diff --git a/.bashrc b/.bashrc
index 67c61b4..36a01bf 100644
--- a/.bashrc
+++ b/.bashrc
@@ -51,7 +51,6 @@ export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.config/nvm"
 [ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion
 
 # standard alias
-alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/Development/nemoinho/gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles --work-tree=$HOME'
 alias cz='(pushd $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel); $(which cz); popd)'
 alias e='eza --icons --long --time-style=long-iso --group'
 alias ls='eza --time-style=long-iso --group'
diff --git a/.config/dotfiles/setup-machine.sh b/.config/dotfiles/setup-machine.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 1fd6ecb..0000000
--- a/.config/dotfiles/setup-machine.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,137 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-set -e
-
-_osname=$(uname -s)
-
-if [ "$_osname" = "Darwin" ]
-then
-    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
-    brew install \
-        git \
-        wget \
-        asciidoctor \
-        bash-completion \
-        vim
-else
-    if [ $(which apt-get) ]
-    then
-        sudo apt-get install nala gpg curl
-        echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/enpass.gpg] https://apt.enpass.io/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/enpass.list
-        curl -sSL https://apt.enpass.io/keys/enpass-linux.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/enpass.gpg
-        sudo nala update
-        sudo nala install \
-            apt-transport-https \
-            ca-certificates \
-            gnupg \
-            git \
-            wget \
-            asciidoctor \
-            bash-completion \
-            vim \
-            rxvt-unicode \
-            i3 \
-            i3lock \
-            i3status \
-            scrot \
-            imagemagick \
-            libxcb-composite0 \
-            rofi \
-            oathtool \
-            neovim \
-            graphviz \
-            jq \
-            enpass
-        # install icon-font which I use for i3status
-        MATERIAL_DESIGN_FONT_ZIP=MaterialDesign-Webfont-4.9.95.zip
-        curl -sSL --output-dir $HOME/Downloads -o "$MATERIAL_DESIGN_FONT_ZIP" https://github.com/Templarian/MaterialDesign-Webfont/archive/v4.9.95.zip
-        mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/fonts || true
-        unzip -jod $HOME/.local/share/fonts/ "$HOME/Downloads/$MATERIAL_DESIGN_FONT_ZIP" MaterialDesign-Webfont-4.9.95/fonts/materialdesignicons-webfont.ttf
-        fc-cache -fv
-        rm "$HOME/Downloads/$MATERIAL_DESIGN_FONT_ZIP"
-
-        # handle work-setup
-        while true
-        do
-            echo ""
-            read -p "Is this installation for work? [Yn] " yn </dev/tty
-            case $yn in
-                [Yy]*|"")
-                    CHROME_DEB=google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
-                    curl -sSL --output-dir $HOME/Downloads -O https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/$CHROME_DEB
-                    sudo nala install \
-                        openconnect \
-                        network-manager-openconnect \
-                        network-manager-openconnect-gnome \
-                        $HOME/Downloads/$CHROME_DEB
-                    rm $HOME/Downloads/$CHROME_DEB
-                    break;;
-                [Nn]*) break;;
-                *) echo "Please answer yes or no.";;
-            esac
-        done
-
-        # handle cli's for clouds
-        while true
-        do
-            echo ""
-            read -p "Is gcloud required? [Yn] " yn </dev/tty
-            case $yn in
-                [Yy]*|"")
-                    echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
-                    curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg > /dev/null
-                    sudo nala update && sudo nala install google-cloud-cli
-                    break;;
-                [Nn]*) break;;
-                *) echo "Please answer yes or no.";;
-            esac
-        done
-    else
-        echo Unsupported system
-        exit 1
-    fi
-fi
-
-unset _osname
-
-# clone dotfiles for fast startup
-GIT_DIR=$HOME/Development/nemoinho/gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles
-if [ ! -d "$GIT_DIR" ]
-then
-    GIT_REMOTE=git@gitea.nehrke.info:nemoinho/dotfiles.git
-    mkdir -p "$(dirname "$GIT_DIR")"
-    git clone --separate-git-dir=$GIT_DIR $GIT_REMOTE $HOME/tmp-dotfiles
-    rm -r ~/tmp-dotfiles
-else
-    /usr/bin/git --git-dir "$GIT_DIR" --work-tree "$HOME" pull || true
-fi
-/usr/bin/git --git-dir "$GIT_DIR" --work-tree "$HOME" config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no || true
-/usr/bin/git --git-dir "$GIT_DIR" --work-tree "$HOME" checkout || true
-
-# reload bash_profile to configure the current shell with the just installed dotfiles
-. ~/.bash_profile
-
-export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
-
-# install java with sdkman
-export SDKMAN_DIR=${SDKMAN_DIR:-$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/sdkman}
-curl -s https://beta.sdkman.io | /bin/bash
-source "$SDKMAN_DIR/bin/sdkman-init.sh"
-sdk version
-sdk install java 11.0.14-tem
-sdk install gradle 7.4
-
-# install nvm to manage nodejs
-curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | /bin/bash
-nvm install node
-export NVM_DIR="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nvm"
-[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
-[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion
-
-# setup defaults
-if [ $(which update-alternatives) ]
-then
-    sudo update-alternatives --set x-terminal-emulator /usr/bin/urxvt
-    sudo update-alternatives --set vim /usr/bin/nvim
-fi
-
-echo "ready for work :-)"
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..07780ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+README.*
+!README.adoc
diff --git a/README.adoc b/README.adoc
index 1be7342..640baec 100644
--- a/README.adoc
+++ b/README.adoc
@@ -4,42 +4,51 @@ Felix Nehrke <felix@nehrke.info>
 :source-highlighter: rouge
 
