David Heinemeier Hansson's Setup | Hacker News Reader

David Heinemeier Hansson's Setup

david.heinemeier.hansson.usesthis.com

74 pointsvijaydev70 comments

So how about we turn this into a what's your set up thread?

Hardware: I'll get started. I have three Macs: a Mac Pro, a MacBook Pro, and a MacBook Air. I also have an iPhone. The MacPro and the Air were bought by my company, the MacBook Pro is my personal machine.

I find myself using the MacBook Air a lot. I can take it anywhere with me. When I'm not using it, I'm using the iPhone. If the Air had a SIM card slot I'd probably use it even more.

On the MacPro I have a 24" Samsung monitor. All the other machines I use with their native screens. I also have a Kindle.

Software: I use emacs for writing and coding. I use a mixture of Firefox and Chrome for most everything else since so much of my computer life is in the cloud. Bits of software I love are: Dropbox, Notifo, Evernote and TweetDeck.

Dell XPS M1530 laptop; FreeBSD 7.3; KDE 3.5.10. Konqueror for websites where it works, Firefox when necessary. Thunderbird for email. Text editing in kwrite unless I'm in the middle of doing something in a Konsole, in which case I'll probably use nano. Backups via tarsnap, of course.

On servers, mostly FreeBSD 8.0 (a few boxes are still 7.x), along with djbdns, qmail, ezmlm, apache, stunnel, and tarsnap.

On my android phone: Twidroid, ConnectBot, NetCounter.

Upvoted for XPS M1530 - what an amazing laptop.

For work I use an XPS M1530 with Windows 7, VMWare and a collection of images with different OSes for various purposes. Notepad++ for editing, Eclipse + PyDev for development, Ollydbg and Immunity Debugger for vulnerability research, too many tools to list for penetration testing, OpenOffice for documents and spreadsheets, Google Talk, Thunderbird for mail and TSK and Responder for Disk and Memory forensics.

We have some servers at work, mostly Mac Mini and Linux (to host VMWare, various images from Beos to Sco Unixware), Solaris Sparc box and an old Vaxstation running VMS.

At home I use a 9 year old Vaio SRX-51P/B with a P3 850, 256mb of RAM and Arch Linux. I mostly use Mutt, Chromium, Irssi, centerim, Vim, MC and snownews.

At home I use an Ubuntu 8.04 server mostly for media, printing, DNS (was using djbdns but switched to dnsmasq after a rebuild) and backups and a separate Arch Linux desktop as a MythTV Front/Backend.

XPS M1530 - what an amazing laptop.

Actually, I rather dislike the M1530, at least compared with my previous laptop, a D600. The M1530 tends to get very hot.

My primary hardware is an HP mini. But in all actuality, it's a slicehost ubuntu server running GNU Screen that I can SSH in from any device that can run a descent SSH client, including an iPhone.

http://www.twitpic.com/19sc7e

The terminal app on a jailbroken iPhone is remarkably good at inputing complex emacs keyboard shortcuts once you map the gestures right and it becomes second nature. Can't wait to jailbreak the 3G iPad. If that works out exactly like it does on the iPhone it could become my primary hardware.

MacBook + 24" Dell Monitor at work. 24" iMac at home. I have an iPhone (for being mobile) and Kindle (for reading), too. And a moleskine squared notepad which I take everywhere.

Software: RubyMine, Sequel Pro, Dropbox, Adobe Photoshop & Google Chrome. And GMail.

Computer 1: 13" plastic MacBook running Snow Leopard. Software: Emacs, Quicksilver, Firefox, MacIrssi, Adium, Terminal and (even though I hate its guts) iTunes.

Computer 2: Dell 1520 running Windows 7. I also run Haiku in a VM. Software: Emacs, Launchy, Firefox, XChat, Pidgin, PowerShell and (praise be upon its sweet soul) Winamp.

Web applications: GMail and Etherpad. I'm not big on webapps.

I think there's a pattern here :)

At work, I use a Dell Optiplex 755 running Ubuntu 9.10 with a 22" HannsG and 19" Dell LCD. At home I use a 15" MacBook Pro (1st Gen "lap burner") connected to a 22" Acer 1080p LCD when I'm at my desk.

