 If you've watched my channel for any amount of time, you know that the one thing that I'm really known for is RISING. Now, I know a lot of people don't like the term RISING and I'm not all that fond of it either, but that's just kind of what it's come to be called. And if you don't know what that means, let's first define the term. RISING just means basically customizing or theming your computer. Now, I have made probably 100 videos about RISING. I don't know exactly how many, but there are a lot of videos out there on my channel about customizing and theming various window managers and desktop environments. And I don't foresee myself stopping those videos anytime soon simply because I enjoy it so much. And today I want to kind of talk about why. So why do I like RISING or theming my computer so much? And the answer to that question is that I don't like my computer looking the same. It's really as simple as that. It's probably a little bit of ADD and it's just that I like new things. So the ability to change my workflow and my system setup and the way things look just makes it so that things feel fresh all the time and it actually helps me with my productivity when things look a little bit different from time to time and it's not the same thing every single day at my computer. Now, I've talked about the whole RISING as a waste of time thing in the past and some people will still claim that theming and spending so much time on customizing the look and feel of your operating system is a waste of time, but for me personally it's just not. I'm actually more productive when I spend time making sure that my computer looks different from time to time. When I was using i3 back like three weeks ago and I had spent a long time in i3 obviously, I changed my theme basically every single day because I had a RISING script. It was very easy to hit a key binding and change to a different RISE that I had created previously. I could just switch between them and I did that every single morning. So every single day when I set up my computer for the first time and started getting ready for work, I could change what my computer looked like and by doing that it allowed me to feel like my computer was a little bit different. It's like working in a different place. Some people like to go out and do their work in coffee shops or libraries or parks or whatever and when there's not two feet of snow on the ground, I don't mind doing that either, but when I'm stuck at my desktop computer, I can't really pick up both my monitors and my PC tower and all the multitudes of cords and external hard drives that I have and take them somewhere else. That's just not something that I can do, at least not all that easily. So by being able to change the way my computer looks and kind of works a little bit, it allows me to feel like things are fresh and new and that I'm working in a little bit different environment and it does make me more productive. So that's the reason why I like customizing and I think it's one of the reasons why I think everyone should spend some time customizing their desktop even if you're not planning on changing it all the time like I do because that's a special me problem or a me issue, if you will. I think that it's really important that you take some time to figure out what works for you when it comes to how Linux looks. Now, this is one of the reasons why I don't like GNOME because it's so hard to make it look and feel like you want it to, right? Obviously you can do so, but they take customization options away from you instead of enabling you in order to customize your stuff. So that's the reason why I don't really care for GNOME even though I've come around to it a little bit more in recent years. It's also one of the reasons why I like XFC and Plasma. Both of those desktop environments give you a lot of options when it comes to making your system yours, making it look and feel the way you want to do. And I think that it's important for everyone to sit down at least once and customize your desktop to the point where it is different than the default. This is important for multiple reasons, I think. First, it allows you to learn about the desktop environment or window manager that you're using. So you will customize your key bindings, you'll customize where the bar is, you'll customize the colors and everything. So by doing that, you'll learn how to do all those things and it will make you more able to not only customize your window manager or desktop environment later, but it will also allow you to kind of know the inner workings of it so that you can kind of get a feel for things. If something were to go wrong, you could maybe go in and fix it later on. The other reason why I think it's so important for you to customize your PC is simply because it allows you to make it yours, right? If you just use the defaults and there's nothing wrong with using the defaults. I mean, if that's the way you choose to use your computer, more power to you. But if you want to make it feel like this is actually your creation, something that no one else in the world has that looks like yours. By customizing it, you can have that feeling. And it's one of the reasons why Linux is so great. No one has the exact same setup that I have. And that is a it's an empowering feeling because it allows you to have control and power and freedom over your entire setup. It's just one of those things that it allows you to really embrace Linux, the true meaning of Linux, I should say. And that is freedom. It allows you to do things the way you want them to do it. And by sitting down and customizing your desktop environment, your window manager or whatever, you are taking control over your workflow. And like I said, even if you don't change that rice or theme as often as I do, sitting down and just making sure that your workflow and the look and feel of your workspace is yours can do wonders for how you use your computer and how you feel about your computer and how you interact with your computer. It just does. And it's just a wonderful feeling. And I don't think I think that if you just use the defaults on your system, you're missing out a little bit. Now, like I said, there's not really anything wrong with using just the defaults. I mean, I know a lot of people who use GNOME just like the way GNOME works. And that's fine. This video was not meant to be anti-GNOME. I just kind of wandered into that. But it's a good example because it really is meant to be used in its default form. It's not supposed to be customized, whereas the other desktop environments have customizable options that you have. And those are meant to be customized. So at the end of the day, customization of your workspace, specifically your digital workspace can truly make you more productive at the end of the day, because it gives you a sense of ownership over your workspace that you might not have if you stick to those defaults. So just a quick video for today. I think that everyone should just stop what they're doing right now. Screw work. You don't have to do it. It's fine. Someone also do it and rice your desktop because trust me, it's fun. And it gives you control over your operating system. And that is what makes Linux awesome. So that is it for this video. If you have thoughts on customizing your work environment, let me know in the comment section below. I'd love to hear from you. You can follow me on Masseter Odyssey. Those links will be in the video description. You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com slash the Linux cast. Links for Liberapay and YouTube will be in the video description. Thanks to everybody who does support me on Patreon and YouTube because they're all absolutely amazing. Without you, the challenge would not be anywhere near where it is right now. So thank you so very, very much for your support. I truly do appreciate it. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time.