Do You Have Unixporn Addiction?

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:20]Hey everybody, welcome to the Nixcast.

[00:00:21]I'm your host Matt.

[00:00:23]>> I'm Nate.

[00:00:24]>> And I'm Drew.

[00:00:25]>> Welcome to the podcast fellas. Welcome to the podcast everyone. We're going to h have a excellent podcast and I I'm going to will it to be so. Uh apologies for last week. I sat here in the dark and we've lost power three times in the last week. Um so, yay for being in the country. Um yesterday we had some horrendous winds, but we didn't lose power yesterday. The people behind us did though. It's awesome. It's great. I still understand.

[00:00:49]Just bury the [ __ ] power lines. How hard can it be? Jesus. All sorry. Ran over. Anyways, welcome to the I was going to say, well, we got too many people that would dig for no reason. So, >> well, at least I should just do it. I mean, they're they're they're they're raising the rates often enough they should should be able to keep it from ever going out. But anyways, I digress.

[00:01:13]All right, so we're going to talk about ricing and our favorite customizations that we do to our own setups later on.

[00:01:19]But first, we have a minute topic which is I had this in my head about 30 seconds ago and of course it is gone. So it is if there was one thing you Of course it didn't come up.

[00:01:35]>> There's one thing you wish you were better at with Linux/f.

[00:01:39]>> Yeah, there it is. So see how you you saved my bacon there. Nate, you can go first. If there's one thing you wish you were better at when it comes to Foss or Linux, what would it be?

[00:01:49]>> I probably wish I was a better scriptor coder. I always feel like I'm a little behind some people, but at the same time, I'm not a developer either. So, I kind of use Linux just to work for me, not try to make it work, but I wish I was better at making it work for me. So, >> is there a specific coding language that you would do work on if you had the choice?

[00:02:12]>> Kind of torn. I wish I was a little better in Python, but really I wish I was good at Java because then I could actually get a job just coding.

[00:02:20]>> So, >> even though Java is terrible, but you know.

[00:02:24]>> Indeed. All right. Uh Drew, same question. What would you If there was one thing you could be better at, uh what would it be?

[00:02:30]>> Basically the same. I mean, I've done quite a bit of scripting in the last couple years and clearly I've improved in certain areas like like you know with shell or bash scripting and stuff like that but if I had to answer the question today it would be C programming actually and I have written two C programs in the last month. one of and both of them had to do with tabs and creating a DWM tabs um C program as well as a BSPWM tabs program. I didn't have to actually like do a whole lot to like modify it to work with BSPWM, but that first one that DWM tabs uh C script took some time, some effort and and the fact is you know it's like when you do DWM to that level that you know we've you know Matt we've both patched it to death you know you get proud of being able to do that but you're actually not like I I mean, you do benefit by having a little bit of C in your pipeline. Uh, but overall, you're kind of just like repurposing somebody else's C scripting into something that you're like is, you know, you're just having to like modify. So, it's not exactly the same thing, but it does, you know, it helps. It It definitely helps.

[00:03:56]>> It's when you start to create your own patch >> that you that you that you get your your C programming card for DWM, I guess. For the record, I haven't ever created my own patch because usually I'm just pretty happy with what's there. Do you think you think you would do like your your t I know I know there is a tabbed like suckless thing, but if you had like your your own tabed script, would you make that into your own patch?

[00:04:19]>> So the DWM tabs C program is actually using suckless tabbed in order to function. So I have to install that in order to get the tabs to work well. and and I'm actually using exactly the same kind of functionality for BSPWM as well.

[00:04:42]Uh so I'm using tabbed suckless tabbed and then writing a a C script or C program rather it's not a script a C program that you know uses tabbed. Um the one thing I will say who I don't know if this is this is nerdy but basically in order to If I had to do the same thing because I did try to do it in bash and I could but it took like quite a bit of like effort. You have to use bash, xdo tool, x prop, xrander, x-win info, and o all of them probably to do exactly the same thing that the w uh dwm tabsc does. And that only uses libx11 and in xenorama and and that's it. Um, so again, a very nerdy answer to the question, but um, if you can use, you know, if you can just, you know, and it works so much smoother. I mean, so much smoother when you're using C as opposed to this bash probably. I don't know. I mean, if we're only talking about less than a second, but it to me it felt quite a bit more snappy.

