258: Linux in 2021: Year In Review!

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This message is mostly for Michael.

On the last episode you were talking about tiling managers and trying out other environments and I wanted to chime in.

Kwin scripts are your solution. There is one in particular named bismuth, it works in X11 and Wayland (I suggest not using wayland right now, but unrelated to this script), it can work like i3-gaps too! It is a fork of Krohnkite which hasn’t seen an update in quite some time. Bismuth has been receiving updates and has worked out some of the kinks of the previous script.

It is a dwm style tiling. There are several tiling options, I prefer to arrange in 3 columns when im on my ultrawide , 2 columns when its just my laptop screen and they have many other features such as monocle, all floating, etc. The shortcuts to utilize this are added to the global KDE shortcuts section. You can find them by searching “bismuth” and change to your liking.

Here are some of my settings:

Ignore windows:

with classes: krunner,yakuake,spectacle,kded5,lutris,systemsettings,systemsettings5,battle.net,battlenet,battle.net.exe,libreoffice-writer,libreoffice,xpad,onboard
with titles:
dolphin,lutris,battle.net,battlenet,battle.net.exe,LibreOffice,xpad,onboard
with roles:
yakuake

Float windows:

with classes: dolphin,junction
with titles: lutris,dolphin,systemsettings5,spotify,moonlight,kate,dolphin,stickynotes,Sticky Note,xpad,Junction,junction

Of course you will want to play with the settings, but I have been using a tiling kwin script for over 2 years, this coming from a guy who used i3-wm for 4 years. Bismuth has been a wonderful experience.

P.S. KDE is the best desktop environment.

Love,
A btw user.

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Thank youuuu for covering Simula One! I’ve wanted a 1st class Linux desktop in VR option for years and this looks like it’s going to be the one.

Community list of Linux desktop VR options: here

Also thank you for a wonderful year and all the best to each of you. It’s a privelege to be here.

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Thanks, everyone, really enjoyed this, as ever :slight_smile: The festive mood comes across even months later as I catch up on missed episodes! Favourite joke of the week – “You can’t open windows in space!” lol - sounds like a modified tag-line for Alien, another sci-fi fave. I haven’t yet caught up on the fourth matrix though!

I agree wholeheartedly with many of your comments about the year, looking back. Also, Jill, Michael or Ryan, any of you are ever in the UK for a conference, do please let us know in advance. I’ve not been able to travel internationally for years due to financial constraints, but all of you are pretty awesome so if there was a chance to attend an event an meet any of you good folks, I would surely try.

I’m also looking at options for becoming a patron hopefully within the next few months, as my circumstances improve. I’d rather do that than purchase some of the also tempting SWAG, for now :slight_smile: