeed), notes (deft), bibliography (org-bib), writing and development of course. For the rest, I’m using Firefox for browsing and some desktop clients for Twitter, Slack and Gitter. For these last ones, I would prefer to use Emacs as well but I did not have time yet to search for Emacs clients.

I use Macs for all my work, equipped with Sublime Text for text editing and Git Tower for version control. For the blog itself, Jekyll is used to generate simple static builds of the site from templates and Markdown files.

I have a bunch of Apple gear - my main machine is a 16” M1 Max MacBook Pro, but as I build app for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV, I have most of these devices too.

I’ll spare you the boring technical PDF compilation toolchain set and instead mention something extremely simple and extremely effective: pen and paper! I’m an avid analog journaler and jot down everything I think about in there: from personal stuff, thoughts about books or papers I’ve read, to classic “dear diary” entries or even photos and snippets of newspapers. Collecting everything in one place. When I re-read those, I can easily start connecting the dots, generating new insights or ideas. That’s been my jam for ten years now and it has net me countless of great insights.

The whole operation is run from an aging gaming computer i picked up in 2016 to be able to run Minecraft with shaders, running Windows 10. Behind the scenes, the site is the usual creole of HTML, CSS, Javascript, and a bit of PHP here and there — nothing too fancy or modern.

I mostly edit in VS Code, and make the graphics for the site in Paint.NET. Notes — when i remember — are either taken in a cheapo physical notebook I got from Amazon — i tried to find a link, but it’s no longer available — or in Obsidian, a Markdown-based “knowledge database” (which seems to me an awfully fancy name for what’s essentially just a more organised Notepad).

Hardware: My main computer is a custom-built Windows desktop I put together way back in 2015; it’s definitely due for an upgrade soon. For mobile purposes I have a Macbook Air I got in 2017 and also an iPad from 2019. I have a page on my site with details about the hardware I use.

Software: I do most of my personal writing and coding in Visual Studio Code. My preferred programming language is Python and my preferred web framework is Django. (Though of course for actual work, I’ll use whatever the project requires.)

This is a topic where I could go down a rabbit hole, but I might save that for another time. 😛

In short, I tend to work from home most days but also change it up during the week by working from a co-working space and a mate’s digital design studio.

I use a MacBook Pro M1 Pro and have a standing desk at home that I love, with a couple mounting arms that hold an ultrawide + secondary screen in portrait.

App-wise, I use quite a few;

• Xcode for creating apps
• Sketch for design work
• Notion as my second brain
• Focused Work for keeping me on-task (one of my apps)
• iPad for sketching
• Ochi for blocking distractions on my phone (another app of mine)
• Twitter + Discord for chatting with other indies
• and recently, DaVinci Resolve + Rotato for creating professional promo videos (such as the one in the following tweet)

https://twitter.com/michael_tigas/status/1553941098774806528

I do most of my coding on a Mac Studio, having recently upgraded from an iMac Pro. When I’m away from home, I use a MacBook Air (I’ve just bought one of the new midnight blue ones - the new silicon chips make development so much easier, so I was keen to upgrade to M2 - plus I’m a sucker for a new colour or design). I also use an iPad Pro for testing our iOS version, a couple of older MacBooks for testing backwards-compatibility, and a Dell XPS laptop for testing our Windows version (which I don’t code).

In terms of software, as is standard for macOS and iOS development, I use Xcode for coding. (Most of our code has been written using Objective-C, but for the past year or so I’ve been using Swift as our primary development language. It’s fairly easy to switch between the two.) I also use Affinity Photo, which has replaced Photoshop for me since the latter went subscription-only, for rough mockups that don’t require our graphics designer to get involved.

I use Scrivener to keep track of future development notes and user suggestions, we use Lighthouse for bug tracking, and we have recently started using Basecamp for team communication and project management.

