- This topic has 38 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated Sep 7-8:46 am by BobC.
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BobC
Quite a shocker. Put me back to about 1987 when I was wrote a bunch of colored ASCII character menus for DOS 3.1.
I was lucky to remember the pacman command enough to update the package list.
But it seems that I3 is quite popular. To each his own I suppose. I wonder what took all the space on the download?
I couldn’t get it to boot from flashdrive on my faster machines due to the I7 CPU’s I have in them. I found instructions to boot from the HD via loopback, but after trying it on the other laptop I decided to skip it.
I was actually just wanting to install and run the new IceWM 1.6.1. It comes with some enhancements and fixes that I would like to have. Next time I will start with XFCE or something more familiar.
manyroads
Most tilers come up pretty naked. If you want to try tilers on arch that look and work well… go with archlabs.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - http://many-roads.com
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
dwm & i3wm ~Reg. Linux User #449130
20 Jan 2021 ~ "End of an Error"After my I3 adventure, I ended up downloading and installing the XFCE version and installing IceWM on top of that. It was much better for me than I3. I3 was very weird. It reminded me of running QEMM back in the DOS 6 days before Windows 3.1 got popular.
One thing I really learned is that installing and running other distros gives me great respect for the extra effort the devs here put into antiX in terms of both stability and performance.
I did get Manjaro running on a machine that could boot it, but at minimum I can honestly say everything involved is much faster under antiX, and more likely to just work.
ex_Koo
Just install i3 on antiX runs really well I have it on both my laptops use the MX test-repo (Thanks to the MX team)most of the top end users go with i3. After using i3 for over year now I just can stand menu based desktops and I used them for over 25 years. Their is no window over lapping like GUI,s desktops everything is a lot neater. Another thing I can’t stand anymore is task bars and lunch icons they are a waste of screen space. antiX will always be my first love. I might have a cry about repo’s but that’s is a very important part of any system an it all seems fine now. But in saying this Debian will always be part of my computers systemd or not it is a wonderful system.
I will be running antiX19 on my main with i3 and bspwm as soon as it is released.(Sorry if I got a bit off track)
Yes, I use a double height taskbar on autohide, so it only takes up space if i want it to. I actually do wish I had the option to have the status bar stuff there and autohide the taskbar. I have never seen that anywhere. I suppose I could just turn off the tasks to get it that way, and have a key to toggle it on/off.
As I said, to each his own, but I3 wouldn’t be on my wish list.
manyroads
As long as I have two of my favorite geeks here… 😉 I’ll chime in with my opinions @KoO already knows most of this because he has my bspwm dotfiles and we’ve been collaborating. I am becoming a huge bspwm fan. I will release a respin of bspwm on antiX19 shortly after antiX19 is released. @BobC, it will be fully functional. And courtesy of @skidoo, there will be none of the native antiX wms on the respin. That’s not to say what I build will be to your liking, however, it will work and there will be documentation to support new users and user learning.
Honestly it takes a lot of time and effort to restructure years of work habits and style preferences to those required to use a tiler. I think it’s worth it for the following reasons (btw most of these reasons exist on stacking wms as well but people rarely ‘go to these’ because it means leaving their comfort zone):
— Keybinding customization. The reduction of mouse dependency is great. Sort of like in music the difference between playing a piano versus a guitar, both play music, but differently.
— Options…options.. options. Because fewer are provided natively with most tilers, you are forced to look at what you want to do and figure out the best way to accomplish your objectives. I find that invigorating & empowering. I have found tools and approaches I never knew about, all new to me.
— Psychology behind the design/approach. As @KoO mentioned desktops are neater; pathing and workflow is cleaner with a tiler. In psycho-babble terms, your preferred judgement/ perception mode (to use Jungian Psych) is more easily supported. Simply there are more ‘ways’ to do things using a tiler’s open architecture and toolsets. Of course, you have to do them yourself & your way. Personally, I am a big fan of that.
— Rice (not the food). A big part of the tiler culture focuses on ricing (beautifying) desktops. It is an on-going, never ending, indefinite activity. The minimalist beauty of many desktops is astonishing, to me. I thoroughly enjoy participating in and viewing ricing efforts.
— The i3wm & bspwm communities are extremely helpful & knowledgeable. Xfce comes close but nothing else in the stacking world (that I know of) is as actively and enthusiastically supported, enhanced, developed, yadda yadda…
— Youth. i3wm & bspwm seem to be built and used by young (frequently artistic) people. As a formerly young person, I love that. I learn a lot. I truly admire how smart and inventive many of these young folks are.The bottom line is this stuff is (can be?) fun and challenging. It is my replacement from distro hopping (which I still do… a little.)
For grins I’ve included a couple of my MX bspwm setup… (it looks similar on antiX just is dimensionally different due its installation in VBox)
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by manyroads.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - http://many-roads.com
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
dwm & i3wm ~Reg. Linux User #449130
20 Jan 2021 ~ "End of an Error"
Brian Masinick
<Digression>: Once upon a time, I experimented a LOT with Text Editors, window managers, desktop managers, as well as operating systems, Linux distributions, and even a few real time and near real time systems.
Now however, I’ve reached the conclusion of my professional career, and though I still have SOME interest in such things, I now generally prefer a nice “compromise” between configuration, flexibility, performance, and reasonable ease of use.
