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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Friendly tiling setup for a laptop? (tiling window manager?) (lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by BigHeadMode@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have a laptop with an 11 inch screen and 768p display. Naturally, my usage breakdown is:

80% one window in fullscreen
15% two windows side by side
5% other

I've considered tiling window managers. I used i3wm on this in the past. It was a little complicated and I customized the bottom bar to show commands for dummies.

alt-Enter: term | alt-D: launch | alt-F: fullsc | alt-1: new workspace | alt-shift-1: move to workspace

That plus some battery, wifi, time info. I never got 'good' with i3 and would consult the cheat sheet regularly.

Is there a paradigm (tiling or otherwise) that would let me quickly and simply launch programs with the keyboard (like most distros these days) and switch between fullscreen windows? and set them side by side as needed?

My usage is keyboard-first but mouse-available. i3 didn't seem tailored to mouse usage the way some other tiling wms are. and sometimes you'd launch a program like the wifi settings window and it wasn't built to be resized for a twm, so it looked weird. (no floating window support.)

edit: Tried

cachy+LxQt
cachy+niri
AntiX + IceWM

Couldn't figure out how to remap keys in LxQt. Niri was cool but a bit overwhelming especially on a laptop with just kb+touchpad and it's easy to back yourself into a corner (window wider than the monitor).

IceWM allows for super+arrows to move windows side by side like Windows. I don't love it but it works okay. Performance is also a big concern and my idle RAM seems to be around 300M for AntiX vs 700+ for cachy+niri.

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[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They key is repetition, and this means it can be easier to go "all in" and learn, say, only six or eight keyboard chords from stumpwm than to use Xfce with mouse and i3 and more stuff, because the latter is ultimately more complex and requires more things that need to be memorized.

There is a learning program called Anki which is great for repeating learned stuff, it was made for language learning but I've used it also for a job where I had to learn like one hundred three-letter acronyms. It can be very helpful but it won't help if one does not use the learned stuff.

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

And that's why things like PaperWM or niri might be a good compromise on the spectrum between "powerful but complex" and "simple but limited".

And how much complexity is good for one depends also on the area of application. I use Rust for programming which is complex for sure, but when I have to scan a document, I use "simple-scan" which does exactly one thing, and very well.