I’ve got two computers - one reasonably powerful desktop computer that I use when I’m at home and one thin and light laptop that I use when traveling. I’m a big believer in “laptops stand for portability” and I really dislike desktop replacement type of laptops. Yeah, some people really need them, but I’d hate to carry constantly with me a laptop that’s 2+ kg.

After many years of being a Linux and macOS user I’ve switched mostly to Windows a couple of years ago and my experience there has been fairly positive. I get access both high-quality Windows apps and great Linux environment in the form of WSL.

I’ve recently ordered the new MBA with M2 and down the road I might get a M2 desktop machine as well. Like many others I’ve been really impressed by the performance and power efficiency of Apple’s recent chips.

I’m obsessed with mechanical keyboards (and typing in general). I own many keyboards by my favorite one by far is the legendary Leopold FC660C (with Topre switches). I hate being apart from it.

As for the software:

• Emacs is my main workhorse (shocker, right? :D) and I do all of my programming and blogging there. I’ve written a lot on the topic in the past. (e.g. https://batsov.com/articles/2011/11/19/why-emacs/)
• As noted earlier I program mostly in Linux (WSL).
• Zsh is my preferred shell and these days Windows Terminal is my terminal emulator.
• I’m using Obsidian for note taking and syncing across devices. I’ve tried every note taking app that exists before choosing Obsidian.
• I’m using Microsoft To Do as my todo app. Same as above. :-)
• 1Password is my go to password manager. Before it I was using LastPass for ages.
• My emails are powered by Fastmail. I’ve written a few articles about why I love it on my blog.
• My blogs are all powered by Jekyll.
• I’m a big fan of Microsoft’s PowerToys applications for Windows power users.
• I’m a big fan of Signal & Discord when it comes to chat apps.
• Firefox is my main browser, but I’m forced to use Chrome for some work-related tasks.
• Like most people today I’m obviously using Slack, Zoom, Google’s GSuite, etc.

Computer: M1 MacBook Air (which I love) & Apple Studio Display mounted on a Jarvis Monitor Arm.

My desk: Jarvis Fully standing desk, Apple Keyboard, Apple Magic Trackpad, Studio Neat Panobook, Studio Neat Mark One pen, a cup of coffee & a bottle of water.

I use Xcode, Linear, Figma, Slack, GitHub, Tower and Kaleidoscope for code reviews and merges, and Mail.app + Rocket Typist for customer support.

I do most of my development and design work on a MacBook Pro. Anything that’s not development or design is usually done on my iPad. In terms of software, I use Xcode for programming and Sketch for UI Design.

Hardware-wise, I’ve got a Mac Studio hooked up to two crummy LG monitors that I have never been able to calibrate correctly. I’ve got an adjustable standing desk and one of these wacky keyboards (https://kinesis-ergo.com/keyboards/advantage2-keyboard/) because my hands hurt after I type for too long. The most important hardware in my office is my stereo pair of mostly-still-working OG HomePods, which are playing music pretty much all the time.

Xcode is my Swift IDE and PyCharm is my Python IDE. I use Tower as my git client because I am not hardcore enough to learn git on the command line. I keep to-do lists in Apple Notes, and I listen to music in Albums ;)

Nowadays, it’s becoming less important which computer do you have. Even low-entry Macs are powerful enough to compile the apps quickly enough so that you don’t need to wait for longer periods of time. Of course, the faster the computer, the faster the compilation, but you usually only feel this when you are compiling release builds for the public. I currently run an iMac Pro with a second display, but am eyeing a Mac Studio in the future (waiting for an upgrade). Nevertheless, when I’m on the go, I develop on a MacBook Air (M1) and I don’t have any issues with that (other than the small screen).

Software-wise, I use Xcode along with a few in-house made apps for helping me with managing localizations and app distribution - e.g. an app that builds all the other apps and uploads them to all distribution channels.

