Share your daily driver computer setup

Off Topic
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Curious to hear the setups of community members (main workstation, daily driver):

1-desktop vs laptop, brand, model - why?
2-OS, distro, environment - why?
3-some preferred apps, packages and preferred format.

I’ll go first:
1- desktop, Librem Mini - because of disabled ME, Pureboot
2-Fedora Sway - want to be Wayland-only, like Fedora semi-rolling updates, Fedora being cutting edge, and Sway speaks to me.
3-LibreWolf, Doom Emacs, NewsFlash for RSS, clamav, KeepassXC. I prefer Flatpaks when I can verify the maintainer and make it Wayland-only via Flatseal.

Looking forward to hearing about your setups. Thanks, in advance, for your replies.

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1- a MacBook and a self-built PC, the Mac because someone gifted it to me and the PC for gaming

2- macOS for the Mac and Windows 11 hardened with the Windows Guide for the PC. I looked into Fedora for my PC, but some games I would like to play don’t work on Fedora which is a shame, and I looked into Asahi Linux on my Mac, but it seemed unstable for me and some apps are not available on Asahi Linux

3- Firefox with arkenfox patches applied, NetNewsWire for RSS feeds, Bitwarden, KeePassXC, LibreOffice, Anki for learning and VeraCrypt for encrypting my external drives for use on Windows and macOS

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1- laptop, Dell 7480, wasn’t aware of linux or linux laptops then.
2-Linux, Fedora, Gnome, i don’t know it just felt like home.
3-flatpak, hardned firefox(no Arken.js), librewolf, fluent reader.

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1 - Desktop (2 x HP ProDesk ex-business machine - cos it’s cheap and compact)
2 - Windows 10 (current main), Linux Mint (future main, working on full transition currently)
3 - Apps
-Firefox (main) and Brave (mostly for PWA) for browsers
-Brave PWA for as many app/services I can find (Discord, Element, Skype, Whatsapp, Apple Music, Notesnook, Proton services, etc.)
-Browser built-in PDF reader
-Bitwarden (main) and KeepassXC (for local backup)
-Picocrypt (for small files for transfer) and VeraCrypt (for external HDD encryption)
-Windows Defender (default) and HitmanPro (for nightly scans)
-LibreOffice (MS Office replacement)
-VLC Player (music and video playing)
-Deluge (torrents)

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  1. Laptop, Lenovo IdeaPad, it was a pretty good laptop at the time, though I am now realising it has a pretty terrible screen.
  2. Chrome OS Flex, out of all the OSes I’ve tried so far it seems to work the best for me. I’ve detailed my issues with Windows and Linux distros on my blog: How to Make an OS.
  3. Most of the things I use are web apps, and that’s the format I prefer, since they’re confined to the security and permission model of the browser (which is pretty good!). My most commonly used apps are probably VS Code, GitHub Desktop and Cinny (Matrix client).

I want to switch over to a MacBook at some point in the (hopefully near) future, but this is the setup I’ve found works best for me at the moment.

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  1. 14" MacBook Pro: This is my daily driver which I use because I consider Apple Silicon to be more secure and generally better than Intel/AMD, it has the best battery life I’ve ever had in a laptop, and because macOS has support for apps which aren’t available on Linux. The microphone also hardware disconnects when the lid is closed.
    ThinkPad X1 Carbon: This is my backup laptop, I like it because it’s very light and has a 4K display which perfectly scales down to 1080p, because Qubes is normally terrible with HiDPI displays so I have to run it at a lower resolution. It also has a built-in webcam cover which is neat.

