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Nerd Fonts: What They Are, Why You Need Them, and How to Install Them

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nerd Fonts: What They Are, Why You Need Them, and How to Install Them

If you spend time in a terminal, you’ve probably seen screenshots where file listings, prompts, and status bars are full of clean little icons — a folder glyph next to directories, a language logo next to source files, a Git branch symbol in the prompt. Most of the time, that’s not a special app doing custom rendering. It’s just a Nerd Font.

What is a Nerd Font?

Nerd Fonts is an open-source project (maintained on GitHub) that takes existing popular monospace fonts — things like Fira Code, JetBrains Mono, Hack, or Cascadia Code — and “patches” them by adding thousands of extra glyphs. Those glyphs are pulled from icon sets such as Font Awesome, Devicons, Octicons, Powerline, Material Design Icons, and a few others, and merged into the font at code points that aren’t used by normal text.

The result is a regular monospace coding font that also happens to contain icons for programming languages, file types, operating systems, Git status, and more — all renderable as a single character, at any font size, in any app that supports the font.

Why you need them

You don’t strictly need a Nerd Font to use a terminal — but a lot of modern CLI and TUI (terminal UI) tools are designed with the assumption that one is installed, and they fall back to showing broken boxes (▯) or question marks when it isn’t. Nerd Fonts matter if you use:

Prompt frameworks like Starship or Powerlevel10k, which use icons and separators for Git status, language versions, and OS badges.
File managers and listers that show a distinct icon per file type instead of plain text.
Status bars and window manager bars (e.g. in tmux, polybar, or i3status) that use icons for battery, volume, or workspace indicators.
Editor/IDE plugins inside terminal-based editors like Neovim, where file-tree and fuzzy-finder plugins commonly rely on icon glyphs.

Without a patched font, none of this breaks functionally — the tools still work — but you’ll see missing-character boxes instead of the intended icons.

Tools that specifically benefit from a Nerd Font

A few CLI tools worth calling out from previous posts on this blog look noticeably better with a Nerd Font installed:

exa — a modern replacement for ls. Its --icons flag prints a file-type icon next to each entry, but that flag only renders correctly with a Nerd Font active in your terminal.
btop — the resource monitor covered in the Useful CLI tools post.
duf — the disk usage utility from the same post; its table borders and bars render more consistently with a Nerd Font-based terminal font.

If you’re setting up any of these, installing a Nerd Font first will save you from wondering why the icons look wrong.

How to install Nerd Fonts

The general idea is the same on every platform: download (or install via package manager) one or more patched font files, register them with your OS, then set your terminal or editor to actually use that font — installing it alone isn’t enough, you also have to select it in your terminal’s font settings.

Linux

Manual method (works on any distro):

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
cd ~/.local/share/fonts
curl -fLo "JetBrainsMono.zip" https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest/download/JetBrainsMono.zip
unzip JetBrainsMono.zip -d JetBrainsMono
rm JetBrainsMono.zip
fc-cache -fv

Swap JetBrainsMono for whichever font family you prefer — the Nerd Fonts releases page lists all available families as separate zip downloads.

Package-manager options exist too, though availability varies by distro:

# Arch Linux (AUR)
yay -S ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd
# or, everything at once (large download):
yay -S nerd-fonts-complete

macOS

The easiest route is Homebrew, since Nerd Font casks now live directly in the main homebrew/cask repository (no separate tap needed as of mid-2024):

brew install --cask font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font
brew install --cask font-fira-code-nerd-font
brew install --cask font-hack-nerd-font

You can search for other available families with brew search nerd-font. Fonts install to ~/Library/Fonts/ and are available immediately — no cache rebuild step needed.

If you’d rather not use Homebrew, download the zip for your chosen font from the Nerd Fonts releases page, unzip it, select all the .ttf files, and double-click (or right-click → “Install for all users” if you want it available system-wide).

Windows

A few options, in rough order of convenience:

Manual install:

Download the zip for your chosen font family from the Nerd Fonts releases page.
Extract it.
Select all the .ttf files, right-click, and choose Install (or Install for all users, which needs admin rights).

Using Scoop:

scoop bucket add nerd-fonts
scoop install JetBrainsMono-NF

The exact package name can vary between font families, so use scoop search nerd-font to confirm the correct name before installing — I’d rather point you to verify this than give you a name that turns out to be wrong for the specific font you want.

Using Chocolatey: some Nerd Font packages exist on the Chocolatey community repo, but from what I found this isn’t an official Nerd Fonts distribution channel, just community-maintained packages — worth checking the package page on community.chocolatey.org before relying on it.

After installing, on any platform

Installing the font is only half the job. Open your terminal emulator’s settings (Windows Terminal, iTerm2, GNOME Terminal, Alacritty, Kitty, etc.) and set the font explicitly to the Nerd Font variant — it will usually show up with “Nerd Font” appended to its name, e.g. “JetBrainsMono Nerd Font”. Some terminals also need this set in a config file rather than a GUI setting; check your specific terminal’s docs if the font picker doesn’t show it.

Best TUI File Managers in 2026

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Best TUI File Managers in 2026

Terminal file managers hit a sweet spot for a lot of people: faster than clicking through a GUI file browser, but with a real interface instead of typing cd and ls over and over. Below are some of the more actively-discussed options going into 2026, including a newer entry worth knowing about — Shell Buddy.

Shell Buddy (sb)

Shell Buddy is a keyboard-driven TUI file manager written in Rust, built on the ratatui and crossterm libraries. It’s a single binary aimed at people who want to stay in the terminal for as much of their workflow as possible, rather than dropping to a shell or a separate app for common tasks.

A few things that stand out from its feature list:

In-TUI Git workflow — diff preview, status review, commit, and push without leaving the file manager.
AI-drafted commit messages — generates a commit message from the diff (using Groq or GitHub Models) that you can edit before committing.
Inline path filters — typing ^prefix, suffix$, or ~contains directly in the path bar live-filters the current listing.
One-key integration installs — it can detect missing optional tools and install them via Homebrew from inside the TUI.
Age encryption — encrypt or decrypt .age files in place with a single keypress.
Per-file notes — attach notes to individual files, stored in a hidden .sb file per directory.
tmux-aware split panes — i opens a shell + preview pane, E opens a shell + editor pane, and it falls back to zellij if tmux isn’t installed.
CLI list/tree modes — sb -l, sb -t, and sb -l2 give consistent column output outside the interactive TUI, and sb <file> opens a file directly with the best available viewer.
Themeable — ten-plus built-in themes (Nord, Dracula, Gruvbox, Rosé Pine, Everforest, and others), with Nerd Fonts and file-name colors toggled live from a themes menu.

Since it uses Nerd Font glyphs for its icons and theme indicators, it’s worth installing one before you try it — see our Nerd Fonts install guide if you haven’t set one up yet.

Install it with Cargo:

cargo install shell-buddy

More install options are on the Shell Buddy install page, and the source is on GitHub.

Yazi

Yazi is a Rust-based file manager built around async I/O, which lets it stay responsive even with large directories or image previews. It’s gained a lot of attention over the past couple of years for its speed and its built-in image/media preview support. Like Shell Buddy, it’s commonly recommended to be paired with a Nerd Font for its icons.

ranger

ranger is one of the longer-standing options in this space — a Python, Vim-inspired file manager with a multi-column “miller columns” layout (you see the parent directory, current directory, and a preview of the selected item side by side). It ships with rifle, a file opener that tries to pick the right program for a given file type automatically. If you already use Vim, the keybindings will feel familiar immediately.

nnn

nnn (“n³”) bills itself as an “unorthodox” terminal file manager, and its main selling point is being extremely lightweight and fast while still supporting plugins for things like previews, bookmarks, and file type detection.

lf

lf (“list files”) is written in Go and takes clear inspiration from ranger, but aims to be simpler and faster, with configuration done through a small shell-like config language rather than Python.

superfile

superfile is a newer, more visually polished TUI file manager aiming for a more modern look than some of the older tools in this list, with things like a sidebar, multiple panels, and mouse support alongside keyboard navigation.

Walk (lk)

Walk is a minimalist terminal navigator written in Go — less a full file manager and more a fast cd/ls replacement with fuzzy search, a preview pane, and image preview built in. The binary itself is called walk, but the typical setup wraps it in a shell function named lk that changes your shell’s directory to wherever you navigated to on exit:

function lk {
  cd "$(walk "$@")"
}

Install it via Homebrew, pkg_add, or Go:

brew install walk
# or
go install github.com/antonmedv/walk@latest

Once set up, running lk drops you into the navigator; pressing esc or q exits back to your shell already cd‘d into the last directory you were browsing, while ctrl+c exits without changing directory. It also supports Nerd Font icons with the --icons flag, in-TUI file deletion (dd, with undo via u), and yanking the current directory path.

Midnight Commander (mc)

Midnight Commander deserves a mention for context — it’s the classic dual-pane, function-key-driven file manager that predates most of the tools above by decades and is still packaged in nearly every Linux distro’s repositories. If you want the most “battle-tested” option with the least chance of surprises, this is it.

Picking one

If you’re not sure where to start:

Want the most modern feature set, with Git and file-encryption built in? Try Shell Buddy.
Want fast async previews (including images)? Try Yazi.
Already comfortable in Vim? Try ranger or lf.
Want the smallest possible footprint? Try nnn.
Just want a faster cd/ls with fuzzy search rather than a full file manager? Try Walk (lk).
Want the tool that’s been stable since before most of the others existed? Try Midnight Commander.

Whichever you pick, installing a Nerd Font first will make sure icons and status glyphs render correctly instead of showing as boxes.

Best ls Alternatives in 2026

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Best ls Alternatives in 2026

ls has been listing files the same basic way for decades, and for plain output it’s still fine. But a handful of modern replacements add colored, icon-annotated, Git-aware output while staying just as fast (or close to it) — and they’re common enough now that you’ll see them in a lot of dotfiles repos. Here’s a rundown of the main options.

eza

eza is the most widely used option today, and it’s specifically the community-maintained continuation of exa (more on that below) — exa was declared unmaintained, and a group of contributors forked it as eza to keep development going.

Notable features:

Drop-in ls replacement — most people just alias ls=eza.
Git integration (eza --git) shows tracked/modified/staged/untracked status per file.
Support for extended file attributes, SELinux contexts on Linux, and clickable terminal hyperlinks.
A theme.yml config file for customizing colors and per-file-type icons (icons render properly once you have a Nerd Font installed).
Available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Install:

# macOS
brew install eza

# Cargo (any platform with Rust installed)
cargo install eza

# Debian/Ubuntu — needs a third-party repo, since eza isn't always in default repos
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eza-community/eza/main/deb.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/gierens.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/gierens.gpg] http://deb.gierens.de stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gierens.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y eza

# Windows (Scoop)
scoop install eza

Arch Linux, Fedora, NixOS, and several other package managers carry it too — see the official install docs for the full list.

lsd (LSDeluxe)

lsd is another Rust rewrite of ls, and it was explicitly inspired by colorls (see below) but implemented in Rust for speed. Its main differentiator from eza is that it leans further into Nerd Font icons by default rather than as an opt-in — the project’s own docs specifically recommend installing a patched Nerd Font (or Font Awesome) before using it, since icons are a core part of its default output.

Install:

# macOS / Linuxbrew
brew install lsd

# Cargo
cargo install lsd

# Debian sid/bookworm and Ubuntu 23.04+
sudo apt install lsd

# Windows (Scoop)
scoop install lsd

Once installed, alias it the same way as eza:

alias ls='lsd'
alias ll='lsd -l'
alias la='lsd -a'
alias lt='lsd --tree'

exa (legacy — largely superseded)

exa was the original modern ls replacement that both eza and lsd trace their lineage or inspiration back to. It’s the tool that popularized this whole category — colored output, Git awareness, tree view — written in Rust. It has since been marked unmaintained by its original author, which is exactly why the eza fork exists. If you’re starting fresh today, there’s little reason to install exa specifically instead of eza; I’m including it here mainly for context, since you may still see it referenced in older blog posts or dotfiles.

colorls

colorls takes a different approach from the other three: instead of a compiled binary, it’s a Ruby gem that wraps ls output with Font Awesome icons and file-type-specific coloring. It was an early, influential entry in this space and directly inspired lsd’s design.

Trade-offs to know about:

Requires a Ruby runtime, which adds startup overhead compared to the Rust-based tools.
Its development pace has slowed relative to eza and lsd.
If you’re already in a Ruby-heavy environment, though, it integrates naturally and doesn’t require pulling in Rust/Cargo just for a file lister.

Install:

gem install colorls

Picking one

Want the most actively developed, most feature-complete option with strong Git integration? Go with eza.
Want icons on by default and a very “at a glance” visual layout? Go with lsd.
Already have a Ruby toolchain and don’t want another Rust binary on the system? colorls is a reasonable, if slower, choice.
Found exa referenced somewhere? Substitute eza — same lineage, actively maintained.

Whichever one you pick, install a Nerd Font first — all four of these rely on Nerd Font or Font Awesome glyphs for their icon output, and without one you’ll just see broken-box placeholders instead of icons.

Setting Up WireGuard VPN on MikroTik (Multi-Platform Remote Access Guide)

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Remote access is a cornerstone of any robust home lab or small business network. While there are many VPN flavors out there, WireGuard has quickly become the gold standard due to its incredible speed, lightweight footprint, and cryptographic security.

If you run a MikroTik router (RouterOS v7+), you have a powerful enterprise-grade WireGuard server sitting right in your living room. In this article, we’ll walk through setting up WireGuard on your MikroTik router and configuring clients for both Android and Windows 11.

Why WireGuard on MikroTik?

Kernel-Level Speed: Unlike OpenVPN, which can bottleneck weaker router CPUs, WireGuard runs directly in the RouterOS kernel, maximizing your throughput.
Silence is Golden: WireGuard does not respond to unauthenticated packets. To a port scanner on the internet, your VPN port looks completely closed.
Roaming Support: If your phone switches from Wi-Fi to 4G/5G, the WireGuard connection transitions instantly without dropping your session.

Phase 1: Configuring the MikroTik Server

Every WireGuard topology relies on a public/private key exchange. Think of it this way: your router and your phone will each generate their own unique key pair, and then they will swap public keys to trust one another.

1. Create the WireGuard Interface

Open Winbox and navigate to WireGuard from the left menu. Click the + (Add) button.

Name: wireguard1
Listen Port: 13231 (Default)

Click Apply. RouterOS will instantly generate your unique Private Key and Public Key. Copy the Public Key somewhere safe; you will need it for the clients.

2. Assign an IP Subnet to the VPN

Go to IP -> Addresses -> + (Add). We need a dedicated internal subnet for our VPN clients.

Address: 10.0.0.1/24
Network: 10.0.0.0
Interface: wireguard1

3. Open the Firewall Port

Go to IP -> Firewall -> Filter Rules -> + (Add). WireGuard uses UDP, so we must allow incoming traffic on our listening port.

Chain: input
Protocol: udp
Dst. Port: 13231
Action: accept

Crucial: Drag this rule to the very top of your Firewall input list so the traffic isn’t dropped by default drop rules.

Phase 2: Connecting an Android Device

On mobile devices, configuration is a breeze thanks to visual key exchanges.

Download the official WireGuard app from the Google Play Store.
Tap the blue + (Plus) icon and select Create from scratch.
Under the Interface section, give it a name (e.g., HomeVPN). You will see a pre-generated Public key. Copy this key—you need to add it to MikroTik.
Fill in the Interface details:
- Addresses: 10.0.0.2/24 (This is your phone’s fixed VPN IP).
- DNS Servers: 192.168.88.1 (Your MikroTik’s local IP).
Tap Add Peer at the bottom:
- Public Key: Paste the MikroTik’s Public Key here.
- Endpoint: Your public home IP address or MikroTik DDNS, followed by the port (e.g., yourhome.sn.mynetname.net:13231).
- Allowed IPs: 0.0.0.0/0 (Redirects all mobile internet traffic securely through your home) OR 192.168.88.0/24 (Only routes traffic intended for home lab devices).
Back on MikroTik: Go to the Peers tab -> +. Select wireguard1, paste your Phone’s Public Key, and set Allowed Address to 10.0.0.2/32.
Save both sides, toggle the switch on your phone, and you are connected!

Phase 3: Connecting a Windows 11 PC

Since you can’t easily scan QR codes on a desktop, Windows configuration is done via a simple text configuration file (.conf).

Download and install WireGuard for Windows from wireguard.com.
Click the arrow next to Add Tunnel and choose Add empty tunnel….
A window will pop up showing a fresh Public Key. Copy this key and register it in MikroTik -> Peers with the IP 10.0.0.3/32.
Overwrite the text box in the Windows client with the following blueprint configuration:

[Interface]
PrivateKey = [YOUR_WINDOWS_PRIVATE_KEY_DO_NOT_TOUCH]
Address = 10.0.0.3/24
DNS = 192.168.88.1

[Peer]
PublicKey = [PASTE_YOUR_MIKROTIK_PUBLIC_KEY_HERE]
Endpoint = [YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_OR_DDNS]:13231
AllowedIPs = 192.168.88.0/24
PersistentKeepalive = 25

Pro-Tip: Split Tunneling vs. Full Tunneling on Windows

For desktops and laptops, it is usually best to use Split Tunneling by setting AllowedIPs = 192.168.88.0/24. This means your regular PC gaming, web surfing, and video streaming happen over your local network, while only requests destined for your home lab servers get routed through the VPN tunnel.

