I have installed EndeavourOS, i3wm on two machines: a self-built/self-maintained PC, and a Lenovo S1 Yoga. On both, as of now, it is working well, some 2 weeks in. Why EndeavourOS? I'm not sure. I was experiencing some glitches on my Manjaro systems, and I needed to refresh the Lenovo S1 Yoga i3 installation. In retrospect, after all of what I list below, it seems to me---though without having anything specific in mind---that Manjaro's i3wm flavor has fallen behind.
Some key points:
- EndeavourOS i3wm edition incorporates a number of idosyncratic modifications and customizations. This was my sense on previous short-lived installs, and it remains so, perhaps to an even greater extent, today.
- The first thing one notices is i3wm keybindings. They differ in almost every respect from i3wm defaults, without, AFAICT, any particular reasons.
- Installing a printer reveals what may be a well-kept secret: the default firewall blocks a printer; certain adjustments must be made. The "install-system-printer" tool, not an obvious feature, makes accomodations to this roadblock; however, it may not be obvious to one who has been installing a printer by usual methods, such as starting up cups and opening "localhost:631" in a browser. I, for one, was unaware of the firewall settings, making it necessary to chase down the differences. Fortunately, I stumbled upon the script.
- i3wm's configurations file, located at .config/i3, sources a number of scripts in .config/i3/scripts.
- The shutdown/resume/etc process found in, for example, Manjaro's i3wm edition, is implemented as a popup menu, via one of these scripts, powermenu, which requires a mouse click to activate.
- EndeavourOS exhibits a fondness for visual icons. These are overdone, for example, in the powermenu script, and in the status bar, etc.. To my eye, these icons are distracting.
- EndeavourOS seems to reflect a trend toward modernization of i3wm, and perhaps other desktops.
- Some defaults are welcome; others were troublesome, at least for me.
- The installation caused some hiccoughs. I don't remember them; I had to reinstall three or four times, for at least one of my machines.
- A dropdown terminal (using Kitty in my case)
- A dropdown Emacs instance---extremely useful;
- A dropdown terminal running R, for calculations
- A popup calendar: orage, a wonderful calendar, the best IMHO;
- A popup "ham radio clock," helpful for my calendar work.
- Two additional specific scratchpads, which I seldom use;
- Workspace flipping abilities
- custom bindings of kmag and kde-connect, which I use for microscope work.
- /
- /home
- /usr/local
- /boot/efi
- (and swap; does that count?)
- ~/Pictures (a large partition)
For now, I am happy enough. In case of a need to reinstall, I would probably seek a distro that holds true to i3wm defaults.
Obviously, I am a fan of i3. Endeavour would not be my first choice except that it seems well constructed and efficient. The GUI enhancements are not excessive, but they are too much for me.
UPDATE: I have followed some random advice to uncheck "opengl flipping" after experiencing serious lags upon resuming from suspend. We'll see.... So far, no lag, but will try again.
Ok, I've tried it with only one application running, and things are fine. What I had experienced were long delays, mouse unresponsive, when resuming. Fingers crossed.
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