add new blog on terminal tools

Signed-off-by: Avinal Kumar <avinal.xlvii@gmail.com>

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blog/content/posts/blogs/best-terminal-command-rm--rf-world.md

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+---
+category: blogs
+date: 2024-06-07T23:47:00
+description: "In January, I started switching to terminal-based tools and just
+  recently, I was able to use my terminal for most of my development work.
+  This blog highlights what tools I am using and for what purposes."
+image: /images/dog-using-terminal.jpg
+tags:
+- terminal
+- zellij
+- neovim
+- tmux
+- zoxide
+- lazygit
+- fzf
+- atuin
+- alacritty
+- starship
+- toolbox
+- toolbx
+- gh
+- zsh
+- oh-my-zsh
+title: "Echoes from the Shell: The Tools That Talk Back" 
+---
+
+
+I started programming on a Windows machine about 6 years ago. I had just joined
+college and had little clue about what tools to use and where to start. Slowly
+I learnt new things and knowing more tools from friends, seniors, blogs and
+YouTube. One thing was pretty common, almost everyone was recommending a Linux
+based OS. I wasn't completely ready to switch, so I started using WSL2. WSL2
+with Visual Studio Code were my daily driver for everything programming for
+next 2.5 years.
+
+## Linux loading
+
+I got selected into Google Summer of Code in 2021 and the project I was
+contributing to runs solely on Linux. So I finally left Windows and started
+using Ubuntu. I was also a part of GLUG (GNU/Linux Users Group) in my college,
+and that was one of the factors that motivated me to move. I used Ubuntu and
+VS Code for next 1 year.
+
+The next significant change to my setup came in 2022 January when I joined Red Hat
+as an Intern. And the first task given to me was "Remove everything on your
+ThinkPad and install Fedora". I used it for few months and then I switched to
+Fedora on my personal laptop as well. After using Fedora for 2.5 years now, I
+want to say Fedora is simply an excellent choice for students and developers
+alike (until you intend to use Arch and burn the world).
+
+## My current setup
+
+Currently, I am using Fedora 40 with Sway Window Manager and tons of terminal
+based tools. Just to be clear, I am not a keyboard nerd, but it does get my
+work done faster and non-intrusively. I use a mouse for a fair share of my work
+(I own [Logitech MX Master 3s](https://avinal.space/posts/blogs/configuring-logitech-mouse-on-fedora/)).
+I will now be explaining what tools I use and why I prefer them. You can
+get additional information about them by simply an internet search as they are pretty
+famous.
+
+This is not a blog about replicating the exact setup. So I will omit the
+obvious tools, i.e. ZSH, plugins etc. Rather, I will enlist the major tools.
+I am going to divide my tools in few categories:
+
+- Tools I use for development
+- Enhancing Terminal capabilities
+- Miscellaneous
+
+## Tools I use for development
+
+This will be a trivial section, there are thousands of articles and videos
+on the internet that cover this topic. I am just going to add my two paise.
+
+### Neovim
+
+Well, I know. You are going to say "yeah, expected". But IIWII. I started using
+Neovim as my primary development tool in January this year. It was a little hard
+to get used to it, but once I got familiar it feels like a breeze. I switched
+from VS Code because of how bloated it is getting. I do not want a superfast
+editor with outstanding benchmarks and awesome features and customizability.
+Those are secondary, but most of all, I don't like being distracted. With all the
+new things getting into VS Code it felt like, just too many features than I
+need. I totally love VS Code, it was my daily drive for 5 years but
+I felt I needed something minimal, and minimal it is.
+
+I did some hopping from one config to another in the last 5 months and finally, I
+decided to configure it myself using kickstart repository and it works better
+than ever. I am still learning how to get most out of it.
+
+- [Neovim](https://neovim.io/)
+- [kickstart-modular.nvim](https://github.com/dam9000/kickstart-modular.nvim)
+- [Carbonfox from Nightfox.nvim theme](https://github.com/EdenEast/nightfox.nvim?tab=readme-ov-file#carbonfox)
+- [My configuration](https://github.com/avinal/dotfiles/tree/main/.config/nvim)
+
+### Lazygit
+
+When I moved from VS Code to Neovim, the one thing I missed most was a GUI
+git extension. Although I use git CLI for most of my VCS work, but having a
+visual display is helpful, especially for browsing changes and going through
+commit history. VS Code git extension is a great tool and lazygit almost
+replaces that for me. It has exactly those features that I generally use.
+Plus it is configurable, the default configuration is more than enough for
+most including me.
+
+- [Lazygit](https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit)
+
+### GitHub CLI
+
+Many people have mixed opinion about this tool. For me, it works best for
+what I generally do. And no, it doesn't replace git for me, I treat it like