 [abstract]
-I'll use the https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11071754["bare repository and alias method"] to track my dotfiles.
+I use https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/[`stow`] to sync my dotfiles between the OS and this repository.
+
+== Requirements
+Install `git` and `stow` if not already present on the system.
+
+.Install via apt on Debian/Ubuntu
+[source,bash]
+sudo apt install git stow
+
+.Install via brew on macos
+[source,bash]
+brew install git stow
 
 == Usage
-Use all your familiar git commands but with `config` instead of `git`.
+Checkout this repository into `~/dotfiles` and apply run `stow` to sync the dotfiles.
+
+[IMPORTANT]
+The directory should be loacted directly in the HOME directory.
+Otherwise stow needs an additional flat `-t $HOME` everytime, which is a bit annoying!
 
 [source,bash]
-config status
-config add .vimrc
-config commit -m "Add vimrc"
-config add .config/redshift.conf
-config commit -m "Add redshift config"
-config push
+git clone git@gitea.nehrke.info:nemoinho/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles # <1>
+cd $_
+stow --adopt . # <2>
+[ -n "$(git status --short)" ] && git restore . # <3>
 
-== Setup
+<1> Clone this repository
+<2> Create symlinks for all files managed by this repository, so that the file in the $HOME points to the file in this repository
+<3> In case of differences between existing files and the ones from this repository keep the version of the repository
 
-.Quick setup
+=== Removing files
+If a file is going to be removed make sure to remove the linked file as well.
+Otherwise we end up with a bunch of dangling files in `$HOME`!
+
+To automatically delete these dangling links we can use a git-hook as the following.
+That will remove the links pre-commit.
+
+.Setup git-hook to automatically remove links to deleted files
 [source,bash]
-curl -s https://gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles/raw/branch/main/.config/dotfiles/setup-machine.sh | bash
-
-.Clone on new machine
-[source,bash]
-GIT_DIR=$HOME/Development/nemoinho/gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles
-GIT_REMOTE=git@gitea.nehrke.info:nemoinho/dotfiles.git
-git clone --separate-git-dir=$GIT_DIR $GIT_REMOTE $HOME/tmp-dotfiles
-rm -r ~/tmp-dotfiles
-alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$GIT_DIR --work-tree=$HOME'
-config checkout
-config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
-
-.Initial setup
-[source,bash]
-GIT_DIR=$HOME/Development/nemoinho/gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles
-GIT_REMOTE=git@gitea.nehrke.info:nemoinho/dotfiles.git
-git init --bare -b main $GIT_DIR
-alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$GIT_DIR --work-tree=$HOME'
-config config status.showUntrackedFiles no
-config remote add origin $GIT_REMOTE
-config push -u origin main
-
+cat <<EOF > .git/hooks/pre-commit
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+git status --short | grep -E '^D' | sed s/...// | while read f
+do
+  test -L "\$HOME/\$f" && rm "\$HOME/\$f"
+done
+EOF
+chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit