Ask HN: Share a product you loved using in 2023

Can be anything - physical, software, old, new.

* Apple M1 Pro

* Noteplan

* PyCharm

mermaid.js - Excellent tool for creating architecture (and other) diagrams from text. Add to a markdown file with special syntax. Renders in GitHub natively. Has some bugs, but team seems to have a good head on its shoulders and should hopefully work them out soon. 8/10

VSCode - One of the few things Microsoft hasn't totally screwed up yet. Plug-in ecosystem is enormous. 9/10

Vim - At the other end of the spectrum. I forced myself to learn keybindings last year and now I can't not use them. I find myself unable to use text editors that lack a "vim mode". 2dWi" - fixed that missing quote! I find the extension ecosystem a bit puzzling still - extensions I install never seem to work quite right. Having to memorize extra keybindings for each plugin maxes out my mental load. 8/10

DigitalOcean - A breath of fresh air compared to AWS. There are fewer services and quite a lot of abstraction, but I'm happy to pay for higher reliability than something I can self-host. Encountered some bizarre behavior/bugs at times, but DO support has been super prompt and helpful (even on the free support tier). If you need three+ 9's of reliability call AWS or GCP. For everything else there's DigitalOcean. 9/10

Django - The first time I've enjoyed web development in quite some time. The abstraction level can get a bit silly at times, but I find that it's easy to peel back the layers of the onion, so to speak, and troubleshoot the inner workings. I really, really wish that a strongly-typed version of Python could be used. `mypy` and `typeddjango/django-stubs` just don't cut it. I want more compile time errors! 8/10

Logic Pro - Technically started using it in late 2021 but really got more into it this year. Used to produce music for a group of friends that play together. Tons of keybindings. Interface can get confusing, but it's a powerful tool. 9/10

I grew up using a nipple mouse on some of my first laptops. Loved them. But after using the MacBook trackpads, it's hard to go back to anything else.

On the Linux part: Does using the Thinkpad trackpad on Linux work well? How well does it handle sleep/wake from sleep? How seamless is monitor support?

I guess what I'm saying is that, while I would like to run Linux full-time, I like having a Linux-like/Unix environment, but where everything Just Works without fiddling.

The OnePlus Open - I was on the fence about foldables and was saving up for the next generation of the Samsung Galaxy Fold. I didn't know OnePlus was going to release one until I saw a newspaper ad. I'm so glad I bought one and traded in my Nothing Phone(1). This is the best tech device I've used in the last few years and I've not been this excited about a device since I first bought my friend's used Nexus S.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Ultra - No brainer when my S7+ screen died. I love the form factor. It's not for everyone but I love it. I might get the S6 Lite sometime next year for use during travel, but perhaps not.

Boox Tab Mini C - Bye-bye Kindles. I'm in love with this device. Color in an e-reader is great and this device allows me to use an app of my choice to read. I'm not locked into reading on one app. Tachiyomi also works flawlessly. Love it.