Linux laptop [link]

i’m using an asus zenbook infinity (ux301la-dh71t) for this. main challenges of laptops are being limited to 1 monitor, needing to set up hotkeys, and other such stuff.

WM/DE experiences/ratings [link]

Good? [link]

  • Sway (pure Wayland, no big dependencies, but need to figure out how to supplement it with DE stuff like notification area, easily-configurable panel, notifications, audio settings, and a better menu than dmenu) (i ended up going with sway as my main environment, paired with waybar / mako / pavucontrol / rofi, and also screenshots with grim+slurp)
  • XFCE + xfwm (no-nonsense traditionalism but bad tiling, so you need to use a different workflow based around a dockbar/panel instead of tiling and workspaces.)
  • XFCE + i3-gaps (a good compromise between DE and WM, at least for X11)
  • Deepin (pretty but idk if it’s functional yet – play around more with it)

Interesting [link]

  • Qtile (need to learn how to use it bc it seems decent, similar to sway/i3 but no idea how to open menus yet, unfortunately doesn’t seem to be mouse-driven at all)

IDK [link]

  • bspwm / herbsluftwm (need config before opening?)

Not-so-good? [link]

  • Budgie (scaling a bit weird, and idk why but i don’t really like the styling of it even though it’s clean and makes sense)
  • awesome (haven’t been able to configure it how i want to with the title bars, but otherwise seems solid)

Eh… [link]

  • GNOME (too limited and boring)
  • KDE (bad design)

Not good [link]

  • Openbox/Fluxbox (too much hardcoded stuff)
  • Notion (too bare/ugly)

Broken [link]

  • way-cooler (failed to compile)
  • liri-desktop (no input from mouse/keyboard)