I have to say that I have a horrible history of remaining on any environment for very long. Now, in my forever journeys of Linux exploration, I have recently arrived at a new ‘point’ (way station?). My latest desktop environment, is a stripped down, riced dwm environment (such as I am capable of building). This time I am running on ‘vanilla’ arch (archlinux).
In this adventure ‘story’, it is my hope to share a bit about how I constructed and use this new (to me) environment. My first post will focus on the background behind this transition, as well as my challenges.
As you may have guessed from the writings and knowledgebase on eirenicon.org, I enjoy research, explortion and sharing. My motivation for this ‘desktop and distro’ shift/ transition/ change began with the purchase of a Dell Inspiron 5493. The Inspiron 5493 is the only Dell Laptop I have owned that does not like Linux, very much. Complicating my situation is the fact that I actually use two Dell Laptops and prefer to have them, their data, and applications mirroring each other (in case one breaks). The bottom line: I like having one environment on two machines.
If you are regular reader here, you will know that over the past 18 months or so, I have been experimenting, using, and learning about tiling window managers (most notably bspwm and herbstluftwm). Ultimately, my experimentation and research in tilers led me to ‘discover’ dwm (from Suckless.org). The Dynamic Window Manager (dwm) appealed to me because of the core values it embodies and its construction/ build constraints. dwm (as well as the entire suite of suckless tools) is built to be light & small and suck-less than other software, what a concept!
dwm like most tilers offers the opportunity and tools for those who want the freedom to create a highly customized ‘build it yourself’ environment. Because dwm is presented by many as being one of the rights of passage to joining the ‘LinuxMasterRace’, this was all seemingly über technical. (Yes, uber there is an umlaut on über.) I didn’t know if I would be up to the task or ‘qualify’ as a member of that elite group. Let’s say I’m not very close to being among the Linux elite. As you might expect, there were only a couple of items preventing me from effectively implementing this window manager:
- I needed to identify a distro that would work predictably and reliably on both of my laptops. (Finding something that was happy on the Inspiron 5493 was NOT easy.)
- Would my previous bspwm, herbstluftwm environments be able to function similarly using dwm?
- I did not understand dwm’s normal operating style/ procedure(s) and you shouldn’t tweak things you don’t understand.
- I had to identify and establish my personal use-case for my desktop(s).
- What were essential functions?
- What did I want to accomplish?
- dwm offers numerous plugins and products, I didn’t know how-to use any of those ‘bad boys’.
- dwm does not use standard configuration files/ tools (dotfiles). Instead, you get to tweak and compile ‘c’ config.h files. Oh and I did not know ‘c’, at all.
Aside from these things… I was ready to roll.
The remaining posts in this series will address/ discuss the above list.
If you find this material helpful or useful, please consider supporting us on Patreon or by purchasing Linux Bling from our online stores. We even offer dwm & suckless items!
Remember, like with all of my work, I am able to provide the following assurance(s):
- It is almost certainly going to work until it breaks; although I have to admit it may never work and that would be sad.
- When/if it does break, you may keep all of the pieces.
- If you find my materials helpful, both you & I will be happy, at least for a little while.
- My advice is worth every penny you paid for it!
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