Rocco Himel's Website
My Computing
My Computers
My main computer is a Thinkpad E14, which uses GNU Boot. I used to run Libreboot, but then I realized
the developers started to put nonfree code into Libreboot. So now I use GNU Boot to replace it, so
my initial startup is free software as well. I also have a desktop PC that uses a Xeon E3-1230, which
also has GNU Boot. They all run GNU/Linux distributions which have the nonfree software striped from the
operating system.
Before I ran GNU/Linux, I ran MacOS, which is a nonfree YASP (yet another surveillance program) made by
Apple. I ran MacOS on a 2015 MacBook Pro.
In 2022, I was gifted a MacBook Air M2, because at the time I wanted one. In late 2024, I finished
brainwashing myself with free-software content, then realized that free software was superior to nonfree
software. So I stopped running GNU/Linux in a VM, and started using a distribution called "Asahi", which is
pretty much GNU/Linux for silicon maps.
For school, I did not want to bring that M2 Mac, so instead I brought my old 2015 one instead. Later that year,
my Asahi installation broke, so I failed to partition my Mac M2 NVMe drive. So I got tired of Apple's policy with
the T2 chips and its stupid security.
Then I fully switched to GNU/Linux on my old MacBook. I switched because of course my M2's NVMe died. Since it is
Apple, it has its own nonfree firmware, so the distribution wasn't fully free. In early 2025, I had removed the nonfree
firmware from my GNU/Linux distro and replaced it with my custom free Intel firmware.
Then in April 2025, I had got my first desktop computer, which is the one I use today.
Then in November 2025, I got my Thinkpad E14.
GNU/Linux distribution
I am not big on choosing a distribution.
I personally prefer Debian GNU/Linux, since its software stability. It ships with nonfree firmware by default. I
replaced the firmware with free firmware.
I do not really care about ranking distributions, but I just need something that works well without crashing, and Debian
was the best choice.
My Enviornment
My setup is mostly console, since most of my work is text based. I do not prefer graphical editors as they are complicted.
I do use X11 for some of my work as well. I also do a lot of web browsing on Mozilla Firefox (or on Tor if the website uses
nonfree, unsecure software.), and of course for better display managment. I do not care what graphical enviornment I
use. As long as it is X11, then I am fine with the enviornment. The one I use on Debian however, is MATE,
GNOME is the default but I do know in fact modern GNOME is very resource heavy. MATE is pretty much the
modern continuation of GNOME 2, the old version of GNOME that most people in the GNU/Linux community know
and love.
I do not care about choosing a terminal. I just use the MATE Terminal. I also do not care about choosing a
console based text editor. The one I use is GNU Nano because it is console based and Emacs is very complicated.
I do not use Google Drive, it is YASP. I use my own cloud storage called "libredrive", and it is hosted at home
on my own home server, which runs Debian GNU/Linux with a simple SSH server for file transfer. I used to use SMB
because it was more formal, but then I realized SSH is more secure.
I subscribe to a lot of free software projects on GitHub, so I get a lot of emails about activity. I read my
emails using Aerc, which is a console based email client. If I need to use a graphical interface to read email,
then ThunderBird would be me secondary option. But I mostly use Aerc.
How I Maintain Code
I maintain Modulon compiler code through a git respository. I do the same thing with my website, but everything
related to my domain is hosted on a private repository. I would not consider my website nonfree, because it is my
code running on my server, so no client based software will be ran. If you can, please use LibreJS to block Cloudflare's
scripts from running.
How I Use the Internet
I am very careful when connecting to the internet. I will not willingly use Google or any of their services, as well
as identity portals. I will never visit sites that require me to run nonfree JavaScript on my browser. I use LibreJS to
block all nonfree JavaScript from my computer. If a site I need to visit requires nonfree JavaScript, then I will visit that
site through Tor.
I will not willingly visit sites that want to track me in any way, shape, or form. If I visit a site that does thought, like
Google sites, I will visit through Tor.
I want to stay very private on the internet.
There are many things I do to keep myself private on the horrible place of the internet, where every big tech company wants
to track you.
I usually won't connect to websites directly, but use wget to download them. If I do need to browse online, then I will
use DuckDuckGo. If I want to watch YouTube, then I will use yt-dlp because I will never watch YouTube directly on the site.
I download my chosen YouTube videos as Matroska Video format, since it is free software and MPEG-4 is a nonfree, patented,
proprietary format. I watch the videos I download with VLC.
I download audio files with wget. I will use wget to download MPEG-3 files from a URL and I use sox to convert them into
FLAC, then I delete the MPEG-3 version. I use mpg123 to play FLACs, because it is terminal based. If I want to inspect
audio, then I will use Audacity.
Social Media
I do not like social media at all, esepcially Meta's Facebook and Instagram. I do not want Meta and the CIA to use their
nonfree face-recognition software to track me.
I do have a Reddit account, it is u/rocco_himel. I was banned from r/C_Programming for telling someone that I couldn't
open a link. I however barely use Reddit as the people on there are bitches. I asked someone to beta-test for Modulon 1.1-rc,
and they asked me why I needed beta-testers. I told them it's because I need people to beta-test... because I do.
After I made that posts I got a ton of comments from retards acusing me of a broken compiler all because I didn't
include unit tests for the Modulon source code. I do not trust Reddit at all and I will not willingly use it for anything.
Obviouisly, I do not use Facebook. Meta and the CIA use their face-recognition software to track people on Meta's
platforms. I do not support Meta at all.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Rocco Himel