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When I was using EXWM it felt like the closest I have ever been to an Emacs as an Operating System. But why would I want something like that in the first place?

When I was using EXWM it felt like the closest I have ever been to an Emacs as an Operating System. But why would I want something like that in the first place? It’s not just being able to control my desktop in a keyboard driven matter with shortcuts I’m familiar with. Because from what I hear, Gnome desktops are pretty keyboard driven. It’s the idea of being able to control my entire Operating System, from programming in it, navigating it, interacting with it, and running the shell through it, all seamlessly with minimal context switching through one interface. It’s fun to try to get there with Emacs sometimes, even if in my heart I know it’s not what it was meant to do.

Koshkin 5y ago
To be fair, despite what the name “Windows” would have you believe, there is much more to an OS than a WM. Emacs can indeed serve as a perfectly good shell for a kernel - see, e.g., http://www.informatimago.com/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linux.html http://www.informatimago.com/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linux....
podiki 5y ago
Might also suggest looking at GNU Guix (as a packager manager or full distro). Then the whole system will be build on Guile Scheme too! I'm a recent convert and have been loving it. Edit: and yes, their installer lets you select EXWM as your window manager right from the get go.
- webmobdev 5y ago
  GNU Guix package manager is very interesting - https://guix.gnu.org/en/videos/2020/everyday-use-of-gnu-guix-part-one/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/videos/2020/everyday-use-of-gnu-guix... ... Thanks for rec. There are so many interesting GNU projects that remain unpopular due to lack of publicity and / or poor UI / UX that it's sad when you consider the amount of man hours went into developing these projects.
  - oneplane 5y ago
    Looks like they only serve webm video without fallback. So now when you aren't using a browser with webm it doesn't play the video and doesn't show any helpful message either. One could argue "but freedom!" and then we'd still have a terrible UX.
pjmlp 5y ago
Well, the whole experience would have been a Lisp Machine or Interlisp-D, which Emacs is only a subset of what they provided.
yakubin 5y ago
In my Emacs config I redefined one of internal Emacs functions which is responsible for creating new windows (panes in more common parlance), which I think is superior, and I'm working more efficiently, rearranging windows less frequently than before (not to mention with other window managers)[1]. That's something I don't get outside of Emacs. [1]: Efficiency is probably second priority though to getting rid of the annoyance of windows showing up in weird places making everything around hardly legible. Prior to the customization I felt as if I was pair-programming with an angry gremlin who would keep making a mess on my desk. Now I have more peace of mind.

Koshkin 5y ago

To be fair, despite what the name “Windows” would have you believe, there is much more to an OS than a WM. Emacs can indeed serve as a perfectly good shell for a kernel - see, e.g., http://www.informatimago.com/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linux.html http://www.informatimago.com/linux/emacs-on-user-mode-linux....

podiki 5y ago

Might also suggest looking at GNU Guix (as a packager manager or full distro). Then the whole system will be build on Guile Scheme too! I'm a recent convert and have been loving it. Edit: and yes, their installer lets you select EXWM as your window manager right from the get go.

webmobdev 5y ago
GNU Guix package manager is very interesting - https://guix.gnu.org/en/videos/2020/everyday-use-of-gnu-guix-part-one/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/videos/2020/everyday-use-of-gnu-guix... ... Thanks for rec. There are so many interesting GNU projects that remain unpopular due to lack of publicity and / or poor UI / UX that it's sad when you consider the amount of man hours went into developing these projects.
- oneplane 5y ago
  Looks like they only serve webm video without fallback. So now when you aren't using a browser with webm it doesn't play the video and doesn't show any helpful message either. One could argue "but freedom!" and then we'd still have a terrible UX.

pjmlp 5y ago

Well, the whole experience would have been a Lisp Machine or Interlisp-D, which Emacs is only a subset of what they provided.

yakubin 5y ago

In my Emacs config I redefined one of internal Emacs functions which is responsible for creating new windows (panes in more common parlance), which I think is superior, and I'm working more efficiently, rearranging windows less frequently than before (not to mention with other window managers)[1]. That's something I don't get outside of Emacs. [1]: Efficiency is probably second priority though to getting rid of the annoyance of windows showing up in weird places making everything around hardly legible. Prior to the customization I felt as if I was pair-programming with an angry gremlin who would keep making a mess on my desk. Now I have more peace of mind.