Kovid Goyal: Linux, Window Managers, and GitHub Controversies

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

4 Linux Queens vs 1 MacOS Virgin

Stability wisdom and a peaceful life, or bleeding edge? Some say Debian is a legacy distro with legacy packages, some say Arch gives them nightmares. I'm still trying to get a response for the question I've been asking in all these interviews, which distro should I try first 😂 So who is right then, who should we trust? Video: https://youtu.be/pkLG2SwR7J8 [https://youtu.be/pkLG2SwR7J8] Participants: https://youtube.com/⁨@AndreaBorman⁩ [https://youtube.com/⁨@AndreaBorman⁩] https://youtube.com/⁨@DistroTube⁩ [https://youtube.com/⁨@DistroTube⁩] https://youtube.com/@tony-btw [https://youtube.com/@tony-btw] https://youtube.com/@LinuxRenaissance [https://youtube.com/@LinuxRenaissance] 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 00:01:55 - 4 linux queens vs 1 mac gigachad 00:03:23 - Andrea Borman 00:06:51 - DistroTube 00:10:44 - Darth 00:14:21 - Tony 00:17:53 - Darth's hat and red hat 00:20:30 - FreeBSD 00:21:27 - Andrea Borman Demo 00:24:45 - SuperChat by Darth 00:26:36 - DistroTube Demo 00:30:37 - Wheres DT from and weather 00:32:30 - DT switching to CachyOS and audio issues 00:36:42 - Copyright strikes 00:41:25 - DT strikes tony on the "Propietary Garbage" phrase 00:41:53 - Andrea issues with ads, brave, firefox, chromium 00:43:45 - Darth demo 00:49:15 - Wallpapers do most of the heavy lifting when ricing 00:49:57 - Transparent terminal? 00:50:45 - Tony's demo (OXWM) 00:53:49 - Only If you do YouTube you need more than 1 monitor 00:56:01 - Andrea, why Debian and not Arch 00:59:23 - DT's thoughts on Debian 01:01:49 - Darths thoughts on Arch as a Debian user 01:06:18 - Gaming and streaming at the same time on Debian 01:08:08 - Malware in the AUR 01:09:26 - DT: Do you trust the AUR with your soul? 01:10:23 - Andrea dissing on the AUR 01:11:54 - Dependencies and the chaotic AUR 01:13:48 - Tony's thoughts on Debian 01:14:20 - Debian is gentoo with a GUI installer 01:16:13 - Dependency hell in Debian 01:17:05 - Thoughts on Omarchy 01:25:02 - Tonarchy 01:27:32 - X11 vs Wayland

Kovid Goyal: Linux, Window Managers, and GitHub Controversies

Kovid Goyal is the creator of the Kitty terminal and the Calibre e-book reader. We had an interview around 4 months ago. After that interview, I became a fan of the myth, the legend. So much so that I switched back from Ghostty to Kitty as my main terminal. Well, not just because, but because he implemented a feature I was missing in Ghostty: Sessions. So I was able to replace my beloved tmux with kitty and I've been running without tmux for a few months now, it's been good. Video: https://youtu.be/SY8L-cj4x6k [https://youtu.be/SY8L-cj4x6k] 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 00:02:31 - 2nd time 00:03:24 - choose-files kitten image and video preview demo 00:07:30 - Does it replace the open file dialogue on macOS or just Linux? 00:09:13 - Why do you create all these protocols and tools? 00:10:34 - The itch of improving your workflow. Do you over optimize? 00:12:06 - What file manager do you use, yazi or something else? 00:13:12 - How is Calibre pronounced? 00:14:20 - The name Kitty 00:15:36 - How and why did you get started with computers? 00:16:07 - Mother PhD got ZX Spectrum 00:16:58 - Book source code of various games 00:19:15 - Sony and the PRS-500 reverse engineering 00:22:05 - Wife thoughts on you leaving Caltech to work on Open Source 00:23:37 - Are you happy going the Open Source route? 00:24:48 - The misconception of the rude maintainer 00:25:57 - 0 bugs philosophy 00:27:15 - More issues, Calibre or Kitty? 00:27:46 - Competition with other terminals, Ghostty, WezTerm 00:28:44 - Kitty got started because terminal sucked back then 00:30:40 - Why not use the computer like a normie? 00:31:59 - Your wife and friends understand your passion for the terminal? 00:33:16 - Kovid's browser Vise 00:38:07 - Are kitty and calibre dead when you're gone? 00:40:58 - Thoughts on 2,000 lines added generated PRs 00:41:42 - Be succinct with your PRs, fight AI with AI 00:44:00 - Finger emoji for PRs not being merged 00:44:35 - Who started GPU accelerated terminals, alacritty or kitty? 00:46:47 - How are kitty sessions going? 00:48:41 - Kovid uses sessions in the window manager 00:51:01 - Scrollback and cursor trail demo 00:52:11 - trails come from neovide 00:52:41 - Alacritty with tmux? 00:54:12 - How would you manage remote persistent sessions without tmux? 00:56:29 - Future kitty tool for remote session persistence 00:57:33 - Kitty remote control via unix sockets 00:59:54 - Why did you go with Neovim and not Emacs? 01:01:05 - Thoughts on Emacs? 01:01:37 - Thoughts on split keyboards 01:04:11 - The OG chair and approvals 01:05:19 - Swimming and stair climbing 01:07:13 - Do you take notes? 01:08:38 - Why linux? 01:10:23 - From redhat to gentoo to arch 01:11:24 - Thoughts on Debian 01:12:23 - Why do you think people have issues with Arch? 01:13:57 - Thoughts on NixOS 01:14:58 - If you maintain 200 computers, nix makes sense? 01:16:36 - Thoughts on macOS 01:17:37 - Using macOS over SSH as a headless server 01:19:49 - Marker 59 01:20:43 - Thoughts on Windows. Mandatory file locking 01:22:55 - Homelab. Keyboard layout qwerty? 01:24:35 - Favorite movies 01:25:09 - Frost nixon 01:25:44 - Doctor Zhivago 01:26:09 - Music? 01:26:58 - multitasking? 01:28:31 - Best way to support you?