 Recently, I made a video about how I was switching away from DWM and into I3 Windo Manager, and I talked in that video about my reasons why, and some of that had to do with the bar, some of it had to do with just general interest in trying something different after over a year, maybe even two years of using DWM. And now I've been using I3 for a couple weeks, and I've gotten my workflow down to a very well oiled machine. And I have to say, I'm loving I3 again. I had forgotten how awesome I3 truly is. Now the question of whether or not I3 is better than DWM, or whether DWM is better than I3 is a question for another day. I don't think I could really choose a favorite between the two, they're both really good. But the point is, is that I've gotten my I3 Windo Manager workflow down to a point where it's just really satisfying. So I wanted to talk about it a little bit today. So let's go ahead and take a look at what my I3 setup actually looks like. So this is my I3 setup, and as you can tell, there's not a lot of special here, it's what most of my Windo Managers actually look like. The differences here is I've tried a few different things in the bar, like I've had some stuff there in the center, which I don't normally do. So you know, whatever, it's not as if I'm highly productive because my weather's in the center instead of off to the side. Maybe I am a tad bit more productive. Who knows, because of that, I mean, we'd have to ask somebody else, whatever. The point is, is that for the most part, this is what the setup looks like. Now, most of my time during the day is actually spent inside the terminal using them to write. Now, that is a big change from my last workflow video, because before most of my work took place in LibreOffice and Google Docs. Now, I'm still forced to use Google Docs quite a lot. Unfortunately, that's just the way work goes. You use what is kind of forced upon you. But the point is, is that when I'm actually able to use my own software, I've been using them. Now, I've made several videos about writing in them and I'm sure I'll make a few more, but this is where I spend most of my time. And for the last week or so, I've been doing this blur thing. As you can see, usually it's just transparent transparency. This time I've decided to go for the whole blur effect. I have to say I'm kind of liking it. It doesn't necessarily lend itself to low end devices, but I don't have a low end computer, so I don't really care all that much. When I'm not here, I'm actually in Firefox. And that's what this looks like. I have my own user Chrome.CSS. So if you're interested in getting your version of Firefox to look like mine, you can find my user Chrome.CSS in my .files. And you can find a couple of videos that I've made in the past, which I'll link in the video description below. If I remember on how to actually do this. So those are the two applications that I spend most of my time in. Now, in terms of i3 itself, the thing that I love the most and the thing that I've found myself enjoying the most is the fact that you can have key bindings for every single workspace you have. So right now I have 20 workspaces. I know what you're thinking, Matt, no one needs 20 workspaces. Well, FU, I need 20 workspaces. I use them. I really do. So right now, as you can see, I have one, two, three, six, seven and eight on this machine or on this monitor. On that one, I have 10, 12, 16, 18 and 19. So I'm not having, they're not always all in use, but I like spreading my applications out and I like to have dedicated workspaces for specific tasks. And that's why I use so many workspaces. And with i3, the fact that I can go through and define a keybinding for every single workspace is awesome. It's not something you can do in DWM, at least not easily. I've never been able to find an actual way of doing it well. So for example, on this monitor here, I can do super and then the number in order to switch to a certain workspace. So if I wanted to go to workspace three, I could do super three. On the other monitor, if I wanted to go to workspace 13, I'd do super alt and three in order to go to workspace 13. And then I can throw in the shift modifier to those already established keybindings to move a client from one workspace to another. So I can actually move this one here to whatever workspace I want, just adding the shift key to already established keybindings. For me, if I were to ever switch back to DWM, that would be the feature right there that I've missed the most because it's not as if switching to a different tag on a different monitor in DWM is hard. Like it's not hard, but it does add an extra keybinding. So for example, if I had the focus on my first monitor here and I wanted to go to workspace nine on the second monitor, I'd have to first change focus from this monitor to that monitor and then do a super number in order to actually go to that particular tag. It's an extra keybinding. And while that's not a big deal, I got used to it. It's definitely not as easy as having a dedicated keybinding to go to workspace nine on this month or nineteen on this monitor. So that's the best thing about I three that I've discovered so far and not really discovered. I had to set up before, but it's rediscovered, I should say. The other thing is the configuration file. So if I actually go to my repo here and go to I three and go to my configuration file, you'll see that this configuration file, if I move my head out of the way is 70 lines long, 70 lines long. And that's the entire configuration file. Now, obviously there's more stuff that goes to it, right? There's more things that have to go along with it in order for I three to actually function. But all of a sudden done, this configuration file is 70 lines long. And it actually would be a lot shorter if I got rid of these variables that definitions. And if I used fewer workspaces, if I only use like five workspaces, I could get this way down way further, but that's never going to happen. I'm always going to use a lot of workspaces. So that's my configuration file down to just 70 lines. Now, you have to be asking, Matt, how did you get it down to 70 lines? Where