[00:05:56]>> Yeah. All right. So, my answer to this question, it very well could be the same as your guys', but my biggest one when I think about this question is networking.

[00:06:06]I wish I was better at at figuring out how to secure a network, make sure it's it's properly set up, set up things like Pi Hole and uh other things like that, uh firewalls. Like, I can do uh UFW, you know, the the basic one, but anything beyond that is just kind of beyond me.

[00:06:25]Yeah. you know, I can set set up the do the basic things that you do to set up a server to make sure that they're not hit with like SSH attacks and stuff like that, but anything beyond that, I'm just kind of like floating in the wind. Uh, and anytime I sit down to try to learn more about networking, I realize there's a reason why there's like a degree for this because there's just so much stuff there that you just kind of learn and it changes so often and I'm just not I I I I'm not very good at it. I I've it's one of those things where I'm just constantly trying to figure it out and not really feeling like I'm making much progress, but I would really like to be better uh at at networking. So, that's my answer to the question. All right.

[00:07:06]So, the main topic tonight we've kind of split into two parts. Uh the first one, which I think we can kind of fly through, uh is ricing a waste of time?

[00:07:19]Now, for those of you guys aren't familiar, I say this every time we use the word ricing. didn't create the word.

[00:07:24]None of us really know why we use the word. It's just kind of the word that is used. Um customization, theming, whatever you want to call it, but for whatever reason, rising is what people call it. Uh so don't come at us when we use the word. I had someone come in my comments said, you know, you know the word rising is racist, right? Um and I was like, what?

[00:07:43]>> Oh, good lord. Everything is supposedly racist nowadays.

[00:07:46]>> Yeah. Anyways, I just us that's the word that we use. Anyway, so question is, do you guys think that ricing is a word?

[00:07:54]>> I think we should come up with a new acronym right now, man. You know, >> no, I'm just going to I'm just going to use it. And if you guys want to cancel me, that's that's fine. If But if you're if you're going to cancel me, cancel me now so we can go. Um, not after the episode.

[00:08:10]Anyways, Drew, do you think that ricing is a waste of time?

[00:08:14]>> 100% yes. It is a massive waste of time.

[00:08:18]I mean, I've spent I've spent freaking hours and hours and hours and in that in doing that, I set up like infrastructure to then proliferate all of those rices to uh to other people and stuff like that. So, yeah, is it a is it's so much a waste of time that I uh I built infrastructure basically to uh make that waste reproducible.

[00:08:44]>> Yeah. All right. And Nate, what about you? What do you think about ricing it?

[00:08:48]Waste waste of time or no?

[00:08:49]>> Yeah, it is a waste of time because most time when you install Linux, guess what?

[00:08:54]It it already has technically everything you need. Ricing is literally just you making it look better. That's literally it. There might be a slight tweaks to a workflow, but other than that, yeah, it it's a waste of time.

[00:09:08]>> So, I disagree with both of you surprisingly. Uh, from writing, I've learned a lot of C.

[00:09:15]I've learned Python. I've learned Lua.

[00:09:18]I've learned Bash. I've learned a lot more Python. I I came back to that because, you know, I've been using QEL now for a while and it's it's awesome. I I've learned how to move things around with XD tool. I didn't know what XD tool was before I started Rising. Um yeah, I I've learned all of these things. All of it because I wanted to make my setup look the way that I want it to look.

[00:09:40]Now, I have slowed down significantly now that I have all the themes and stuff that I want. But just last week, I added a new layout to my Qile bar. I now have one that looks like DWM. And granted, it took like 5 minutes. It wasn't that hard at all. I did a refactor out of my Qile configs now. So, because it used to be where I I had probably 245 different Python files, each of them consists for different layouts of the bar. And each bar, each layout had a file for each color scheme that I had.

