A roadmap to reclaiming my attention and time
Last edited in July 2024
Table of Contents
- Introduction: what is this about?
- A few notes on how to choose software
- Programmes I use
- Journal: from 2009 to present
Introduction: what is this about?
I used to be hooked to a plethora of mobile apps, clouds, and a smartphone.
This was consuming too much of my time and attention.
This was in 2017.
Since then, I got rid of my smartphone and have been trying to figure how to do regain agency over the digital technologies I use.
I have been documenting this transition on this page.
My motivation for starting this weblog is to steer the conversation away from the idea that “there is no alternative”, “it’s too late” et cetera, which is also what my full time work is about (see homepage).
A few notes on how to choose software
The “privacy-friendly” fallacy.
When I started this in 2017, I was seeking to replace each software (or SaaS or “cloud”) I used with a “privacy-friendly” alternative. However, after a while, I realised that “privacy-friendly” software are often similar to proprietary software, in essence. For example, Duckduckgo is proprietary, like Google; a lot of “privacy-friendly” tools also are. Other “privacy-friendly” run on third-party servers, etc. I was struggling to convince myself that what “privacy-friendly” are the panacea.
Doing things locally without the internet.
So after my “privacy-friendly” stint, I moved onto seeking to use (1) Free Software alternatives and (2) run these programmes locally, e.g. on my computer. No SaaS, no cloud, only freely distributed software (that is different from Open Source!) running on my machine or on servers I run. I have even come to run some trivial tasks locally, like checking date and time in another time zone — instead of constantly having to rely on “the search engine” and the internet, in other words: the computer of others. Now I use my computer as much as I can. It also has the advantage of being energy efficient1.
These days I manage to do my work offline. My current laptop does not connect to WiFi. I connect to the internet via an Ethernet cable when I need to download or send emails, pull or push to repositories, download files. Then I go back and work offline. I have everything I need locally. I know not everyone can do this.
The (non-copyleft) Free Software trap.
One step further to this (that is where I am at today, as of April 2023) is to seek copyleft-licensed software (e.g. GPL), rather than permissive-licensed software (e.g. MIT Licence).
Why do so?
Software licensed under a permissive (non-copyleft) licence, such as the MIT Licence, can end up proprietary (some of the readers will find this obvious). As one blogger puts it (I paraphrase): developers writing software under non-copyleft permissive licences are essentially writing software that will end up proprietary.
There are no alternatives.
One last point before I list the programme I use: when I first started, I was thinking in terms of substitutes e.g. “what tool can I use to replace Google Alert or Signal?”, but as I moved further towards adopting copyleft-licensed software and running programmes locally, the way I use my computer evolved away from habits which had been shaped by (the motivations of proprietary) software companies.
I found that using copyleft-licensed programmes locally, often written by agents first motivated by their own (computing) needs, has reshaped how I use digital technologies. The initial approach I had of “seeking alternatives” has become vain. So now, sharing the plain list of programmes I use makes more sense than sharing a column-by-column, showing for instance what I use instead of Google Doc. That said, if you want see a path of my journey of letting go of proprietary software and the likes, go to the section of that post titled Journal, below.
Programmes and utilities I use
- Trisquel GNU/Linux as my operating system (it’s Ubuntu minus the proprietary blobs that comes with Ubuntu2
- less to view files
- vim as a text editor
- aspell to check spelling of large text files in the terminal
- git as a file versioning system and to track changes, modifications et cetera
- pandoc, mainly to convert files from Markdown to pdf
- LaTex to produce the layout and final pdf of letters or invoices I write in plain text
- find to search for files or directories, and batch delete.
- grep to search for text through text files (instead of using a Zettelkasten app or a “second-brain”3)
- jitsi to run my own VoIP instance - set up your own instance
- df to display amount of disk space available
- ncdu to find out what takes up space on my drive
- openvpn to connect to the server I use to vpn
- wc to count words in vim or other text files
- history to copy commands from the shell history to the prompt, to the clipboard or to a file
- backintime to backup my home directory
- date to check the time of time zones or to show (my) local time given a date and time of a different time zone
- keepassxc to store passwords
- abrowser and surf to browser the www
- mutt, a Mail User Agent, to read emails locally and offline
- mbsync to download emails locally
- msmtp to send emails from mutt or from the command line
- msmtp-queue to queue emails to be sent later when I am online
- abook as an address book
- cvlc or nvlc to watch videos, listen to music or audio “books”
- sed & echo to edit files from the command line
- wget to download webpages or audio files to read/listen offline
youtube-dl to play video or music locally and offlinebroken as of early 2023- cat to display the content of files; my own local wiki for example
- xclip to copy to the clipboard from the command line
- gpgtar to encrypt directories
- gpg to encrypt emails (along with Mutt) and encrypt files
- Datamash instead of a spreadsheet to run calculations on data for example pivot tables (instead of using a spreadsheet)
- awk to run computations on data (instead of using a spreadsheet)
- bc to do simple math but I prefer to have a calculator on my desk
- pdfunite to merge pdf
- pdfseparate to extract pages from pdf files
- pdftotext, a pdf to text converter;
- apropos to search for new programmes/tools locally (on my laptop) instead of searching the web
- whatis when I want a short description of a programme or utility I’ve never heard of
- type to check whether a string is already a programme, a utility or an alias
- man if I want to learn more about a programme, or if I need to figure our how to run a command with a programme
- apt-get or dpkg to install, update or remove programmes, or update the operating system
- libreoffice cli utility to convert .ods files to .csv files
- visidata to display .csv files as tables in the terminal
- sdcv dictionary to display definitions in the shell
- verbiste to display conjugation of French or Italian verbs in the shell
- tox protocol with a cli client called toxic to communicate with others via instant message peer-to-peer
- and: umount, tar, gzip, tail, head, sort.
