The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice

[Baguette Child]

I feel like my needs are too autistic and specific I risk outing myself here, but to start I want to reclaim some monitor space with a tiled window manager and then see what productivity improvements I can make from there.

I am biased as someone who's been daily driving Debian since the early 2000s, but I actually would say Debian can probably do the sort of things you want to do while being a stable environment to adjust to linux in. You might give it a go.

 

[Aidan]

Wanting a tiling window manager is not outing yourself and can be done on any distro. The package manager and its repositories are more important but I think you should take the plunge on whatever you want and if it doesn't work then move to something else.

 

[Betonhaus]

Wanting a tiling window manager is not outing yourself and can be done on any distro. The package manager and its repositories are more important but I think you should take the plunge on whatever you want and if it doesn't work then move to something else.

there might be hints in the details, like wanting to have a yellow smirking animal thing with rosy cheeks front and centre in the screen with the windows wrapping around it.

 

[HootersMcBoobies]

I've been on Mint for a week now, and I'm having a much better time than I was worried I would. That said, a big part of that is access to chatgpt.

Just be careful with that shit. LLMs are sometimes useful, but always remember that whenever they get something right is is ALWAYS by accident. People might be alright with an 85% getting it right by accident rate, until it writes a script that deletes a year's worth of music projects like this moron:

https://archive.is/58qQj

Recently, Adrien's Digital Basement used DeepSeek to try to understand some assembly code for an old Zenith device. It did surprisingly well, but still guessed totally wrong on several key pieces and Adrien was smart enough to know better and look it up on actual hardware datasheets: https://youtu.be/5Cdh13hjNf0

Never run any code it gives you in a terminal without reading all of it carefully first! If you do not know how to read code/program, DO NOT RUN SAID CODE. You can use LLMs to write code piece by piece and run the small parts your understand to build up what you want to do first.

 

[Fledgling Neuromancer]

I'm going back to Linux after a long time of using Windows and I really only used Linux Mint before.

I'm starting with Gentoo, but I'm not sure if there's a more based option? I want to maximize the level customization I have, short of just compiling a stable release of Linux myself.

Just to throw another suggestion out there, Void Linux. Overall pretty similar to Artix, as you have manual installation and no systemd. I think the package manager in Void is about on par with pacman, what Arch and Artix use.

I would recommend checking the package lists for both Void and Artix and seeing if they have what you need. It looks like it's technically possible to use the AUR on Artix, but I would imagine a lot of AUR builds would fail because no systemd.

Void maintains a git repo with build scripts for every package, kind of like the FreeBSD ports tree. You can disable features you aren't using (like in Gentoo, but less powerful) and build your own packages to install with the package manager. If you do want to get into compiling packages yourself, this makes it easier than downloading and compiling everything manually. But keep in mind that if Void doesn't package it, then it isn't in the ports tree either. In that case you have to download and build it manually.

A point in favor of Artix is you get to choose between four different init systems, while in Void you are stuck with runit. It does things in a very barebones way; you have to symlink directories to make daemons run at boot. If you're not a fan of the command line I would probably avoid Void altogether.

 

[Max Weber]

Void maintains a git repo with build scripts for every package, kind of like the FreeBSD ports tree. You can disable features you aren't using (like in Gentoo, but less powerful) and build your own packages to install with the package manager. If you do want to get into compiling packages yourself, this makes it easier than downloading and compiling everything manually. But keep in mind that if Void doesn't package it, then it isn't in the ports tree either. In that case you have to download and build it manually.

One of the more retarded things about XBPS is the need to clone the repo if you want to add your own package, even locally. Imagine downloading the entire AUR to apply some patch.

 

[daffodils]

One of the more retarded things about XBPS is the need to clone the repo if you want to add your own package, even locally. Imagine downloading the entire AUR to apply some patch.

You have to clone the repo because that's the whole build setup, not just the templates. With --depth 1, it's a 10MB download and 150MB on disk.

