Shoutout to Robb Knight! I was struggling for time and a topic to kick-start the year. I don’t think the title is trademarked so I stole it :) Robb also has a /uses page. I genuinely thought I had one but it’s a 404. I am reminded that I have an outdated /now page.
I like the idea of blogging my software choices as a time capsule.
Operating System
macOS Sequoia 15. I refuse to update to Tahoe (or iOS 26). Apple is pulling out all the deceptive patterns and dark arts to trick me. I’m bombarded with daily notifications I can’t block. You won’t win, Apple! Fix your software.
Web Browser
Vivaldi is my current desktop choice. I’ll return to Firefox if Mozilla leadership gets their act together (unlikely). On mobile I use Orion because I suffer latency bugs elsewhere. I also have Mullvad browser with VPN and container tabs if I want to browse websites like YouTube without my entire life being tracked.
RSS
colspan is stripped by my sanitizer. Maybe if I ignore it long enough the HTML Sanitizer API will be available?
Text Editor
I use Neovim on the command line and Zed (sans-slop) on the desktop. I switched to Neovim because classic Vim struggled with slow syntax highlighting. I’m not a CLI power user. Half my Neovim plugins broke and I’m expected to know Lua to fix them. I have yet to fix them. I switched to Zed from VSCodium (from VSCode). It’s similar but faster. I still have a Sublime Text license if Zed gets too sloppy.
Image Editor
I have Affinity but I still use the older Affinity suite of separate apps that I paid for. Something smells off about the new combined Affinity “free” app. At least I escaped Adobe and haven’t had PSDs forced upon me since. I suffer Figma in the browser.
Terminal Emulator
Ghostty for now. I’m starting to catch a whiff of enshittification as I’m hit by an increase in bugs. I hope I’m wrong! I have Alacritty as a fallback. As for CLI software: Docker (via Colima), FFMPEG, Git, Homebrew, and various developer tools are used often.
I use Proton (business). Proton prices change and my exact plan is not available to new users. Proton has faltered recently with distractions in both crypto and “AI”. Regardless, nothing comes close to their core privacy & security. To a lesser extent I use Proton for VPN, Drive (backup, photos), Calendar, etc.
Video Conference
I typically defer to my client: “send me an invite, whatever time is best for you”. That means Zoom, or Teams — is it now Microsoft Copilot Teams? — or whatever Google calls theirs. I just noticed Proton are launching a “Meet” soon. I’m sure that will work first time without microphone issues.
Notes, Todos etc
I use Apple Reminders to list “must do” tasks and upcoming events. Anything in there gets done and deleted quickly. I don’t allow items to linger. Nothing is archived. I jot down long-term notes in Apple Notes. I create a new file each month with a heading for each day and then I bullet point stuff underneath.
Audio
For some reason I still pay for an “Apple One” subscription so I have Apple Music. I’m not a big music listener, I sit in silence most days… does that make me weird? For audiobooks and podcasts I maintain my own self-hosted server and
iPhone Apps
My iPhone is nothing but stock Apple apps I can’t remove, a web browser, and banking apps. No games, no doom-scrolling apps. My PWA for podcasts. Uber for emergencies. I recently started using Proton Drive because iCloud fails to sync (its one job) and occasionally I need a file offline. I don’t look at my phone for long because it hurts my eyes!
Thoughts
I don’t use a wide range of software. I have stuff like Audacity and FileZilla installed that I may use zero or more times per year. There’s plenty of web-based tools I use.
I dislike most of modern software. Everything is buggy, bloated, and chasing the worst trends. It’s almost impossible to find sans-slop software! Lack of
I’m flirting with
I also have self-hosted software including the notable recent addition of Forgejo. Those servers run headless Linux.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Mastodon and Bluesky. Subscribe to my Blog and Notes or Combined feeds.