Suckless window manager


One of my computer environments is a text-only session supported by tmux. I am using it with much joy for over two years. I'm working also with many true window managers, on Apple, Windows, and GNU/Linux systems. But I am enjoying that almost-true window manager made above of tmux the most. In the passing weeks, I read about Suckless Dynamic Windows Manager aka. dwm. Because of several holiday days, I had the possibility to install dwm on my own, and I realized that it's so similar to my tmux experiences but in a graphical environment. I've set it up as my main window manager and the time spent on playing with it was very good for me.


When we are looking at [dwm Tutorial] we are able to get the whole concept of that program by looking only at the ASCII sketch which I copied below. So we have a base concept created by: /tags/, /title/, /status/, /master/, and /stack/ terms. And that is all!


    +------+----------------------------------+--------+
    | tags | title                            | status |
    +------+---------------------+------------+--------+
    |                            |                     |
    |                            |                     |
    |                            |                     |
    |                            |                     |
    |          master            |        stack        |
    |                            |                     |
    |                            |                     |
    |                            |                     |
    |                            |                     |
    +----------------------------+---------------------+

The most common user interaction is launching a new terminal window on the one of window sets called /tags/. The main window is the /master/ one, and the rest tag's windows are grouped into the /stack/.


The only thing which I want to set is my /status/. The last section of the tutorial is showing how to set information there by a simple script.


And that is all from the window manager. There isn't a need for any more features. I've got that big window managers like GNOME, KDE, and the same Windows or Apple one are so complicated. Even the main layout is extended by actions like operating the volume controls (I've used alsamixer instead) or the logout button (I've used the poweroff command) and so on. But we don't need them.


There is the possibility to configure dwm for your own needs, but for me, the vanilla configuration is good and usable. Now I can use tmux in my text environment, and dwm in graphical one. They are similar feelings.



[dwm Tutorial]


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szczezuja.space CC BY-SA

@ Mon 08 May 2023 09:22:55 PM CEST



/gemlog/