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For Linux Users: What's your Window Manager/Desktop Environment of choice?

posted
Total Posts
18
Neigdoig
588 posts
Joined May 2021
Topic Starter
Neigdoig
I thought I'd do one here, since it's been a while since I made something (and actually Linux related too I think).

I'm curious as to what your window manager or desktop environment of choice is. Everyone's preferences will be different, but that's fine by me.

For my pick, I have two of them: i3wm and BSPWM (this one I started using recently). I personally love using window managers that are easy to configure, and these two are pretty easy once set up properly (BSPWM is a little involved, but worth it). i3 because that's fantastic for beginners (despite needing a plugin or two), and BSPWM because of its unique tiling capabilities (also despite needing some tweaking). Those are my two picks.
MistressRemilia
64 posts
Joined January 2024
MistressRemilia
For me I prefer to go oldschool and use Sawfish because it's so lightweight (16mb right now lol), fast, and written in Lisp (so I can modify its code as it's running if I want). I also greatly prefer a skeuomorphic look to the flat look that's popular these days, and it has some themes that fit that nicely, so...

Then I add two instances of fbpanel to vaguely resemble the layout of an AmigaOS 3.x/4.x desktop, bind a terminal (Terminology) to meta+f1, Emacs to meta+f3, bind Xfce's Application Finder to super+space... and that's basically it. I don't enable any sort of compositing/desktop effects since I don't really like them and they just end up eating up resources.

Outdated screenshot from my desktop, it now has a lewd anime wallpaper instead of this
boat
2,369 posts
Joined February 2010
boat
whatever ubutnu comes installed with
Neigdoig
588 posts
Joined May 2021
Topic Starter
Neigdoig

MistressRemilia wrote:

For me I prefer to go oldschool and use Sawfish because it's so lightweight (16mb right now lol), fast, and written in Lisp (so I can modify its code as it's running if I want). I also greatly prefer a skeuomorphic look to the flat look that's popular these days, and it has some themes that fit that nicely, so...

Then I add two instances of fbpanel to vaguely resemble the layout of an AmigaOS 3.x/4.x desktop, bind a terminal (Terminology) to meta+f1, Emacs to meta+f3, bind Xfce's Application Finder to super+space... and that's basically it. I don't enable any sort of compositing/desktop effects since I don't really like them and they just end up eating up resources.

Outdated screenshot from my desktop, it now has a lewd anime wallpaper instead of this
I've never heard of SawfishWM. How old is it?
MistressRemilia
64 posts
Joined January 2024
MistressRemilia

Neigdoig wrote:

MistressRemilia wrote:

For me I prefer to go oldschool and use Sawfish because it's so lightweight (16mb right now lol), fast, and written in Lisp (so I can modify its code as it's running if I want). I also greatly prefer a skeuomorphic look to the flat look that's popular these days, and it has some themes that fit that nicely, so...

Then I add two instances of fbpanel to vaguely resemble the layout of an AmigaOS 3.x/4.x desktop, bind a terminal (Terminology) to meta+f1, Emacs to meta+f3, bind Xfce's Application Finder to super+space... and that's basically it. I don't enable any sort of compositing/desktop effects since I don't really like them and they just end up eating up resources.

Outdated screenshot from my desktop, it now has a lewd anime wallpaper instead of this
I've never heard of SawfishWM. How old is it?
Initial release was January 1st, 2000 according to Wikipedia, most recent stable was in 2021.
sineplusx
34 posts
Joined January 2022
sineplusx
Back when I was new to Linux I settled on Debian and KDE Plasma, since it resembled the Windows look and experience I was used to at the time. Have used Plasma as my DE ever since, switching distros along the way.
I rarely do visual customisation and focus more on the usability.

Recently I also experiment with running osu!lazer directly hooked up to an X server with no compositor or window manager with the goal of reducing visual latency to a minimum.
Neigdoig
588 posts
Joined May 2021
Topic Starter
Neigdoig

sineplusx wrote:

Recently I also experiment with running osu!lazer directly hooked up to an X server with no compositor or window manager with the goal of reducing visual latency to a minimum.
That I find interesting. Any progress thus far?
Last edited by Neigdoig , edited 1 time in total.
sineplusx
34 posts
Joined January 2022
sineplusx

Neigdoig wrote:

That I find interesting. Any progress thus far?
osu!lazer running exclusively on the X server feels about the same as on Plasma (Wayland). The difference in latency is probably so small that I might have to get measuring equipment to see it. One of my hopes is that Adaptive Sync / VRR will improve things, but I havent been able to get it to work properly with my display yet.
Last edited by sineplusx , edited 2 times in total.
redleader20056
39 posts
Joined January 2019
redleader20056
i used to use awesome, until i tried awesome and i used that for around a year. a friend suggested xmonad to me and i switched to it recently and i think im in love
Neigdoig
588 posts
Joined May 2021
Topic Starter
Neigdoig

redleader20056 wrote:

i used to use awesome, until i tried awesome and i used that for around a year. a friend suggested xmonad to me and i switched to it recently and i think im in love
I was thinking of getting into Xmonad and learning Haskell this way. Granted, it may be a bit difficult to get into, but it might be worth a shot.
Espionage724
876 posts
Joined August 2011
Espionage724
GNOME. I like that it's consistent across different hardware; 1080p laptop, Phosh on phones, 4K displays needing 200% scaling, 2-in-1s, GNOME does it all well and even Wayland.

I used to distro hop a lot, and found GNOME to be well-implemented in all distros. I primarily use Fedora Workstation.
BluePyTheDeer_
20 posts
Joined March 2024
BluePyTheDeer_
I have 2 PCs, one with only Linux (Zorin), and one that I plan to dual boot Windows with Kali (to code)

Zorin (my old PC): GNOME, because I can't choose
Kali (VM): Plasma
Kali (Dual boot when I can): Xfce, good but can't choose because of WSL
Neigdoig
588 posts
Joined May 2021
Topic Starter
Neigdoig

BluePyTheDeer_ wrote:

I have 2 PCs, one with only Linux (Zorin), and one that I plan to dual boot Windows with Kali (to code)

Zorin (my old PC): GNOME, because I can't choose
Kali (VM): Plasma
Kali (Dual boot when I can): Xfce, good but can't choose because of WSL
I have Cinnamon on Mint 21.3, but installed i3 and BSPWM on top of that. You should be able to do that too for your Zorin machine, though the software will be much older.
BluePyTheDeer_
20 posts
Joined March 2024
BluePyTheDeer_
Thanks! I will try it later an update this ASAP
Pillowey
145 posts
Joined November 2020
Pillowey
I have Arch Linux with KDE Plasma. Not a fond with tilling window managers.
Winnyace
433 posts
Joined June 2016
Winnyace
KDE Plasma. Dead simple, great looking by default, customizable, works well, it's reliable. Before Plasma, it was XFCE. Both are great, but I like Plasma more nowadays.

WMs aren't my thing, at all. If I want tilling on my system, there are ways to add that to Plasma
Last edited by Winnyace , edited 1 time in total.
Neigdoig
588 posts
Joined May 2021
Topic Starter
Neigdoig

Winnyace wrote:

WMs aren't my thing, at all.
That's why I said WM/DE in the title. You're all good.


Pillowey wrote:

I have Arch Linux with KDE Plasma. Not a fond with tilling window managers.
That's completely fair. WM's can be a bit scary, but I like them (Heck, I use two of them, switching sometimes).
BluePyTheDeer_
20 posts
Joined March 2024
BluePyTheDeer_
Zorin: GNOME
Kali (finally installed): Plasma (found a way lol)
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