GNU/Linux Minimalism Thread

For suggestions on programs that aren't bloat refer to:
suckless.org/rocks
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_window_managers

Acceptable GNU/Linux distributions that aren't bloat

>Gentoo
wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:Main_Page
gentoo.org/downloads/

>Debian (NET ISO)
debian.org/CD/netinst/

>Void (Hipster but works)
repo.voidlinux.eu/live/current/

>Alpine (Pretty damn minimal)
alpinelinux.org/downloads/

Get recommendations to see if your system is bloat or not.

Post:
>OS
>DE/WM
>Video/Music player
>Image viewer
>File Manager
>Text Editor
>Shell
>Web Browser
>Terminal

What is software minimalism?
suckless.org/philosophy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism_(computing)

Why software minimalism?
>fewer bugs
>better performance
>lower memory footprint
>better maintainability
>higher scalability
>longer software lifetime
>prompt delivery


Beginners guide to GNU/Linux minimalism

1) Get comfortable with the terminal and learn terminal commands. Practice makes perfect.

computerhope.com/unix.htm
computerhope.com/unix/overview.htm
computerhope.com/unixtop1.htm

2) Try one of the listed GNU/Linux distros inside a VM (Virtual Machine) before installing it on real hardware

3) Ask questions in the thread.

Other urls found in this thread:

wiki.debian.org/Dwm
gnu.org/software/guix/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_blob
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Someone here recommend dwm.
Got it installed, but being used to i3 the file for configuration was easy to find. Where is it for dwm? The site doesn't even give me a location.

Reposting WM RAM comparison

You change the source and recompile to configure dwm

The config file is the config.h header file. You have to edit that file and then recompile dwm to confirm your changes.
Also if you got it from your package manager you're fucked. Just uninstall and grab it from the suckless website.

Why's that?

Void Linux is probably the most obnoxiously hipster shit I've ever seen. Their homepage says "written from scratch" in three separate places, as if that's a good thing. They brag about "being the first" to abandon OpenSSL, where the only thing dumber than the decision itself is bragging about it. Their top "news" post is about My Little Pony.

alpine 4 life

Because if it's a binary from your distro, it's already pre-compiled, making it so you can't configure it.
distros really shouldn't package dwm.

minimalism

> having to recompile an application to change its settings
Is this for real?

>musl
no

yes

Reposting Arch explanation

Arch has never been a minimalist distribution. Splitting packages is rare compared to other distributions, and dependencies aren't made optional whenever possible. Arch has *never* been minimalist... a Linux kernel with every module available and every feature enabled at least when there's no non-bloat related cost, feature-packed/complex GNU tools, nearly all optional features enabled across all the packages, etc.


>pacman is fast but not safe, it tends to break shit and config protection is implemented in a terrible way
>there is no official process to verify that a package is stable within the distro, in other distros a lot of packages are in a testing repo despite that specific package's developer claiming it to be stable on its own, because it might not be stable within the environment of a specific distro
>a lot of AUR packages pull from upstream, which means they could be very unstable
>(arch vs gentoo related) arch users complain about muh compile time when it comes to gentoo, while in fact they compile a lot of AUR packages themselves, namely the *-git packages that pull the source from a git repo
>but it gets even better: they only compile a handful of packages, and those not being libraries mostly, the self-compiled packages get linked against precompiled libraries from a different setup (e.g. different optimization levels), which can then cause even more instability because it's a clusterfuck of unequal shit
>arch uses (((systemd))) and switching to something else is hard
>apparently the vim package on arch pulls in X, so if you want to have a fancy terminal text editor on a headless server, you to install a shit ton of GUI stuff you'll never need nor use
>maintainer told the guy who complained to just symlink vi to vim (vi is inferior)

I'd suggest not ricing dwm. I use vanilla dwm myself and it just works

wiki.debian.org/Dwm

void also uses musl, though

Reposting austistic rant

The thing for me when it come to this is that I'm kinda disgusted by the amount of bloat in popular applications and environments.

Let's take the picture viewer as an example. What does it do? That's right! It views pictures! We have also seen picture viewers that can run with very tiny amounts of ram, and do their job pretty well. Why then should we be using a picture viewer that does the exact same practical thing as this minimal picture viewer, but is 10+ times heavier?