Other programmes which I found interest in but have not put into use: simple scan; checkinstall; ffmpeg; which; whereis; diff & patch.
You can also check the commands and shortcuts I use here.
Scripts I use
- wordcount.lua to count words of Markdown files
- count-para.lua to number paragraphs when converting Markdown files to pdf with Pandoc
- a vim script to mark folds on Markdown headers by default
Guide I wrote
- to help others (who writes) to regain agency over personal computing: A guide to simple and stupid usage of computers for writers (anyone who writes really)
Tutorials I wrote
- Set up your own webserver (& a webpage) with nginx, LetsEncrypt and Certbot
- Start using Mutt: a setup with GPG, mbsync, msmtp and notmuch
- Set up a Virtual Private Server (VPS) with Trisquel GNU/Linux
- Set up your own instance of Jitsi
Feel free to email me if you are trying to adopt these programmes and have any questions. It took me a while to do so - see my journal below.
Journal: from 2017 to present
You can receive entries of this journal in your terminal by following yctct on twtxt, or simply looking at this file: https://yctct.com/twtxt.txt
- 2024-09
- I now post updates only https://yctct.com/twtxt.txt - this journal is deprecated.
- 2024-07
- Set up many dictionaries locally, on my computer, so I don’t have to go online to check the definitions of words; see Set up dictionary you can query offline from the command line
- Installed the programme Verbiste to display the conjugation of French verbs locally, on my computer, so I don’t have to go online to check conjugations; see Install Verbiste so you can display conjugations of French and Italian verbs offline from the command line)
- Set up Libretranslate locally, on my computer, so I don’t have to go online to translations; see Set up Libretranslate locally
- 2024-04
- Downgraded my ProtonMail account to gratis and deprecated my proton mail address (I no longer give it away). It was a struggle to disentangle myself from the paid features. A trap I fell into.
- Published: Cooperatives & non-profits offering email addresses and mailboxes
- 2024-03
- Published: Use old programmes
- Published: Digital accessibility and inclusivity
- 2024-02
- 2023-12
- Set up an email server at home by port-forwarding to a VPS to get a static IP (tutorials to be edited)
- 2023-10
- Deleted my Github account.
- 2023-08
- 2023-03
- Put together: A guide to simple and stupid usage of computers for writers (anyone who writes really); published under a BY-NC-SA licence, meaning you can print it and distribute to peers, e.g. at work.
- Sold my MacBook; it had been sitting on the shelf since early 2022 when I completed my switch to a laptop running Trisquel GNU/Linux
- 2022-11
- Deleted my Airbnb account.
- 2022-10
- Deleted my iCloud account I had created in 2009 when I first bought a MacBook.
- Deleted the account I had with a password manager in the “cloud”; I now use a password manager locally (i.e. on my computer only) and copyleft-licensed.
- 2022-06
- Deleted my accounts with LinkedIn, Twitter and Signal messenger.
- Deprecated my Proton Mail account.
- Started using an email address with my own domain name.
- 2022-03
- Switched to a second-hand laptop running Trisquel GNU/Linux as my main computer.
- Deleted the last note-taking app I was using; I had been using note taking app since 2009.
- Stopped using a Zettelkasten.
- 2022-01
- 2021-08
- Deactivated my accounts with LinkedIn and Twitter (and subsequently deleted them in 2022).
- Stopped using the proprietary search engine Duckduckgo (same as Google). I now use MetaGer, a search engine that is distributed freely (1) under copyleft licence (2) by a non-profit organisation
- Bought a 13-year-old second-hand laptop for $150 and installed the operating system Trisquel GNU/Linux to eventually replace my Mac (which I did in 2022)
- 2021-01
- 2020-11
- Ended Spotify and Netflix subscription and deleted my accounts.
- Started to send printed pictures via post to my friends instead of digital pictures.
- 2020-10
- Stopped carrying my mobile phone by default when I leave home.
- Started using an app to start a Zettelkasten (deleting the note-taking app and stopped using Zettelkasten in March 2022).
- 2020-09
- Started using an RSS reader.
- 2020-08
- Started to send more (postal) letters and postcards.
- Started to send less instant messages. I call instead.
- 2020-07
- Switched back to an old dumb phone I had in my drawer as my main phone.
- Resumed using an analog camera.
- Resumed using a dumb MP3 player where I can “drag and drop” music and audio files.
- 2020-05
- 2019-07
- 2018-07
- Deleted email application from my smartphone.
- 2018-03
- 2017-08
- Started a mailing list4.
- 2017-05
- Limited myself to check Facebook only once a day; I would usually do so after lunch, connect for 15-20minutes, answer messages, check a few things and disconnect until the next day. This once-a-day-after-lunch rule helped me get my usage of Facebook under control, and consequently, reduce it drastically. I subsequently deleted it in 2018)
- 2017-0n4
- Deleted ‘social media’ applications from my mobile phone (I’ve deleted them all as of 2023; the last I deleted was LinkedIn in 2022. I also deleted Github in 2023 if you categorise this website as a “social network”. That is an attempt by Microsoft to intertwine our working life with its digital infrastructure in a way that a developer would seemingly no longer exist if they don’t have a Github account.)
- Deleted all applications using infinite scroll from my mobile phone (I stopped using a smartphone in 2020)
- 2016
- Started using Signal (and subsequently deleted my account in 2022).
- Started using ProtonMail (and subsequently deprecated it in 2022)
- 2009
- Switched to Mac from Windows (I later quit using Apple products in 2022).
personal computing gnu linux trisquel command-line interface (cli) office applications shell literacy digital literacy blog post offline publishing
