Echasnovski (pt 2): Linux, Terminals, and Tools (Ghostty vs Kitty, NixOS, Arch)

Neovim 0.12 Release with the Core Team

In this episode, I’m joined by members of the Neovim core team to talk about the Neovim 0.12 release, the biggest new features, project direction, AI, workflows, plugins, and why people still use Neovim in a world full of AI editors and modern IDEs. This is not just a Neovim 0.12 feature overview. It’s also a conversation to help people get to know the humans behind the project. We talk about what changed in Neovim 0.12, how the release came together, what maintainers care about, how they personally use Neovim, and where they see Neovim going next. We talk about Neovim 0.12 features, multicursor, the new intro screen, the new build system, UI improvements, Ghostty progress bar support, checkhealth, bug reports, :restart, tmux-related workflows, terminal rendering, Doom in Neovim, LazyVim and Neovim 0.12, AI in Neovim, and more. If you use Neovim, Vim, LazyVim, Ghostty, tmux, or you’re just curious why people still care so much about terminal-based editors, this episode should be for you. -------------------------- Guests in this episode: Justin Keyes, Neovim lead maintainer GitHub: https://github.com/justinmk [https://github.com/justinmk] Maria Solano, Neovim core maintainer GitHub: https://github.com/MariaSolOs [https://github.com/MariaSolOs] Gregory Anders, Neovim core maintainer GitHub: https://github.com/gpanders [https://github.com/gpanders] bfredl, Neovim core maintainer GitHub: https://github.com/bfredl [https://github.com/bfredl] -------------------------- Video: https://youtu.be/EiBg91LTOYk [https://youtu.be/EiBg91LTOYk] What's the best way to support me? https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough [https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough] Timeline: 00:00:00 - Highlights 00:00:59 - What is Neovim? 00:06:45 - Why people still use Neovim with so many other options? 00:14:31 - How much AI are you integrating into Neovim? 00:17:21 - How is the money (donations) side of things going for Neovim? 00:19:44 - Who is Bfredl (Full time Neovim Employee, living the dream) 00:22:17 - Who is Maria Solano - MariaSolOs 00:23:37 - Who is Gregory Anders - gpanders 00:25:32 - What about Mitchell Hashimoto's Libghostty 00:29:12 - Who is Justin Keyes? 00:31:45 - What about multicursor? 00:33:13 - Justin asking: What do you see as the project direction? 00:43:04 - Bredl throwing Justin under the bus. Multicursor demo 00:44:12 - New Intro screen demo 00:46:37 - Ok, now really multicursor 00:50:11 - bredl demo: the new build system 00:53:24 - Maria demos 00:57:32 - How do I upgrade to neovim 0.12 as a mac virgin? 00:58:19 - What about LazyVim users and Neovim 0.12? 00:59:02 - Frontend andies that need to see their colors 01:01:12 - gpanders demo 01:02:01 - Progress bar when using Ghostty 01:04:12 - nvim_open_term to show rendered terminal output without escape sequences 01:06:06 - Playing Doom in Neovim 01:08:32 - Kitty scrollback works with neovim 0.12 no plugins 01:09:28 - Justin demo, super K for help files 01:12:29 - Checkhealth, bug report on GitHub 01:14:16 - UI 2 overview 01:19:07 - How does :restart work? 01:19:50 - Tmux functionality, attach, detach, etc

Echasnovski (pt 2): Linux, Terminals, and Tools (Ghostty vs Kitty, NixOS, Arch)

