devins.page

stuff i use

• hardware, software, music, macos, linux, open-source, productivity

i often get asked about the stuff that i use so i wanted to make a comprehensive post listing mostly everything. i will probably update this list over time as it also helps me keep track of what i’m using - and maybe it’d be useful to help some people discover new software and hardware aswell. this may be a bit messy.

yes this will get nerdy.

hardware

my main computer is an M1 Pro MacBook Pro configured with 16gb of memory and 1tb of storage. i run both MacOS and Asahi Linux on here. i use Nix and nix-darwin, along with Homebrew for GUI applications. i mostly went for a MacBook because I wanted to use Logic Pro, but also because i haven’t been really enjoying Windows lately. i also love the hardware (the trackpad, display, battery life, and speakers are great)

i also have a Surface laptop, running Windows, which i use for games. but i don’t really do much else on there. i would like to install Linux on there, but it doesn’t really play nicely with my dock (Dell WD19TB). also for whatever reason on Linux it always runs the NVIDIA GPU at the lowest power setting, making games unplayable.

i also play games and emulate games on my Steam Deck very often. it’s a 256GB LCD model. this has been a very good purchase and i’d heavily recommend it if you’re into pc gaming :)

i also have an Intel NUC (i forgot exactly which generation) running NixOS, and i use this as my main server. i run Jellyfin for movies/tv, Navidrome for streaming my music library, restic and Time Machine backup shares, and Minecraft servers for my friends. i also run Samba shares.

i have a Raspberry Pi 4 which i used to run RetroPie on. currently it’s unused though, and i’m thinking of ways i could use it.

i have an iPhone 14 Pro, mainly because i wanted GarageBand at the time but it also plays nicely with my Mac. i’m considering switching to a Pixel at some point though.

i also enjoy messing with retro/vintage hardware and have some older computers:

also here’s the gear i use for music:

software

operating systems

i mostly prefer MacOS or Fedora, but for servers i run NixOS or Debian. i also run Windows for gaming. i previously used Arch rather than NixOS but it was far too unstable for my liking and i prefer the declarative approach that NixOS offers.

desktop

on linux i typically use GNOME, but i’ve also been switching between KDE and GNOME ever since KDE 6 released. i also use Sway. when using KDE i often enjoy AeroThemePlasma ;)

programs

(there may also be some other software i forgot to mention, but thats most of it)

services

these are services hosted on my NUC. i connect everything using Tailscale. (i luv tailscale!!!!!)