OS: Linuxmint with Cinnamon Desktop
RSS feed reader: Newsboat
Newsboat
is a CLI program with simple keystrokes. My process is “n” for the first
new article. If I want to read it I can read it there in plain text, but
I usually type “o” to open it in my browser. I read it or leave it open
and go back to Newsboat. ( I use Alt Tab for that.) Next
“D” to delete the article in Newsboat and move on to the next new
article.
I had used QuiteRSS for years and then tried Gnome Feeds recently. Both are GUI with internal browsers, but I am enjoying the simplicity and reliability of Newsboat. I had to install it with snap which was not ideal, but I’m no longer
Music player: Musikcube
I tried cmus for a short time, but found it difficult to learn to use. I went looking for something better and found Musikcube.
Podcasts: Gpodder
I’ve been using Gpodder from as far back as I remember listening to podcasts. Here’s a post I wrote about my process with podcasts.
Text Editors
I use several text editors
Obsidian I gather information and notes with this program and keep a daily log there. I do a lot of typing in Obsidian, because it’s always open ready to receive or cough up information.
Vim Editor for use in CLI. I was using nano, but learned enough vim recently to get by and I rather like it. It’s the editor that opens when I use Mutt for email or edit some file while I’m in a terminal. I’ve found that I like using Vim for writing. The keystrokes allow for some quick searches and edits. The more I use it, the more I like it. I like it especially for longer writing sessions, because I can type faster and then run
aspell -c <filename>afterwards to easily correct my typos. It’s like dessert after a nice meal when I do that finishing touch.Zettlr I got this back when I first learned Markdown, because it has the helps I needed. It’s got a beautiful dark mode and keeps the writing area clutter free. I’ve been using Obsidian to write blog pages, but I’m trying to move over to Zettlr for any writing that requires concentration. Zettlr gives a nice clean space for that. That’s what I was looking for when I tried working in a totally non-Desktop environment. That turned out to be a little too extreme. (Using the Vim editor setting for this program.)
Xed For a quick note to use immediately and usually discard
Bluefish For HTML. I wrote a lot of HTML for a few years some 20 years ago. I liked this program for that purpose and used it in Windows on the job. I still have it on Linux for when I rarely need to look at or write HTML.
Sigil Epub edits
Geany This program is for programming. I’m a wannabe in that department, but I found out it will do a great job of Search/Replace on multiple files. It is really fast. I’ve made it my default for opening .txt files.
ReText For quick edits of Markdown files. It has a preview as well. Great for when I spot an small error to fix. I use it a lot when I do final edits on blog posts.
Libreoffice Writer I don’t use it to edit unless I’m editing someone else’s writing. I like to use it to easily change style in a document when I’m converting it to pdf.
Browser: Vivaldi
Originally I got it when I needed a browser that has tab tiling for
some work I was doing. I stayed with Vivaldi when they hosted their
Mastodon instance and invited me to join. I use their setup in the
browser to view Mastodon. I recently found out that the jk
keys work flawlessly for moving between posts. I’m not a fan of
scrolling with a mouse.
Obsidian Web Clipper is an extension I use to clip pages or highlights from the browser into Obsidian. There is a nice reader mode in that extension as well. It’s nice for those messy pages with all manner of things splashed about.
File manager for CLI: Ranger
- Highlight a file and if it is text it shows the view. Press ENTER and it opens in the default program for that filetype. My main use is to find text files that I want to view or edit. More often than not I use shell commands to navigate where I want to go in the file system, but when I need to look around, this is handy.
Searchmonkey
- For finding the file that contains some bit of text. I often use this instead of the search built into Obsidian. The searched item is shown in context which makes it easy to skim through and find the right file without having to open each file up.