Mike Fallows

Uses

A rundown of my setup and the current apps that I use in 2023. (2022 version).

Changes #

Every year I use Adobe less.

Hardware #

My main work machine is a 2020 Mac Mini with an M1 chip which I use with a 5K LG display. I also have an older 15" Mac Book Pro with an Intel chip I use away from the desk. I was worried that the Mini might feel a little underpowered but I’ve been using it for over two years and love it. The weight, heat and almost constant noise from the fans on my MBP do make me want to pick up a MacBook Air. I use Mackup and a dotfiles repo to keep my dev setup in sync between the two machines.

My main phone is a Pixel. I have some wireless AKG N Series headphones for work (very comfortable, but can fall off I’m agreeing too enthusiastically on a call), and Sennheiser CX300s for out and about.

Editor #

I use VS Code pretty much exclusively now. The ability to customise it is extremely valuable to me because I work across a range of languages, and I got huge value from Caleb Porzio’s Make VS Code Awesome package. That gives me a really elegant setup with very few changes required. Sadly, my VS Code setup is not quite as pretty since an update broke Monkey Patch and Customize UI 😢.

I use the Fira Code font with custom ligatures set.

Terminal #

I tend to use VS Code’s integrated terminal most often, but for tasks not related to a specific project I use iTerm 2 with the Z Shell and Oh My Zsh with the Sorin theme. I use Fira Code here too.

Git #

Most of my project’s code is hosted on GitHub and I use the GitHub Desktop app for most tasks as it’s still much quicker and less error-prone for me to switch between projects and make commits with a visual GUI than on the command line.

Web #

I register domains with GoDaddy as they still seem to cover the most TLDs and I like the ability to access a client’s domains via my own account. The UI is a bit slow, but I haven’t had a serious issue with them yet. I tend to update the nameservers to use Cloudflare as I prefer to manage DNS records there.

For managed hosting I recommend 34SP, but I tend to host on Digital Ocean with servers managed by Forge. That provides me with a nice balance between being able to customise servers without having to leave my comfort zone.

For static sites I go with Netlify.

Misc #