[00:10:12]And basically what I'd use is a script to basically copy that into the main config.py so that it would, you know, carry on with that theme. And I've since refactored it a little bit so that I got rid of all that extra fluff. But again, that was just me flexing my Python skills. And that's the way that I choose to look at. I learned some stuff doing that. So is it a waste of time if you get nothing out of it? Sure, I suppose.

[00:10:36]But would you guys think do you guys think that you did all that ricing and all that customization on your system and learned nothing, Drew?

[00:10:45]>> Oh, I mean, no. I was overstating in a big big way. But you know I think that um especially early on it really if you are a newer Linux user and you have any desire to go the route of window management or window managers, you start off with something like i3 or BSPWM and you know bash it ends up being kind of your friend if you if you like um if you use terminals like wet term that you kind of get the benefit of knowing a little bit of Lua. Same thing with AwesomeW. You get to know a little bit about Lua. Actually, quite a bit about Lua and as well as Neoim. If you're a Neoim user, you're scripting in Lua these days. And and for those of you in the chat, you know, that are Hyperland users, you know what's happening in that in that regard. There they've swap, you know, they've switched it all to to Lua.

[00:11:44]So, yeah, I mean, there's some benefits.

[00:11:46]No question about it. If you want to learn stuff, you know, start doing something like a like a rice for a window manager and see where it leads you.

[00:11:56]>> Yeah. Nate, do you think that you learn stuff?

[00:11:59]>> I do, but I'm still going to stick with exactly what I said because I was raised on the fact that time is money.

[00:12:05]And if I'm wasting time just to write something to slightly learn something, then I'm not really making money. So, >> that's all I think about right now with the baby on the way. Trust me.

[00:12:17]>> Yeah. All right. Well, I I I waste so much time doing other things that where I learn absolutely nothing like spending all my time on YouTube, you know, um that uh >> learning something actually makes I suppose some some sense to me. All right. So, that was the first part of the main topic. Now, we get to the meat of the meat of it. So, I I want to know your guys' favorite customizations that you do, not only just to your window manager, uh, but to other things that you use kind of every day that would be kind of considered under the ricing/customization banner. So, if you guys want, we'll just go ahead and do a round robin like we normally do. I have a few of these things written down. So, uh, Drew, tell us about one of your >> So, the question is customizations or actual like like aesthetic tool. uh something >> anything that can be considered I mean it doesn't have to be just aesthetic it can be >> okay well I mean key bindings is if that's if that's the case then you know key bindings is number one for me because you know I think that all of us that do especially those of us that do window managers and switch it up here and there we're basically all always using and reusing exactly the same key bindings because muscle memory is your friend in that regard you know for me you know could super V is open up the browser and super F is open up your file manager and so on and so forth. So all of those things, you know, is that is if that is my favorite thing, I'm going to go with that. It's key bindings uh that I don't have to actually think. I can just do and be very very productive in doing so.

[00:13:53]>> Nate, >> I think one of my most favorite ones is the I don't know about y'all, but I I struggle with the actual dock.

[00:14:00]Especially if you if you ever used Apple, you know what the dock is.

[00:14:04]And one of the most favorite things I like to do is absolutely have my top bar almost like perfect. I like to get it as small as possible where it's still, you know, readable, but at the same time give me the maximum amount of space that I have. That to me is one of the best ways of actually making your setup look and function really well. And so having a good having a good top bar is just one of those things just >> so that lends to the question top bar or bottom bar Nate. And so you're a top bar kind of guy.

[00:14:37]>> Absolutely.

[00:14:38]>> Okay. All right.

[00:14:40]>> I want to be a bottom I like I think I would be very good with both bottom or top. But I can never get used to the on the bottom. It's just like it it feels like it would it's freshen things up if you put it on the bottom for a little while. But then I'm always looking up there like there's the clock and it's not there. So I do have a question for you guys. Do you actually use your bar?

[00:15:04]Because I love my bar. Like if you guys are watching the stream, you'll see actually see my bar right up at the top.

[00:15:11]I love this thing. I spent if there was an argument for ricing be being a waste of time, it would be the bar because it is very useless to me.

[00:15:20]Like it has my CPU information up there.

[00:15:23]It has how much RAM I'm using. It has the volume percentage and it has the workspace. So, the two things that I only that I actually use on there are probably the clock, which is stupid cuz I wear like have a watch on my wrist and the workspace indicator. And even then, most of the time I don't actually need it. Um, so I guess the question is like Drew, you're your winner manager primarily guy. Do you actually use your bar for anything >> or visual feedback? I guess though, do I click on anything? I'm trying to think.

[00:15:55]Do I actually click on anything on the bar? No, I don't think so, actually. Um, everything is key bindings, but I mean, if I look up right now, and I've got 12, uh, 12 workspaces. I've used one, two, four, and eight, uh, have something on them right now, and I'm using four. This is workspace four. Um, do I look at, you know, and same thing with you, Matt. I'm like 13% of my, uh, my hard drive is full and so on and so forth. And I do have the um uh the cyst tray up in the corner just to so I can see what's active and stuff like that. So all all of those and and the time and all of those things and yeah I could just you know glance down as well but you know all those things kind of like you know provide feedback but I don't actually you know that's a good point. I don't actually like use it. I guess I could go over and click on the workspace if I really wanted to, but I typically >> even just looking at it like I I I find myself just like it's there, but most of the time I just don't even look at it.

[00:16:56]So it makes me wonder like are the people who are pro- no bar actually, right? And I could be, you know, getting an extra, >> you know, space on my workspace with no bar.

[00:17:08]I don't know the answer to that question. It feels like I'd miss it if it feel like it'd be something missing to me. If you had a good memory, Matt, if you had a good memory.

[00:17:17]>> Hold on a second. I know. What accusation are you making here, >> D? I'm not I'm not saying that you don't have a good memory. I'm saying >> if you didn't have a good memory, you could pro um I shouldn't even like Okay, so I thought about that, too. I I've told this story several times where I've watched Tyler do an entire video on BSPWM where he never used the bar and uh and I thought to myself, I wonder if I could do that. And the only way in my head I I thought I could do that like legitimately is if I gave it like notification feedback. For example, I I move something to workspace 8. I would need kind of like a dunsted notifi notification. It's like you moved it to workspace 8, you know, it's there. So that I can kind of like, oh, okay. Yeah, now I know it's over there. But um I also I also think that there is a really good way to do this if you are a ROI scriptor and you can actually kind of like uh determine everything that you have open regardless of which workspace it's on and just do one kind of keybind and you'll see that uh workspace one has this three 8 and so on and then you could eliminate the bar completely if you really wanted to do that cuz actually I think my new version of DWM that I did. Uh I think that was definitely in the dev part of my of that project, but I think it's actually now I think it I think I moved it out of dev into main. So um yeah.

[00:18:57]>> Okay. that. So, ROI has a default thing that actually works. If you bring up ROI and you do control tab >> three or four times, for me it's four times. It'll actually list every window that you have open.

[00:19:17]And at least for me, it has the icon and the workspace number that it's on.

[00:19:22]>> No.

[00:19:23]>> Right. See, I like I didn't do anything to set that up. So, I don't know why you don't have it. Say it again. So tell me one more time.

[00:19:29]>> So you just bring up your roy >> and you press control tab.

[00:19:32]>> Oh, control tab.

[00:19:34]>> Yep. Three or four times.

[00:19:35]>> No, >> nothing.

[00:19:37]>> No.

[00:19:38]>> So for for me, it brings up the applications first and then the run prompt and then SSH and then Windows.

[00:19:45]But anyways, it does have that functionality. I don't know how you turn it on.

[00:19:49]>> And it lists the workspace, the class, and the window title all right there.

[00:19:55]And you can like switch to them using that. It's really cool. Um, but anyways, I don't use that either, by the way. Um, I I know we you joked about the me memory, Drew, but my stuff is always on the same workspace. So, like it just never moves around. So, so Nate, you're a little bit different because you're a desktop environment weirdo. Sorry, I mean user.