The PersistentKeepalive = 25 line ensures that your PC sends a tiny blank packet every 25 seconds, preventing aggressive cellular or public Wi-Fi firewalls from closing your idle connection.

Troubleshooting: Why am I getting 0 B Received?

If your client says “Active” but the Transfer: Received counter sits stubbornly at 0 B, your tunnel is failing its cryptographic handshake. Check these three things:

Key Swap Mishap: Double-check that you didn’t accidentally paste the router’s key into the router’s peer settings. The router must hold the client’s key, and the client must hold the router’s key.
IP Subnet Mismatch: Ensure the client IP (e.g., 10.0.0.3) matches the specific /32 allowed address you assigned to that peer inside MikroTik.
CGNAT / Dynamic IP: If your ISP hides your router behind a CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT), a direct WireGuard handshake won’t work without a middleman server. Use MikroTik’s built-in Cloud DDNS (/ip/cloud) to track dynamic IPs effortlessly.

Wrap Up

Once implemented, WireGuard provides a seamless, “always-on” feel. You can map network drives, access your Home Assistant dashboards, or SSH into your Linux hosts from anywhere in the world, knowing your perimeter remains completely secure.

Squeezelite Service Not Mixing with Browser Audio (PipeWire/PulseAudio Fix)

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Squeezelite audio player is a wonderful headless solution, but getting it to run as a reliable, shareable background service on modern Linux distributions (like Ubuntu, Debian, or Fedora, especially those using PipeWire) can be a nightmare.

This post documents a common, frustrating error and the simple fix that allows Squeezelite to play music alongside other applications, like your browser (YouTube, Spotify Web, etc.).

The Problem: The Audio “Host is Down” Loop

When setting up Squeezelite as a persistent systemd service (often running as a low-privilege user like daemon or squeezelite), the service either failed to start or immediately grabbed the sound card exclusively.

The Error Message

The core issue was demonstrated by this error log, which repeats when using devices like default or pulse:

[16:04:06.843393] test_open:281 playback open error: Host is down
[16:04:06.843416] output_init_common:401 unable to open output device: default

Why This Happens

Exclusive Access: When running Squeezelite with a raw hardware device (-o hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0), the application takes exclusive control of the sound card, blocking the browser.
Environment Conflict: When attempting to use the mixing devices (-o default or -o pulse), the service fails. This is because System Services run in a minimal environment and cannot reliably connect to the User Session PipeWire/PulseAudio server that manages all desktop audio (including your browser). It’s a fundamental conflict between a system process and a user-level audio mixer. The “Host is down” error simply means the connection to the mixer server was refused or the socket was not found.

✅ The Easy Fix: Switch to a User Autostart Application

The solution is to stop treating Squeezelite as a low-level “system” component and instead run it as a normal “user” application that starts after your graphical session (and PipeWire) is fully loaded. This is the only way to guarantee it connects to the active audio mixer.

This method uses a standard Desktop Entry (.desktop) file, which works on most Linux desktop environments (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, etc.).

Step 1: Disable the Broken System Service

Stop and permanently disable the old service file to prevent conflicts.

# Stop the running service:
sudo systemctl stop squeezelite.service

# Disable the service so it doesn't try to start on the next reboot:
sudo systemctl disable squeezelite.service

Step 2: Create the Autostart File

We create a configuration file that tells your desktop environment to launch Squeezelite with the correct, shareable device name when you log in.

Create the directory (if needed):
```
mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
```
Create the autostart file (squeezelite.desktop):
```
nano ~/.config/autostart/squeezelite.desktop
```

Paste and save this content:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Squeezelite Player
Comment=Starts Squeezelite audio player on user login
# Key Fix: Use the 'pipewire' audio output device
Exec=/usr/bin/squeezelite -n mini-pc -o pipewire
Terminal=false
Type=Application
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true

If pipewire doesn’t work, try -o default or -o pulse here, as the autostart environment is much more forgiving than the system service environment.

Step 3: Log In and Enjoy Simultaneous Audio

Log out of your desktop session.
Log back in.

Squeezelite will now start automatically in the background as your user, correctly connecting to the PipeWire mixing server. You can now stream music to Squeezelite while simultaneously watching a YouTube video or listening to other audio in your browser!

