2020-05-05-my-journey-through-desktop-environments.html (8668B) - raw
1 <!-- title: My journey through desktop environments --> 2 <!-- slug: my-journey-through-desktop-environments --> 3 <!-- categories: FOSS, Miscellany --> 4 <!-- date: 2020-05-05T19:26:00Z --> 5 <!-- lastmod: 2020-05-06T07:52:00Z --> 6 7 <p> 8 My first experience with GNU/Linux was with KDE. It is the desktop environment used on my college 9 computers, and it was more or less the only experience I had with the GNU/Linux operative system, 10 so it was the desktop environment I installed at home (at that point I don't think I knew the 11 difference between a distribution and a desktop environment). After some time, I got comfortable 12 with the new OS and learned that distributions and desktop environments were completely different 13 things, so I started to look around for other DEs and decided to go with GNOME. It was a weird 14 choice, as I had only read—and heard—bad things about GNOME, but I was reading a lot about the GNU 15 project and decided to go with the DE that was part of the project, just to try it out.</p> 16 <!-- /p --> 17 18 <p> 19 Well, GNOME is great. I love GNOME! I am glad I wanted to try it (for a more or less stupid 20 reason) against what people were writing/saying. It works great out of the box, it has programs 21 for everything I needed and can easily be configured to fit your needs<sup id="fnref1"><a 22 href="#fn1">1</a></sup>. With Debian 10, the dark theme is great, and other apps like firefox also 23 go dark with it<sup id="fnref2"><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup>. It was a bit confusing the first 24 couple of days, but it was easy to get used to. GNOME has worked great for me (and still does). 25 With the lack of a bar with all the open windows (like on KDE), I have gotten more used to moving 26 around with the keyboard. I also made a conscious effort to use the keyboard more, as I had seen 27 many people move around faster and more naturally when they weren't using the mouse. So, after 28 gaining confidence with the keyboard, I decided to finally give i3 a <em>real</em> shot a couple 29 of weeks ago.</p> 30 <!-- /p --> 31 32 <p> 33 <a href="https://i3wm.org/">i3</a> is a tiling window manager, which means that it is a window 34 manager that arranges windows in a way that they don't overlap. A window manager is the software 35 that manages your windows (resize, move, close, etc.). The difference with desktop environments is 36 that the latter come with a window manager, but also many more programs (like a terminal emulator 37 or a text editor) as well as panels, system menus, and other features. These normally all look 38 alike and work well together.</p> 39 <!-- /p --> 40 41 <p> 42 I say I decided to give it a <em>real</em> shot because I have tried i3 multiple times before: 43 mainly logging in, seeing how ugly everything looks, logging out<sup id="fnref3"><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup>. 44 This time it was different: I had time to figure everything out, so I decided to push through the 45 first days (when everything is to be configured"), and then decide. I installed it, tweaked it a 46 little, didn't like some things, installed <a href="https://swaywm.org/">sway</a>, it fixed some 47 things but messed up others, I also considered other tiling window managers like 48 <a href="https://dwm.suckless.org/">dwm</a>, and went back and forth a couple of times (all in one 49 day). Eventually, I decided sway had one problem I couldn't cope with<sup id="fnref4"><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup> 50 and decided to stick with i3. I made a list of everything that was missing (or "wrong") and went to bed.</p> 51 <!-- /p --> 52 53 <p> 54 The next day, I grabbed the list and started working on the items. Some of them were very easy to 55 fix, like make the sound buttons work. Some others were a little harder, like mounting USB 56 automatically. I even had to reinstall i3—a fork of i3 actually—so I could have gaps between 57 windows (yes! I needed those!). I also added more items to the "problems-to-fix" list as I kept 58 using i3. After about a week, I had fixed everything on the list!</p> 59 <!-- /p --> 60 61 <p> 62 This process of going through a lot of minor things made me realize how awesome GNOME is. It has 63 so many features, without a need for the user to spend hours and hours making everything work. KDE 64 probably also goes into this category, but I haven't used it as much so I can't say. Other DEs 65 that I have tried have given me some problems here or there, nothing major, but it isn't the 66 out-of-the-box experience I appreciate in GNOME.