i3 Window Manager With Arch

It's been a while since I've installed i3 window manager and this weekend is the first time I've got it installed in a way that I like it.  I say it's been a while but last week I tried to install i3 on an Arch install, Arco Linux, EndeavorOS and then settled on just installing on a vanilla Arch base.  I settled on Arch because something finally clicked and everything fell in place for me.  Usually I just have to settle with what I have installed and not be able to customize it to where the OS works the way I want it to.  Take something easy like the screen timing out and going black when you haven't touched your keyboard in 10 minutes, which makes a movie hard to watch if your screen goes blank every 10 minutes.  In a desktop environment like Mate you just make a change in the settings, but in i3 there are no GUI settings manager so to cure this I wrote my first bash script without having to use something someone else had already done and posted on the internet.  I'm sure it's been done before but everybody else's was more complex than I could understand, so I came up with a two line script.   The only thing I haven't set up that I need is Bluetooth, but I don't really have to have that.  If I lived in a world that I carried this laptop around I would need the power savings program installed to extend battery life, but all my laptops are old and the batteries aren't going to last long even with that.

I've got the i3blocks (the i3bar or the top panel) working with transparency, and the system is only 520 packages, with things like an office suite still needed to be installed, and my memory usage at idle is around 300MB but if I'm watching a movie on Amazon or another streaming service I'm only running around 1600MB, which is about 1000MB to 2000MB less than when I run Ubuntu Mate.  Mate has to run Gnome in the background and that can be heavy on the resources and on my machines that causes them to start lagging after a day or two,  Also on my memory usage I  haven't had to use any swap usage which I like.

Now my next project is to install i3 on my main box, but use Debian instead of Arch. just to see if I can.

Linux Mint 20 Ulylana Cinnamon Edition

In the past few months I've found that I really like Cinnamon Desktops.  Back in the beginning of Linux Mint, I never really felt the love when I tried LM, to me it lacked the ability to customize the way that I could on XFCE.  Starting in June of 2019 I finally got of Ubuntu and installed Manjaro XFCE and never looked back.  I've tried lots of different desktop environments and window managers and I discovered two things.  If I had the know how to better understand a  window manager then I would install the Awesome WM.  But for me even when I use a pre-designed WM it seems to be more work for the way I like my desktop to flow.

So to start over, I've really been living in two desktops since February.  Debian Cinnamon and Ubuntu Mate.  I did give KDE a go but I found I just liked these two the best.  Now I'm on Linux Mint 20 Ulyana Cinnamon Edition.  It's not perfect but then a gain there is no such thing as a perfect desktop. So first, here's my negatives.

First it's the community.  LM's Forum is outdated.  When you compare the Linux Mint Forum to Ubuntu Mate's Community page you see how outdated the LM's Forum page is.  It's easy to sit back and complain but compare the two and LM's forum is not for beginners.  LM's forum is huge, with over 16 million posts.  I doubt that Ubuntu Mate's community has 10 thousand posts, so this might be the reason why UM's community site seems better.  I had a problem and made a post and within a day the Linux Mint's Forum swallowed it up and digested it, probably never to be heard from again.  I don't blame Linux Mint for this or the users, it's just so big it's probably impossible for every user to get help.

Other than that I do have one big problem (for me) and one not as big.  The biggest is that when I start or restart my computer is my screens don't mirror.  I use a laptop that is always closed and a TV/Monitor.  On my monitor I get the top panel, which works and a black screen, I have to open the laptop and then close it and then I get my desktop.  Call it laziness but I've never had to do that on any other DE.  My other problem is the video is not as clear as it was on Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix.  Not bad but not as good.

My Independence Day Desktop, Linux Mint 20 Ulyana Cinnamon Edition

Now my likes.  I really like the LM desktop.  I don't have to go out of my way to customize it and it looks good.  I like the way Warpinator works, or at least I like the final outcome.  Unless there is a way to set permissions you have to okay the send and okay the receipt of the files.  Maybe I should learn how to remote into another desktop through the terminal and then I would be happy.  but until then Warpinator is pretty good.

My Desktop today, Linux Mint 20 Ulyana Cinnamon Edition

This is also the first time I've had a printer in a long time.  Linux Mint set it up okay but thankfully Epson had the drivers for the Epson Expression Home XP4100 printer and scanner online and the are just easy to install.  The printer driver is a deb file you just click and install and the scanner file is just a tar.gz file you extract and right click on the folder background and open in terminal (or you can CD to where the file is unzipped) and run sudo ./install.sh then enter your password and the driver will install.  After setting up the printer's wifi it was easy to set it up as a wifi printer and no wires.

 Rofi installed on Linux Mint 20 Ulyana Cinnamon Edition

 I did install Rofi as a launcher instead of Plank and I'm giving that a try.  The jury is still out on the launcher part of it but I don't like Rofi as a replacement for ALT-TAB window switcher.  To me it has an extra step by having to arrow down to select which window you want switch to.

I've been on Linux Mint for about a week and there is nothing that wouldn't keep me from leaving it, other than my own fickleness.  So until the next Big Daddy Linux comes with something I want to try then I staying here.