I’m interested in TWMs for some while now.
Currently, I’m running Gnome with the Forge extension, which gives me a quite nice tiling with the full fledged DE experience I need.

Especially Hyprland is the project I have an eye on the most. The ultra-smooth animations are just out of this world! (I’m not only locked on Hyprland tho.)

My current setup feels a bit clunky, and I want something proper, without losing the comfort of a fully functioning DE.
My end goal maybe would be making my own uBlue-image with a setup that works sane out of the box.

Are there any setups and recommendations of needed packages?

How do Sway, Hyprland and other TWMs differ from each other?
Which one would you recommend for starters, and which one is “the best”?

What do I need to know before getting started? Should I just dive into it head first?

If I have to ask all these questions, would you just say I should ditch the idea for now, with my current level of knowledge and time?

What has your experience been? Any problems I may encounter?

Thank you for your answers?

  • Certainity45
    83·
    5 months ago

    I think you have to just try and find your favorite.

    Live boot Manjaro Sway to see how the bestly configured Sway works. If you like Suckless appoach, then try dwl.

    I never tried Hyprland but I recommend to try it.

    Harder task is the bar. Yambar and Waybar are both hard to configure compared to dwm statusbar.

    • Guenther_Amanita@feddit.deOP
      31·
      5 months ago

      I also have to add that I’m no IT-guy. I’m pretty much only a tech-enthusiastic normie who likes Linux and tries a lot.
      I don’t have any experience in coding and think I will mainly use the templates (dotfiles, bars, search box, etc.) from others, at least for the start.

      What do you like about the Manjaro-Sway? What does it differently than other implementations?
      I will definitely give it a try to test it out and then try to replicate it in Fedora. Thanks!

      The suckless software is a big no for me. It might be good for some people, but I heard most of it is hard to configure (at least for a noob like myself) and comes very …minimalist… out of the box.
      I don’t like the suckless philosophy for my use case, I want “bloat”, as weird as it sounds. I don’t want or need a super minimalist system, I want it comfortable and everything working out of the box.

      • Certainity45
        2·
        5 months ago

        Manjaro Sway ships with eyecandy and a lots of very useful functionality. The background even includes the default keybinds.

        Suckless approach is IMO way more easier than Sway. What helps a lot is that you write an alias which compiles your new config and then reloads the WM. It requires the reload patch + just few another to make it useful.

        The thing about bloated means usually you have festures you never use and you still need to learn the way other people did for you. When you start building it from bare minimum you add only the configurations you need and then it is much easier to remembee how they work. That’s why I never tried Hyprland.