coltn

i am using KWM with river. I really like KWM, but I am tired with how rapidly the config is changing and needs to be updated to compile KWM updates. I'm thinking of switching to ZRWM since using CLI commands to config seem more stable than writing source code that needs to compile. The only thing I'm not sure about with ZRWM is I use monocle and deck layouts the most with KWM--and I'm not sure if ZRWM supports monocle.

If I don't get to a comfy place where my WM just exists and doesn't need to be updated, I may move to DWL.

I've used sway, hyprland, dwm, niri, mangowc, river-classic and now river with KWM. I'd say dwm and KWM are my favorite, but river-classic was up there (I just didn't have enough layouts set up).

it was honestly super cool of them for proprietary software. it was funny cause it was just a drop box link, and they said "please don't share with anyone". even though i wish it was foss software, and i would move off it ASAP if there was a good foss option for my use case--they still get a 1+ for just sending me the APK that i purchased that isn't tied to google services, and can be updated or not updated in app.

because i use a "dumb phone" (non-touch android flip phone, Sonim XP3 Plus 5G (X320)) my apps reflect that need a bit more.

• TT9 invaluable app for T9 android phones, it works so so much better than the stock keyboard.
• SimpleEmail this was the only email client that i could find that could work without a touchscreen. So far I've been reeeaally happy with it--it's so nice to have a solid email client again.
• DSub2000 subsonic/navidrome client that "mostly" works without a touchscreen. it's not perfect, but for my use case it is usable when i don't want to pull out my MP3 player.
• Localsend OS agnostic "air drop", must have
• KDE connect Works really well on the Sonim for SMS, notifications etc (I had more issues previously when running older versions of Android on "dumb" devices)
• DAVx5 Contact and Calendar sync, works so well with fastmail (or self hosted options); this is a life saver for me so that i can use the built in contacts/calendar for my non-touch device.
• Delta Chat works surprisingly without touch. it's hard to get people to switch off text or signal. But because my phone doesn't support RCS, and signal is pretty mid (but still usable) without touch, delta chat has worked good for me.
• Privacy Friendly QR Scanner works perfectly without a touchscreen, and has been invaluable on devices that do not come with a touch screen.

These are a couple apps that are not on fdroid, but work really well on my device if anyone is curious:

• BIG Launcher Expensive AF, but I was able to purchase the launcher on my pixel (that runs grapheneOS), then send them an email saying it doesn't work on my Sonim X320 because it doesn't have google play services--they sent me an APK of the full version that does not need google play services. This is one of the few launchers that works on non-touch devices, and it's actually really good. The default launcher on the Sonim bugs out and does not show apps that are not pre-installed.
• PodLP is a podcast app that is specifically made with non-touch/feature phones in mind. The developer did some AI assisted work to reverse engineer the API's for the softkeys on phones like the sonim. While I don't like AI, and try to use software that is free of slop--this is really cool work that I haven't seen in any other applications. The developer just recently put out the apk on android it seems like maybe it will come to f-droid or something.
• MATVT Is the virtual mouse that I am using to get around not having a touch screen when needed. But TBH the scrolling is jank and only works on some apps... If anyone has another options or tips, I'd love to try anything else at this point.

i've been using arch as my daily driver for 4 years. but i am thinking of switching to chimera linux. i really like apk, i think using dinit, llvm, musl and *bsd core utils would be great. for server, i use proxmox as my hypervisor, and debian for most vm's, starting to use alpine on lxc. I am using openwrt on my router.

arch on my two laptops, and desktop. proxmox on my server as the hypervisor, and debian on the vm/lxc. my routers are running openwrt.

one of my laptops i use for testing, and i do switch distro's.. i've tried alpine, gentoo and i'd like to try openbsd. but arch is comfy

hell ya for being able to buy these used as office surplus in 5 or so years

Though I can’t say I’m mad about it coming with screenshots built in because I struggled getting screenshots working for my entire stay on Arch. I didn’t try super hard, just had other fish to fry

exactly, i think this is why right now if a someone were to ask me for a starting point to get into a WM environment--I'd say niri with noctalia. But for me, there is some joy in just writing my scripts with grim and slurp and being able to do wacky things like automatically create a magic link on my local server, and my own domain to the screen shot that is accessible to the outside net.

yea, one thing that just feels so good for me is being able to view multiple tags at once. So you can temporarily view tag X and Y together (so filling in a password, copying a command, or reading documentation), but then you don't have to reorganize you applications back into their "designated" work spaces/tags. Your "chat" and "terminal" can remain in their workspaces, but you can view them together briefly without having to move them back and forth. For me as someone who usually tries to abide to each activity has it's own workspace/tag, this work really well.

River scratches the itch for me of hyper minimal. The config file is just a script/executable, it can be written in any language, but by default it's bash. in 0.4 (which should be coming out soon) they are coming out with a custom protocol to separate the window manager, and the compositor--so river will just handle the lower level/compositor things, and it can be a lot more simple to write a custom window manager. For example, KWM's first commit was Dec 25 2025 if I remember correctly; and the river wiki already lists 13 wm's that work with river as the compositor. I saw yalter say that things like animations etc will be more complicated with this model; but for me personally, i pretty much always shut off animations. also rivers community seems pretty good, and their code of conduct is solid.

I saw one of your previous comments about how you appreciate the unix philosophy of “do one thing best”, i found niri kinda rubbed me weird when things like screenshot, overview, recent apps were built in--while very useful for a "just works" desktop, and it makes niri a compositor that i would recommend to my friends, it makes niri feel like a bit of a wrong fit for me; have you felt this at all?

I also find with scrolling, I sometimes lose track of my windows, I wrote a script to display how many columns are in the current workspace, and which column is currently active--this helped a bit... but after 3-4 months of using niri i'm not 100% sold.

Still haven’t come across a way to do a special/floating workspace. I know you can float windows, but I’m talking about a whole workspace that toggles as an overlay of whatever your current one is.

This is a feature that I miss; it's possible, but not with stock niri, it takes some work to set up.

I also don't like using niri with vertical monitors... So I'm just using it on my main laptop--desktop is on hyprland

I am excited to use kwm with river! I like DWMs style of "tags" instead of work spaces, but scrolling is really useful when screen space is limited. I have an old thinkpad that had DWM, and I've switch to river-classic and really love it

personally, i have my system is completely off and i boot it up, i just use my luks password then the system is set to auto log into my environment (only one password required)--then if my system is asleep, when i wake it up it will just go to my lock screen where i can use my fingerprint or user password.

because it's less work. i don't have to strip out what a distro thinks i want. i don't have to worry about major distro releases that might have changes that need manual intervention. if there are updates that need manual intervention, they're small, easy to deal with and usually do not effect me. everything is well documented and standard. packages are installed with default settings/config (to my understanding), so i can easily read upstream documentation and not have to deal with weirdness. getting packages that are obscure is easier. i don't have to worry about upstream having a fix, or supporting something that i need but my distro not having the update in their repo. it's just simpler and easier to manage (for my use case)