Dev Setup

April 13th, 2025

This post documents the tools I use day-to-day for my work as a software engineer, both professionally and at home.

It changes slowly over time but I’ve settled on a suite of software that really works for me.

Operating System

I use Pop!_OS as my primary operating system, except for occasional Windows 10 use for games on Steam.

Pop OS is an open-source, Ubuntu-based desktop built by System76. I love the look and feel, and how much it stays out of the way. A straightforward and nice to use Linux desktop.

Software

Firefox is my preferred browser.

Obsidian is my note-taking app of choice. I use it for everything, except to-dos, which I keep in TickTick.

Ghostty is the terminal I’m loving right now.

Terminal Setup

I use my terminal a lot.

Previously I used kitty for a long time, and tried WezTerm for a short while before arriving at my current setup.

Ghostty is the best terminal emulator out there right now: fast, feature-rich, and native. I have a lot of respect for Mitchell Hashimoto’s work1.

Tools

To complete the terminal experience, I use fish shell and the starship prompt.

Some of the command-line tools I can’t live without:

I keep my configuration (i.e. dotfiles) in source control: https://github.com/undevised/home

  1. mitchellh.com ↩︎