Literally stop using i3-gaps & use Suckless dwm rn

all right I have a brief public service announcement in this video and that is stop using I three you don't need to use I three anymore I three is over DWM is the new cool stuff actually I think DWM has been along longer than I three but it is still it's never been better to use dw1 it's never been better to use suck less software and it's only getting better and getting better way faster than everyone else okay I want to talk in this video about two things two misconceptions I really want to talk about dwm but this sort of applies to all suckler software I'm actually thinking about doing a couple videos on my DW will in build I think you should all test it out all of you who are using my own my old I three config use DWM this stuff is way cooler but I might be doing some videos on that I want to talk about two reasons I think that suck less software is just always going to be better and easier to use once you understand how it works so here are the two things okay first thing is this when you're let's let's put you in the position of someone who's modifying who wants to get a custom Linux setup on I 3 and you want to have all this fancy stuff and you want to make it exactly to your liking and stuff like that or at least make things more efficient ok if you're using a 3 or if you you're using a non subtlest window manager the thing about that is they're all designed with conflict files that is if you use I 3 you modify that config file and you're sort of at the mercy of the programmers whatever variables and settings they put in that conflict file to allow you to edit so you might be able to change the gaps between windows you might be able to change you know what kind of bar you have or stuff like that or you know specific settings but the thing about that is that there comes a point where you can't modify it anymore you can't you know there are only so many things that are in the config file suck less software does not work like that because sockless software of course it's config file is the source code you are intended to modify the source code and the cyclist community or whatever is built around that so the difference is now of course in any suck list program usually you have config dot H or con eh and this is sort of supposed to be the convict file it's it's really just part of the source code but it's supposed to look like a config file in that here's where you set a lot of the variables you use so for example here's the border of our windows here see the little red border here how big is that or you know gaps if gaps are active or some stuff like that or your colors or your fonts it sort of works like a config file but in suckler software this is just one piece of the config file and I could just as easily if I want to program in a new feature I could just as easily open up daemon you know DW m dot C and on edit stuff like that now of course you might say oh I'm not a programmer I don't know anything about that and you don't need to be a programmer here's the nice thing first off you know just to be clear I know a lot of people think Oh Luke here you have a youtube channel and you talk about technology so that means you're a program no no I'm not a programmer at all I've never said I am I do a lot of shell scripting for useful stuff but I'm definitely not definitely not a C programmer I mean I know basically what I know about C I learned from suck lists using suck list stuff and figuring things out and fixing bugs if I ever mess something up but in general you don't need to know anything about C to under understand suck less software because you can just go online and get a patch and install it and you know you just got to go into your little file and run patch on your patch and let's say you pick some kind of I don't know let's say you pick this one and you just run it okay if there are any errors you fix them manually it's not it's not a difficult process to do at all you don't really need to know you could do it with any language you don't need to have an intimate knowledge of C now of course that is good if you want to add new features but in my time of using suppli s-- it's been great that i can just go online and you know whereas you might look for a feature oh if it exists at 93 there is no feature that does not exist in d WM this is the nice thing because it's supposed to be modified the core source code is supposed to be modified okay so here is the up so that's the one advantage there's no border between the config file and the source code so your intended to modify the hole and the community is built around that fact okay the other big advantage of suppli stuff is as follows and this is this is gonna sound like a the opposite of the truth but suck less software has more features it will always have more features and what I mean by that is this okay first off I'm pulling up the dwm website obviously I'm gonna go to the patches folder now the first thing you need to realize is so many people are using dwm now I'm actually very happy you can look at the number of patches here look at this I mean it's like dozens maybe over a hundred maybe over 200 for all I know I'm not counting them up but you have so many patches one year ago there were like maybe 20 of these I don't know they're they're a lot less I'll just say that yeah and I think it's the same with other sockless software I think it's really taken off recently and that's been great but here's the thing cyclists oft where has more features