The Perfect 2026 (Linux) Desk Setup

This year, I did something I haven't done in 20 years. I bought a desktop computer, and outside of work, I've used it exclusively for dev work, content creation, and even video editing. Yes, this video was edited on this Linux machine. In this video, I'm going to walk you through my 2026 desk setup, specifically five items that made it all come together, including an app I had to build myself because nothing else usable existed. Let's get started. Number one is, of course, the custom Linux desktop. For the first time in roughly two decades, I'm running a desktop PC. It's a customuilt machine running Arch Linux, specifically Omar Margie, and it's my daily driver for everything outside of my day job, which like everybody else, we use MacBooks. But everything else, content creation, side projects, AI workflows, browsing, all of it happens on this machine. Let's talk about a few things rapid fire. Omarie, yes, I know I mispronounced it, but it just makes more sense this way. But I love it. I love the simplicity. I love the opinion. I tried to do the Arch Linux from scratch thing and it was just too much work. Nobody has time for all that. Nvidia. Everybody wants an Nvidia GPU until they use an Arch system with a Whan compositor and then they wish they had something else. But hey, a few tweaks and all is well. Content creation. Da Vinci Resolve Studio installs and runs flawlessly on this machine with the Nvidia GPU and 64GB of RAM after selling a kidney. Check my blog post below for specifics on how to install and run Da Vinci Resolve without issue. I use Reaper to record audio. And for everything else with AI enablement, I just build my own custom helper apps from my YouTube Creator app, my Markdown Note-taking app with device sync, an API client TUI, and others that I may or may not have mentioned in this past video. Now, strangely, when you go full-time like this with a Linux machine and you vow to make it work, it gives you this new freedom to do things on your own without these adopted habits that everybody operates within. And you have this desire to create your own solutions and then use other people's solutions and run your own servers. And then you have a home lab and a NAS to store all your photos. And I even found a used ThinkPad to carry with me when I leave the house. What have you guys done to me? And look, I'm planning a new video around this, but you can actually save so much money by rebuilding your subscription apps and services yourself and hosting them yourself. They're not too complicated because you don't need half the features and it only needs to work for you. I mean, I just built this stock scorer that takes 10 top indicators for why a stock is a buy or a hold. I added an AI analyst and I can track my entire portfolio with charts in a React Native mobile app. I no longer need to pay for a SAS when I can build just this much in a single morning now with the help of modern LLMs. Anyway, item two is the BenQ RD280 UG programming monitor. Now, look, I don't need another monitor. I've had this BenQ that I've used now for like 3 years, and it has served me well. No need to upgrade. In fact, I have another monitor down here beside my desk and one in the other room that my kids use. But Ben Q reached out and wanted to send me a taste of this new series of programming monitors that they were releasing and is now released and I agreed. This video is not sponsored, but the unit was sent to me for an honest review. And to be honest, I was not really looking forward to another monitor, but boy was I wrong. TLDDR, after a couple of weeks testing this, it has easily become my main monitor. I have completely retired the other one. Why? Well, here are some quick stats. It's a 28 in monitor. That's all I've ever needed. Yes, just one monitor. I've tried two off and on over the years, and it's a pain. It's 4K, 120 Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling, nano matte panel for low reflection, 2000 to1 contrast ratio for deeper blacks, a moon halo for a backlight, quick access coating modes, including paper color, which makes it very paper-like, and all kind of things to make it easy on the eyes, like TUV certified for flicker-free, night hours protection, low blue light, and more. But here's the strange thing. It's a 3x2 ratio monitor, which is not as common. So, it's taller and more square than your usual monitor. Why? Because we need more vertical space as programmers, right? Well, I didn't think so until I used this thing. And now I cannot go back to 16x9. 3x2 is amazing. And I'm not even turning the monitor vertical, which you can, by the way. And you can imagine how nice it works with hyperland tiling. It's just more vertical space all around. This series of monitor just recently launched. I have the RD280 UGG. It's the best in this brand new series of monitors that are specifically built for programming and it's about 700 bucks brand new. I've put my old monitor away and you'll be seeing this one on my desk going forward. I'll put a link down below for anyone else interested in it. Now, item three is the MXL AC44 USB boundary microphone. What in the pancake is this thing? Well, listen. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of typing essays to my LLM. I don't mind typing, but I can speak a lot faster and for longer than I can type. And I can lean back and I can sip coffee while talking, of course. So, I wanted to explore dictating to my LLM more than typing. And my main mic is the Sure SMB7, which I'm speaking into currently. But when I'm not filming, this thing is off to the side, and I don't want to have to grab this every single time I want to dictate something to an LLM. I want something to just be there in front of me at all times, ready to go. So I can speak and it transcribe and this was the most discreet affordable solution that I found and it's been great. So on Linux we have Vox type which is as they say a pushto talk voiceto text that works on any desktop. You hold a key you speak you release the words appear at the cursor. You run a very small model with it that makes it even work offline. And again you just hold a key or you can toggle and when you release it it dictates into the active input field. And this mic is a flat USB boundary conferencing microphone that will fit in your hand. It's heavy enough to lay flat and not get moved around. And it picks up audio in front and on the sides but not behind it. So you literally just talk as if someone was in front of you and it just works very well with Vox type. If you use native dictation or whisper flow, that's great. This just serves as a mic to pick up your voice. No boom arm, no repositioning, just talk. Item four is the UG Green 2N 7out USB switch. Since I'm switching between a MacBook Pro for work and my Linux desktop for everything else, I needed a way to share peripherals easily. Keyboard, mouse, speakers, audio interface, all of it. This U green USB switch does exactly that. Two inputs, seven outputs, four USBA, and three USBC. With a one button press, all of my peripherals swap from one machine to the other. No unplugging, no repairing. It's one of those boring but essential pieces that makes a dual machine setup actually work. It's also powered so things like your audio interface will have enough juice to work properly. And then number five is the Elgato Stream Deck Plus. Now this one has a story. I wanted to use the Elgato Stream Deck Plus on Linux. Problem is there are basically no good solutions. There are a couple of community packages out there but they're either unmaintained, buggy, complicated, or they have a crummy UI. So again, I did what any reasonable developer would do and should do. I built my own Stream Deck app from scratch for Linux specifically, and it works exactly how I wanted to. Right now, I have all the system commands. It will detect the different stream decks. If you have knobs and a touch bar, it will give you those additional options as well. But I've also created a plug-in system for it. Currently, I have the Elgato Keyite, which I use, and an OBS integration. It's open source. Feel free to go and grab it and more plugins will come as I need them or feel free to add what you need if you want to create a PR for it to be merged into the project. There's an icon in the SVG ecosystem. You can set colors, different toggle commands, things like that. I'll be sure to put a link to it below. And for those who are like, you can do all these shortcuts from the keyboard. Why do you need that? Well, you don't. But there are some usages that work better for me on a stream deck, like toggling the vox type dictation, working with OBS, turning on and off lights and smart appliances, things like that. And that is how I'm kicking off my desk setup for 2026. A custom Linux desktop, an unexpected but incredible programming monitor, a mic for talking to AI, a USB switch for dual machines, and a Stream Deck app that I built because it needed to be. So tell me, what are you running in 2026? What new gadgets are you excited about? Let me know down below in the comments. If you found this video helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, consider doing so. And I'll see you in the next video.

I finally bought a desktop again after 20 years, and made it a custom Linux machine. In this video, I walk through my 2026 desk setup and the 5 key pieces that made it all come together. This is the setup I now use for dev work, content creation, and even video editing. 🖥️ Check out the BenQ RD280UG Monitor BenQ website: https://benqurl.biz/4bxWzvN Amazon: https://amzn.to/4ljxYOm 🕒 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:25 1 Custom Desktop PC 01:30 Side rant... 02:43 2 A unique programming monitor 04:47 3 A microphone for AI dictation 06:22 4 USB switcher 07:00 5 Elgato and Linux app 08:14 Outro 📢 Video mentions How to Install Davinci Resolve on Omarchy - https://travis.media/blog/install-davinci-resolve-omarchy-nvidia/ Elgato DeskManager - https://github.com/rodgtr1/deckmanager 🎥 Watch These Next 🎥 https://youtu.be/uDcb12CqoR4 https://youtu.be/EMWNZtCYg5s https://youtu.be/F3j_1AEQkHk FOLLOW ME ON Twitter - https://x.com/travisdotmedia LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/travisdotmedia FAVORITE TOOLS AND APPS: Udemy deals, updated regularly - https://travis.media/udemy ZeroToMastery - https://geni.us/AbMxjrX Camera - https://amzn.to/3LOUFZV Lens - https://amzn.to/4fyadP0 Microphone - https://amzn.to/3sAwyrH ** My Coding Blueprints ** Learn to Code Web Developer Blueprint - https://geni.us/HoswN2 AWS/Python Blueprint - https://geni.us/yGlFaRe - FREE Both FREE in the Travis Media Community - https://imposterdevs.com FREE EBOOKS 📘 https://travis.media/ebooks #benqmonitor #omarchy #linux