are all your freaking key bindings? Matt, where are your key bindings? Now, these are the only key bindings that I have in the configuration file. And that's the only reason why I have those three key bindings here is because if you delete those, I three won't load. I don't know why you delete those. I three just crashes. So where are my key bindings? Well, my key bindings are in sxhkd. So I add here at the bottom, I have an auto start file. So if I go up to our auto start file, you'll see that I'm actually starting sxhkd. And if we go to this file here like this, you'll see that all of my key bindings are actually right here. These are all my application key bindings with some really cool key cords. For those who are nerds like me and want to use key cords, you can do that in sxhkd. And this does all my stuff for ROPHY and stuff like that. And my volume controls and all that stuff. And if I scroll all the way down here to the bottom, we'll see all of my I three key bindings. So this one here moves the focus from one point to another. This one here moves windows from one point to another. This one here changes the spawn mode from vertical to horizontal mode. This one here is the full screen tackle and so on and so forth. I'm not going to go through all of them, but I like having all my key bindings in sxhkd for multiple reasons. First, for whatever reason, I have a obsession with keeping that I three configuration file below 100 lines. I think it's because I use the Arco Linux I three configuration file for a long time. And if you've ever used that, that thing's like 2000 lines long. It's ridiculous. I just realized that you probably can't actually see what I was talking about, but you can actually see the see the stuff now. But the point is, is that one of the reasons why I like this because that Arco Linux one was so long, it kind of turned me off from really long I three config files. But also I like this because you can go through and do things like this, where instead of having to go through and list out each and every single key binding, you can just go through and kind of create this formula where it will associate what's inside these brackets, what's with what's inside these brackets, and that means you don't have to go through and over and over again, list this one particular command for each and every key binding that you need. That's really cool. Also, adding in that you can do key cords, which is something you can't do very easily, at least with I three, you'd have to use modes, I believe, in order to do something like key cords in the standard I three config. So those are my key bindings and such. Now, outside of that, I don't think that there's much to talk about. The only thing that I found myself missing is scratch pads. Now, there is a built in functionality for scratch pads in I three, so you don't have to get into the comments and say, Hey, Matt, there's scratch pads in I three. I'm aware of this, but they're not the same as DWM, like the patch that you can use in DWM in order to get scratch scratch pads allows you to create multiple scratch pads and it's really easy to set up. And while you can do it with I three, I found that it's a kind of a tedious process and it doesn't always work. It's really suited towards just one scratch pad or with sending other applications to a scratch pad workspace. I'm going to continue to play around with it to try to see if I can go through and kind of get it to work for me. So far, I have not been successful on that. So hopefully I can go through and get that working so that actually sues me because I really do mismatch scratch pads. If I can't get that working, I might install something like Quake blocky or where the hell you call it, which is the drop down terminal. I might do that or I could go through and install something like Tilda. Tilda does kind of does the same thing. The only other thing that I've had a problem with is OBS. Now, when Tyler and I record the podcast every Thursday around three o'clock Eastern time and stream it on YouTube, I have to go through and use OBS to capture the discord window, which is where we do the call. And for whatever reason, OBS does not like to capture the discord call when discord is not on a focused workspace. What it does is if I switch back to a different workspace and like discord is in the background, like on a different workspace, the video will actually freeze in OBS. I don't know why it does this. It's not specifically an I3 problem because it does happen on other window managers as well. But it's annoying because it means I have to keep discord in focus all the time in order for me to actually record the podcast. I haven't noticed any other X window problem capture problems other than that one. So it's not that big of a deal simply because I've gotten used to it, but it's definitely something that didn't happen in DWM. So those are my two like negatives that I've come across in I3. Other than that, I've had a ball. Like I had completely forgotten how good I3 is. I miss a little bit the master stack layout that DWM has. And I've considered going through and trying to replicate it here in I3. That's something that I still might do. But I haven't missed it enough to, you know, like switch back or anything. So those are my basic thoughts on my switch so far to I3. Whether or not I will do a long term review of I3 like in a month or so, I don't know yet. If that's something that you want to see, leave a comment in the comment section below. I don't know whether or not that's something anybody would be interested in. But if you are, like I said, go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section below. You can follow me on Twitter at Linuxcast. You can support me on patreon.patreon.com slash Linuxcast. Before I go, I'd like to take a moment to thank my current patrons. Today, Devon, Patrick O'Marcus, Megalyn, Jackson, Neptune, Steve A. Sebrek, Elynyx, Garrick, Mitchell, Arts Center, Carbon Data, Jeremy, Sean, Odin, Martin, Andy P., Merrick, Kamp, Joshua Lee, J-Dog, Peteray, Crucible, Dark Bennett, Six, Flat A, and Primus. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time.