Software I use
Software, tools, services I use
Operating system
Ubuntu latest releases with KDE as desktop in my Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop.
Android 13 in my Nokia G42 phone
Editors
Kate - For quick text editing. KDE's text editor
nano - for editing in console. Also Git commit message editor
Libreoffice - For all ODT, Presentation, Word documents
Online editors
Codesandbox.io - For sharing code samples that require framework support like Vue projects. An easy way to import a repo to CodeSandbox via URL is with GitHubBox.com. Append 'box' to your github.com URL in between 'hub' and '.com' and it will redirect to CodeSandbox. Here's an example:
Change the GitHub URL: https://github.com/reduxjs/redux/tree/master/examples/todomvc.
To: https://githubbox.com/reduxjs/redux/tree/master/examples/todomvc
codepen.io - For quick code snippets and illustrations
Google doc - for collaborative document editing. Heavily used at work
Browser
I use Firefox as primary browser.
Chrome for my WMF account. Also for its powerful developer tools.
Shell
zsh with https://ohmyz.sh/ plugins. I use Yakuake dropdown terminal in KDE.
Design
Inkscape - for all kind of vector drawing, typeface design
Kolorpaint - for quick Image editing
Gimp - For image manipulation like resizing , scaling
Typeface design and development
Inkscape for design, but now a days I use metapost based design workflow.
Trufont for quick corrections like bearing, positioning.
VS Code for opentype engineering with VS code AFDKO extension that I wrote. Automation require python programming, shellscripting and Makefile. I use VSCode for all of these.
Illustrations
Excalidraw - for illustration concepts, flow charts and so on
Kami for PDF annoations, especially for type speciman reviews. Integrates with Google drive
Typesetting
Latex, Xetex - primarily for Malayalam typesetting and research papers
Gummi - for simple TeX editor with live preview
Scribus - rarely. Only for Malayalam support experiments
Reading
RSS
For newsfeeds and RSS subscriptions, I use a telegram bot https://github.com/santhoshtr/telegram-rss-reader It fetches the feeds in regular intervals. Helps me to read in mobile and deskop without any extra application. Adding new feeds is just a matter of pasting the URL to chat. Cons: It is just a linear list of chat messages(I mute it) and don't expect feed categorization and organization as you would expect in a RSS reader application
Movies
Netflix
Amazon Prime
Youtube(free account).
VLC - Not much these days as I use online services.
Social media and Chat
Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@sthottingal
Facebook - I don't use mobile app or login from mobile. In laptop I access it using Firefox Facebook container. Now a days I check facebook in 10 mins or so maximum per day. Often ends up with various Malayalam computing related questions people ask in its chat.
Telegram - regularly use for family and friends. Also several foss community channels
Whatsapp - Not active in any group, but this is required for people to reach out me quickly including some immediate family members.
slack - All my Wikimedia foundation work related communication
Blog and Notes
Gitbook spaces for private notes and this knowledge space. My todo list is also with gitbook
Password management
I use pass for password management with GPG encrypted passwords synced with a private gitlab repo. I use its browser extensions too.
Digital wellbeing
I use no-distraction mode in Android always. From 9AM to 5PM, I set focus mode in android - it disables many apps in the phone. At night I use the bedtime mode in Android, which makes the screen black and white, and disables all notification till earliest alarm set.
In desktop I use night time color setting to warm up the screen color at sunset. I use the same setting at phone. Avoiding blue light exposure after sunset improves sleep quality.
Internet
I use wireguard VPN
I Use nextdns for DNS in my router
I also use a VPS by Hetzner to host my web applications(that is a referral link worth €20)
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