I've heard this a lot, the whole "lel just get a newer computer grandpa!"
I'd like to let you know that I use minimal setups both on a 2012 Fagbook Pro, and a Xeon workstation being used as a desktop. Both of these have 16+ GB of memory.
What you have to understand is that just because we have the resources, doesn't mean it's right to use them to the limit. Why should we artificially use more resources for the same tasks just because we have the capability to do it. That's retarded. At that point we should just rewrite the kernel in electron because clearly anyone who has a problem with that just needs to download more wam.

Another key component for me is that achieving a high level of minimalism often involves switching to a vey terminal-heavy lifestyle. This is good as it provides a universal interface. The interface used to shitpost, consume content, and whatnot, is the same interface that would be used when administering a server, when configuring my NAS, when working with Amazon EC2 installations, etc.

Why do you hate keeping things simple? Why do you want things to use more resources than they have to to complete their function?

Settings are bloat, user

But... I want it look cool :(

no its optional
they also tell u how much musl sucks
>Some programs (mostly graphical applications) will work incorrectly, or segfault when run under musl. This may be due to programs expecting some glibc-specific behavior.
>Also, some programs that rely on glibc-specific behavior cannot or at least have not been patched yet.
musl hasn't yet implemented critical features. it needs more work.

Just don't rice dwm. Why would you? If you are really really into the ricing cancer stick to i3 then

Everybody with a brain agrees with you user, but most of them just want to become career programmers at Apple, or Facebook where they can get a fat paycheck by continuing to destroy computing. I can't really blame them for that, desu, even though I hate it.

Well. follow that wiki guide. Not hard. Config.h is whe

then download and compile!
even I can do it, uwu

Then use a wm for ricing

config.h is where you change the "settings"

GNU's binary extensions aren't "critical behaviors" except for shitty programs. If firefox can work under musl, then other shit shouldn't have an excuse.

>chain compile dependencies of dependencies of dependencies
>at some point lost track of a few of them
>repeat for months
>system is full of orphan bloat
how do i deal with this

>alpine 4 life
post your desktop user

fresh install (debian net iso)

So it looks like GNU themselves are making a distro
It can be as minimal or bloat as u want, and has lots of Libre comfies
gnu.org/software/guix/

uwu fag, please use some other picture for OP image other than anime.

i didn't make this one!
if i did it would have been a boy

>call it just the “GNU operating system” but use Linux kernel instead of Hurd

ok got you..Op pls use a different image next time

t. orginal founder of this general from the very beginning

Anime website.

You need to slice your own neck, you disgusting gay pedophile.

>OS
FreeBSD (3+ years, same install, updated, compiling stuff everyday, not a single problem ever)

>DE/WM
xmonad (5+ years, same install, not as pretty as windowmaker, but never failed, ever)

>Video/Music player
mpv

>Image viewer
just feh

>File Manager
Dired for everything

>Text Editor
emacs bloated (the hardest program to let go)

>Shell
tcsh

>Web Browser
firefox

>Terminal
rxvt

yeah GNUs gonna be GNU.
But guess what?
NO SYSTEMD!!
they use their own Shepherd init, which is part of GNU project

no u

USE FLAGS WHEN!!

Should I also download dwmstatus myself or use a package manager.

get dwm from suckless
u can trust them

Just use a simple script. I just have time and date in my statusbar. Nothing else. If i want to check ram, hard drive space etc etc i use the terminal

You should be fine with a package manager
wiki.debian.org/Dwm

>OS
Debian stable at business laptop.
Debian testing at home desktop computer.

>DE/WM
i3 - I love stacking terminals. Great for work.

>Video/Music player
mpv for video, mpd + ncmpcpp for music that I have on my HDD and for the rest - spotify web player

>Image viewer
feh is good enough for me

>File Manager
Midnight commander is good enough

>Text Editor
vim - it's usually the first thing I install. I've got used to it

>Shell
bash

>Web Browser
firefox nightly

>Terminal
urxvt

Linux fork called GNU Linux-libre with bloat and botnets removed*

use a different shell like mksh and try dwm

I will give it a try on my desktop

This.
No binary blobs

this is whats a binary blob
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_blob

this
>tfw running a desktop with 8 core CPU and 32GB of RAM and using minimal tools which do their job well and dont eat a shit ton of resources
feels good man

yeah, you know that your precious computer isn't in a botnet or has bitcoin miners in the background

inb4 unused ram is wasted ram
nigger why u care? lmao. I could have gpu passthrough and play gta 5

yay u agree!

zlib vs libzf

What's a minimalist program to block ads? I want something that can convert abp lists to host file

firefox with ublock cunt

Why do people recommend cmus over mpd+ncmp?

