Customizing user interfaces in Linux is an utter waste of time. My configuration is possibly one of the laziest, simple setups. I really just want things to work out of the box, more or less. I also can't stand tiling window managers, I just like my window management to be a mess.
What I look for is some degree of accessibility, although I sometimes have the patience to configure things, my patience is limited. While I used to use things like mpd (music player daemon) and various suckless software, I just don't think it's worth the effort. Some things such as bootloaders are definitely worth configuring to get it right, I use Limine for that.
Here's a run-down of my preferred software:
System
- Arch Linux (with soystemD, I know...)
- Limine bootloader
zshshell
Desktop
- XFCE4
- Thunar file browser
- LightDM display manager
Multimedia
mpvvideo player- Ristretto image viewer
- Audacious music player
- OBS studio
Creative
- GIMP image editor
- Inkscape vector graphics editor
- Blender
- Obsidian
- VCV rack
Programming
- GNU Emacs
- XFCE terminal
- TempleOS
Gaming
- Steam
- Discord
Cryptography
- VeraCrypt
- Rustls
- GNU Privacy Guard
Internet
- Tor browser
- Brave browser
- Firefox developer edition
- Transmission GTK
For the free/libre-tards, I have denoted what software I use that is not libre with this icon:
Hardware
I mainly use a desktop PC, the case is the Lian Li A4-H2O. The CPU uses a 240mm AIO water cooler, and there's custom sleeving for the power cables. PSU is a SilverStone 850W SFX.
Custom sleeving
GeForce RTX 4090 FE
Vinyl sticker
KMAC 2