The trick is to not use a desktop environment. Stick to a simple WM and do your stuff in the terminal like back in the 90s and you're good. The DE stuff is basi

The trick is to not use a desktop environment. Stick to a simple WM and do your stuff in the terminal like back in the 90s and you're good. The DE stuff is basically more or less well-written GUI wrappers for command line tools anyway and the most common operations you do can be handled with simple bash aliases or, worst case, small shell scripts. Some DE:s are ostensibly nice and polished, but my feeling is that they mainly provide a soft landing for Windows and Mac dropouts. There's always a few spots where the thin veneer starts peeling and, given you know how to operate it, you'll soon find yourself back in the terminal anyway.