I recently switched my daily workflow(coding, writing etc) to a "keyboard driven methodology" as much as possible ! So far (about 3 months) it's been going great.<p>I'm running an ASUS ZenBook with Ubuntu 20.04 and:<p>-i3 (Seems everyone starts here for tiling managers)<p>-lightdm( weird issues with the default GDM3 and dual screens)<p>-Switched from "Dual Monitors" (laptop + 27") to one monitor, the 27", my laptop lid/display is closed. This was interesting to me, since now that I make better use of workspace and their shortcuts, I don't need more physical-real-estate. Especially with my neck issue. Can't turn my head too much right (car accident), I call it my Zoolander-Thang.<p>-Employed "workspaces" (virtual desktops ?) as follows:<p>--ws1 (Terminals)<p>--ws2 (Browser)<p>--ws3 (Comms) Skype,Gmail,WhatsApp<p>--ws4 (Code) VSCode<p>--ws6 (Files) Still in GUI land here... should look spend more time with something like nnn or ranger.<p>--ws7 (Gimp)<p>--ws8 (Geany) Scratchpad and misc. editor stuff<p>-Learnt most of the 'useful' keyboard shortcuts for the commonly used programs. VSCode, i3, Gimp<p>Less mouse, more KB :)
Good choice. CTWM and Sawfish are two of the best and more configurable window managers there are.<p>Unfortunately I had to give up on both years ago when they got unmaintained on Debian and not even compiling them from source would make them avoid visual glitches that made them unusable (especially after running Firefox (!)).<p>Now I use KDE (also quite configurable, at least keyboard-wise) and my life is a little simpler in some ways and my experience a little more annoying in others.
I remember bacon in 2005 or so running openbox/black box/etc. on a $1400 laptop to make sure I squeezed all the performance out of it. Ironically, over the years my requirements for a graphical UI to do things on my laptop have actually diminished (my file management is now mostly done via the command line, etc. while my care for keeping my window manager to less than 300KB of memory has completely gone away.
> For more than 20 years, NetBSD has shipped X11 with the "classic" default window manager of twm. However, it's been showing its age for a long time now.<p>It's been showing its age 20 years ago too.
Tvtwm worked fine for me. Thinkpad x30, grid of 4x3 panes of visible state with screen size jumps between positioning. Ctwm looks suitably small.<p>Had I gone back, I do think tiling is where I would go. My last work purchased device is an osx. What comes next isn't clear yet, 3 years to go.
I switched a couple *nix machines I had to ctwm a while back. Its a neat manager if you want to go for a "retro" twm look but want a few more features Config is mostly like twm but more options.