The complete Linux turnabout

I used to dual-boot my machine with Windows and whatever Linux-based distro I was comfortable to use at the time. For the last 8 months or so, I’ve been using Manjaro only because of the Arch User Repository which has a large selection of software while not fully tipping my toe into using Arch Linux and the effort of maintaining it is minimal because it abstracts it away from you. Not to mention the official package list of Arch Linux is also a beast. It was the best of both worlds.

At the end, it didn’t work out since I found out 8 months later that Manjaro withholds the recently released/upgraded software from Arch Linux before updating their own for security reasons. That didn’t go well for me since I thought it’s doesn’t really hold the point of using Arch-based distros anymore so I thought to dive into the OG of Arch-based distros: Arch Linux itself.

In my first few days, installing Arch Linux is a difficult task especially I have no idea how Linux works in the grand picture. I was looking up to the Arch Wiki in my phone all day at the time double-checking every time I step up one more step in the instructions. I took me about 5 installations before I got it correctly and cruise through without much worrying.

Booting up a functional Arch Linux that I tried and installed is a challenge well done and satisfied with. It seriously feels good when I got it working. Not to mention that I gain some nuts and bolts knowledge on Linux as well.

Since a fresh installation of Arch Linux is very minimal, I took it as an opportunity to have a completely new set of programs to fiddle with.

The first thing in consideration is a desktop environment but I saw an alternative way of using a "desktop" with window managers. Since my workflow is simple and I don’t need more fancy getup that one usually gets from DEs, I decided to try it out for some change. And it was cool.

I decided to use i3 for my first window manager. The first time I use it doesn’t bring up a bad experience. It was easy to adapt to it since I’m completely used to using programs that live in a command line interface like Vim.

My i3 setup

i3 also offers a level of configuration that could make you a bit more efficient. In my case, I set up a mode that’ll easily let me open my usual programs with only two key strokes like the following examples:

I also set up some keybindings that I usually use in my previous setup like a screenshot capture with maim, video capture with OBS Studio, and quick switching of windows and workspaces back and forth.

Status bar

Along with the keybindings, I also put a status bar usually seen in desktop environments. I decided to use the i3bar since it came in by default with i3. Then I use i3status (also came by default with i3) to fill up some usually needed information like audio volume loudness, remaining disk space for root and for home, and RAM and CPU usage.

It took a while to configure it but I seriously liking the pace around it so far.

The resulting i3bar setup

Application launcher

My personal desktop experience wouldn’t be complete without an application launcher. So I considered rofi to be my best friend on the matter.

By default, i3 uses dmenu as the application launcher but I replaced it with rofi since I find it more intuitive and easier to configure.

I also made rofi to look like a start menu you usually find in desktop environments like Xfce or KDE. It’s not too shabby if I say so myself. It’s quite usable with rofi’s sidebar mode where you can find windows, desktop entries, binaries, and even SSH configs.

Customized rofi menu

You can find my rofi config on my GitHub repo.

exec_always feh --bg-scale ~/wallpapers/sand.jpg

With a new workflow, comes a new terminal setup. I used to just leave my terminal setup by default since I don’t want to break things by then. But because of the minimal setup Arch Linux provides at the very start, it’s a safe bet to be experimental.

Vim

Vim has a reputation for being a meme in the text editors field. It has unintuitive user experience especially against modern text editors like Visual Studio Code or Atom without some manual reading beforehand. It also has unconventional controls due to the modal philosophy it adheres to. However, take time to master it and you’ll be speeding through for most of the time.

I use Vim mostly for writing documents that relies on text formatting languages like Markdown and Asciidoctor. My main case, however, is for writing LaTeX.

After I saw this post by Gilles Castel, I inspired to learn more about Vim since I was also learning LaTeX at the time. A few weeks later and I was comfortable with my own workflow.

Here’s a few details about it:

• I use vim-plug as the plugin manager.

• For writing LaTeX, I use vimtex.

• I use zathura as the live LaTeX viewer.

• I choose UltiSnips as my snippets manager.

• I use vim-auto-save for autosaving my files.

• I use nerdtree for a built-in file browser.

• I have vim-airline as the status bar. It’s pretty cool looking.

Fullscreen Vim setup

If you want to take a deeper look or just want to see the full config, you can see it in my dotfiles repo.

Ever since I got my i3 setup to be practically functional, I’ve dug a rabbithole of configuring the little details for most of the time. I’ve been considering things such as a compositor, application launcher, screenshot tool, keybinding tool, and a replacement for my status bar (which I didn’t by the end of the day).

That’s when I discovered /r/unixporn, a subreddit for showing off your *Nix (i.e., Linux, MacOS) configurations and setup. It’s also a community for "ricing", an act of adding the visual spices to your setup. I recommend to check it out if you’re looking for a starting point. They’re pretty friendly for first timers, too.

It’s a satisfying experience seeing my setup to be prettier (and more functional) with each revision. More programs come and go to my experimental workflow and eventually settle with a (hopefully) functional setup.

I said that the reason I’ve gone full Linux is due to me finding some good alternatives to the programs I usually use (except Visual Studio).

With this in mind, let me quickly list a bunch of programs that truly stand out for me:

You can the full list on my dotfiles README. I think you get the point.

Having a full-on Linux system is pretty awesome especially these days where there are feature-complete software that is being developed given away for free and have its code open to the public.

I made my migration since I found so much good stuff at Linux and it doesn’t worth the effort to make my machine dual-boot it with Windows just to use one program.