Desktop

This page serves as a documentation on my desktop environment and how I work. It is also a reminder for me what to install and configure when I have to reinstall my OS or get a new computer.

This article contains the common things across my work machines, but also the differences on how I work on my laptop, my work place at home and my main workplace in the office of my employer.

Preparations

Font: DejaVuSansM Nerd Font

install globally with

mv *.ttf /usr/local/share/fonts
fc-cache -f -v

• create ~/.local/bin/ for my custom scripts and self-build programs
• create ~/Workbench/ as a place for my third-party self-build programs
• creaet ~/Codes/ for my own projects

Languages & Environments

• Java via Sdkman!
• JavaScript/Node via Volta
• Rust via Rustup

Gnome

Settings

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri none

Don’t use a picture as a background image.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background primary-color '#ef6c00'

Use a single color as a background.

org.gnome.mutter center-new-windows true

New Windows are opened in the center of the screen.

Keyboard shortcuts

Additional Programs

• xdotool and wmctrl for advanced window management, mostly used though scripts

Programs

Alacritty (Terminal Emulator)

• Follow INSTALL.md on Github
• Install theme
• Set as default emulator

Create a Symlink from ~/.locac/bin/alacritty to …/release/alacritty. This way I can git pull new changes and simply rebuild the project once in a while.

.bashrc additions

# shorten path strings
PROMPT_DIRTRIM=3
# prompt format
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '

• Uncomment #force_color_prompt

Browser

Firefox

In about:config:

toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets: true

enable custom userChrome.css style tweaking

browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab: false

don’t close firefox when closing last tab, instead keep it open with a new empty tab

Style

• Setup userChrome.css
• Minimal Functional Fox

Then tweak the variables to fit the Night-Owl colorscheme.

Extensions

• Keepa.com - Amazon Price Tracker
• Old Reddit Redirect
• Dark Mode Website Switcher
• Concent-o-matic
• New Tab Homepage

Vivaldi

• There is a Night-Owl theme available in Vivaldi Themes.
• Disable Animations in settings (why do I have to do this again?)
• Hide Address Bar (Open it with Ctrl+L instead)
• Hide Status Bar (=Bar at bottom)
• Compact User Interface Density
• Disable Workspaces

Extensions

Vimium

IntelliJ

>>>

Other Command Line Tools

btop (System Resource Monitor)

• comes with the Night-Owl theme pre-installed. Navigate with Esc to the Options and select it in the menu.

omm (Task List)

• set editor = "nvim" in .config/omm/omm.toml

yazi

• install the shell-wrapper for bash to have an interactive cd on y.

Modern alternatives

fd (fdfind)

as alternative to find

rg (ripgrep)

as alternative to grep

eza

as alternative to ls

icdiff

as alternative to diff

fzf

clone the repository and run ./install.
Then install Fzf Tab Completion

Neovim (Text Editor)

After spending way too much time figuring out whether I can write my own neovim configuration, I settled on using LazyVim.

Introduction & Tutorial: Zero to IDE with LazyVim

Additional Plugins:

• Night-Owl colorscheme
• TODO: reset cursor after quit https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/25103/neovim-does-not-restore-terminal-cursor-on-exit
• TODO: enable transparent background (transparent_background -> https://github.com/oxfist/night-owl.nvim)

Office

Monitor: Samsung C49RG94SSU (5120x1440)

Window Management

TODO: screenshot of typical alignment
TODO: window alignment script
TODO: borderless gnome style

Home Office

Monitor: Acer Nitro XV275KP3 (3840x2160)

Personal Laptop

Special Configurations

• execute sudo xkdbmap de neo to set the keyboard layout on the login screen and cryptsetup

Window Management

No extensions, the built-in tiling manager is suitable for my needs.