</p> 67 <!-- /p --> 68 69 <p> 70 Some people quickly disregard these DEs because they are "bloated". In my opinion, it is true. 71 They have an absurd number of features, but for myself, when I simply need everything to work 72 without any tweaking, this is great. As a new GNU/Linux user, I wanted my computer to work without 73 much configuration, while still being able to be "picky" about some stuff. Even as a 74 moderately-confident user, I didn't have a week to spend making i3 look and act as I wanted. For 75 all my little things to be included, there are probably many more that I don't want, and are also 76 included (and other people want). I am fine with my desktop environment being bloated. That 77 changes for pretty much any other software I run on my computer, I like simple things, but I also 78 don't have unlimited time. Indeed, my initial reason to switch to i3 (or a tiling window manager) 79 wasn't "less bloat" or simplicity<sup id="fnref5"><a href="#fn5">5</a></sup> (I find GNOME very 80 distraction-free, and it has a good performance on my computer). I switched because I was tired of 81 overlapping windows and I wanted to make more use of my keyboard for managing everything.</p> 82 <!-- /p --> 83 84 <p> 85 With all the changes, I am very satisfied with i3, and haven't gone back to GNOME for a week. It 86 did take a lot of time to figure everything out (and configure it), but it was something I had 87 wanted to do for a long time (that's why the many attempts) and I finally had extra time to do it. 88 It was definitely worth it!</p> 89 <!-- /p --> 90 91 <h2>Final note</h2> 92 93 <p> 94 I think one of the major issues I had on my previous attempts was the <code>$mod</code> key used 95 for all i3 shortcuts. It is so hard to reach the <code>Super</code> key! I had already switched 96 the mapping of <code>Caps lock</code> and <code>Escape</code> (which improved my vim experience 97 drastically), so I knew <code>Caps lock</code> was the key I needed for my shortcuts (it is so 98 easy to reach!). I have now mapped <code>Caps lock</code> to act as <code>Escape</code> if I tap 99 it, and as <code>Super</code> if I hold down. With this little trick, i3 becomes a lot nicer, but 100 without damaging vim's experience. If you are considering using a tiling manager, think about it! 101 Also recommended if you use vim!</p> 102 <!-- /p --> 103 104 <!-- footnotes --> 105 <hr /> 106 107 <ol> 108 <li id="fn1"> 109 A very simple example is setting up "natural scroll" for the trackpad, which I had a couple of 110 issues the first time I tried with some DEs. But there are many things. <a href="#fnref1" 111 title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text">↩</a></li> 112 <!-- /li --> 113 <li id="fn2"> 114 I know this feature is not exclusive for GNOME (indeed, I configured i3 to act like this), but 115 it works out of the box, which is the point I am making. <a href="#fnref2" title="Jump back to 116 footnote 2 in the text">↩</a></li> 117 <!-- /li --> 118 <li id="fn3"> 119 I have a HiDPI screen which made everything look super tiny. I had some issues with HiDPI 120 screens with KDE (there was always a weird app that didn't work well with it). This got solved 121 (out of the box!) with GNOME, and after all the frustration I had in the past, seeing it back 122 was a nightmare. This was finally solved pretty easily, although the solution is a little hacky 123 so I can also plug my computer into non-HiDPI screens. <a href="#fnref3" title="Jump back to 124 footnote 3 in the text">↩</a></li> 125 <!-- /li --> 126 <li id="fn4"> 127 The problem is that applications using Xwayland are blurry on HiDPI screens, and that wasn't 128 solvable as far as I could tell. They also had no plans to solve it anytime soon (according to 129 sway developers, it is an Xwayland problem, and it's on them to fix it, which is a fair point). 130 <a href="#fnref4" title="Jump back to footnote 4 in the text">↩</a></li> 131 <!-- /li --> 132 <li id="fn5"> 133 Now that I have tried it and feel comfortable, my next installation might come without GNOME and 134 probably have much less bloat, which I will appreciate for sure. It simply hasn't been a 135 priority so far. <a href="#fnref5" title="Jump back to footnote 5 in the text">↩</a></li> 136 <!-- /li --> 137 </ol>