What I Use
Last Updated: 7 April 2024
Main Laptop
My daily driver machine is a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 3, with 16GB RAM and upgraded to a 2TB Samsung SSD. I bought it for the excellent keyboard, physical clicking trackpad, and user-repairability. I've just added a brand new battery after 6 years as well. It helps that it is widely supported by alternative operating systems (Linux, Haiku, BSDs).
Other Devices
- 2x MacBook Pro 9,1 Mid-2012
(both upgraded to 16GB RAM & Crucial MX500 2TB SSDs) - MacBook 1,1 2006, running 10.6 Snow Leopard with 2GB RAM
- PowerBook G3 Pismo with 1GB RAM
- Sony Xperia 5 IV
Operating System
- elementary OS (Linux) is currently my main OS.
- Windows 10 is where I do work I can't do from Linux.
- macOS 10.13 - 10.15 for the software that can only run on the Mac.
- Haiku occasionally for offline focused writing or C++ work.
Selected Hardware
- Microsoft Ergonomic Bluetooth Mouse
- Logitech Pebble 2 Combo (K380S Keyboard, M350S Mouse & USB Bolt Receiver, compatible with Haiku, Linux and apparently OpenBSD too)
- Dell 27" Monitor, calibrated with Datavision Spyder 5 Elite
- Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 3rd Gen audio interface
- JBL 305P MkII studio monitors
- Sennheiser HD 650 headphones
- Herman Miller Aeron chair
Selected Software
- Email:
- Postbox on Windows and macOS
- Mozilla Thunderbird on Linux & Mac PPC
- Claws Mail on Haiku
- Editor: Sublime Text with Codex SFTP plugin
- Web Browser: Firefox
- Search Engine: Kagi Search
- App Launcher:
- Alfred on macOS
- Powertoys Run on Windows
- Ulauncher on Linux
- Gopher/Gemini: Kristall
- Mastodon: Tuba on Linux, Megalodon on Android
- Graphics: Affinity Photo
- Office: LibreOffice (NeoOffice on Mac)
- Compilers: Visual Studio 2015, Go, Solar2D
- Internet Radio: Gnome Shortwave on Linux, Screamer Radio on Windows
- Podcasts: Pocket Casts
- DAW: Renoise 3, Reaper 7
VST Audio Plugins & Instruments
I have far too many of these to list, but my full Equipboard is here. I'm particularly a fan of smaller companies that use no DRM or online activation, are cross-platform, and have great customer support.
- Audiothing
- Valhalla DSP
- Amplitube, ToneX, Guitar Rig, Helix
- Arturia
- Korg
- Waves
- Izotope
- Kazrog
- Venomode
- PSP
- TAL
- AAS
- Modartt Pianoteq
- Wavesfactory Equalizer
- Cytomic The Glue
This page was inspired by the Uses pages of joshua stein and Derek Sivers.
© Kohan Ikin.