Technology


Philosophy

My mindset when it comes to living life with computers is pretty much identical to Luke Smith's. Check out that link if you want a detailed list of programs and a better explanation of our philosophies than I'll give here. In short, I try to only use free/open source software wherever I can.

Free, as in freedom, software is the only choice for someone who wants to use quality programs that respect their user's privacy and freedom to change and distribute the source code.

My Laptop

My main computer is a base model Razer Blade Stealth from 2019; I love it because of its build quality, understated design, removable hard drive, and quality screen. I really dislike its soldered on ram and proprietary firmware, like the Intel Management Engine, which is a massive security flaw built into almost every Intel CPU in the world. (AMD CPUs have a similar program called PSP on their chips, so truly nobody is safe.)

On the software side of things I use Luke Smith's OS install script LARBS on top of Arch Linux. It installs a minimalist suite of custom Suckless software on any install of Arch/Artix Linux.

One of these days I may upgrade to a System 76 laptop because some of their computers ship with the Intel ME disabled, which is a huge plus for us security-conscious folks.

My Phone

Embarrassingly, I actually use a first generation iPhone SE. I got it when I was an ignorant child, but I've since refused to upgrade to any modern Android phone because I found it hard to leave such a beautiful, small, boxy phone.

Of course, being security-minded I did eventually upgrade to Pine64's Pinephone, which is an open hardware phone designed to run open source operating systems using as little proprietary firmware as possible. In fact, what little proprietary code does exist (mostly in the modem) is quickly being replaced by free software enthusiasts.

On it I'm running the excellent SXMO, a suckless operating system built with the extensibility of Linux in mind. It's basically the LARBS of phones.

The reason I don't use it yet is because my service provider (Cricket Wireless) has blacklisted the phone from their network. The official reason is because it won't function on their new, "upgraded" network, but the phone's modem is supported and people were using it for months up until February 2021.