Flakes is still experimental. NixOS devs takes a bunch of time to release that. So most experienced users have enabled Flakes since years. Two different systems are available, which does not help ease of learning.

I don’t use KDE but I suppose the click is detected on button release, not during the press. It should adress all these questions.

Glibc has extensions that fragment compatibility. If Glibc is replaced by another libc, some apps prints an error, or don’t work. I noticed that on Alpine.

For me the main config difficulty is from the statusbar. Polybar, Eww, are harder to config comparing to the WM. I solved that with Tint2 bar. It can be configured from an GUI, for the basics. The only code I added to config is simple.

execp_command = xdotool getwindowfocus getwindowname

It prints the window name on the bar. It is useful for bspwm windows.

My worst experience was on Linux Void.

The iso has an encryption key problem. I tried the distro one year after, the same problem 😆 . Its the only distro that has that kind of problem. Once the problem is solved thanks to the forum, the shell didn’t switch the language properly, the “-” prints a wierd character, most keys on the that row was wrong. Maybe all the praise for that distro comes from non-french speaking people, so they didn’t saw the problem.

I know, the DE versions of the iso should works nice, but Void is advertised as minimalist, I want my WM. If this is that hard to switch the installation to french language, why Alpine is able to provide a correct installation experience (not easy, but correct) ?

Whats the problem with XFWM ?

I tried I3 but it seems the new window always appears in a vertical slice, maybe some people like that so windows are set manually. I prefer automatic tiling, I use Bspwm for that. It needs two config files but they are simple, no programming is required. Its way to split screen is almost always good. In the rare exceptions I add a rule in the main config file so the app appears in a floating window.

4 month ago is not that bad for such a small project. Eww looks more active, but I don’t have the patience to learn how to create a menu. Its way too DIY for me.

You can use live isos. Some distros, such as Manjaro or Fedora spins, has several isos, one per DE.

Alpine was the most interesting for me. It goes against the tendency of complicating the systems. I have to use Arch because everything can work on that distro.

Alpine Linux is the most sane distro I tried. The absence of glibc brought limitations unfortunately, but it is the fault of developers that uses that shit instead of pure libc.

I do a bit of programming. Git help is about terminal commands. There are graphical front ends but I have to learn how to use them. I use terminal also for package management for the same reasons.

I can’t use something else than bspwm.

There is an option to display all widgets into a single window.

I encountered limitations on NixOS, as instance Ly display manager, or using an app compiled by myself. Maybe there are solution but it is not always simple. Archlinux is way more flexible. Updates can theorically breaks the system , but since one year I never broke Arch despite updates on 200+ packages.

Notice I favors minimalist graphic environments (WM that don’t need updates ) and minimalists apps as much as possible, such as MPV and nsxiv. I don’t fear of some keyboard shortcuts. This philosophy probably helps Arch updates. Sometimes I had problem on apps (Inkscape and Dolphin-emu), I use appimages for them. Nothing is perfect, but Arch put lighter roadblocks than NixOS.

My OS, shipped with the PC, became slow.

Arch because the packages are recent. Arch has no shiny innovation and even the performance is not that fast, but I always find a way to make everything working. It is the only distro like that for me.

Sorry I edited my post, I was wrong.

.config stores many apps settings. But unfortunately some apps stores that directly in ~ as hidden files and directories. Personnally I make a backup of my whole home.

There is a pacman command that prints the list of all packages installed by users. I don’t remenber the command sorry but you’ll find that here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks

Its probably “pacman -Qe”.

Then it should be easy to create a script that install all that automaticcally. If your are cautious you should have a backup of your home anyway on some storage device .

These tentacular megacorporations are a problem. Amazon is OK as a merchant, MS as an OS developer, Google as a search engine… If they do vertical integration the market is corrupted.