Turn Your Window Manager Into A Desktop Environment

So you installed a stand-alone window manager, but a window manager is not a desktop environment. It's just window manager. It manages windows. It DOES NOT manage notifications, clipboards, volume controls, bluetooth, etc. You have to install programs to do those tasks.

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[kingz]

Turning a WM into a DE, but not bloated as much as actual DEs.

[iamjaiguy]

Okay now lets turn our desktop environment into a window manager

[mekuranda]

That was a great explanation of the difference between WM and DE...I never fully understood this until now

[raminhonary]

"I don't use a desktop environment. What I actuall use is the LXDE desktop environment, but I install each component by hand." -- DT

I'm just messing with you, great video as usual. I learned something about lxsession, I learned that AwesomeWM and DWM have their own built-in panels, system trays, and launchers.

[gioelebezzan]

I actually started using i3 gaps on every one of my computers, and I really love using xfce-panel and many applications from the xfce family because of performance, theming and consistency

[raymondgradzewicz]

I remember back in 2018 when I was first getting into Linux, my first distro was Ubuntu 18.04, all the 18.04 flavors of ubuntu had just come out. I had tried that for about a month before I found an older one of your videos explaining how to install openbox on a minimalist install of debian. After I got that all up and running I really loved openbox, so I naturally started distro hopping to discover more about Linux. Now 2 years later I would say I have an intermediate knowledge of Linux, tried out tiling window managers (wasn't for me) and now my favorite distros are Debian with Openbox and PopOS. I'm one of those weird people who not only likes the gnome 3 desktop, but I like it in it's stock configuration. I am perfectly comfortable in either one of those, but really at this point, I can live in just about anything. Thanks DT for getting me into Linux!

[thetreeofclues]

Been running xmonad for about two weeks thanks to your videos. Will never go back to a desktop environment or floating window manager

[michaelmao]

I'd also recommend Nemo for file managers. It's quite small (9.88 MB, not far from pcmanfm's 6.48 MB and thunar's 6.44 MB), and not a lot of dependencies either. However, it has great search functionality (which thunar lacks), responds well to mouse forward and back buttons (which pcmanfm lacks), and it looks great as well. If you want to add search functionality through catfish, you'd end up with another 2.15MB and will be close to the size of Nemo.

[stnmbrX]

I wish I had this when I first made the jump to arch+i3 because it would have saved me a ton of stress, but on the other hand it was a really interesting couple of hours of research

[tassaron]

For file managers there's SpaceFM which I believe started as a fork of PCmanFM. It has a ton of nerdy options. It's too busy for my taste but if you want epic customization in a GUI then it delivers

[Mia-czcj]

Drinking game:
Drink a shot every time he says window manager

[sumitrawat]

thumbs up for the extra information DT provide throughout the video. I was using balenaEtcher yesterday but wasn't able to format the drive .... watched this video and probably polkit is the issue. Thank you that DT :)

[samuelitooooo]

TWMs seem daunting when starting to watch your comprehensive guide you made, but this made it seem more approachable. Thank you

[rauljosegarcia]

This conversation is the epitome of "why do I need to know this as a new Linux user?" I didn't even understand the difference b/w WM and DE and when I did hear it I didn't understand why I would want to pick all those things on my own anyway. I mean... who cares!? Luckily I am starting to see the light (as a new Linux user). Thanks for the info.

[ridhowijaya]

DTDE
Distro Tube Desktop Environment😅👌

[tomascayuelas]

Nice T-Shirt !! And congrats for all your content! You rocks!

[jasfradique]

Out of pure need (because of a sh**ty asus laptop that is becoming obsolete and incapable of basic stuff after just 4 years!) I just discovered your amazing videos about linux window managers! Some of them were not strange to me, I've "lived" with iceWM on an old Toshiba Satellite a decade ago and I knew LXDE and openbox... but with your help I'm diving real deep into i3 and openbox.
Right now, I'm using a pure openbox experience in Debian Buster with the other wm installed being i3 - the machine it's not complaining at all, I'm very pleased with how things are going.
None of this would be possible without your truly great videos - the way you explain, the «hands on» approach, I've learned a lot in a few days and that made possible to fully recover this laptop and probably make it function for a few more years.
So thank you very much, cheers from Portugal and, please, forgive any mistake or typo since English it's not my native language ;-)
Of course, channel subscribed, one of my newest favs :-D

[timothyt.]

Thank you for making this guide. I am trying to get an old computer set up with Arch, and this should help me to get a basic DE up and running when I need it to.

[ypaut]

I've been looking for a volume systray icon forever, thank you dt for this, something useful to my i3 config!

[besnikrrustemi]

Thank you for making the video to answer all my questions,
It's amazing how fast i learned Linux without having to go into the distro hopping faze or struggling to find what i want from my Desktop/Laptop thanks to people like you.
I have a minimalist Arch Linux on BTRFS, Fish Shell and using your rice configs but slightly tweaked for laptop with brightness, battery etc.
Using multiple WMs:
- Qtile
- Spectrwm

You were right, Thanks to Qtile amazing documentation, i pretty much added all what i needed into the config and have it on the bar, Aside from Bluetooth (blueman) to manage BT connections for Mouse, EarBuds, Speaker,
Amazing to have all i need in less than 800 Packages installation.

Thank you DistroTube !