I like minimalist, customisable software, preferably with a command line interface. I am starting to replace more and more of the programs I use with this kind of software.
Software that I use specifically for ricing can be found on my rice page.
Void Linux
Daily driver since September 2022. Before then, I used Arch Linux since August 2021. I dual booted Ubuntu Linux with Windows 10 for 2 weeks in July 2021, before which I only used Windows 10.
suckless software
Before dwm, I used i3 as my window manager.
sxhkd
For extra keybindings separate from my dwm config.
Vim
I use Vim for most file editing. This includes writing code and text, editing configuration files for software I use, and creating pages for this site. The most recent instance of me not using Vim for a project was in March 2022, when I had to use VSCode for one university assignment. I've encountered people customising Vim with plugins to give it IDE features; I might try this.
Firefox + DuckDuckGo
I use Firefox as my browser, with DuckDuckGo as my search engine. (I originally used Chromium with Google.) I've customised Firefox so that every time I close it, it deletes all cookies (bar those stored by sites I've marked as exceptions) and browsing history. The main advantages of DDG over Google are improved privacy and search results not being filled with ads; however, I have to admit that Google's (non-ad) search results are generally more useful and relevant than DDG's (especially image results), and 'DuckDuckGo' is a stupid name for a search engine.
uBlock Origin
Very useful open-source ad/content blocker. I have never had to watch a YouTube ad on my computer since 2020.
LaTeX
For typesetting university assignments and other projects. I use tlmgr to manage my TeX/LaTeX installation.
cmus
I used to listen to music mostly on YouTube, but I now use this CLI music player with music I've downloaded.
youtube-dl
I've used this program to download over 100 hours of music from YouTube and Bandcamp.
Nicotine+
Free and open-source Soulseek client.
ImageMagick
I use this CLI image editor for simple tasks like cropping and resizing.
feh
Image viewer which I also use to set wallpapers. When I'm using ImageMagick, I tend to use feh to simultaneously display the image I'm editing, as it can show the image changing in real time.
JS Paint
The one thing I miss about Windows is MS Paint. I found that MS Paint had all the functionality I needed from an image editor, and I frequently used it for simple editing and making memes. When I switched to Linux I found that the available image editors either lacked functionality or were too complex for my use case (many open-source image editors are similar to Photoshop, which I've never used because I don't need most of its features). Gimp especially is a massive pain in the ass to use as it is so complicated and unintuitive. When I was using Windows, I'd make memes all the time because MS Paint made it a straightforward process; now that I use Linux I almost never make them.
JS Paint is an online image editor which is the closest thing I can find to MS Paint. I use it (rather than ImageMagick) for more complex/GUI-oriented editing.