Most developer setups are layers of accumulated junk. The solution is to wipe everything and rebuild from scratch. What follows is the stack that emerged after three iterations - genuinely fast, with specific tools and config that make a real difference.
The Core Stack These are not optional extras. They are the foundation.
Tool What it replaces Why it wins zsh + zinit bash + oh-my-zsh Faster load, lazy loading plugins tmux Terminal tabs Persistent sessions, splits, scripting fzf Manual history search Fuzzy everything starship custom PS1 Fast, any shell, zero config needed eza ls Colors, icons, git status inline bat cat Syntax highlighting, line numbers ripgrep grep 10x faster, respects .gitignore zoxide cd Frecency-based directory jumping zsh Without the Bloat Oh-My-Zsh is slow and most people use 5% of it. Switch to zinit with lazy loading.
...