Software
updated: 2025.04.17
There is a lot of garbage software out there. One of my many goals in life is narrow down my digital tool set to software that does not frustrate me on a daily basis. Some of my software configurations can be found in my dotfiles, which I apply to all of my Linux systems.
This list is incomplete and will be refined in the coming months.
Audio
Digital Audio Workstation
bitwig studio
Back when I would use Windows, all of my music production would be done with FL Studio. After switching to Linux, I tried to make FL Studio work for me via Wine and other trickery, and for a bit, it worked. However, I found myself running into more and more issues using compatibility layers, and each fix caused latency which would impact my ability to easily do live recording. It was on a day of peak frustration trying to make a song when I discovered Bitwig Studio. It is heavily inspired by Ableton Live which I was somewhat familiar with, but had never used. Testing out Bitwig Studio proved to be a jump into deep waters, but after giving it a test period, I realized I could easily port my workflow from FL Studio to BitWig Studio without much of a headache. As of January 2023, all the music I have been creating has been through BitWig Studio. I still have a few VSTs running via Wine (thanks to yabridge), but those are dwindling with each passing day.
Player
mpv
Sometimes I need to be able to quickly play a music file, and mpv can do that flawlessly. I will often pass the --no-audio-display flag through when opening files from the terminal to get a headless version of mpv. Very handy.
Operating System
arch linux
As of 2022, I fully switched over to Arch Linux as my primary OS. For the longest time I hopped between Windows and Linux (specifically Ubuntu) in an endless loop. Windows had the advantage of being able to run all of my games and music production software, while Linux allowed me the freedom to tinker and customize to my heart's content. In the era of dual booting both Windows and Linux, I slowly found myself booting into Windows less and less, until one day I just never went back.
Desktop Environment / Window Manager
kde plasma
As of late, I have been enjoying all of the perks of the latest version of KDE Plasma. For the longest time I was a proud Xfce user, and would often shill it when converting people over to Linux. I have found myself gravitating more towards Wayland-based environments, having first experimented with Hyprland, but ultimately settling on KDE Plasma. I will eventually test another tiling window manager, but it is a large commitment and requires a lot of set up to feel just right.
File Manager
kde dolphin
KDE's stock file manager, Dolphin, has been checking all of my boxes as of late. When I need a bit more power, I will pop up my terminal emulator and use the program ranger which uses a TUI instead of a GUI.
Shell
bash
GNU Bash. That is all.
Terminal Emulator
kitty
I have never been satisfied with the terminal emulator that ships with most Linux distributions. Most times they feel clunky/bloated, which detracts from the experience of trying to become a terminal power user when your keystrokes feel sluggish and delayed. That being said, I was loving Alacritty up until their 0.13.0 release when they switched configuration formats and sparked some bugs with my NVIDIA card. Desperate at the time for some form of resolution, I experimented with some other emulators. My searching came to an end when I found kitty, which has been my go-to ever since. It is exactly what I want from a terminal. It gives me the exact set of features I need and stays out of my way. The configuration is dead simple.
Video
Editor
kdenlive
There are days when I miss Adobe Premiere Pro as my go to video editor… but the feeling quickly passes after I render a comparable or even better video out of Kdenlive in less time. Sure the UI isn't fancy, but it's a powerful piece of software once you get to know it. When the video task is even simpler, raw importing and exporting out of FFmpeg is also a breeze.
Player
mpv
After years of living in the VLC traffic cone dynasty, mpv has swooped in and replaced all my video player needs. Going from VLC to mpv feels like taking off a winter jacket when spring/summer rolls around. It's liberating!
Recording / Streaming
obs studio
OBS Studio is a powerful piece of software. At a surface level, you are led to believe that it's only used for streaming to platforms like YouTube or Twitch. The reality is, this not only can do that, but it can also record high quality video from just about any digital input/device you throw at it. Since early 2020, I have been tasking OBS Studio with publishing rtmp/srt streams to an OvenMediaEngine instance which I can then share with my friends ad-hoc. After years of suffering on Windows, I have found that the Linux version of OBS Studio is more performant.
Web Browser
librewolf
Up until 2025, I used to primarily use Firefox as my default browser. After a friend pointed out some changes Mozilla were implementing regarding telemetry / data collection in their Terms of Service, I promptly moved over to LibreWolf. LibreWolf offers all of the benefits I've come to love about Firefox over the years, but with sensible privacy defaults that Mozilla should honestly consider. Luckily, Mozilla continues to make their software free and open-source, allowing others to fork and publish superior versions.
Add-ons
No web browser is complete without a set of epic add-ons. Here are my main ones: