I describe The Complete Computing Environment half-seriously as a Concept Operating System.
Literally, it's an operating system for producing independent knowledge work, a collection of tools implementing a Second Brain-type thinking tool using the org-roam nonlinear notebook system, Arroyo Systems Management to compose configuration and knowledge across my notebooks, and a set of personal practices encoded within them, sitting atop a mesh of interlinked Concepts and Topic Files nodes.
Figuratively, it's a Concept Album1 exploring the limits of Literate Programming, semi-public thinking and thought-working, and modal computing. There is a long-standing joke in the Free Software and Software Engineering communities that "Emacs is a fascinating powerful operating system, too bad it's got such a bad text editor". I am here to undermine that and have a set of tools which fit like a glove, integrating Evil Mode and other modal systems in to my GUI applications and my web browser, building a unique operating system and practices around Emacs's fundamental tools and idioms.
Ultimately, it's my thinking-tool and external brain. It is privacy-preserving, offline-capable, community-driven, and actively engaged in holistic creative work. It's an experiment in building a personal computing stack that is vertically integrated on a personal level. While I don't manufacture all the hardware myself, the choices are narrow, purposeful, and thoughtful.
Footnotes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_album
↩︎A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Sometimes the term is applied to albums considered to be of "uniform excellence" rather than an LP with an explicit musical or lyrical motif. There is no consensus among music critics as to the specific criteria for what a "concept album" is.