Software-wise, I usually run either Eclipse when I'm at work doing Java development or Intellij Idea 9 when I'm on the Mac at home doing Grails development for side projects. I usually keep an instance of VirtualBox open when I'm at work so I can run Windows XP and Microsoft Outlook since Evolution on Linux is a POS. At home I use Mail since I can check both my work Exchange account and GMail account and it just works. I bought Snow Leopard for just that reason.

http://imgur.com/NuKqC.jpg

T61, [22"]*2, Ubuntu, Emacs, Chrome + Firefox.

Are you using D-Sub/VGA or DVI from a docking station?

One monitor is connected to VGA and the other to DVI. I use URandR to control the displays. It is awesome.

Hardware: Dell Vista box with 24" and 22" monitor and Mac Mini with 22" monitor with single wireless Logitech Wave keyboard/mouse via Synergy. Dell Mini 9 netbook with Ubuntu Remix also hooked to Synergy when its at my desk.

[EDIT]

Here is an older picture of the setup:

http://imgur.com/iAqED.jpg

[/EDIT]

Software: use Window's box for dev work - Notepad++ for editing, FF/Chrome for browser, and Mac for communications - Adium for IM (AIM and internal Jabber) and Colloquy for irc (wmassdevs on freenode) and FF for gmail/google apps/co-op/basecamp/etc.

If I had more desk space I'd have more monitors. I'm moving soon and may end up either attaching monitor arms to the walls or building a shelf for the second set of monitors.

Is it just me who expected to see a list of hair styling products? ;)

Does DHH stand out as a person who uses a lot of it, or are you not used to men using any at all?

Currently, American Crew medium hold/shine. Occasionally, Bubble & Bubble #5.

But of course the real secret is in how you apply just the right swirl.

Thanks. Might have to check those out :)

I always end up with half my hair like its been dipped in honey, and the other half dry as a bone when I use anything. I'm probably making some n00b error though :/

Rub it into your hands first and then apply it to your head.

And don't use so much.

Cool site. If you want a laugh, check out RMS's: http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com

pg presented his setup, too: http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/

Re-reading that makes me think pg is thrilled about his iPad (which I'm assuming he bought)

I bet he isn't thrilled about iPad - can't connect it to HD screen and he wasn't such a big fan of iPhone OS either.

Wow. What? I have now realized that all this time, I had absolutely no idea what Paul Graham looked like!

"I'd like it if the Air was about half the size. I don't know why Apple won't make something in between the Air and an iPhone."

I'd have thought this was a joke if it was published a couple months ago, but I'm pretty sure March 2009 was before the iSlate rumors ever started. Good call, pg.

Mine: http://mark.pilgrim.usesthis.com/

HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1089512

RMS' setup just makes me sad

I read RMS' setup and found it inspirational. He has strong convictions and he lives by them, even though they cause him personal pain.

Having strong convictions and living in pain is cool if it makes a difference in the world. I'm not convinced RMS not using anything that has 'unfree' software makes any difference to anyone or anything. He's deluded himself into believing that he has more freedom than people who use closed source software.

I wonder if he wears a digital watch, owns a TV, drives a car, uses a printer etc etc. All of which have closed source software within.

>I wonder if he wears a digital watch, owns a TV, drives a car, uses a printer etc etc. All of which have closed source software within.

I'd never seen a pic of RMS before the above link, but given how he looks like a cross between a hippy, a geek and a caveman, I'd say highly unlikely.

(btw, not trying to put the man down, I admire his work!)

You underestimate the signal he sends by instisting on free software.

If you look at the isolated incident of RMS insisting on only using machines where the software is free (as in freedom) it doesn't make mucha of a difference as you say.

But if you look at the greater picture where RMS is one of the premier advocates for free software it makes a huge difference. He gains credibility by the bucketloads by refusing to use nonfree software, and he can't be called a hypocrite - he actually acts as he preaches. Look at Jgrahamc's comment above for an example. Whether or not it gives him personal freedom I don't know.

> You underestimate the signal he sends by instisting on free software.

It's all about the signal: that's how discussions and politics follow. I have a friend who is strictly vegetarian because of the reactions and discussions that follow, even though he believes otherwise that we sometimes do more harm to our environment in subtle indirect ways (like a fruit company which would contribute to regimes in third world countries).

