// uses

Uses

The hardware, software, and services I actually use every day. Not a wishlist. Not a flex. Just what's on my desk.

hardware

laptop
HP ProBook 640 G7 — 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. Bought it second-hand. Still going. Runs Ubuntu.
monitor
An external LED I sometimes connect with a VGA cable when I want two screens. VGA. Yes, still.
keyboard
The laptop's built-in one, mostly. Plus a mini keyboard I originally bought for a tablet.
mouse
A Hyper LED Edition. It glows. I don't know why I bought it.
speakers
Bass-heavy. Whatever was on sale. They work.
phone
A Samsung. Not an iPhone because I can't afford one right now. Maybe next year. Probably not.

software

os
Ubuntu — the default Linux. It works, it's boring, and that's the point.
editor
VS Code for everything local. Nano when I'm editing directly on the VPS. Nano is underrated.
terminal
The default Ubuntu one. I haven't had a reason to switch.
browser
Brave on mobile and laptop — the privacy thing, plus it blocks ads. For development, Chrome. Because DevTools. Firefox Nightly sometimes when I'm curious.
git
GitHub for hosting. GitHub Desktop installed on my system. Yes, I use a GUI for Git. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
api testing
Postman when I need to hit endpoints and see what comes back.
package manager
Composer for PHP. Nothing surprising here.
the cat
A small cat follows your mouse around the page. This is oneko.js — a JavaScript port of the original Neko software from the 90s. It's been floating around for years and it makes the site feel less dead.

services

passwords
Bitwarden — open source, self-hostable, free tier is enough. Recommended if you're still using the same password everywhere.
hosting
This site runs on a small VPS. Nothing fancy. PHP, MySQL, Apache. Classic stack.
domain
tayyib.is-a.dev — a free subdomain from is-a.dev. Because I haven't bought a real one yet.

what I don't use

A few things people assume I use, that I don't:

  • Docker — I know I should. I just haven't needed it yet.
  • Tailwind — I write actual CSS. See: this site.
  • Notion — plain text files and a few markdown notes.
  • MacBook — can't afford one. See: Samsung note above.
  • Wireless keyboard / mouse — batteries annoy me.

If something here changes, I'll update this page. It's part of /slash.