I’ll start with mine. yes part of this was to brag about my somewhat but not too unusual setup. But I also wanna learn from your setups!
Anyways: I primarily use Gentoo Linux.
I have two headless servers: a Raspberry Pi 4B and a Oracle cloud VM (free tier). Both running OpenRC, and both were running mainline kernel with custom config (I recently switched the Pi to PiFoundation kernel due to some issues). The raspberry pi boots from SSD and has no sd card inserted.
Both servers were running musl libc instead of glibc for a while. This gave me a couple of random issues, but eventually I got tired and switched back to glibc.
I have a desktop running gentoo and a laptop running arch, but hoping to switch the laptop to gentoo soon.
Both are daily driving wayland (the desktop had nvidia card and used for gaming). The desktop is running a kernel with a minimal config that compiles in 2-3 minutes.
What’s your unusual setup like?
I think my most unusual step os to select dvoark keyboard layout. Otherwise I’m pretty vanilla.
There’s another one of us! Quick! Take a picture!
I’ve only met one other person that knew who/what Dvorak was/is, and also reportedly used that keyboard layout.
I struggled with getting lost on the keyboard (several family members have dyslexia and ADHD–I’m not sure if that is related or not), and as an experiment spent 4 months exclusively using that layout to force myself to learn.
They never told me how my brain was also only big enough for a single keyboard layout. Usually in windows, games map to the same keys automagically. On Linux, not so much. I’m constantly remapping controls because I can’t be bothered to just have two keyboard layouts I swap between for games /facepalm
I use Dvorak too! Have it configured on a custom mechanical keyboard so I don’t have to change anything in the OS either.
Nice. I have seriously looked at this option too. For now I’m just too cheap to do it 😂
I experimented with it in University–I actually got a screwdriver and pried up and rearranged all of the keys on my keyboard within a week or so of starting–but after graduating I noticed that I was still slower at typing on Dvorak than I was on QWERTY so I gave up and changed back.
I’m way faster with Dvorak, and am 100% touch-typist only. If I look at the keyboard I’ll get mixed up. My phone keyboards are QWERTY though–go figure.
Dvorak doesn’t really make sense for phones anyway. There’s zero benefits. Maybe even negatively since qwerty spreads out the most common keys it’s easier for autocorrect to guess what you are actually trying to hit. I have no scientific data on it tho. Just a feeling.
Nope, you’re 100% right. Dvorak is efficient because it places high-use keys in the middle row and usually each key alternates between left and right hands. The use-case for a phone is usually single handed, or where you want one thump to be close to all the letters in a word. QWERTY is much better I think for one or two digits.
I tried it for a few hours because I thought it might be faster not flipping from QWERTY to Dvorak depending upon my device.
Turns out my muscle memory when using phones is as good as my muscle memory with keyboards.
It really is worth the switch.
Thank you! It’s so much more comfortable to typ on. Not faster, but Comfortable. I hate the awkward and annoying questions from colleges tho: wHY iS yOuR nOt woRkinG NoRmAllY?
And the mess that ctrl-c ctrl-v becomes is also super annoying. Mostly on windows its annoying. Linux is a bit more consistent.
I keep QWERTY available with the super+spacebar shortcut on both platforms, that way anyone else who needs to use it can switch back. Also, I have see-through Dvorak stickers added so it’s pretty clear that something is up with my keyboard just by looking at it. It also helps with finding those random symbol characters you use twice a year.