Kerr Avonsen (she/her)Aug 13, 2025

One of the things which frustrates me no end, is that every single #Tiling #WindowManager I've ever seen on #Linux is designed with the assumption that "simple" and "pretty" are mutually exclusive.

The closest I've come to "pretty" is XMonad, because at least that allows you to have colour schemes, and to change the width of the (flat) window borders. Most of the others don't even allow that much.

But maybe things have changed since I last looked? Do any of you know of a tiling window manager which is actually PRETTY? Like, 3-dimensional window borders and other things one can customise the look of?

#AskFedi

Show threadBrain_Fr33zeAug 13, 2025
@kerravonsen omarchy.org
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)
@Brain_Fr33ze You mean https://hypr.land/ ? (I don't use Arch, so Omarchy would not be quite it for me).
Oh my, rounded corners! I must look into this, obviously.
Aug 13, 2025 at 6:52amWeb
Show threadBrain_Fr33zeAug 13, 2025
@kerravonsen what distro are you using? There is an ubuntu version
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Aug 13, 2025
@Brain_Fr33ze
Debian, currently. Was using Ubuntu until they broke unison, or was it gimp? Was using Sabayon until they stopped updating and ran off. (If someone else comes up with a binary Gentoo-based system, I would love to know. Because I really like the way that Gentoo deals with system-config-file updates.)
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Aug 13, 2025

@Brain_Fr33ze I'm now wondering if I should start looking into NixOS (https://nixos.org). It does look interesting.
Much reading to do first. Learning curve. Time needs to be set aside. So not quite yet. But, yes, this does look interesting.

#Linux #NixOS

Nix & NixOS | Declarative builds and deployments

Nix is a tool that takes a unique approach to package management and system configuration. Learn how to make reproducible, declarative and reliable systems.

Show threadABSURDAug 13, 2025
@kerravonsen @Brain_Fr33ze you should look into NixOS, yes.
Show threadQuentin Stafford-FraserAug 13, 2025
@kerravonsen @Brain_Fr33ze #Nixos is truly wonderful when it works and a real pain to debug when it doesn’t. If you wish to start on this long and difficult journey to enlightenment, the first challenge is to work out which of the hundreds of differing tutorials is in favour this month 🙂
Show threadBrain_Fr33zeAug 13, 2025
@quentinsf @kerravonsen on arch at the moment and happy with it. I have cachyos on my steamdeck and this runs great at this point.
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Aug 13, 2025
@Brain_Fr33ze @quentinsf I have used Arch in the past, but I didn't end up staying with it, I can't remember why.
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Aug 13, 2025
@quentinsf @Brain_Fr33ze Ha! But it surely cannot be as long and as steep a journey as Gentoo, and I conquered that.
Show threadsnkzallAug 13, 2025
@kerravonsen @Brain_Fr33ze Try to configure it in a VM. You can set up everything there and then just copy your configuration to your bare metal once you are sure that you want to go nix way
Show threadKerr Avonsen (she/her)Aug 13, 2025
@snkzall @Brain_Fr33ze But then I'd have to set up an actual VM, which is another learning curve in itself. Not that I couldn't; I have used VMs before, but it would be yet another hurdle to get over...
Show threadsnkzallAug 13, 2025
@kerravonsen @Brain_Fr33ze Yeah, it might be a bit of hussle, especially wit QEMU, but GUI frontends for VMs are making it easier. Try virt-manager, or VirtualBox (which is an evil and less effective option)