  2. macOS Ventura (MacBook Pro): App support is the main reason, I also appreciate macOS’s security features like SSV, verified boot, and just generally a security-first approach to development.
    Windows 11: I run this in a Parallels VM on my MacBook Pro in case I need to run something on Windows. Running Windows in a VM on Apple Silicon is unironically better than running Windows natively on x86 so it works great.
    Qubes (ThinkPad): I dislike Linux desktop distros generally because apps sharing libraries and other system files tends to cause various instability issues over time, which is why I pretty much only use Qubes which obviously allows for app isolation. I also like Qubes networking in general, I find guaranteeing Linux is using a VPN 100% of the time to be difficult, and it’s much more convenient to just make a ProxyVM to make sure all traffic is directed there. Nevertheless, I’m still thinking about switching to Fedora Silverblue, because Qubes has some annoyances.
    Fedora: I run Fedora 37 for all my qubes.

  3. Browser: I’m using Arc.net as my main web browser, because I dislike Brave and it is the only other Chromium browser which has a good privacy policy I know of. I occasionally also use Firefox on my MacBook Pro, and I always use Firefox on Qubes.
    Other Stuff: I mostly use a browser for everything, but I also use VSCode, GitHub Desktop, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Signal, and the built-in Terminal app. I also really like Privileges on macOS for security. I use Tailscale extensively, not with Headscale because that has no iOS support unfortunately.

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Huh, first time hearing about this.
Will have to try this out, since I don’t particularly like Brave either.
I wish Firefox would make PWA easier, then I’d just stick to it.

Edit: Welp, I guess Arc is only for MacOS for the moment. Will have to try it once it comes out for Windows or Linux…

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1 - Acer Aspire A515-54G. It’s a decent laptop that was cheap and came with Linux out-of-the-box. I don’t use the NVIDIA card because I don’t want to deal with the annoyances and the integrated fits my needs.

2 - I use Fedora Workstation 37, I really like the semi-rolling thing. I was also looking on River and Sway, but I don’t have time to play with it right now. Also, Gnome is a really good DE.

3 - Ungoogled Chromium, KeePassXC, Tutanota Desktop, Flatseal (I review all the permissions before using any app), Extension Manager, Transmission, Okular, mpv (video, audio and image viewer because why not), LibreOffice (just to open files if needed), Signal Desktop, foot terminal, fish shell, newsboat, lf, bottom, ytfzf and some other cli tools.

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Looking at this at an opsec standpoint, is it ok to share what your daily driver are?

No offense OP.

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That’s a good question. An attacker may need to determine what info provided here is actually accurate. That said, the content of this thread is similar to what a podcaster or blogger might share (ie - Michael Bazell who openly states he runs PopOS on a System76 Thelio, details his preferred apps/packages in his book and podcast, states he no longer cares about disabled Intel ME, etc).

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I guess the version matters more and what (attackable) services are running.

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  1. Desktop: Windows 10 / Linux Ubuntu (I use both on my computer, 1 SSD reserved for windows and another SSD reserved for Ubuntu). Both are encrypted, the Linux distro is encrypted with LUKS and my Windows HD is encrypted with veracrypt. I use both operating systems for different reasons, when I like to work on my servers I change to ubuntu but this this is also a way to seperate my activities.

  2. Ubuntu and Windows 10

  3. Brave is my browser for both operating systems, I like brave. For encrypting passwords I use keepass.

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This is the first time I’ve come across Brave PWA.

Can anyone explain this to me? :frowning_face: :frowning_face:

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If you open the desktop version of Brave and visit a website like this forum, the browser will give you the option to install the progressive web app (PWA) in the right side of the address bar.
brave-pwa-install-option
After you confirm the install, another window of the same website will open. You will notice that the new window uses the icon of the website in your taskbar rather than the Brave Browser icon. Installing the PWA, at least on Linux, adds a desktop icon; you can also pin the app to your taskbar as an app separate from Brave Browser.

You can access your installed extension(s) in the PWA through the same way you would in a Brave Browser window (i.e., the puzzle piece icon in the top right of the window).

