As promised, here’s where what I evolved to using most in 2025 has ended up with. Did my best to get them into logical sections, and I Kagi-scripted the URLs from the descriptions but did not check every link. Def LMK if any are problematic.

I’ve added some additional commentary to various individual entries.

Drop a note in the comments or on Mastodon if you have any q’s abt any of them, or if I’ve forgotten something you recall me mentioning I use.

---

Development Environment

Zed – A high-performance, collaborative code editor built in Rust with native performance and modern features. https://zed.dev/

I use Zed for all local and remote development work. It just keeps getting better with each release, and you can ignore all of the “AI” bits if you want to without sacrificing any functionality.

The remote SSH support is phenom; the Markdown support keeps getting more features; and, I can pretty much do anything with Zed tasks.

I do wish R & REPL support in general was better. I’d even pay for a VSCode-esque jupyter notebook mode.

vim – The ubiquitous text editor that continues to be essential for system administration and quick edits. https://www.vim.org/

Wezterm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer with extensive configuration options. https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/

2025 was the year I leaned into using more of Wezterm’s features, including displaying graphics in the terminal. It’s helped reduce the amount of time I spend in browsers quite a bit.

Maple Mono – A monospace font designed specifically for coding with excellent readability and ligature support. https://github.com/subframe7536/maple-font

I cannot belive I’ve stuck with a terminal/editor font this long, but Maple Mono is just too cool to give up. I make great use of the ability to use the support for some bracketed keywords like [TODO] to show up as “pills” and really dig their other ligatures.

Raycast – A launcher and productivity tool for macOS that replaces Spotlight with extensible functionality. https://www.raycast.com/

I really should do a Drop section on all the ways I use this app. macOS feels horrible without it.

Programming Languages & Runtimes

R – Statistical computing language and environment for data analysis and visualization. https://www.r-project.org/

Go – Google’s compiled programming language known for simplicity, performance, and excellent concurrency support. https://golang.org/

Deno – A modern runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript with built-in security and tooling. https://deno.land/

uv – An extremely fast Python package installer and resolver, written in Rust. https://github.com/astral-sh/uv

Development Tools & Utilities

mise – A polyglot tool version manager that replaces tools like nvm, rbenv, and pyenv. https://mise.jdx.dev/

I only use Homebrew for things not available in mise. It’s so fast and easy to work with, and it makes working with various languages and projects super easy.

Just – A command runner and build tool that serves as a simpler alternative to Make. https://github.com/casey/just

direnv – Automatically loads and unloads environment variables based on the current directory. https://direnv.net/

prettier – An opinionated code formatter that supports many languages and integrates with most editors. https://prettier.io/

shellcheck – A static analysis tool for shell scripts that finds bugs and suggests improvements. https://www.shellcheck.net/

Ollama – Local large language model runner that makes it easy to run LLMs on your own hardware. https://ollama.ai/

I pretty much use Ollama for all personal work. Local models FTW!

Claude Code – Anthropic’s AI coding assistant integrated into development workflows. https://claude.ai/

I use this and the version of it baked into Zed for augmenting various programming tasks. I use it more like I would use quicktype, and I have no problem admitting I use it to generate documentation.>

Data & Databases

DuckDB – An in-process SQL OLAP database management system designed for analytical workloads. https://duckdb.org/

Grist – A modern spreadsheet-database hybrid that combines the familiarity of spreadsheets with database power. https://getgrist.com/

Beekeeper Studio – A cross-platform SQL editor and database manager with a clean interface. https://www.beekeeperstudio.io/

This has been a surprisingly useful tool for me, and I use the paid version of it to help support developers.

Documentation & Writing

Typst – A new markup-based typesetting system designed to be more user-friendly than LaTeX. https://typst.app/

I completely re-wrote a massive 5-hour lecture presentation in Typst and will never go back to Keynote or Quarto for basic presentation work. I will 100% stay in Keynote for some of the more involved presentations I make for work (they’re more like movies, really).

Joplin – An open-source note-taking and to-do application with synchronization and encryption support. https://joplinapp.org/

Still super-happy with Joplin and I use it constantly.

LanguageTool – An open-source proofreading software for grammar, style, and spell checking. https://languagetool.org/

Command Line Utilities

most – A pager program similar to more and less but with additional features and better handling of long lines. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Core_utilities#Pagers

ripgrep – A line-oriented search tool that recursively searches directories for regex patterns. https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep

fd – A simple, fast, and user-friendly alternative to find with sensible defaults. https://github.com/sharkdp/fd

dust – A more intuitive version of du written in Rust that provides a visual breakdown of disk usage. https://github.com/bootandy/dust

McFly – An upgraded ctrl-r for terminal history search with neural network-based suggestions. https://github.com/cantino/mcfly

ksh / bash – Command line shells for Unix-like operating systems. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Bash

ffmpeg – A complete cross-platform solution for recording, converting, and streaming audio and video. https://ffmpeg.org/

yt-dlp – A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader forked from youtube-dl. https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

Web Browsers & Extensions

Arc – A modern web browser built around productivity and organization features. https://arc.net/

Until Atlassian kills it, or we get some new players on the block, I will be sticking with Arc (sans any “AI” b******t — don’t let LLMs into your browser).