Ooof, filming with anamorphic lenses requires a fair amount of stuff. I use a pair of Panasonic cameras (S1H and GH6), plus cages from SmallRig to make the rigging process easier. Rigging means attaching all required accessories to make the camera a better tool. This can go from mounting it on a tripod and adding rods underneath the camera to help support the weight of the lenses, to wireless video transmitters, microphones, follow focus, external batteries, external recording space, and so on. The possibilities are endless.

I also, obviously, use various anamorphic lenses and camera lenses almost daily while filming episodes for the channel.

On the software side, after a lifetime of using Adobe Premiere Pro for editing, I have switched over to DaVinci Resolve for a faster and lighter workflow. I’m also well versed in Adobe After Effects which helps me add a touch of visual pizzazz to clips whenever needed!

I try to not let software run my life too much, so I’m a big advocate of keeping things as close to plain text as possible. I’m a major convert to Obsidian, and it’s been central to my workflow for a few years now. It’s how I organize my research and structure drafts. My blog is powered by WordPress, which is also the platform I’m using and coding in day in and day out. I’ve been really excited about improvements to the editor there. And then there’s Things 3 for tasks, and my new favorite browser, Arc.

I’m on a Mac, and I have been for many years now. I use a Magic Mouse, which gets the job done but I’m looking at other things. I tried a mechanical keyboard for a while, but I’ve moved over to a Logitech MX 2 and I love how comfortable it all feels.

Oh, and a notebook from Baron Fig. I always have one of those out on my desk.

Hardware

• 16” MacBook Pro M1 Max with 64GB RAM and 2TB of storage
• Studio Display with the nano texture screen
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• 12.9” M1 iPad Pro
• iPad Mini

Software for Building Sofa

• Things - probably my favorite app of all time
• Bear - I can’t wait for 2.0
• Xcode - for building Sofa!
• Tower Git Client
• Apple Mail
• Notion - This is Sofa’s knowledge hub. It’s great for managing big releases too.
• Google Sheets & Apple Numbers - If you haven’t learned the power of spreadsheets you are missing out. I love spreadsheets.

Software for Fun

• Apollo
• Overcast
• Ivory
• Day One
• Reeder
• Safari

I used to have the Lenovo ThinkPad X220 that I mentioned. It stopped working a couple of years ago. I still wish to fix it, though I never had the luxury to do so. I have since been working on a custom built desktop computer that I bought with donations I got from the Emacs community. The computer is not super powerful, but it is more than good enough for me — the laptop was already sufficient.

I recently got a smartphone, a Samsung A53, courtesy of a generous donation. I only use it for its camera and the occasional phone call or SMS. I do not do anything else with it.

In the indeterminate future I want to get a spare computer, perhaps a laptop, so I can experiment with other operating systems such as Guix. I cannot do it now because I cannot afford the downtime, plus I do not have extra hardware for backing up my current files.

It would also be nice to acquire an ergonomic keyboard and a chair that is comfortable to sit on for prolonged sessions.

On the software front, I use Emacs for virtually everything. I write prose and code with it, manage files, handle my email correspondence, prepare my agenda, play back media files, read RSS feeds, browse the Internet… Most of my time on the computer is spent in front of an Emacs frame.

I run a graphical web browser, mostly Firefox, when I need to access a website that requires JavaScript.

The rest of my computing environment involves a tiling window manager (BSPWM or HerbstluftWM), an application launcher (Rofi), a terminal emulator (XTerm), and other specialised tools such as ‘picom’ for display compositing and ‘feh’ to set a wallpaper.

All things considered, I have a stable setup through the years. There are incremental refinements and lots of improvements on the Emacs front, though the overall experience is largely the same.

As someone who literally lives on a shoestring, I rely on a bunch of old tools that still do the job. I only recently retired my 20-year-old PC that was running Windows XP, upgrading to a 10-year-old PC running Windows 8 (which I inherited from my Dad). This allows me to continue running most of my old graphics software, such as an ancient copy of Adobe Suite (circa 2000) that cost me well over a thousand bucks. I think I’ve just about got my money’s worth out of that investment!