 There was a time when I was the biggest distro hopper in the world. I switched distros like every week Sometimes I didn't even make it a week. It was seriously really bad for a long time Especially when I first started I was switching back and forth between distros like sometimes every day it was It was done. I mean really cuz I mean I didn't know anything about Linux really So every time I encountered a problem. I didn't search out how to solve the problem I just downloaded a different ISO and said you know screw this. I'm gonna go find a different distro It's honestly a shock that I ever stuck with Linux for as long as I did that being said I don't do that anymore Thank goodness. I just I I don't have the time to do that any longer but I still hopped between window managers and desktop environments a lot and Really, it's not a big deal because I have them all installed on this machine here. I have DWM which is the one I spend most of my time in I have BSPWM i3 sway Qtile X monad herp slough open box KDE xfce I'm sure I'm missing a couple It's it's astonishing how many different desktop environments and window managers I have installed. I Don't use all of them very much, but I do switch between them quite often like yesterday I popped into X monad just to Remind myself why I don't actually like X monad, but I do enjoy having them installed so that I can go through and use them When I get bored of one particular window manager It keeps me from having to distro hop something different because I have that whole ADD thing going on If you're like me and have multiple window managers or multiple desktop environments installs you can find it really hard to actually manage them in terms of remembering the key bindings Ricing them and keeping them and their rices kind of separate It's really kind of hard and I mean there's a reason why they tell you not to install Multiple desktop environments because a lot of times a lot of this stuff conflicts and it's really bad when you have both a lot of GTK based desktop environments or window managers and a lot and KDE plasma on top of that because a lot of that stuff really does conflict and I'm kind of in that situation. I Really like KDE plasma, but it has a tendency to kind of infiltrate everything it if you go into KDE plasma and you Customize stuff. It changes your icon set system. Why not just for Q apps, but for everything, right? And that really is it sucks because like I have my GTK stuff set for a specific rice my DWM rice in this case and I don't want them to be changed every time I happen to log into plasma. It's a it's annoying So what I thought I would do today is talk about a few tips I can give you for managing Multiple window managers and desktop environments. Now. This is no my no means a perfect System there are things that you're just not gonna get passed like that icon thing I just mentioned that there's not a lot you can do about that. It's just the way it is Don't install KDE and GTK apps side-by-side They don't like playing together very all much because KDE likes to be in charge and can all maps like to be in charge and You change one in one place it changes in the other places it just gets a little messy But there are some things you can do to make your life a little bit easier if you do have multiple Window managers or desktop environments installed. So that's what I'm going to be talking about today. Let's go ahead and jump in So the first tip I can give you is that you should use a lacquerty So chances are one of the things you probably do is select a color scheme for your terminal And that color scheme probably matches the rice of the one of your desktop environments or window managers If you have multiple window managers or whatever installed You probably have different rices and color schemes So the great thing about a lacquerty is it allows you to launch a lacquerty based on different configuration files using a flag and Basically what this will allow you to do is that when you're in say BSPWM with that certain rice you can launch from one configuration file that has those color schemes and then you can Go into DWM which has a different rice and launch from a different configuration file, which has a different set of colors It's a great thing. I don't know if there are other terminal emulators out there that do the same thing or not Kitty might do that. I'm not sure but for sure a lacquerty does The next tip I have for you is to not theme your GTK apps as rice specific So what I'm talking about here, and it's not something I'm actually good at doing But it's something that I want to get better at doing is just to choose a GTK based theme That kind of is generic that something will fit in every single rice you have no matter what the color scheme is and What that will do is it will save you from having to rewrite those things every time you switch window managers especially if you switch those window managers every day that can get really annoying and And that means that your GTK apps like your file manager or whatever your, you know Firefox all these things will kind of just kind of blend into your rice no matter which rice you're using The next tip is to use a hotkey demon something like SXHKD There are a few other ones But SXHKD is probably the best one as long as you're on a window manager or a desktop environment. That's using xorg There are there is a version for Wayland as well, but I'm not sure what that's called But basically what SXHKD does besides give you headaches every time you say the name is It allows you to set key bindings running through a demon in the background So what this me allows you to do is to create a single file that you can take with you into every window manager That holds specific key bindings that you're always going to use So let's say you always want super W to launch your web browser if you put that in your SXHKD RC file That key binding will go with you everywhere You start SXHKD in the background and as you can do this