How I like my Ubuntu

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Widgets and Apps I install immediately after Ubuntu

Extentions:

Dash to Panel - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/

Desktop Widgets (Desktop Clock) - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5156/desktop-clock/

ArcMenu - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3628/arcmenu/

Apps:

Variety - Desktop wallpaper downloader and changer

sudo apt install variety

AppImageLauncher - https://github.com/TheAssassin/AppImageLauncher

Rename bluetooth device in Ubuntu

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Use bt-device (part of the bluez-tools package).

sudo apt install bt-device

Get a list of paired devices:

bt-device -l

To set the new alias:

bt-device --set macaddress|name Alias "New Name"

ie:

bt-device --set S530 Alias "S530 Blue"

Set git origin to remember credentials

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Set in your .bashrc or .zshrc file:

export username="git-hub-token"

Then run the command below to save your credentials

git remote set-url origin https://username:$username@github.com/username/repo-name.git

How to mount Samba share on boot

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

To mount a samba share when Ubuntu boots you need to add a line to your /etc/fstab file. You’ll have to update the path to your samba share, local mount folder and your samba credentials.

//remote/path/to/samba/share /local/mount/folder cifs username=your-user-name-here,password=your-password-here,rw,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777       0       0

After you update your fstab file you need to mount the newly added record, you can do that with the mount command below

mount -a

Useful CLI tools

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Github repos for some usefull CLI tools

fd

https://github.com/sharkdp/fd/
fd is a program to find entries in your filesystem. It is a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find. While it does not aim to support all of find’s powerful functionality, it provides sensible (opinionated) defaults for a majority of use cases.

sudo apt install fd-find

Note that the binary is called fdfind as the binary name fd is already used by another package. It is recommended that after installation, you add a link to fd by executing command ln -s $(which fdfind) ~/.local/bin/fd ***

jq

https://github.com/stedolan/jq
jq is like sed for JSON data - you can use it to slice and filter and map and transform structured data with the same ease that sed, awk, grep and friends let you play with text.

sudo apt install jq

bat

https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
bat supports syntax highlighting for a large number of programming and markup languages.

bat communicates with git to show modifications with respect to the index (see left side bar):

sudo apt install bat

Important: If you install bat this way, please note that the executable may be installed as batcat instead of bat (due to a name clash with another package). You can set up a bat -> batcat symlink or alias to prevent any issues that may come up because of this and to be consistent with other distributions:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat

fff

https://github.com/dylanaraps/fff
A simple file manager written in bash.

git clone https://github.com/dylanaraps/fff
cd fff
make install

CD on Exit:
To enable CD on Exit in Bash or Zsh, add this to your .bashrc, .zshrc or equivalent.
Run ‘fff’ with ‘f’ or whatever you decide to name the function.

f() {
fff "$@"
cd "$(cat "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:=${HOME}/.cache}/fff/.fff_d")"
}

duf

https://github.com/muesli/duf
Disk Usage/Free Utility (Linux, BSD, macOS & Windows)

sudo apt install duf

exa

https://github.com/ogham/exa
exa is a modern replacement for the venerable file-listing command-line program ls that ships with Unix and Linux operating systems, giving it more features and better defaults. It uses colours to distinguish file types and metadata. It knows about symlinks, extended attributes, and Git. And it’s small, fast, and just one single binary.

By deliberately making some decisions differently, exa attempts to be a more featureful, more user-friendly version of ls.

sudo apt install exa

ohmyzsh

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/

Oh My Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Before using ohmyzsh you need to make sure that zsh is installed:
zsh installation instructions

sudo apt install zsh

Plugins for ohmyzsh:

plugins=(git macos common-aliases dirhistory zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting)

All of these plugins come with ohmyzsh and they only need to be included in ~/.zshrc except zsh-syntax-highlighting and zsh-autosuggestions, which needs to be installed additionally with the commands below:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

ohmyzsh themes I use:

ZSH_THEME="gallois"  
ZSH_THEME="af-magic"  

btop

https://github.com/aristocratos/btop

Resource monitor that shows usage and stats for processor, memory, disks, network and processes.

snap install btop

HTTPie

https://github.com/httpie/httpie

HTTPie is a command-line HTTP client. Its goal is to make CLI interaction with web services as human-friendly as possible. HTTPie is designed for testing, debugging, and generally interacting with APIs & HTTP servers. The http & https commands allow for creating and sending arbitrary HTTP requests. They use simple and natural syntax and provide formatted and colorized output.

sudo apt install httpie