I'm starting with Gentoo, but I'm not sure if there's a more based option?

Just use Gentoo, it's fun.

 

[(Physiognamy Czech)]

After switching from Windows to Tumbleweed KDE, I've managed to troubleshoot all quirks so far... except for remembering window position/size per program. That's my biggest gripe at this point. My understanding is you basically can't do this except for the KDE programs? Is the alternative to just always keep the apps open?

 

[Belisarius Cawl]

After switching from Windows to Tumbleweed KDE, I've managed to troubleshoot all quirks so far... except for remembering window position/size per program. That's my biggest gripe at this point. My understanding is you basically can't do this except for the KDE programs? Is the alternative to just always keep the apps open?

What is your use case here?

 

[(Physiognamy Czech)]

What is your use case here?

Technical writing. Right now I'm testing word processors, note taking apps, and ereaders. I basically ported over my Calibre instance for library management, but their ereader isn't great. Otherwise I use some utilities like copyq and crow translate, and obviously browser for research.

It's just super fucking tedious when I'm opening 3-5 books at a time for references and they all want to open in the middle of the fucking screen on main monitor. So much positioning/resizing. I tried the multiple desktops feature in KDE but I don't find it very convenient.

 

[Belisarius Cawl]

Technical writing. Right now I'm testing word processors, note taking apps, and ereaders. I basically ported over my Calibre instance for library management, but their ereader isn't great. Otherwise I use some utilities like copyq and crow translate, and obviously browser for research.

It's just super fucking tedious when I'm opening 3-5 books at a time for references and they all want to open in the middle of the fucking screen on main monitor. So much positioning/resizing. I tried the multiple desktops feature in KDE but I don't find it very convenient.

I don't use virtual desktops but my understanding is you can use keybindings to switch between them. That might help if not already using them. If I'm reading your posts right, you want their size and position to persist between sessions?

 

[Nice Stick]

It's just super fucking tedious when I'm opening 3-5 books at a time for references and they all want to open in the middle of the fucking screen on main monitor. So much positioning/resizing. I tried the multiple desktops feature in KDE but I don't find it very convenient.

Sounds like you want the i3 tiling window manager. A number of major linux distros have ISO's for i3, or you can install it and then select it from your greeter (logon screen) probably.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Technical writing. Right now I'm testing word processors, note taking apps, and ereaders. I basically ported over my Calibre instance for library management, but their ereader isn't great. Otherwise I use some utilities like copyq and crow translate, and obviously browser for research.

It's just super fucking tedious when I'm opening 3-5 books at a time for references and they all want to open in the middle of the fucking screen on main monitor. So much positioning/resizing. I tried the multiple desktops feature in KDE but I don't find it very convenient.

There should be a section the KDE control panel to set how it manages windows. If nothing works to your liking, you can try different DEs. I know System76's Cosmic desktop had a lot of WM stuff. i3 is the other big one but is tedious to setup.

 

[(Physiognamy Czech)]

I don't use virtual desktops but my understanding is you can use keybindings to switch between them. That might help if not already using them. If I'm reading your posts right, you want their size and position to persist between sessions?

Sounds like you want the i3 tiling window manager. A number of major linux distros have ISO's for i3, or you can install it and then select it from your greeter (logon screen) probably.

There should be a section the KDE control panel to set how it manages windows. If nothing works to your liking, you can try different DEs. I know System76's Cosmic desktop had a lot of WM stuff. i3 is the other big one but is tedious to setup.

Yes I'd like them to persist or at least open in a convenient way... I just switched to Linux this week and didn't know what "tiling manager" even meant when I came across the term. On a surface level Sway looks like the most fitting option for me, I'll try it out. Thanks guys

 

[daffodils]

On a surface level Sway looks like the most fitting option for me,

If you're going the Wayland route, another interesting option is Niri.

Is the alternative to just always keep the apps open?

Yes. Then just suspend at the end of the day.