in pretty much every window manager That means that you no longer have to have Your super W key combination in every single Configuration file and that just saves one less thing you have to change in a configuration file So and you can do this for pretty much anything so specific specifically Key bindings to launch apps are great for this type of use case Because those are the things that are not window manager or desktop environments Dependent things like moving windows back and forth that's very iffy because there are only certain window managers out there that will allow you to go through and Control window movement outside of the configuration file So for example, I3 will allow you to do it. I believe Sway will allow you to do it I really haven't messed around with Sway as much as I want to yet BSPWM obviously will allow you to do it because SXHKD was actually built for BSPWM It wouldn't surprise me something like Spectre WM would allow you to do it But I'm not actually sure about that But anyways, there are only a few of those window managers will actually allow you to control window movement outside of the configuration file So those key bindings will have to remain inside the configuration file, but things like launching your different applications Controlling the volume of your computer and things like that can be controlled through something like SXHKD And then you just take that file with you for every window manager that you have The next tip I can give you is that you should use get to back up all of your configuration files And that you should organize them well so that they're easy to redownload later on because chances are When you distro hop or whatever you'll want to reinstall some of these window managers Maybe all of them and it's a lot easier to do that if you've gone through and backed up your files and Have organized them in such a way where you can just download them put them in the proper place install the proper things that you need to install and You're good to go if you don't back up your stuff where you keep them in separate places and they're all over the place It just makes it a big hassle now one warning about this do not just upload your entire dot-config file I've made that mistake in the past. It's not a great thing to do because a lot of Files in your dot-config file actually have some personal information So you want might not want to upload things to Get hub there, you know Have that kind of information so don't upload your entire dot-config file just upload the The files that you need for your specific window managers and so on and so forth The next tip I have for you is to ensure that your configs are commented very well So there's a good chance that if you have multiple window managers installed You'll probably come across a situation where you haven't been in a window manager in three four or five months or whatever And eventually you do go back to it But you haven't been there in a long time and if you haven't gone through and Commented that config very well. You might have made a change You know way back when and that you don't really remember anything about and You don't know really know what you're doing. So it by commenting your configs very well It will remind you where you've made changes and that's a good thing because it will keep you from stupid bugs and it will keep you from having to Really dive deep into the configuration file because comments obviously stand out The final tip that I can give you is to create a cheat sheet for the key bindings that are exclusive to your window managers so a good example of this for me is that the Scratch pads between DWM and X monad are controlled differently and they have different key bindings so in DWM, I have it set for super M super Y and so on and so forth in X monad they use a key cord. So They're done with control M and then a certain key. I'm never gonna remember that So what I've done is gone through and created a cheat sheet for both DWM and X monad so that when at any time I go through and have forgotten something I can just bring up that cheat sheet of key bindings and remember it very quickly So you can do this through a bash script you can go through and just cat them all out into a file and then then bring that file up You know in whatever way It's very easy to do. I have a video on how to do it. It's not a very good video I will also link to my friend terminal for life's video where he critiques mine and does a way better job at creating one for DWM it's basically the same process for any other window manager you just have to go through and Tweak those scripts in order to bring out the right and tax from the configuration file I don't foresee a future where I don't have multiple window managers installed I like switching between them way too much So these are tips that I actually need to follow a little bit better because I do go through I theme my GTK apps I shouldn't do that because their spirit then they're very right specific and it's hard to go into like BSPWM Where I have a different rice than what I have in DWM And then open up Nemo and have it black and purple when the rest of the same is you know One dark or grub box or something it sticks out like a thruster or thumb So that's definitely one of those tips where I'm gonna have to follow it way better than I do in The comments below. I'd love to hear if you have any tips for actually running Multiple window managers or desktop environments other than don't do it. I mean that's a an appropriate piece of advice But that's really not the point of the video. So let me know in the comments if you do have constructive advice for everybody else You can follow me on Twitter at the Linux cache You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash Linux cast before I go I'd like to take a moment to thank my current patrons Devon Marcus Meglin Donnie Sven east coast web Chris Mitchell. Mr. Fox American camp. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time