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diff --git a/content/blog/2022-06-16-terminal-lifestyle.org b/content/blog/2022-06-16-terminal-lifestyle.org deleted file mode 100644 index f96a10a..0000000 --- a/content/blog/2022-06-16-terminal-lifestyle.org +++ /dev/null @@ -1,211 +0,0 @@ -#+title: A Terminal Lifestyle -#+date: 2022-06-16 -#+description: Explaining how I live my digital life mostly in the console/terminal. -#+filetags: :linux: - -* Text-Based Simplicity -I've detailed my views on web-based minimalism and related topics in -other posts throughout the years; e.g., JavaScript/CSS bloat slowing -down websites that are essentially a text document. However, I have -never really expanded beyond talking about the web and describing how I -focus on minimizing distractions in other digital environments. - -This post is going to set the baseline for how I /try/ to live my -digital life. It does not necessarily get into my physical life, which -is often harder to control and contain all the noise in our modern -world. - -While there are new things to do every day in our digital world, I find -that keeping a core set of values and interests can ground you and keep -you mindful of /why/ you are participating in the digital world. For -example, if - at your core - you have no interest in what strangers -think about random topics, it would be unwise to start participating in -social media. However, I am someone who has been dragged in by effective -advertising to participate in communities that I realize I do not care -for. - -I won't dive much further into explaining the philosophy of all this, -but I will link a few helpful articles that may pique your interest if -you're in search of more meaningful experiences: - -- [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness][Mindfulness]] -- [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism][Minimalism]] -- [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism][Stoicism]] - -* Living Life in the Terminal -My personal approach to reducing digital distractions and increasing my -focus on the task at hand is to use a terminal for as much as I possibly -can. - -Most days, this means that I have a few tabs open constantly in my -terminal: - -1. A web browser -2. A chat client -3. An email client -4. An RSS feed reader -5. A local shell for navigating my computer's files -6. A remote shell for managing servers and other machines - -Beyond this, I rarely open other tabs or GUI applications, unless -absolutely necessary. If you look, you may be surprised what can be -accomplished in the terminal. - -For example, I have moved my music and entertainment downloads to the -terminal, along with my device VPN connections. I am exploring options -for moving my RSS subscriptions to something like -[[https://newsboat.org/][Newsboat]], so that I can read my daily -articles without all the fuss. - -Now that we have some examples out of the way, let's dive into the -specifics. - -** Browsing the Web -I'm going to start off with a hard topic for those who prefer to live in -the terminal: web browsing. This task is made hard mostly by websites -and web apps that require JavaScript to run. The other difficult part is -that if you're using a text-based browser, that means images won't load -(hopefully that's obvious). - -I am using [[https://lynx.invisible-island.net][Lynx]], a text-based -browser that runs quickly and easily in the terminal. Lynx allows me to -browser most websites by simply typing =g= and then typing in the URL I -want. - -#+caption: Lynx -[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220616-terminal-lifestyle/lynx.png]] - -If you need a search engine while in Lynx, I recommend -[[https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/][DuckDuckGo (Lite)]], which allows -you to search the web using their text-only interface. - -#+caption: DuckDuckGo !Lite -[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220616-terminal-lifestyle/ddg.png]] - -Eventually, you will run into websites that don't work (or are just too -ugly and messy) in a text-only mode, and you'll be forced to switch over -to a GUI browser to look at that site. Personally, I don't mind this as -it doesn't happen as often as I thought it would. - -The only time I need to do this is when I want to browse an -image/video-focused webpage or if I need to log in to a site, and it -doesn't support a text-only login page. For example, I am able to easily -log in to [[https://sr.ht][Sourcehut]] in lynx. - -** Chatting with Friends -After web browsing activities, my main form of terminal communication is -Matrix. I use the [[https://docs.mau.fi/gomuks/][gomuks]] client -currently. - -This was incredibly easy to install on macOS (but I will need to see if -it'll be just as easy on Linux when my new laptop arrives): - -#+begin_src sh -brew install gomuks -#+end_src - -Once you launch gomuks, it will sync and require your username and -password to login. After doing so, the only problem I ran into was -verifying my gomuks client so that I could participate in rooms with -E2EE. - -Finally, I was able to verify the session by opening the Element desktop -app (I assume you can do this in the browser and mobile app too, but I'm -not sure) and manually verifying myself with this process: - -1. Open the Element desktop app -2. Open a room I was a member of -3. Open the =Room Info= pane -4. Open the =People= menu and search for myself -5. Click on my profile name -6. Click on the session link under the =Security= section and follow the - prompts to manually verify the session - -Overall, I like gomuks and am able to enjoy all the features I was using -in Element. The only hiccup I have occurred is manually downloading -images to view them, which can be annoying. - -#+caption: gomuks -[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220616-terminal-lifestyle/gomuks.png]] - -** Email -Moving email to the terminal has been the hardest of the tasks for me. -Unlike web browsing, where I can simply decide to not look at a website -that does not work in the terminal, I cannot simply ignore emails sent -to me. - -Personally, I am experimenting with [[https://neomutt.org/][neomutt]] as -a potential email client. - -However, this requires a *TON** of configuration and tweaking to get -right. Even when I was able to set up neomutt, configure my email -account, and customize a few personal preferences, a lot of emails still -do not display correctly (mostly due to HTML and images). - -I won't get into the details of configuring =neomutt=; I mostly followed -this blog post: -[[https://gideonwolfe.com/posts/workflow/neomutt/intro/][Email in the -Terminal: Configuring Neomutt]]. - -Finally, I have yet to figure out how to connect my GPG keys to -=neomutt=, but that's a problem for another day. - -** RSS Feed Reader -I have just started using [[https://newsboat.org/][Newsboat]] to read -articles in my terminal and have found quick success with it. - -I'll show you a quick screenshot first: - -#+caption: Newsboat -[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220616-terminal-lifestyle/newsboat.png]] - -The configuration was super easy for this app; I simply installed the -app, created a file for URLs, and imported my OPML subscriptions that I -had exported out of my old feed reader: - -#+begin_src sh -brew install newsboat -#+end_src - -#+begin_src sh -touch ~/.newsboat/urls -#+end_src - -#+begin_src sh -newsboat -i=my_subscriptions.opml -#+end_src - -** Writing & Programming -Unfortunately, the weak link in my terminal-based environment right now -is my grasp of the possibilities of editing files within a shell. - -I am used to the easy extensions found in VSCodium and Kate, so I am -slowly learning how to mold the default editing tools to my needs. -Currently, this means I am using =nano= with the following -configuration: - -#+begin_src config -set breaklonglines -set autoindent -set linenumbers -set tabstospaces -set tabsize 2 -set fill 80 -#+end_src - -This configuration allows nano to automatically hard-wrap lines at 80 -characters, autoindent the wrapped lines (if the previous line was -indented), use 2 spaces per tab, and display line numbers within each -file I open. - -I am currently looking to see if =vim= or =emacs= would be more useful -for my current needs, but I'm not in any rush, so I don't expect to find -an answer anytime soon. - -With my current life demands, I am not programming at the moment and -have not explored the best terminal set-up for programming. However, I -have seen many peers find success configuring =vim= and =emacs=, so -that's where I will start when I pick my projects back up. - -#+caption: nano -[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220616-terminal-lifestyle/nano.png]] |