If it makes the person feel better by being a martyr, then great. But don't think any of it will change the world.

I think you're mistaken. RMS has changed the world exactly because his convictions are so strong that he lives by them in every little detail. If you notice it people that change the world almost always religiously live by what they preach. Their followers take notice of this and aspire to it. It becomes clear that here is someone that talks the talks and walks the walk without cutting corners. Thus they become leaders of a movement.

There are plenty of examples of this from Jesus to Nelson Mandela. It's not about being a martyr or experiencing personal pain, it's about holding true to your values no matter what. It's a very hard thing to do, but that is how you change the world.

I think you're vastly overplaying his significance in changes that would have happened anyway. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that.

Also I disagree about being able to change the world best from extremist positions. The world isn't perfect. You have to be willing to compromise, and accept that you won't get everything you want (At least in one go).

Sure, extremists are sort of to be admired in how strongly they believe in their cause, and how they're often willing to die for it (Or put up with using a 9" computer), but I think far more is accomplished by moderate, compromising people who work toward their goals step by step.

For one thing, he's lost a potential audience - most people will simply write him off as a mad extremist hippy, and not listen to anything he says.

And how much difference has the whole 'free software movement' made when the whole of HN is salivating over perhaps the most closed device ever created with the iPad.

Absolutely, nothing wrong in disagreeing. As a matter of fact some of the best insights spring from respectful disagreement.

From another perspective, RMS's setup is also so much of a hair shirt that he'd be one of the hardest tech celebrities for hackers to target. Especially considering he only infrequently connects to the Internet like a nuclear submarine surfacing to communicate with a satellite.

He's living his life within emacs, as the Lord intended, and I imagine he is thus quite pleased.

Just because someone adopts a different lifestyle I do not think we should laugh at him, or do you laugh when you see a sikh with a turban?

Your comment comes across as though there's an implication that someone that laughs at an indvidual is racist in some way, although I'm hoping that wasn't how it was intended.

I don't laugh at RMS anymore. I feel pity for him. Sure he's written some programs that are used by a lot of people but he wants to appropriate the word freedom for his own purposes. Anyone that doesn't do things that fit his definition of freedom is not allowed to use terms like 'Free' and when it comes to that he can be a bit of a troll and in some ways self-parodying, but don't ask me, just talk to anyone using an MIT or BSD licence who's crossed swords with him.

> "Your comment comes across as though there's an implication that someone that laughs at an indvidual is racist in some way"

No, I'm not, you could simply exchange "Sikh with turban" with "guy with a female swimsuit in Manhattan financial district", anyway, sorry for that, my english is awful for non-technical purposes.

For the second paragraph, I do agree with you, but I still think we must not laugh at him or at anyone using a esoteric hardware combination for whatever reason there is in their heads, justified or not, one more information, I saw Stallman at a presentation in the past and he had a HP laptop back in 2002.

"he wants to appropriate the word freedom for his own purposes"

That's a crime shared by about anyone with political opinions in the US.

I assume you're downvoting me because your idea of freedom is the true one?

Too much of anything is not good for you. Middleway is the path to follow.

David HH's lamborghini

http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2009/11/coyotes-pulitzer-an...

Side note: White Lamborghinis with pearl paint are actually absolutely beautiful in a minimalistic way. You have to have it coming from behind at a fast speed to really see what I'm talking about.

I went to a DHH talk in Copenhagen when he left Denmark for the US. One of his major stated reasons was the insane Danish car tax (180%). He would probably not have been able to afford it had he stayed behind :-)

That explains the robust Danish automobile industry.

I really admire dhh and what he's done. His talk at SUS '08 was phenomenal. We had a chance to chat and he seems like a cool guy. He's one of my many sources of inspiration.

That being said, who cares what anyone's setup is? It's not like, "Set up like this guy and you will perform like this guy." There is about zero correlation between setup and performance. A better post would be, "What dhh does and why he does it."

As for me, I have a single monitor with 2 sessions, one with lime green code on a black background in textpad and the other a test session in a browser. Both are full screen. Alt-tab is my friend. I prefer an underpowered box. If I can make it work there, I can make it work anywhere.

