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.
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. They all share same configuration approaches and general design principles.
Think about this project as “Swiss Army knife” among Neovim plugins: it has many different independent tools (modules) suitable for most common tasks. Each module can be used separately without any startup and usage overhead."
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.
It can be automatically set up, which uses the best suited config from available ones."
The interview is over 3 hours long, so it is split in 2
Part 1 is is here:
• Echasnovski (pt 1): mini.nvim, MiniMax & N...
Website:
https://nvim-mini.org/
Participants:
/ @echasnovski
You wanna promote yourself in my channel:
https://linkarzu.com/about/#community...
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Playlist with all the other interviews:
• Linkarzu Podcast | Neovim, macOS, Emacs, L...
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What is this podcast about, why, and where to find it?
https://linkarzu.com/about/#im-confus...
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?
#neovim #linux #coding #arch #editor #arch #nix #linkarzu