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  A collection of nerdy interviews asking people from all walks of life
  what they use to get the job done.

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  A picture of Bram Moolenaar Image by Sebastian Bergmann.

Bram Moolenaar

  Developer (Vim)

  Posted [7]January 28, [8]2020 in [9]bsd, [10]developer, [11]linux,
  [12]mac, [13]windows

Who are you, and what do you do?

  I'm known for being the creator and maintainer of [14]Vim, the text
  editor. I started doing this on the Amiga in 1988, which only had a
  buggy and limited version of [15]Vi, the editor I was familiar with.
  First I made it work better for myself. In 1991 it was released to the
  world. On floppy disks!

  May others contributed pieces, I decide what goes and and often end up
  fixing all the bugs. Vim is now the most popular text editor. Linux
  Journal stopped doing a poll for "best text editor" because Vim would
  always win.

  For my paying job I work for Google in Zurich, Switzerland. Currently
  I'm leading the development of [16]Google Calendar for the web. It's a
  nice place to work, although the enormous growth in the 13 years I've
  been there makes it no longer feel like a startup.

What hardware do you use?

  My main system is an MSI motherboard with an AMD [17]Ryzen 2700X
  processor and 32 Gbyte RAM. The graphics card is a [18]GeForce GTX 1050
  Ti, the fastest that can use passive cooling. The system and my home
  directory are on an SSD disk. It's quite fast. I have always been a fan
  of AMD, since they made a UART that was much better than the Intel
  version, because it had an extra register. I am happy to see that these
  days they make the best processors.

  Over the years I have been getting bigger monitors. I now have a 42
  inch one, and frankly, it's too big! I don't use the top and far left
  parts much to avoid having to turn my head all the time.

  A very important part for me is the keyboard. I prefer a natural one,
  where the left and right are split and slightly turned. It helps
  avoiding strain in my wrists. These days only Microsoft seems to make
  them, not much choice. But I'm happy with it.

  I also have a [19]Windows 7 system to run stuff that only runs on
  Windows. Although I use it less and less. And I have a Dell [20]XPS 13
  laptop for when I'm travelling. For work I also have a [21]MacBook Pro.
  It's not my favorite, the keyboard doesn't type well, it only has USB-C
  ports which are so close together you can only use one out of two. I
  would go back to the [22]MacBook Air if I could.

And what software?

  My main system is running [23]Ubuntu. I used to run [24]FreeBSD, and I
  still like its stability, but keeping it updated was becoming a
  problem. And since Linux is more popular it has more tools and support.
  Generally it's stable, although sometimes a reboot fails. Still haven't
  been able to figure out why.

  For desktop I keep going back to [25]GNOME. Ubuntu has been offering
  various alternatives that I can't get used to. GNOME works well enough,
  although changing settings can be a pain (fortunately there is this
  search engine..).

  [26]Chrome for browser, since it's very stable. Although I sometimes
  start [27]Firefox if something fails. I have multiple tabs open to
  quickly switch between applications, such as [28]Gmail and Calendar
  (mainly for work), Vim build status dashboards and any document I'm
  working on.

  Once in a while I play a game, mostly old ones. I'm a fan of the old
  Command & Conquer games, which only run on Windows. I also like
  [29]Portal, which now runs under [30]Steam on Ubuntu.

What would be your dream setup?

  Well, what I'm already running! I sometimes wonder what I can buy to
  make it work better, but I can't think of anything. Better speakers
  perhaps, when watching streaming TV or recordings the sound is a bit
  thin.

  Unless otherwise noted, everything is available via the
  [31]Attribution-Share Alike licence.
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References

  1. https://usesthis.com/feed.atom
  2. https://usesthis.com/feed.json
  3. https://usesthis.com/
  4. https://usesthis.com/archives/
  5. https://usesthis.com/categories/
  6. https://usesthis.com/about/
  7. https://usesthis.com/archives/2020/01/
  8. https://usesthis.com/archives/2020/
  9. https://usesthis.com/categories/bsd/
 10. https://usesthis.com/categories/developer/
 11. https://usesthis.com/categories/linux/
 12. https://usesthis.com/categories/mac/
 13. https://usesthis.com/categories/windows/
 14. https://www.vim.org/
 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi
 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Calendar
 17. https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-7-2700x
 18. https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-1050-ti/specifications
 19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7
 20. https://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9333/pd
 21. https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/
 22. https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/
 23. https://www.ubuntu.com/
 24. https://www.freebsd.org/
 25. https://www.gnome.org/
 26. https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/
 27. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
 28. https://mail.google.com/mail/
 29. https://store.steampowered.com/app/620/
 30. https://store.steampowered.com/
 31. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
 32. https://usesthis.com/feed.atom
 33. https://usesthis.com/feed.json
 34. https://usesthis.com/api/

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