Is this the secret to my success? Of course not. Put 10 programmers in a room and get 11 different setups.

Use whatever setup works best for you. If you want to find out what makes someone else successful, dig a little below the surface for the wisdom waiting to be extracted by those not so obsessed with the superficial.

I think the point of the site is not really to imitate someone's setup. It rather serves as a kind of anecdote at best, and in some cases (like RMS) gives interesting insight.

"As for me, I have a single monitor with 2 sessions, one with lime green code on a black background in textpad and the other a test session in a browser. Both are full screen. Alt-tab is my friend. I prefer an underpowered box. If I can make it work there, I can make it work anywhere."

That too, is be kind of interesting to read, especially the ending. I will not go on and imitate your setup now, since i got my own, but the underpowered-box stuff is good enough to remember.

Actually, I'm usually interested in what productivity tools people use. It doesn't matter if you're famous or not, I just like watching how people get things done.

It's "celebrity" gossip fodder at best.

     20 MacBook Pro
     20 Firefox
     18 Safari
     16 iTunes
     15 iPhone
     14 Mac Pro
     13 Tweetie
     13 Mail
     12 TextMate
     10 Twitterrific
     10 Photoshop
     10 iChat
     10 iCal
     10 Gmail
     10 Dropbox
      9 Twitter
      9 Time Machine
      9 Terminal
      9 MacBook
      9 Google Reader
      8 Xcode
      8 Things
      8 iMac
      7 Quicksilver
      7 NetNewsWire
      7 LaunchBar
      7 Flickr
      7 Coda
      7 Adium
      6 Transmit
      6 Instapaper
      6 Illustrator
      6 Google Chrome
      6 Evernote

And it has _why's as well (including a photo of him??)

http://why.usesthis.com/

reads link

Wait - what?!

Check the date (Feb 2009)

In addition to learning about their setup, it's great to put a face to so many interesting online names. Thanks for putting this together waferbaby. Direct link: http://usesthis.com/

DHH in California? what's going on there?

Living it up in Malibu, like Iron Man.

The one thing I'm surprised about is the external SSD for the 27" iMac. I can't see how it would be faster running the whole system through the Firewire bus. Here are some throughput benchmarks of SSD drives I found from OWC (a well known Mac accessory online retailer):

7200 rpm external drive:

eSATA - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQM7500GB16/HIT0A...

FW800 - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQM7500GB16/HIT0A...

SSD external drive:

eSATA - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQMSSD050/eSATA.p...

FW800 - http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/OWCMEQMSSD050/fw800.p...

Summary: Via eSATA, the 7200rpm drive tops out around 100MB/sec while the SSD drive hits > 200MB/sec. Via FW800 both drives only max out around 80MB/sec which is the approximate upper limit of FW800 I believe.

DHH, if you're reading perhaps you can provide a more subjective take on the real-world performance? I'm curious as I have a 27" iMac and would love to be able to get the SSD speed boost without taking off the glass and voiding warranties.

The main speed benefit of SSDs is not throughput, but random access speeds. That's what makes it feel so magically fast. SSD over FW800 still gives you that.

Very interesting. I've considered putting an SSD in my Mac mini, but opening them is a pain and I was under the vague impression that latency would suffer over Firewire. Glad to hear it works well, what enclosure are you using?

I think I may give it a shot. Thanks for the feedback.

I second the SSD recommendation. It's a must have on any Macbook Pro.

Spoiler Alert: It's all Mac.

It's not actually all Mac, fwiw. I try to find interesting people more than interesting setups, and this is what they tend to use. :)

I was surprised to see the woman that works for Microsoft Research talking about her iPhone, Mac and so on. Or is that not surprising?

Not too surprising: http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/15/10-of-microsoft-employee...

That was short and sweet. I had never heard of the SnapSnap... it looks fantastic. It definitely has a better positive/negative review ratio than most products I've ever checked out on Amazon.

Totally off-topic: What font is that?

Droid sans. Don't you have Firebug installed?

Following the links to the CSS stylesheets works well, too: http://david.heinemeier.hansson.usesthis.com/stylesheets/scr...

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