macOS is my favourite operating system. Finder in column view with arrow keys to navigate, combined with space for file preview, is incredibly fast and intuitive. Trackpad integration also results in less hand movement. I’m building a Linux (Bazzite) desktop, though, and I’ve set my sights on the stars.
nnn looks to be an incredible file manager, and was a great recommendation. It looks even more capable than Finder, albeit without scrolling/zooming previews, thanks to macOS having unmatched trackpad functionality. Not to mention Spotlight, which makes opening apps trivial–especially with Alfred available as well. I want to go beyond mere file management, though.
File managenent, browsing, gaming, everything. Just how much can you configure a Linux system to eliminate mouse usage? Shortcut guides welcome (I already know the major ones). I also have a keen interest in tiling window managers, but I’ve not delved that deep yet. I don’t know how to set one up.
Guess I’m forced to learn Emacs/Vim/similar.
To achieve this you will need a tiling window manager like Sway, Hyprland, or i3 and try to use as many CLI-based programs as possible for everything else. For browsers, there are projects like Nyxt (and some others I can’t remember) that allow you to use vim or emacs like shortcuts to browse around.
However most GUI apps probably won’t support an all-keyboard workflow so you will still need one. Depending on what software you use, however, you could make the vast majority of your regular computing mouse-free
Additional browser option: https://www.qutebrowser.org/
luakit works similarly too
I use a firefox plugin on librewolf and i3 (since qubes doesnt support wayland). Mostly works but still some things that require mouse for other gui applications.
How is QubesOS these days?
A lot of fucking around getting it set up in a way i like. Modifying dom0 scripts live, injecting python themes to get dark mode in the qube manager, fucking around compiling dubious drivers from source and installing them in dom0, fuckig around with getting windows to behave itself (havnt got it working but i just have a drive partition i pass back and forth to tranfer data). Other than that its pretty good. I3 is a godsend for efficiency, have got ctr+shift+c/v as muscle memory now.
Am currently fucking around with getting split backend for keepass so i can use the keepassxc browser plugin and have it then requesting access to the keepass backend in a seperate qube. Got it working in 1 qube manually. Currently having systemd kicking my ass over a ncat socket in /run/user/1000/app/org.keepassxc… that doesnt exist untill the browser extension tries to access it but thats well after boot so systemd has already crashed the service.
Overall having lots of fun tinkering. And god do i love the ability to just blow up my os whenever i feel like it. I can sudo rm -rf / --no-preserve-root whenever i feel like it and my system is fine.
Nice to see what a power user can do with it. What hardware are you using and are you happy with the performance?
Im on a framwork 16 with the cheaper amd cpu, 64gb ram, no dedicated gpu yet tho waiting till that matures a bit (so i can run large llms locally) before i buy one. Performance is great especially with amd since they tend to have many cores. Most things require very little resources and those that dont i can just passthrough more resources. Once uve eaten the virtualization overhead (its surprisingly little) and the multiple instances of linux overhead (also minimal nowdays) the performance is pretty much no different from bare metal u just gotta pass through more resources where u need em (gaming/coding/cad qubes etc).
Qubes is pretty smart ie i can give a qube basicly no initial memory (as long as its enough to fit all monitors worth of pixels in memory) and then give it a large max memory allocation and it will only use what it needs it wont use the entire allocation if it doesnt need it. Same as disk everything (unless u configure otherwise) is a thin volume so u can allocated more storage to a vm than u even have available to the system as a whole.
Btw got split password managment working. God i hate systemd.
Thanks. Once I have a dedicated spare machine again I’ll give it a spin. Haven’t used it in many years.
I did mention tiling managers already. Other comment has me interested in NixOS, and I think I’ll be changing my plans to account for both. It’s a nerdier setup now, RIP Bazzite.
I love Mullvad browser, though. It’s a great “peace of mind” browser. I’ll stick with it for now, but I will be looking into Nyxt. Might take a while.
Thank you!
I would strongly recommend not to dive into NixOS yet.
It has its benefits and I think it’s awesome, but it has a bit of a learning curve and you already have plenty of learning to do with going mouseless and the whole interface stuff. You do not want to deal withbreakages in unstable NixOS, or broken Nvidia drivers in stable.
If Bazzite’s immutability is holding you back, just switch to another distro you are familiar with: Be that Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE, whatever.
Hyprland is the most complete and configurable tiling window manager today, so definitely start with that. You can install it in any Linux distro.
I have Arch familiarity already, and I’ll use it if all else fails. I’ll read into NixOS beforehand and decide, but I am a quick and determined learner. I want to expand my experience with this build. Won’t do anything stupid–promise!
I’d like to argue the other way: jump into whatever you find interesting and do stupid shit.
Unless this is a computer that your job relies on or whatever, then it doesn’t matter how much shit you break, as long as you’re learning what to not do next time.
It’s pretty much how everyone who is all ‘oh no! be very careful and take small steps!’ started, but they’ve just forgotten about having done that.
(I’ve broken so much shit both personally and professionally, but it just served to make me less stupid in the future. Or uh, at least unlikely to do the same stupid thing twice.)
I’m more of a fan of
:(){ :|:& };:personally.(don’t run that unless you want to crash your shit)
Arch with i3/sway is what I’d recommend then. NixOS seems really cool, but I’ve heard it’s very difficult. Also it’s going to be much easier to test stuff out on Arch, then once you have a full setup you like, you could try Nix.
I’d recommend Neovim too, with some nice extensions. That’s what I’d start with, and you can start on MacOS. I wouldn’t feel at home in the terminal without it, and I think you’ll really want it for setting up everything else. I’d almost say that vim or emacs is a prerequisite for something like NixOS.
Between vim and a tiling wm, you’re going to have enough of a learning curve to start, I think.
Just avoid Nvidia to start with?
I am–I’ve gone with a Radeon 7900 XTX.
Damn, nice. That’s the card I keep telling myself I should upgrade to. I have a 5700 XT and I really like it but I kinda want something newer with more power
The build is comedy.
Ryzen 9 9950X
Radeon 7900 XTX
4TB SSD
64GB RAM
4k120hz TV. That’s something I didn’t mention–this is a living room build. The ultimate infodumping experience.
It’s important to note my current system is a MacBook (emulating retro), and a PS5/Steam Deck. My PC at work is an old desktop running Arch (I experiment in my free time). This is why I’m doing a build. If your card is only just starting to fall behind, I’d wait until next generation. It’ll save you in the long run, which I think matters more than anything.
Ooohh nice. That’s a beast of a system. Although mine isn’t a slouch it doesn’t quite compare to that. I have a 7950X, 10TB of total NVMe but with raid it’s only 5TB, 64GB of ram…and my 5700 XT.
I spent about a year in NixOS, and my main desktop still has it, though mostly out of laziness. I did end up switching back to Arch, mostly because if there’s anything you need that isn’t in the Nix repos it’s a pain to install. The other big issue I had was the lack of documentation, so you’ll be figuring a lot of stuff out completely on your own, because Nix works differently enough to everything else that a lot of general Linux resources just don’t apply.
If I had a recommendation for switching to nixos, I’d probably say use the Nix package manager on Arch for a while first, and just slowly switch everything to Arch. It’ll get you more familiar with everything, and then you can make the switch more easily.
Last I checked there’s a vim-ifying Firefox addon, don’t know if it’s maintained though
There is Tridactyl for Firefox, which let’s you use Firefox sithout a mouse and is actively developed.