Though it may not rank #1 in all categories, I was one of the original advocates of keeping Fluxbox, but making IceWM the default window manager for our lightweight implementations of antiX. Similarly, though I don’t believe that I had anything to do with the decision-making process on MX Linux, I actually created (nearly ten years ago now) a custom antiX Core system containing Xfce as a desktop environment. The first time I ran MX Linux, I was surprised at how SIMILAR it was to the personal solution that I put together in the early days of antiX Core.
I’m glad that our antiX and MX communities offer many solutions, including ones that start very near “scratch” and allow each person to make whatever they prefer, and I’m also glad that both the MX and antiX developers consistently include default choices that make a great deal of sense as starting points for each variation of the distributions. As far as i3 goes (and Manjaro), anything I’ve done with either of them has been minimal. I did run Manjaro for a while, and I’ve also built 2-3 systems with Arch Linux from scratch. From my personal point of view, both Manjaro and Arch are no more efficient than antiX/MX, and at least to me, run somewhat slower, have less stability, especially when you start adding AUR packages of questionable reliability. I have better luck running Debian Sid with “Experimental” packages when I am in an experimental mood, but I do freely acknowledge that I have acquired much more working experience with Debian-based distributions than any other Linux-based distributions.</Digression>
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Brian MasinickYes, AUR brings much more risk of breaking things you thought would just work. My QT3 issues come to mind.
That said, I was able to get both my ArcoLinux IceWM (my own spin based on ArcoLinux XFCE), and also PCLinuxOS (based on the XFCE version there) both running with IceWM 1.6.1 last weekend.
With antiX so far I am finding it a lot easier to wait on Debian and then antiX repos, but waiting for bug fixes is always a long wait. I offered to help them test it. What else can I do? They are all good people. I’ll help if I can.
I’m too old to try to learn tiling again. I used to love QEMM and Brief and created macros galore back in the DOS days and hated Windows 3.1 and WFWG 3.11. But those days are passed. I want my window manager today to be LIGHTNING FAST (faster than the tilers) and visibly HELP me do things quicker and with less chance of errors… Like my side by side editing, etc. I want to be able to use whatever tool fits the problem best…
PS: Your desktop is beautiful. That would be good “eye candy” to get people to try a distro is the way I look at that.
Myself, my tastes have been changing, and I’m staring to think maybe “less can be more”, because it puts the focus on what is left… I used to fill every screen, lol, till there was no room for any windows! I just need my disk space monitor and I won’t need the conky at all, anymore…
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by BobC.
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Anonymous
The biggest drawback of tiling WM — one needs keyboard to control them — the keyboard is what one tries to avoid using, not a mouse.
Makes this discussion pretty pointless.
Mice is THE reason why we still use PC in the first place.
Just try using something “multi-touch” or “gestures” instead and you’ll understand.
Tilling WM have exactly one use case scenario where they make sense — server monitoring/programming.
With other words, “only console” shown on display and nothing else besides.
Arrange Windows once and keep them forever so.
manyroads
I conducted a bit of research regarding some of the assertions made in this thread. Please note, because numbers are often difficult to unearth those published by various sources indicate that currently;
— PC Sales: ~63 million units … see: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-07-11-gartner-says-worldwide-pc-shipments-grew-1point5percent-in-second-quarter-of-2019
— smartphone class device sales: ~311 million units… see:https://www.macrumors.com/2019/04/30/apple-36-million-iphones-shipped-q1-2019/
— tablet sales: ~33 million units… see: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/2/17644546/tabets-global-market-amazon-samsung-appleGiven the preponderance of tablet & smart phones world-wide (not PCs), I think market data indicates that fingers (not mice or keyboards) are the dominant point, select, activate tool, these days.
As for floating window managers being dominant, I doubt the truth of that, as well. The dominant screen interface via smartphone & tablet (android and/or iphone/ipad) is much more tiling like than windows/ mac like; although, I will grant they use desktop icons for app access.
Edit: btw none of this has any bearing on why I enjoy myself with antiX, MX, bspwm or anything else I am playing around with. I think it is wonderful that we all have preferences. By all means enjoy, learn, thrive. 😉
As for server management… all I can say is that I manage mine via command line.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by manyroads.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by manyroads.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - http://many-roads.com
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
dwm & i3wm ~Reg. Linux User #449130
20 Jan 2021 ~ "End of an Error"Smartphones and tablets are great … especially when running multiple VM’s and especially great when you try to use Blackmagic DaVinci, Adobe Suite …
You don’t wanna tell me that you ever saw what a server farm looks like? It’s not an SSH managed Pentium 2.
As usual … Don’t believe everything you think.
😉
manyroads
As with each of your profound and meaningful utterances, I am honored to be in your presence @noclue. I simply must bow too your vastly superior intellect.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by manyroads.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by manyroads.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - http://many-roads.com
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
dwm & i3wm ~Reg. Linux User #449130
20 Jan 2021 ~ "End of an Error"At least you got that one.
manyroads
btw You might correct the typo in your signature block. “How strange [it] is to be anything at all. (Alice in Wonderland)” 😉
- This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by manyroads.
Pax vobiscum,
Mark Rabideau - http://many-roads.com
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." H. L. Mencken
dwm & i3wm ~Reg. Linux User #449130
20 Jan 2021 ~ "End of an Error"My laptop has a touchscreen, too. Someday I will figure out how to make it work FOR me, LOL.
I don’t think my signature has any flaws, but I have many.
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