All About Learning Ukulele with Curt
Site Credits
On the web since 1992 and a Mac since 1987 (Mac II), Linux since 2020 (System76 Thelio & Meerkat with COSMIC Desktop) • Serving up Ukulele content since 2003
Here is a taste of the software and hardware that goes into keeping LearningUkulele.com and Learning Ukulele with Curt up and running with constantly adding new information and features.
30 July 2026
Notes (Since Sept 2020):—Logos are listed in order of most used. Top row is the hardware the operation (OS) that are currently being used. I'm running a System76 Thelio with Pop!_os and COSMIC-DE as my daily driver and for all things except DTP work (for now). Using macOS for book publishing and creating the PDF files of lessons, with PDFs.
Notes (Since Early 2026):—Running COSMIC-DE without any major issues. A real joy too use.
Software Used for This Site
Here is a list of the current and past hardware and software that I use or have used over the last thirty plus years for developing my sites, lessons, books, scores, etc…
Started on an Apple Macintosh II and Aldus PageMaker way back in 1987 (actually started racewalking 1987 as well).
I've used a lot of different software applications, hosting services, and Apple computers over the many years (still have many of them) to bring this site to life and keep it running. Actually been through the following DTP programs: Aldus PageMaker, Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, and now Affinity Publisher.
Since September 2020, I have been using Linux as my Daily Driver
using Pop!_os from System76 and have a Thelio
desktop computer as my Linux Daily Driver.
as well as a System76 Meerkat for testing.
Update: Been using Pop!_os on a Thelio desktop computer since September 2020 for all things except, what is directly related to the book publishing part of Curt Sheller Publications. The DTP suite of software is not as feature rich on Linux than is available for the Desktop Publishing (DTP) part of Curt Sheller Publications — the Books and PDF files, etc…
After 30 plus years of using a Mac (since 1987 and Mac II), ALL development is now on , a Thelio desktop computer from System76, and the NEW System76 Launch Keyboards . It's faster and was half the cost of the new iMac I bought early 2020.
And, I never hear the fan, even when it comes on the Thelio. On the iMac, it goes on when nothing is going on and throttles the CPU back, so you don't get the performance that you paid for. Linux, Pop!_os, and the Thelio are very liberating.
The only real piece that I still do on a Mac is the Curt Sheller Publications books and lessons content for the PDF files. 2023 Update: M1 Apple Studio Mac for ALL Apple Mac related and no more fan problems.
NOTE: I have gotten Affinity to work on Pop!_os using
- AffinityOnLinux — A comprehensive solution for running Affinity software on GNU/Linux systems using Wine with hardware acceleration support.
LearningUkulele.com is a Hand-coded Site
From hand-coding my original GuitarResources.com (1987) and JazzGuitarResources.com (1992) sites with BBEdit v3 , hosting on ItsAMac.com (MacHighway.com) to the current Laravel sites using Sublime Text and Sublime Merge on both my Mac and Thelio computers. I have been hosting the sites on DigitalOcean with admin and deployment using GitHub as well as Laravel Forge to manage the servers. I've come a long way with the “LearningUkulele.com” site — the ever-evolving site.
For figuring out what pages of the site are the most popular and visited (don't know who or collect any personal information), I'm currently using open-source, Plausible.io — Trying to stay off google.
Here is all the software, hardware, and gear that goes into making the LearningUkulele.com site possible.
For Desktop Publishing Needs (DTP) and Graphics
Finally, off all Adobe products and their subscriptions. Using Affinity Publisher, Designer, and Photo for all my lessons, books, and the like and moving most other activities to the Linux and Open-source software. Affinity Publisher is the third DTP application that I've used starting in 1987 with Aldus PageMaker, then Quark Express, and now Affinity Publisher.
Here is a list of software and hardware I use and have used over the years.
Apple, Inc.
Released with much fanfare in January of 1984, the Macintosh was the first affordable computer to include a Graphical User Interface. It was built around the new Motorola 68000 chip, which was significantly faster than previous processors, running at 8 MHz. The Mac came in a small beige case with a black and white monitor built in. It came with a keyboard and mouse, and had a floppy drive that took 400k 3.5in disk the first personal computer to do so. It originally sold for $2,495.
System76
System76 is an American computer manufacturer based in Denver, Colorado, specializing in the sale of notebooks, desktops, and servers. The company supports free and open-source software, offering either Ubuntu or their own Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, Pop!_OS, as the preinstalled operating system
MuseScore
MuseScore is a scorewriter for Windows, macOS, and Linux, comparable to Finale and Sibelius, supporting a wide variety of file formats and input methods. It is released as free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. MuseScore is accompanied by a freemium mobile score viewer and playback app, and an online score sharing platform. The makers of MuseScore claim that it is the world's most popular notation software.
And a slew of Open Source Software (OSS) and paid software on macOS and Linux – Pop!_os including: Apostrophe, BeachBit, Bitwarden , Boxes, Boxy SVG, Converseen,, DBeaver Community, , Déjà Dup Backups, , DB Browser for SQLite, , Discord, , Document Scanner, , Discord, , Document Scanner, , FileZilla, Final Cut Pro , Firefox , ghostwriter, Gimp, Htop, ImageMagcik, Inkscape, QjackCtl, , Joplin, Jamulus , Kdenlive, Kitra, LibreOffice , Logic , MeiliSearch, Musescore, MySQL , OBS Studio , MarkText, Meld, PDF Arranger, Popsicle, Postman, Psensor , Sequeler, Scribus, Sibelius, Skype, Snappshot, SQLite , Sublime Text, Sublime Merge, Syncthing , Tableplus, Timeshift, Transit , VLC , Yubico Authenticator, Zoom • and man more ... BOLD are used daily.