I want to jump firefox when ESR 52 dies

out of curiosity does that process still require some multiple monitor bullshit because I would love to do that shit

pretty much this
"unused" ram isnt wasted anyway, it is used for disk caching when you dont need it for much and i frequently run virtual machines with high memory needs for my projects and testing shit, feels good to have all resources available for actually needed things
i mainly don't aim for as lightweight and minimal as possible, i use minimal shit mostly because they do the job just as they should perfectly without extra shit i dont need
i dont run plain i3 as my desktop because of its resource usage compared to major desktop environments, i use it because it works for my workflow very well and does stuff just like i want without useless bullshit, it just seems "minimal" stuff seems to do the job always the best for me

> i frequently run virtual machines with high memory

this, i have dwm as my wm and do this.

Privoxy or Hostsblock

Why do people not just use MOC? Is by far better imho

Because suckless suggests it and it's way more /minimal/

Daily reminder that if you are literally starting out with gnu/linux, this thread isn't for you. Please go to the /fglt/ thread

They also recommend mpd

so whats the most /minimal/ terminal that's wayland native?

Fuck off unfriendly cunt.

THIS
THIS
THIS
And is a polite warning so noobs dont get BTFO'd.

Reminder that if you want a bloat free system, install BSD.

st is as minimal as you can get, but I don't know if its wayland compatible yet. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

They wouldn't understand this shit and it would overwhelming.

This thread is for anons who have bloated gnu/linux systems and are trying to debloat it.

no it's completely X based.
I think it'd need to be COMPLETELY rewritten to be wayland native

/thread

No, fuck off cucks.

>subject has gnu and linux
>talks about bsd
no nigger

...

theres this meme about unused ram being wasted but it really depends on how its used. if a program reserves shitloads of ram for no good reason then thats bad usage but if it uses unused ram for caching but keeps it available when needed then thats fine.

Why do I keep seeing feh recommended over sxiv? I know feh do wallpapers but you may as well use xinitrc with imagemagick for that.

why do you need an terminal that runs in x? just press ctrl alt f2 and use that instead of a bloated gui terminal emulator.

>why do you need an terminal that runs in x?
So I can look cool in desktop threads

how are u supposed to interpret the shitty manpage for that?
I cant find how to do that.
feh is easy to use

feh can do both

No need for a manpage Then you just put the command on your xinirtc before starting the wm

According to the arch linux wiki
>Warning: Blocking advertisements can reduce anonymity, since it creates a unique browser signature. This should not be done when using tor or another proxy for anonymity.
Is this true?

But feh cant do gif if I recall.

Posting my .xinirtc
xrdb -merge -I$HOME ~/.Xresources
xbindkeys
display -size 1280x800 -window root ~/.wallpaper.png
exec ratpoison

gif is bloat

k

display -size 1280x800
What does this do?

Couldn't you use mpv for gifs.

Set wallpaper resolution size. That line is the actual wallpaper setting, the rest are other things.

Thats retarded, why would you want your desktop backround animated??

Just go with feh or xsetroot( solid colors only)

yeah the site showed just said display -background *color* -backdrop *image*
so do I need to put the resolution too?
and what's window root?
this is way too confusing

Do you not understand browser fingerprints?

I'm on mobile so i don't remember

xrdb -merge -I$HOME ~/.Xresources
exec dwm
feh wallpaper.jpg
time and date for dwm status

How would blocking ads via a web proxy increase fingerprint when ads are what fingerprints you?

Didn't know we're talking about desktops. Just thought he was looking for viewing.

>-background *color* -backdrop *image*
No need for this part, I've never use it so idk.
>what's window root?
The root window is the desktop background, where the wallpapers go. In imagemagick you can put images on different windows but havent used others.
Ignore what you dont need but remember, some DE fuck with your root window (blocking them) so uninstall DE if you have one.

yeah we're talking about desktop backgrounds.

So you don't understand browser fingerprints, cool.

Using addons that most people don't use will help to make you unique and therefore make you easier to track.

If 30% of people use Ublock, you are that much easier to track. If you then also have another addon together with ublock that only 5% use, then you are close to be unique.

And then comes browser settings.

The point is the more "common" your browser setup is, the easier it is to hide.

Well it's from the link that you sent me to I think i'm just gonna stick with using feh for wallpapers. ImageMagick is way too confusing