Safari Technology Preview – Apple’s experimental version of Safari with cutting-edge web technologies. https://developer.apple.com/safari/technology-preview/

For some sites that break in my very protected Arc config, I use STP vs. regular Safari since WebKit seems to be perma-vulnerable, and I stay just a wee bit ahead of attackers with it.

uBlock Origin – An efficient wide-spectrum content blocker for web browsers. https://ublockorigin.com/

Postlight Reader Chrome Extension – A clean reading experience extension that removes clutter from web articles.

I don’t think this is installable anymore, but I have a saved copy archived and manually install it on any new system.

Development Infrastructure

OrbStack – A fast, light, and simple way to run Docker containers and Linux machines on macOS. https://orbstack.dev/

Codeberg – A non-profit, community-driven Git hosting platform focused on free and open-source software. https://codeberg.org/

Tailscale – A VPN service built on WireGuard that creates secure networks between your devices. https://tailscale.com/

Home Assistant – Open-source home automation platform focusing on privacy and local control. https://www.home-assistant.io/

Creative & Media Tools

Affinity – A suite of professional creative software including Designer, Photo, and Publisher. https://affinity.serif.com/

I’m sad about what Canva has done to this Adobe Suite alternative, but there’s no way I’m using Adobe products anymore.

ScreenFlow – Screen recording and video editing software for macOS. https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/

I use this and Audacity + alot of the CLI tools in a previous section pretty heavily for things I need to produce for work.

Audacity – Free, open-source, cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing. https://www.audacityteam.org/

IINA – A modern media player for macOS built on mpv with native macOS features. https://iina.io/

mpv – A free, open-source, and cross-platform media player with minimal interface and maximum configurability. https://mpv.io/

Web Development

Observable Desktop / Notebooks 2.0 / Plot – A platform for collaborative data analysis and visualization using JavaScript. https://observablehq.com/

That description doesn’t do the trio justice, but I’m working hard to migrate most data ops to DuckDB and viz ops to Observable.

Alpine.js – A minimal framework for composing JavaScript behavior in HTML markup. https://alpinejs.dev/

Temporal – A JavaScript library for working with dates and times with a better API than Date. https://temporal.io/

WebAwesome – A comprehensive icon library and toolkit for web development. https://www.webawesome.com/

This is a great web dev toolkit, and I backed the project to get access to the “page” and projects capabilities. Well worth the spend.

Information & Productivity

Mona – A feature-rich Mastodon client for iOS and macOS with excellent user experience. https://mastodon.social/@MonaApp

Mona’s auto-threading made the switch to it (from Ivory) an easy decision. I still pay for both of them, since developers gotta eat, too.

Castro – An intelligent podcast app for iOS with features like triage and queue management. https://castro.fm/

Overcast broke badly for me during the xOS betas, so I’m back to Castro for now. I feel like there has to be a better podcast app out there somewhere, tho.

Inoreader – A web-based RSS reader with powerful filtering and organization features. https://www.inoreader.com/

Raindrop.io – A bookmark manager that helps organize and access saved content across devices. https://raindrop.io/

Ground News – A news aggregator that shows how different sources cover the same story. https://ground.news/

I’ve read pieces from a few Ground News detractors, but they were incoherent and innacurate. Yes, they use “AI”, but they primarily use humans and traditional algorithms for most of the work. It sure beats Google News or Apple News.

Cooked.wiki + App – A recipe manager and cooking companion with clean, distraction-free interfaces. https://cooked.wiki/

I’ll be doing a Drop on some open-source, self-hosted alternatives to Cooked.wiki, but it’s been a godsend (I hate most recipe blogs), and the new app is ace.

Security & Password Management

Bitwarden – An open-source password manager with cross-platform support and strong security. https://bitwarden.com/

I’m getting better about migrating “secrets” from environment variables and storing them in Bitwarden, then using the CLI to use them. I have ~50% more to go tho.

Hardware & Peripherals

Boox – E-ink tablets that run Android and support note-taking, reading, and productivity apps. https://www.boox.com/

I’m trying to get better at both re-learning handwriting and taking more physical notes, and this has helped.

Wacom Intuos Pro – Professional pen tablets for digital art, design, and creative work. https://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/wacom-intuos-pro

My partner-in-crime at work and I have been experimenting with Zoom’s “in-app Figma-esque diagrammer” thing and it works so stupid well with tablets that I ended up getting the Wacom to make it easier to do so from my Mac vs iPad.

macOS Utilities

BetterDisplay – Advanced display management tool for macOS with custom resolutions and display arrangement. https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

I won’t use any ultrawide display without installing this.

Finicky – A macOS utility that allows you to set up rules for which browser opens specific links. https://github.com/johnste/finicky

“Browser” can be anything that takes a URL/URI. It doesn’t have to be a browser app like Arc or Safari.

Health & Fitness

CARROT Weather – A weather app with personality, detailed forecasts, and customizable notifications. https://www.meetcarrot.com/weather/

WHOOP – A fitness tracker focused on recovery, strain, and sleep optimization for athletes. https://www.whoop.com/

I use this to augment Peloton data.

WHOOP got me through long covid, and keeps me from overdoing “it”. I will never give it up.

---

FIN

Remember, you can follow and interact with the full text of The Daily Drop’s free posts on:

• Mastodon via @dailydrop.hrbrmstr.dev@dailydrop.hrbrmstr.dev
• Bluesky via <https://bsky.app/profile/dailydrop.hrbrmstr.dev.web.brid.gy>