Default Apps 2024

I wanted to write about my setup and workflow for a long time, but at this point even the outline for the post is getting slightly out of hand. So I will take Jeffs post about his default apps as an inspiration to break it down into smaller chunks. (Just do not expect emojis. If you ever see a load of emojis on this blog send me an email, it was hacked.)

I will focus on the apps I interact with and will do a follow up about infrastructure and software to run the infrastructure separately.

• Browser: Safari, Firefox (sigh, need a browser on Linux)
• Search: Kagi
• Email: Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Stalwart (all email is self hosted)
• Notes / Todos: Email, pen & paper
• Chat: Apple iMessage (family & close friends), Matrix (business & close friends), Signal (people I know, bridged to Matrix), Discord (anything gaming related, bridged to Matrix), whatever our clients want and runs in a browser
• Calendar: Apple Calendar
• Video Calls: Zoom (if a client prefers it), FaceTime (business & close friends), Jitsi (business external communications)
• Writing: Apple TextEdit, Django Admin (this blog)
• Code Editor: NeoVim
• Terminal: Apple Terminal, tmux (evaluating Zellij right now)
• VPN: Wireguard (with a bunch of self hosted exit nodes - so no piracy, I know, I'm boring these days)
• LLM: Ollama, OpenWebUI
• RSS: miniflux
• Passwords: Apple Keychain, Vaultwarden (cross platform (gaming PC) & business)
• Media: Apple Music, Jellyfin, PodFetch, Komga
• Read it later: Linkwarden
• Wiki / Knowledgebase: outline (business)
• Git / CI: Forgejo
• File transfer: Transmit, iCloud, Secure Shellfish
• Diagrams: Monodraw

A lot of this are standard macOS apps or things running on my workstation (which is rack mounted). My gaming / ML system is a standard Bazzite and my Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen9 runs Fedora. All with standard apps as well.

I can rebuild my workstation in 20 minutes after macOS stopped updating. The only apps running locally are either part of the system or available via the AppStore (Monodraw, Wireguard, Zoom and Transmit). Add a single Wireguard configuration and I am back online – something that gives me some peace of mind when traveling and a serving cart on the airplane might slam into my laptop again.