
Paul Graham : uses this. - skbohra123
http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/
======
jacobolus
> _I'd like it if the Air was about half the size._ [...]

> _I'd like it if the HD display was bigger and much lighter and didn't have
> such a massive octopus of cables attached to it._

Looks like Apple agreed. The more recent Apple displays are bigger and have
mostly eliminated the “octopus of cables” (when LightPeak hits this should
even further improve), and the new Air is substantially smaller.

~~~
zackattack
I'm thinking about getting a new Macbook Air, but I'm concerned about his
desire for unlimited fast CPU: the new Airs have pointedly lacking CPU
resources.

~~~
slyn
Potentially relevant: [http://www.anandtech.com/show/4000/apples-11inch-
upgraded-ma...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/4000/apples-11inch-upgraded-
macbook-air-review-do-16ghz-and-4gb-make-a-difference)

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maxklein
Pretty standard setup he uses. The most informative usesthis I've seen is with
Marco Arment: <http://marco.arment.usesthis.com/>

~~~
KeithMajhor
Wow! you're right, that's awesome.

When I got done reading the "What hardware are you using?" section I laughed
at the heading of the "What would be your dream setup?" section.

------
skbohra123
One common thing in all usesthis.com interviews is, no one uses Windows OS as
their main operating system and Mac is used most. Only person I found using
Windows is Mitch Altman so far.

~~~
billmcneale
Yet, 90% of developers use Windows on a daily basis. The people interviewed in
usesthis are just not very representative of the community (a bit like using a
conference to claim that 90% of developers use Mac Books).

I'm still sad to see some of these people (including pg) use such antiquated
tools. I use vi on a daily basis but just for very small text files, you can
be so much more productive with more modern tools these days.

~~~
btilly
_Yet, 90% of developers use Windows on a daily basis._

Citation needed.

My primary operating system has been Linux for the last decade. I don't think
that I'm that unusual.

~~~
colomon
"Use Windows" might to be the key here. I mean, my main development machine is
a MacBook Pro, and I use headless Linux machines heavily. But I've always got
a Windows machine booted up, and I've got Parallels running Windows on my MBP
about half of the time.

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vgurgov
I also enjoyed this interview with _why <http://why.usesthis.com/>

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jmonegro
"I don't know why Apple won't make something in between the Air and an
iPhone."

Well that would be the iPad. This is from 2009, I wonder what pg thinks of the
iPad regarding this quote. Really makes you notice how fast things change in a
year nowadays.

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kingsidharth
This whole thing was more like - let's build a random profile. Nothing that I
didn't already know.

Interviews are supposed to give a reflection of a person, their thinking
process or get an insider scoop. Nothing here.

EDIT: Sorry people, just saw that interview aimed to know the tools he used to
get things done. So my bad!

~~~
qjz
Nothing _superfluous_ here. He's a minimalist.

~~~
mhd
Depending on your usage, a terminal isn't necessarily minimalistic, apart from
the visual side. I've known a lot of people who live in Excel, who could be
deemed more minimalistic than a lot of Unix users, using umpteen command-line
utilities, a few ad-hoc programming and expression languages…

(Not saying that pg does it that way. For all I know, he might just use vi and
mzscheme after all)

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thinkMoveBe
In these interviews I rarely come across a piece of software or hardward that
isn't accessible from an economic standpoint. Almost always run of the mill
stuff. A nice reminder to a guy like me that can get caught up in
gear/books/sites, etc. It's not the gear it's 'that' and 'how' you use it.

I just finished reading "Coders at Work". An I 'used' this would make an
interesting site as well. Especially if there were pics of some of those old
machines. I borrowed a unix book from a friend and he had been using an old
punchcard as a bookmark. Neat little find.

------
known
<http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/> should be interesting.

~~~
docgnome
A bit. I admire his principles of using free software only no mater what.

~~~
RexRollman
Agreed. I appreciate Stallman's efforts even though I do not always see eye to
eye with him.

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antipaganda
What the hell? American McGee has large eyes like a classic angel:
<http://american.mcgee.usesthis.com/>

edit: Look, I'm not dissing the man. His eyes are angelically beautiful. I
must admit, probably not an insight into what tools he uses, but I just hadn't
noticed before.

------
wyclif
_I use the usual Unix utilities (vi for editing)._

Not vim? Not MacVim? You ssh to a server and use vanilla vi?

~~~
tvon
I think it's usually safe to assume that when people say 'vi' they mean 'vim'.

~~~
pyre
On most systems for the past while 'vi' is just a link to/copy of vim in
compatibility mode.

~~~
pak

      A
      B
      D
      D
      C
    

_assorted curses_

    
    
      <esc>
      :q!
      $ echo "alias vi=vim" >> ~/.bashrc

------
bengl3rt
Why can't I create my own usesthis page? Who decides who's important or
interesting enough to get "interviewed"?

~~~
chrislloyd
Wanting to make your own Uses This page is like asking "Why don't they let
anybody publish an article in the New Yorker?" It is curated content.

However, there is nothing stopping you from publishing your own version on
your own site. Or bribing with @waferbaby with yummy vegan treats.

~~~
sudont
"yummy vegan treats."

Oxymoron, fellow weekend warrior. Butter must be included. However, it is not
an element in the periodic table of deliciousness--because it is so
fundamental it is the up-quark of baking.

------
samratjp
You know you've made it when you're on the list of most of these alpha geeks.
Dropbox, i.e.

~~~
natep
pg funded Dropbox (and probably all of the non-Google software he mentions,
except Yahoo Store, which he wrote), fyi

~~~
samratjp
Why, of course he did - not on the first time around though :-)

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mapleoin
Which site is he managing with Yahoo Store?

~~~
tomhoward
<http://paulgraham.com/>

~~~
mapleoin
Oh, I thought he was talking about an actual store. I suppose this explains
the _believe it or not_ part.

~~~
meelash
I was thinking the _believe it or not_ was on account of who invented the
Yahoo store?

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paolomaffei
Paul Graham has a screen smaller then mine and uses two software I didn't know
existed which I will now check out, that's everything vaguely "interesting" I
found in this.

~~~
phob
Thank you for commenting on this article.

~~~
paolomaffei
I don't understand. Am I not supposed to say that I found this article
pointless and everyone is upvoting it just because it has "Paul Graham" in the
title? Sometimes HN really surprises me.

~~~
steveklabnik
Generally, you'd get upvoted for saying a bit more than "this article sucked."

Then again, I didn't downvote you, so...

