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I’ve been trying to use Debian without a graphical UI, at least for the most part. I use X window to run firefox since I feel that is the best way to browse. But simply using the terminal for almost everything feels so refreshing somehow.

I start to find these gems such as a music player for the terminal that works really well, my HOME area feels so clutter free and I feel like I finally can finely control and tune my system to a much larger extent. I’m coming from an extensively cluttered windows system so just seeing a few things makes me feel like I can finally focus.

For me it feels like I’ll have an easier time managing my projects by setting up github in a good way in HOME. I’ve been putting more time into my vimrc to make it better for my different workflows and general productivity (and for the sake of minimalism trying to keep it mostly to hand written stuff). I’ve also been looking into Lutris to be able to fire up games or use wine for other necessary tools that I might need during cowork with others.

Generally I believe that if this test works out I’ll truly consider to make this my main OS. The clutterlessness keeps me much more distraction free. The terminal environment make me read about and learn of new ways to do things. And most of the tools I use can either be used from command line, multiple ones with a multiplexer and in the case I truly need to use GUI or want to play a game I can just fire it up on demand.

*happy*

Do you guys have any distraction free OS or setups that you want to share? Anyone with a similar experience of revelation?

Comments
  • 6
    Could try a DE like i3wm or xmonad maybe?
  • 3
    @linuxxx I will check them out for sure!
  • 5
    @sebbestune I suggest you check /r/unixporn to get an idea of what's possible. And as @linuxxx mentioned, any tiling window manager should do the job! (I recommend dwm if you like the suckless approach).
  • 2
    @Jilano haha thanks, sounds good, I’ll check them both out too!
  • 2
    @linuxxx i3wm, just wow, I feel even more freed and enlightened by the minute as I dive right into the features of this fantastic program!
  • 2
    Please don't give a new user bad information. Openbox, i3wm, dwm, and xmonad are NOT desktop environments. They are often components of desktop environments, but the distinction has to be made: they are Window Managers. They are standalone fully functional graphical environments, designed to be 100% usable without a desktop environment, like KDE, Cinnamon, MATE, Gnome, XFCE, LXDE, or the like.

    Please don't call window managers something they are not, like desktop environments.
  • 1
    @bahua nice distinction! I’m feeling like I survive very well without a DE, only using terminal (and now starting to use a bit of i3wm) so far. My computer feels so much more responsive too. It’s nice!
  • 1
    @sebbestune In all honestly I never used it myself (tried xmonad though) because I'm a sucker for beautiful interfaces (although I mostly live in terminals) but glad you like it!
  • 1
    I took the CLI plunge recently too, with "CentOS minimal".
    My experience so far, like yourself, has been positive. I chose Fluxbox as my GUI window manager. Tmux as my terminal WM.
    I don't think I'll ever go back to a standard DE.
  • 1
    @sodaTab sounds very cool! 😎 I think the same!
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