Uses This

1276 interviews since 2009

A picture of Devine Lu Linvega

Devine Lu Linvega

Artist, developer

in developer, linux, mac

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Devine, and I create esoteric software while travelling aboard a sailboat with my partner Rekka - we are presently moored in a quiet inlet, deep within the Japanese coast where sleep the remains of ancient towns, overgrown with lichen.

I am tempted to say that I write music, but saying that I write programs to write music would be more accurate. The same could be said about design, but I do like to pick up a pen to draw once in a while. Rekka and I are making games, tools and books together. We also document our life aboard the boat as we experiment with low-tech hardware and software solutions.

What hardware do you use?

I use a 2014 MacBook Pro with an even older Wacom Tablet. With this one, I do front-end work, be it layouts, websites, movies or games. I use it to browse the web, post on Mastodon, chat on IRC, play Quake and so on. I run the Elementary GNU/Linux distribution, and Macintosh System 7 via Mini vMac.

I also frequently use a singleboard computer hooked to a small 7" screen, and a mechanical keyboard. Its purpose is to do experimental software development, read and write long-form emails and blogs, with nothing besides music to pull me away from the task at hand. It draws very little power, and discourages multi-tasking. On it, I run the 9front fork of Plan 9.

And what software?

The list of software I use is in constant flux, but at the moment of writing this, here's some notable software that I use daily. I also maintain an active list here.

What would be your dream setup?

In the way of hardware, I dream of an affordable RISC-V single-board computer. I also dream of a modular OS that truly embodies the ideas of Linux, like Plan9, but based on a dialect of LISP with deep source control capabilities like NixOS. This magical computer would be designed to work offline, would not try to call home, use DRMs, it would be inspectable, modifiable and environmentally counscious.

Also, if I could have one last wish, it would have a 1/4" headphone jack, and a orthogonal keyboard.