Part 2 of my 3+ hour chat with Echasnovski (mini.nvim / MiniMax) goes full Linux and tooling mode. We continue our Neovim discussion, then we get to know the nvim-mini team, talk about EndeavourOS + Arch (and the Ubuntu-to-Arch jump), how he approaches updates, thoughts on NixOS, and the macOS “it’s expensive” misconception. Then we get into terminals: why Ghostty over Kovid Goyal’s Kitty, whether the performance difference is real, and his thoughts on Kovid. If you’re into distros, terminals, and practical dev workflows, this one is for you. Video: https://youtu.be/UqlkKK7imjo [https://youtu.be/UqlkKK7imjo] What's the best way to support me? https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough [https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough] Timeline: 00:00:00 - Highlights 00:01:58 - MiniMax LSP config 00:06:19 - The team behind the nvim-mini project 00:08:40 - Are you a dictator like Justin and Kovid? 00:10:51 - Why do you do all this. Accept donations? 00:13:01 - Is each plugin a separate repo? How does that work? 00:14:46 - Why each plugin was moved to a separate repo? 00:17:43 - Background, studies, job 00:22:24 - Echasnovski needs support 00:24:27 - Are you part of the Neovim Core team? 00:25:03 - Contributions to Neovim 00:27:03 - Why this love for Neovim? 00:28:06 - Thoughts on Tmux and neovim tabs 00:29:31 - Relative line numbers? 00:33:23 - Thoughts on purists saying you have to stick to defaults 00:35:04 - Thoughts on extending Neovim 00:36:32 - Gregory Anders beef with the .setup call 00:46:45 - Thoughts on AI generated PRs 00:48:30 - Thoughts on AI, or should we say LLMs? 00:52:20 - Why Ghostty and not king Goyal's terminal? 00:55:58 - Felt performance difference between Ghostty and Kitty? 00:57:38 - Are you a fangirl of Kovid? (Kitty and Calibre creator) 00:58:59 - Which Linux distro do you use? EndeavourOS 01:01:10 - From Ubuntu to Arch 01:04:52 - Do regular updates on a day you have time 01:09:21 - Thoughts on NixOS 01:10:17 - Thoughts on macOS and the misconception that its expensive 01:15:17 - Thoughts on Echasnovski's accent 01:17:35 - From LazyVim to MiniMax?

Echasnovski (pt 1): mini.nvim, MiniMax & Neovim Contributions

Echasnovski is the creator of mini.nvim, as per the website: "Library of 40+ independent Lua modules improving overall Neovim (version 0.9 and higher) experience with minimal effort." He's also the creator of MiniMax: "MiniMax is a collection of fully working self-contained Neovim configs. All of the them: Use mostly MINI to showcase its capabilities. Provide out of the box a stable, polished, and feature rich Neovim experience. Share minimal structure with potential to build upon. Contain extensively commented config files meant to be read." The interview is over 3 hours long, so it is split in 2. Part 2 is going to be released soon Video: https://youtu.be/ypJTkwarAVE [https://youtu.be/ypJTkwarAVE] What's the best way to support me? https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough [https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough] Timeline: 00:00:00 - Highlights 00:01:36 - How do we pronounce your name 00:04:23 - What do you do in the neovim community? 00:07:53 - Neovim 0.5 and the wild wild west of lua plugins 00:10:23 - We've been planning this interview for over 6 months 00:12:20 - Echasnovski's ban on reddit 00:14:59 - Colorscheme theory (that I didn't understand, not normie friendly) 00:22:10 - Color theory is very complex as everyone is different 00:23:30 - Gruvbox is for old people, highly saturated colors 00:27:15 - Echasnovski created the default Neovim colorscheme 00:27:38 - Justin Keyes also likes boring colors. Old soul trapped in a young body 00:29:17 - Is Justin a dictator? 00:32:18 - Why the reddit ban? 00:38:49 - long reddit posts go through mod's approval 00:40:17 - How does the shadown ban work? 00:42:02 - Shoutout to Lukas Reineke 00:43:37 - Account restored by a misterious reddit employee 00:45:19 - Self hosting git server, codeberg, tangled.org [http://tangled.org] 00:48:02 - Why planning on self hosting? 00:49:17 - Explaining the repo structure of mini.nvim 00:50:44 - You also have a picker? mini.pick 00:52:15 - Sylvan Franklin seems to use mini.pick 00:52:53 - Custom pickers? 00:54:03 - Issues with the matching of some pickers 00:56:18 - mini.pick has a frecency option? mini-visits (sounds like a prison conjugal visit) 00:59:30 - Thoughts on telescope? 01:01:00 - Why did you move from vim to neovim? 01:03:48 - Embarrassing experience with vim at work 01:05:32 - vscode neovim plugin 01:07:21 - Do you remember your first times using vim, was it tough? 01:10:38 - Thoughts on distros? What do you recommend to a beginner? 01:16:58 - What happened to lunarvim? 01:18:23 - Lazyvim distro or kickstart 01:19:38 - MiniMax demo 01:21:24 - Is MiniMax designed for complete beginners? 01:25:59 - mini.clue and why not which-key? 01:26:37 - Folke is always on vacation 01:29:11 - Did you copy Helix? 01:31:01 - The which-key hate continues 01:35:29 - Interview with Folke? 01:36:02 - The 30_mini.lua config file 01:39:21 - What if I want to use my own picker with MiniMax? 01:42:14 - Single config file for all plugins or a file per plugin? 01:44:21 - Echasnovski allegedly created the new neovim plugin manager vim.pack 01:48:10 - Should I wait for Neovim 0.12 before trying MiniMax? 01:52:22 - vim.pack doesn't have a healthcheck because it's perfect 01:52:54 - vim.pack demo 01:54:16 - Do you use any other plugins besides mini.nvim?

