Comment by skydhash

The model of computer use that appeals to me are the one that in theory have a simple system, but the real goal is for you to have a tool that fits your needs. So far it includes the BSDs (Unix), Emacs, and Smalltalk. I've not tried Plan 9 yet.

The more I'm learning more about the above, the more I'm believing that most computer problems has been solved since a long time and the focus should be on improving and creating new tools, not reinventing them.

PS: Spreadsheets are nice too, but they're still lacking the surrounding helpers that would make them great. There's VBA in excel, but I'm thinking about more like dynamic table that's linked to an endpoint or some commands (Unix's ps). I haven't explored tools like Airbase to see if they fit that vision.