[EDIT] A little more information about how a PWA functions in Brave:

  • If you configured Brave Browser to on startup “open a specific page or set of pages” in the browser settings (under ‘Get Started’), opening the PWA allows you to directly navigate to the page without invoking that behavior.
  • The pages you visit in the PWA are registered in browsing history (like they would if you visited them in a regular Brave Browser window).
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Laptop
SpiralLinux / Budgie Desktop
Brave, LibreOffice

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  • A Notebook
  • Distro/DE: Fedora (Gnome DE)
    • Reason: Fedora (and OpenSUSE) check the most boxes for me. When I chose Fedora a few years ago it was because it was one of the first to support Wayland by default Gnome 40+, Secure Boot, FDE, sellinux, and BTRFS, I also setup snapper for automatic snapshots before and after package manager operations. I like its strong stance towards free software, and I like the strong stance towards being an early adopter and contributor to new and emerging software and standards in Linux, I also like that it is very up to date yes remarkably reliable and problem free.
  • Software: A few good Browsers (hardened FIrefox is my longtime favorite), Flatpak + Flatseal, Freetube, KVM virtualization (virt-manager)
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1- Laptop macbook pro with m1 pro. I also have a ThinkPad L13 gen 2 as a backup.

I mainly use laptops because I like the portability: I don’t have a single place where I use these computers. I prefer the macbook because it runs my preferred OS, which is macOS.

The monopoly Apple holds on the repairability of the macbook makes me uncomfortable, which is why last time I was switching laptops I went for the ThinkPad with Linux, but I realised I was less productive than with macOS, so I ended up buying the macbook after a year. (I use the computers mainly for work)

2- My preferred OS is macOS because I find it a more polished and pleasant user experience compared to Linux and Windows both in terms of the OS and app ecosystem. Linux had some compatibility issues with my USB-C monitor. I also prefer the security model of macOS.

3-The main app why I’m more productive on macOS when working is Dash. The speed with which I can quickly jump into the official documentation of something very specific and on the relevant version makes me work differently than the usual approach of searching for it online, as there are way less hoops to get to the official documentation, and way less chances to end up in a Stack Overflow (SO) question. So it’s not only quicker to get to what I want to, but also since I almost always read the official documentation, I learn more about the tool than copypasting answers from SO, which means that I become more versed on the tool quicker. I feel like Dash has made me and keeps making me a better developer. I’ve tried alternatives like Zeal and DevDocs in Linux, and they sort of do the trick, but nothing compares to the versatility of Dash.

As for browsers I use Firefox for “browsing around”. I use it with uBlock Origin (uBO) in hard mode + noscript for blocking media. I downgrade to medium or easy mode of uBO with a keyboard shortcut until the page I’m visiting is usable. For serious stuff and important accounts, I use Safari in private mode without any plugins. When I’m going to buy anything, or looking for something to buy, I look for it using the Tor browser to avoid price discrimination, and once I find it, I’ll move to the other browser (probably safari) to buy it and if the price differs in a consistent way (I can see both prices simultaneously even after many refreshes), I’ll never use that provider again (good bye booking.com).

I mainly use the browsers rather than the apps, unless the apps give me some OS integration that I find valuable for my specific use case.

For password manager I use 1password, as I find it a more pleasant UX than Bitwarden and I trust them and their audits.

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Laptop
Arch Linux with KDE
Firefox
Libreoffice
Thunderbird
Bitwarden

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I really wonder if Arc is better than Vivaldi in terms of privacy. Afaik, they did not have a business model and spend VC funding. But not aware of the current situation.

Edit; I also use MacBook silicon with the same reasons with @jonah and deep integration with other apple devices.

I mostly use Brave and Vivaldi for work, and Mullvad and Firefox for personal. I have also a specific profile in brave for pwas. Unfortunately I have to use chatbots so much, so I am using perplexity, poe, and hugging chaat in order.

I am in the midst of migrating to Anytype for notetaking and knowledge management.

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Is Privileges secure ? Is it an alternative to use a standard user profiles and to leave the admin unused ?
Is its only advantage that you don’t need to type the admin password regularly ?