Sylvan Franklin: Looks Like a 12 Year Old, but Already has Peach Fuzz

This is the 2nd time (or third time, would be forth but he no showed no called me once, MF) that Vimothée Chalamet AKA @sylvanfranklin shows up in my channel. In the last interview we discussed about Neovim, drugs (including Adderall), and many other topics. But it seems that as of Q4 2025 he's going for the kefir, kombucha, yoga pants, breathing techniques, pachamama and on his way to become a zen monk. Or maybe not. Let's see what he's up to because he changes his mind every couple of months. Video: https://youtube.com/live/vLfaiRHT6bo [https://youtube.com/live/vLfaiRHT6bo] What's the best way to support me? https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough [https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough]

YouTux: Linux Distros, Supporting FOSS, Apple & More

YouTux is a fairly new YouTube channel, only 1.5 years and it has double my subscribers, we'll touch on a lot of interesting and probably controversial topics. If you want to support open source projects, for every $5 donate as superchats, YouTux will donate the same amount to an open source project. All the superchats will also be donated to an open source project. All of the podcast episodes are available in all podcasting platforms, like spotify, apple music, deezer, etc. If you don't find it in one, let me know and I'll add it Video: https://youtube.com/live/TOUby-uuZ4I [https://youtube.com/live/TOUby-uuZ4I] What's the best way to support me? https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough [https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough] Timeline: 00:00 - Introduction and Audio Check 02:00 - Guest Introduction and Channel Growth 04:00 - Discussing Linux Distributions and Hardware 06:00 - Transition to Void Linux and Debian Politics 09:00 - Polarization in the Open Source Community 12:00 - Debian's Political Changes and Systemd 16:00 - Value of Disagreement and Text Editors 18:00 - Critique of Systemd and Unix Philosophy 20:00 - IBM's Role and Linux Fragmentation 24:00 - Wayland vs X11 and Ubuntu's Evolution 28:00 - Critique of Zorin OS and Distro Recommendations 32:40 - Thoughts on arch 35:51 - Donations dynamic 37:42 - Zorin OS scam 43:55 - What terminal do you use 45:00 - Thoughts on Omarchy 46:27 - woke non woke 48:20 - Debian king, Slackware the queen 49:48 - Linkarzu switching to Void Linux? 51:15 - 21K subs, burnout? 54:44 - background, studies 55:38 - sponsorships and intellectual freedom 59:00 - tired of watching youtube and the algorithm? 01:01:45 - favorite youtubers RiccardoPalombo and antirez 01:04:28 - Bathroom break and pulp fiction mask 01:06:33 - Thoughts on NixOS 01:07:30 - I have no mercy 01:08:12 - The queen @AndreaBorman and why the mask? 01:09:45 - Thoughts on macOS 01:12:40 - Apple M series hardware 01:13:55 - Snapdragon and ARM on Linux? 01:14:45 - Thoughts on Window's 01:16:35 - THE "FREE" WORD MISCONCEPTION 01:20:00 - immick, Jellyfin, SearXNG, Mail server 01:23:28 - how to fix the poor FREE mentality 01:26:05 - Is your channel an AI? 01:28:57 - AI thumbnail fail 01:30:40 - Nobody uses AI, but everyone builds now, suspicious? 01:33:35 - Thoughts on substance abuse 01:36:00 - 2 favorites movies 01:39:00 - books 01:40:40 - talking about the queen again 01:42:45 - split the channel? 01:44:50 - Video analytics and money 01:50:00 - Superchats, you will match the donations