Mean Lean Machine

09-18-2025

Sometimes I like to use terminal apps like WordGrinder, Ranger, or Epy to do tasks that you probably wouldn't associate with doing on a terminal, just by using Linux I do a ton of things on the terminal that most computer users wouldn't do, like installing programs and managing files --of course you dont HAVE to, but it's just part of the fun--, but I go a little further still by reading ebooks on Epy or writing this on WordGrinder. I don't do it just to be minimalist to the extreme, I also don't do it just to feel like a hacker (ok, maybe a little bit of that).

Mostly I think I do it because I like what could be called "lean computing"; it's not minimalism because I have nothing against using my computer to do any thing that can be done with a computer, I have nothing against having a UI that looks beautiful and polished (to me, at least); but I just like my software to do exactly what I ask it to do, no more no less.

In other words, I hate bloat. I think bloat is not just uncomfortable, it's harmful and unethical; it's the reason we don't have the world-saving technollogy that we were promised since computers became a thing. It makes technollogy less accessible and it makes it progress not just more slowly but in the wrong direction.

Using the computer like this somehow feels more direct, like I'm using the thing in way that it's meant to be used. It's byzantine, I know. Maybe it just amuses me and that's enough.