nixos VS autotiling

I enabled the pstate driver yesterday for my T14s gen3 (AMD). It almost doubled my battery life, the fan never spins anymore and it's very very quiet and cool now. You need to specifically enable it in Linux kernel, this is how I did it:

https://github.com/pimeys/nixos/commit/17e8a9e2ce4b0f34ef6cf...

It should also be used together with the `shedutil` governor for the best results.

Wayland support didn't make it... Oh well it is in version 29.

I've been using the wayland version with libgccjit many months now from their git repo and it is extremely snappy and stable editor.

My strategy to keep all of this together is a nix derivation that compiles the latest master branch with all the plugin. Oh and my config is an org file with clear comments...

https://github.com/pimeys/nixos/tree/main/desktop/emacs

All reproducible...

Btw. I recommend SystemCrafters video series Emacs from scratch. It teaches how to make a vanilla emacs to work like doom emacs does. It was helpful for me to understand the magic behind doom...

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEoMzSkcN8oPH1au7H6B7bB...

I kind of have a thing for ThinkPads, and I have three laptops with NixOS:

- ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2018 model. Even the fingerprint reader works with this one. And fractional scaling for the 4k monitor! Config: https://github.com/pimeys/nixos/blob/main/hosts/purrpurr.nix

- ThinkPad T25. Everything except the fingerprint reader works. https://github.com/pimeys/nixos/blob/main/hosts/muspus.nix

- ThinkPad X230: Everything works here. The classic workhorse. https://github.com/pimeys/nixos/blob/main/hosts/meowmeow.nix

I never tried anything else except ThinkPads just because I'd miss the TrackPoint a lot...

I used to dread setting up printers on any operating system. I've done it countless of times with Linux, Windows and macOS, and it's been quite common to have some kind of fight with the printer until I get my paper out.

Only recently, by buying a Brother laser printer at home, and setting all my machines to use NixOS, I haven't been needing to think about printer problems anymore. All I need is this piece of config, and the printer will Just Work with the new computer:

https://github.com/pimeys/nixos/blob/main/modules/home-servi...

I did a month, diving directly into the deep end with flakes and all. I don't know, it really is hard in the beginning. Like, really hard. But eventually I got myself a setup I could use in my two laptops and workstation. A setup, that sets my home directory, all my programs and my custom desktop just the way I want. Everything is in the github repo, and installing with the flake will give me the exact experience I have in my other machines.

I tend to use lots of custom tools and commands, that are really painful to install and setup for a new machine. With NixOS all of it is just one command away.

But, I agree, it is REALLY HARD in the beginning to grasp things.

Here's my configs if you want to see how I approached my own setup: https://github.com/pimeys/nixos

And I come here always to remind people in the Apple bubble, that there are big groups of us who are not thinking like that!

I'm also soon in my 40s and I had my Apple years between 2004 and 2010. I came back to Linux and kind of hate the word tinkering even. The current Linux system offers something that nobody else does: your own desktop just how you like it.

I have my configs in GitHub: https://github.com/pimeys/nixos

With this config, I can take any ThinkPad (that are plentiful, great HW and cheap), boot from USB and get the same exact desktop experience I've had for almost a decade now in twenty minutes.

And what kind of desktop? A minimal tiling window manager on top of Wayland. Exactly the applications I need. The same wallpaper as always. The same editor, the same browser, the same keyboard shortcuts, the same kernel params, the same internet setup. Sound? Always worked. With PipeWire, it even seems to work better than on my Windows installation (and replacing PulseAudio with PipeWire was a one line config change).

Now. There will be no product manager somewhere that will dictate how I use my computer. If something changes in my workflow, that comes from my configuration. Nowhere else. No advertisement for new products, no suddenly disappearing applications. If something breaks from an update, I just boot to the version before I started them and I'm back to the previous state. When updates are leaving me to a state I'm happy about, I commit them to that GitHub repo and they will work exactly the same until I decide to update again. And I run the master branch of NixOS which is breaking sometimes, and it's still much more stable experience I ever had with OSX...

Of course this is not for everybody, but please understand when celebrating the commercial offerings how there's so many of us who do not want a desktop experience dictated by product managers. Who are kind of conservative how our workflows should stay the same for years, or decades. And we are still super productive, doing our work and very happy using Linux.

I'm going to copy&paste this comment to every single Apple post from now on...

# i1 config file (v4) # # Please see https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html for a complete reference! # # This config file uses keycodes (bindsym) and was written for the QWERTY # layout. # # To get a config file with the same key positions, but for your current # layout, use the i3-config-wizard # The modifier used all along this configuration file. It is the super key. # Mod1 = Alt, Mod4 = super set $mod Mod4 # local conf. Differ depending on the computer include ~/.config/i3/local.conf # A nice autotiling # needs to use the script in https://github.com/nwg-piotr/autotiling exec_always --no-startup-id autotiling # Font for window titles. Will also be used by the bar unless a different font # is used in the bar {} block below. # font pango:monospace 12 # This font is widely installed, provides lots of unicode glyphs, right-to-left # text rendering and scalability on retina/hidpi displays (thanks to pango). font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 14 # Start XDG autostart .desktop files using dex. See also # https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDG_Autostart exec --no-startup-id dex --autostart --environment i3 # The combination of xss-lock, nm-applet and pactl is a popular choice, so # they are included here as an example. Modify as you see fit. # xss-lock grabs a logind suspend inhibit lock and will use i3lock to lock the # screen before suspend. Use loginctl lock-session to lock your screen. exec --no-startup-id xss-lock --transfer-sleep-lock -- i3lock --nofork # NetworkManager is the most popular way to manage wireless networks on Linux, # and nm-applet is a desktop environment-independent system tray GUI for it. exec --no-startup-id nm-applet # use these keys for focus, movement, and resize directions when reaching for # the arrows is not convenient set $up k set $down j set $left h set $right l # use Mouse+$mod to drag floating windows to their wanted position floating_modifier $mod # start a terminal bindsym $mod+Return exec i3-sensible-terminal bindsym $mod+t exec i3-sensible-terminal # start applications # bindsym $mod+Shift+f exec firefox # bindsym $mod+Shift+z exec zathura # terminal applications # Cause i use konsole terminal... # bindsym $mod+Shift+r exec konsole -e ranger # bindsym $mod+Shift+n exec konsole -e nvim # kill focused window bindsym $mod+Shift+q kill # start dmenu (a program launcher) # bindsym $mod+d exec --no-startup-id dmenu_run # A more modern dmenu replacement is rofi: set $rofi exec "rofi -modi drun,run -show drun -show-icons" # some added scripts set $rofi_scripts ~/.config/rofi bindsym $mod+d exec "rofi -modi drun,run -show drun -show-icons" # doesn't work bindsym $mod+b exec $rofi_scripts/i3_switch_workspace.sh bindsym $mod+Shift+b exec "rofi -show window -show-icons" # There also is i3-dmenu-desktop which only displays applications shipping a # .desktop file. It is a wrapper around dmenu, so you need that installed. # bindsym $mod+d exec --no-startup-id i3-dmenu-desktop # change focus bindsym $mod+$left focus left bindsym $mod+$down focus down bindsym $mod+$up focus up bindsym $mod+$right focus right # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys: bindsym $mod+Left focus left bindsym $mod+Down focus down bindsym $mod+Up focus up bindsym $mod+Right focus right # move focused window bindsym $mod+Shift+$left move left bindsym $mod+Shift+$down move down bindsym $mod+Shift+$up move up bindsym $mod+Shift+$right move right # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys: bindsym $mod+Shift+Left move left bindsym $mod+Shift+Down move down bindsym $mod+Shift+Up move up bindsym $mod+Shift+Right move right # split in horizontal orientation bindsym $mod+Shift+v split h # split in vertical orientation bindsym $mod+v split v # enter fullscreen mode for the focused container bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle # change container layout (stacked, tabbed, toggle split) bindsym $mod+s layout stacking bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed bindsym $mod+e layout toggle split # toggle tiling / floating bindsym $mod+Shift+space floating toggle # change focus between tiling / floating windows bindsym $mod+space focus mode_toggle # focus the parent container bindsym $mod+a focus parent # focus the child container bindsym $mod+z focus child # Show the next scratchpad window or hide the focused scratchpad window. # If there are multiple scratchpad windows, this command cycles through them. bindsym $mod+c scratchpad show # move the currently focused window to the scratchpad bindsym $mod+Shift+c move scratchpad # Define names for default workspaces for which we configure key bindings later on. # We use variables to avoid repeating the names in multiple places. set $ws1 "1" set $ws2 "2" set $ws3 "3" set $ws4 "4" set $ws5 "5" set $ws6 "6" set $ws7 "7" set $ws8 "8" set $ws9 "9" set $ws10 "10" # switch to workspace bindsym $mod+1 workspace number $ws1 bindsym $mod+2 workspace number $ws2 bindsym $mod+3 workspace number $ws3 bindsym $mod+4 workspace number $ws4 bindsym $mod+5 workspace number $ws5 bindsym $mod+6 workspace number $ws6 bindsym $mod+7 workspace number $ws7 bindsym $mod+8 workspace number $ws8 bindsym $mod+9 workspace number $ws9 bindsym $mod+0 workspace number $ws10 #navigate workspaces next / previous, as for the navigation after the f/t bindsym $mod+semicolon workspace next bindsym $mod+comma workspace prev # move focused container to workspace bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace number $ws1 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace number $ws2 bindsym $mod+Shift+3 move container to workspace number $ws3 bindsym $mod+Shift+4 move container to workspace number $ws4 bindsym $mod+Shift+5 move container to workspace number $ws5 bindsym $mod+Shift+6 move container to workspace number $ws6 bindsym $mod+Shift+7 move container to workspace number $ws7 bindsym $mod+Shift+8 move container to workspace number $ws8 bindsym $mod+Shift+9 move container to workspace number $ws9 bindsym $mod+Shift+0 move container to workspace number $ws10 # For example, if you are on the workspace 1 and you hit $mod+2, you’ll switch to workspace 2. # Then, if you hit $mod+2 again, you’ll go back to your previous workspaces, workspace 1. workspace_auto_back_and_forth no # reload the configuration file # bindsym $mod+Shift+c reload bindsym $mod+r restart # restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3) # exit i3 (logs you out of your X session) bindsym $mod+Shift+e exec "i3-nagbar -t warning -m 'You pressed the exit shortcut. Do you really want to exit i3? This will end your X session.' -B 'Yes, exit i3' 'i3-msg exit'" # resize window (you can also use the mouse for that) mode "resize" { # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width. # Pressing right will grow the window’s width. # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height. # Pressing down will grow the window’s height. bindsym $left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt bindsym $down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt bindsym $up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt bindsym $right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt # same bindings, but for the arrow keys bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt # back to normal: Enter or Escape or $mod+r bindsym Return mode "default" bindsym Escape mode "default" bindsym $mod+r mode "default" } bindsym $mod+Shift+s mode "resize" # Start i3bar to display a workspace bar (plus the system information i3status # finds out, if available) bar { font pango:Exo2, FontAwesome5Free, FontAwesome5Brands, SymbolsNerdFont 12 status_command i3blocks position bottom } # for polybar # exec_always --no-startup-id $HOME/polybar-collection/launch.sh # a mode to exit, more practical that the $mod+Shift+e that forces the use of mouse. mode "exit: [l]ogout, [r]eboot, [s]hutdown" { bindsym l exec i3-msg exit bindsym r exec systemctl reboot bindsym s exec systemctl poweroff bindsym Escape mode "default" bindsym Return mode "default" bindsym $mod+x mode "default" } # I added fullscreen disable in order for the message to always be visible bindsym $mod+x fullscreen disable mode "exit: [l]ogout, [r]eboot, [s]hutdown" # command to rename current workspace, n for 'name' # NOT A GOOD IDEA. Would break the usefullness of the binding for workspaces 1,2,3... # bindsym $mod+n exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New workspace name: ' # bindsym $mod+Shift+n exec i3-input -F 'title_format "%s"' -P 'New windows name: ' # configure gaps gaps inner 5 gaps outer 5 # need to be installed! config file in /etc/xdg/picom.conf # used by flashfocus exec_always --no-startup-id picom # See https://github.com/fennerm/flashfocus/wiki exec_always --no-startup-id flashfocus # flashfocus can also be bound to a keystroke. # bindsym $mod+n exec --no-startup-id flash_window # Not really for i3, but to put zathura as default viewer: # source https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/zathura # xdg-mime default org.pwmt.zathura.desktop application/pdf

Check out https://github.com/nwg-piotr/autotiling I think I even left the configuration as is and the tiling is much better now.

autotiling --limit 2 is close enough https://github.com/nwg-piotr/autotiling

If you do want some "smart" behaviour as to how a new window will split automatically, try the autotiling script.

https://github.com/nwg-piotr/autotiling does it work for you?

Autotiling for i3 and Sway

Original depth limit feature contributed to the Autotiling repository by @Syphdias.

If you want to stay on sway you can try autotiling.

Have tried lots of window managers including awesome, but there's always something annoying that sends me back to i3. I use this to solve the problems you're referring to: https://github.com/nwg-piotr/autotiling