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Xmonad Is Here To Stay... Sigh
🕑 Added 2023-12-31 06:25:28 +0000 UTCI made a joke in one of the videos I recently recorded that I'm experiencing Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to Xmonad. I've been here long enough, and I'm beginning to like it, despite my long-held dislike of everything (except Pandoc) Haskell. I've been using Xmonad for the last three months, mostly because Qtile continues to be the crashiest of window managers, despite all of my efforts. So, you could say that I've been using Xmonad because there are no real better options that work mostly like Qtile.
I'm starting to like it.
My biggest problem with Xmonad in the past has always been that it's configured in Haskell. I don't know Haskell, and what little I do understand is mostly useless. So configuring Xmonad has always been a chore, and not a pleasant one. It still kind of stinks, to be honest. But it's better than it was before as I learn more and more Haskell. As I do that, I end up liking Xmonad more and more. It functions a lot like Qtile in the way it manages workspaces, which I really enjoy. I like xmobar, though not quite as much as Qtile bar, so the bar situation is okay. I like EzConfig and the way it makes it dead simple to add new keybindings. And I like the way, once you have scratchpads set up, you can add more and more if you want with just a couple of lines. It's excellent.
There are still bits that confound me, though. I still haven't been able to figure out how to add more workspaces, which I really want to do. I've also not really figured out how to add more layouts. That second one isn't a big deal, but I'd like to do that. I'll put more effort into that one eventually. The issue I have is that Haskell is still very intimidating, and I still have a lot of problems with it. Add in that the documentation is damn near unusable because there are so many ways of doing things, and often I can only do things because I get help from friends on Discord.
So I am beginning to have a love-hate relationship with Xmonad. I like the way it works, but I mostly dislike the way it is configured. I guess as I go along, I dislike the configuration less, but that feeling remains.
I have looked into other Window Managers that I'm more familiar with. Qtile continues to crash as I said (And I really don't want to do Wayland), i3, DWM, BSPWM, awesomeWM all have problems with the way they do workspaces and I don't care for that, and WMs like DK are not as stable as I'd like them to be. I want a Window Manager that does workspaces like xmonad and Qtile, which DK does, but I've had it crash too often. Hyprland does, but Wayland. And that's about it, as far as I know.
(For those of you who wonder what I mean about workspaces, I mean that there is one set of workspaces shared between all monitors, and they switch around based on the focus of the monitor).
So, as you can see, I'm kind of stuck right now with Xmonad. Maybe if Wayland becomes something I can use, Hyprland will be where I go, but so far that's a no-go (Monitor and gaming issues). Maybe there is a WM out there that I've not thought of? SpectreWM is one I've not tried in years, I don't remember how it handles workspaces. LeftWM is another one I'm unsure of. Maybe you guys have some recs? I will remain on Xmonad until either Qtile becomes more stable on openSUSE or I find a better alternative.
Anyway, enough of my bitching. I hope everyone has a good week,
Matt