+a snippet tool that does few things with minimal effort, which would otherwise
+take multiple commands using git. Additionally, most of the development work
+I do go to GitHub, so it helps with that as well.
+
+I mostly use it to clone, gist, creating pull requests, navigating issues,
+checking out pull request branches, creating new repositories, and sometimes
+for getting workflow status/logs. I strongly recommend it if you are eager to do
+more from your terminal.
+
+- [GitHub CLI](https://cli.github.com/)
+
+## Enhancing Terminal capabilities
+
+This category is focused on supercharging the default terminal with advanced
+capabilities like better prompt, multiplexing, configurable layouts, session
+management etc.
+
+### Alacritty
+
+What is wrong with Gnome terminal? Nothing. It is fantastic and I still use it
+for many tasks. When it comes to configuring your terminal and actually being
+able to reuse your configuration across machines, alacritty simply stands out.
+It has tons of configurations and I loved using it, so I switched to it.
+
+- [Alacritty](https://alacritty.org/)
+- [GitHub Monaspace Argon font](https://monaspace.githubnext.com/)
+- [My configuration](https://github.com/avinal/dotfiles/blob/main/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml)
+
+### Zellij
+
+This one is interesting and new. I started using tmux as most people do when
+they want to increase the density of work in a single terminal. It works and
+is configurable as well. But there are some shortcomings for tmux. It does not
+let you save a layout and the session management is basic. If you restart, you
+will probably lose your setup.
+
+Zellij address these problems and includes many new features on top of it.
+You can create a layout in advance and also define what commands should be run
+on start. There is a native plugin system and you can write plugins in most
+languages that compile to WebAssembly. The configuration is human-friendly
+and you can have multiple configuration files.
+
+Initially, most users face issues with zellij default key bindings because of
+their conflicts with Neovim. I choose to use different leader keys for
+different tools. Here is the setup I use after getting recommendation on Reddit.
+
+- Neovim: Ctrl
+- Sway WM: OS Key/Command/Win Key
+- Zellij: Alt
+
+I also heavily modified the default key bindings as I saw fit. The tool is in
+active development with numerous features planned.
+
+- [Zellij](https://zellij.dev/)
+- [Zellij vs Tmux](https://github.com/zellij-org/zellij/discussions/1701#discussioncomment-3517152)
+- [My configuration](https://github.com/avinal/dotfiles/tree/main/.config/zellij)
+
+### Atuin
+
+I have covered Atuin before in my [last post](https://avinal.space/posts/raspi/everything-on-my-pi/#atuin).
+So this will be a brief mention here. Atuin helps you sync your command
+history across machines and provides excellent filtering and retrieval. If you
+need a backup of your command history, Atuin is a way to go.
+
+- [Atuin](https://atuin.sh/)
+- [My configuration](https://github.com/avinal/dotfiles/blob/main/.config/atuin/config.toml)
+
+## Miscellaneous
+
+This section focuses on the tools that aren't very common but they rather
+are unique in their own way, and you can get extra superpowers.
+
+### Toolbx
+
+This is more like a virtual terminal environment where you can install tools and
+packages without adding them to the host OS. For example, if you are testing
+some software, or want to build a project but don't want to install in your
+machine. Or even having multiple independent environment and multiple distros
+to develop your projects. I find this tool very useful. If you have such use
+cases, give it a try.
+
+- [Toolbx](https://containertoolbx.org/)
+
+### Fzf
+
+fzf is a companion tool that provides you fuzzy finding capabilities for a lot of
+common CLI tools. You can use it in a plethora of ways and the integration with
+tools are countless. It also comes with an interactive interface. This is a tool
+which I want to say, you will understand only when you use it.
+
+- [fzf](https://junegunn.github.io/fzf/)
+
+### zoxide
+
+zoxide brands itself as a smarter cd command, and this is precisely what it does.
+It remembers where you often go and helps you get there faster next time. It
+uses an impressive algorithm internally to rank the suggestions based on your
+use.
+
+- [zoxide](https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide)
+
+## Echos
+
+Here is the list of all other tools and plugins I didn't discuss, but they
+are a useful part of my daily work.
+
+- [Zsh](https://www.zsh.org/)
+- [Oh My Zsh](https://ohmyz.sh/)
+- [Starship](https://starship.rs/)
+- [telescope.nvim](https://github.com/nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim)
+- [mason.nvim](https://github.com/williamboman/mason.nvim)
+- [lazy.nvim](https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim)
+- [GNU Stow](https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/)
+
+Please leave a comment, if you like reading this blog, or it helped you find a
+good tool.