and what I mean by that is that although you get you get the bear source code you know the bear build of DWM has really basic features you know it does some really cool stuff when you understand how DWM works I'm thinking about doing another video on that soon because I you know I want people to move over because I'm sick of maintaining I three but it might come with not many features but here's the thing suck lists if you just come up with some crazy idea for some stupid feature that only you could use or maybe a couple other people DWM I mean the guys that cyclists might just put it up on the website anyway because why not we don't have to worry if you're asking well just to put it in perspective if you're asking for a feature in I three okay let's say you want the ability to I don't know some really granulated feature to change the you know gaps between Windows or something like that okay I don't know you want to be able to change horizontal versus vertical gaps okay uh you know the guys that I three have to think okay well do we want to add this feature is is it feature bloat is it gonna be too complicated is it gonna mess stuff up stuff like that the suck list guys don't need to think about that no one needs to because they're not when you ask for a feature they're not adding it to every build they're just putting up a patch from the website and most of these patches I'm sure the guys that suck lists are like those are totally unnecessary features in fact some of them are contradictory they have multiple different gaps packages they have multiple I think they have different Arta auto start or refresh packages and stuff like that their patches I should say so the thing the nice thing about Sukkoth software is that you actually get more features because they don't have to constantly guess do we really want to have this in our default build because they just have a bare-bones build and you put in the features you like and the features that are out there that you can put into DWM they are way better than all the stuff and other window managers oh I will I'm sure there's some stuff they haven't touched on yet but in general there you just have much more and this is their official site it has so many of fish you know potentially installable official features it's fantastic okay so that is the big difference I think a lot of people get fixated on well okay oh I'll tell you my my perspective back when I use i3 I heard that suckle of software you had to modify the source code I thought that was totally nuts I just assumed that compiling it would take a long time it takes like two seconds so let's actually do it right now just to make sure sudo make install okay there that's how long it takes to compile DWM it doesn't take long it's not a complicated procedure as I said like they have the reason this config file config dot H file exists is so you can modify features in the most economical way as possible it's easy to do it's basically the same I mean you could even have them whenever you save this file automatically just recompile it so you can think about it in your head as a config file if you want to think of I mean that could be dangerous if you're Auto installing it you might get a broken build or something like that but you know you can put checks in it but you know this is one of those things where you know unlike an other window managers DWM can add like people can build just any feature for it there's nothing keeping them from writing anything and sockless can even officially I don't know if it's support but officially you know put out put these on their websites even if they would never include them as features in their actual to build and so they can be more liberal with features than anyone else so this is what I like this is what I like about suckler software is it difficult to use no it isn't it is Oh like there there's a different mindset that goes into it I think but it is so there there's so many there's so much wonkiness of i3 or other other window managers you don't have to worry about DWM as long as you're not fighting against it and you sort of know what you're you know what you're doing and you'll find out what you're doing it's not hard to do just just tinker with it at the beginning and then you'll see where you go anyway I might do some videos on DWM actually just notice I've added in features for a clickable status bar so now I have all this stuff get my nice little weather report just like it is on i3 it's up for even better I've added in a couple features to do DWM I might do a video just actually on those this is just sort of me talking about why it's better so sakis and i3 stop using whatever window manager you using just use DWM or god forbid you're using like KDE or something like that or Nomar I don't even know what else there is I just know window managers alright see you guys next time oh by the way check that out I'm looking at my recording perfect ISA leb status I just instinctually knew that I was right at ten minutes and I would get my mid Amaral break so I could just stop the video Wow I'm just a professional anyway see you guys

Channel: Luke Smith

Views: 111,035

Rating: 4.7923055 out of 5

Keywords: suckless, dwm, i3, i3wm, i3-gaps, gaps, source, code, fork, patch, configure, configuring, unixporn, gnu, linux, unix, bsd, ricing, rice, window, manager, customize, diff, tag, workspace, stack, layout, patches, awesome, awesomewm, ratpoison, bspwm

Id: B5r47Q1cn_o

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020