[00:20:21]Uh, do you I mean, first off, do you even use workspaces? Um, and second of all, the question I asked Drew, um, do you you I mean, it's different with a desktop environment guy because you actually use it for icons and stuff. So, you probably use a panel quite extensively, right?

[00:20:38]>> Yeah. Well, I have a mixed bag of key commands and actual using the panel. It really depends on what application I'm on. If I'm doing some scripting, most of the stuff I'll do is just key commands cuz that's I'm, you know, I'm in film, so most time that's all I need. But for like if I'm editing something and I need to transfer files, I literally I have my local sin right up in the top. So I can just click it real quick and you know do my edits at the same time. I will say I am using Cosmic so it's kind of like that in between of a desktop environment and a ting window manager.

[00:21:12]It's it's weird, but I also like it for some reason. But it with that being said, I actually have a quick switch that's up there as well. I can literally just hit one button and it will switch it from tingling to floating then back to tingling. So I guess when I use a desktop environment, I tend to use a panel. Uh but it also feels like a weird experience for me. Like I always, you know, using the mouse to go down there and click on an application. Uh I do that but it feels like out of place. So I just use like most of the time it's in KD so I just use KRunner. Right. So all right.

[00:21:47]>> Did you answer the question yourself, Matt? Did you have a favorite Linux customization or >> my first one actually is scratch pads surprisingly?

[00:21:55]>> Yeah, that that's probably the first thing that I do on any window manager is make sure that has scratch pads and if it doesn't have scratch pads I leave um uh or or I steal um Jake at Linux's script so I can bring it to whatever. So he he has a script that brings basically scratch pads to any window in manager that doesn't have them just using XD tool and I stole that. So like DWM doesn't have it have scratch pads using that script got it for me. That's the first thing that I ever do. Um so everyone that I have set up now just has scratch pads. Um probably so if you had to ask me which window managers have the best scratch pads, I would go with Qile and DWM because they are they they exist always, right? You can push them, you know that they're launched upon, you know, startup.

[00:22:44]They're in the background. you launch them up, they're there. Whereas with like i3, the way they are out of the box anyways, you kind of have to create them from, you know, a window and then push them in the background. Now, you can obviously get past that and set it up and script it the way you wanted to, but uh Qile and DWM are my favorites. Xmonet kind of does the exact same thing, but we don't talk about Xonet here. Um, so all right. Uh, Drew, your uh second customization. I'm thinking I mean I do like scratch pads but I also like having I mean then this is a DWM thing a per tag layout like if I was to have uh let's just say I want to use monle on workspace one workspace 2 is tiled workspace 3 is in a gaps or a different kind of like uh um um layout. There we go. Um, so all of those things, I mean, those are like again those are very nerdy. By the way, Matt, I I installed two Scratchpad um patches for you for DWM at the same time.

[00:23:51]>> Yeah. Wow.

[00:23:52]>> Both of them have different use cases and one of them, and I haven't done the video on this yet, but I have scripted it out. And one of them is very simple, you know, like like like we talked about a million times. SuperV brings up the volume, you know, you know, pulse mixer for you or something like that. And now there's something called scratch named tags or some scratchpad named or I forget the actual name of the patch itself. Okay. But what it is is it allows you to elevate any window to a stored scratchpad location. So you just say um Firefox and then you hit the keybind and it stores that as a scratch pad for you in slot one. Um so those are the things that I I wanted to make sure that when I did my new 6.8, eight, you know, reinvention, uh, that it had all of those things, including tabs, scratch pads, as well as, uh, what was the other thing that was a must? Um, can't remember, but basically, those two things were were big and high on the priority list.

[00:25:05]>> The scratch pad patch in DWM is I use always use just like the regular one that's just called scratch pads. Yeah.

[00:25:11]>> And that's just really really good, right? And you can use any terminal you want. you don't have to be stuck with cuz a couple there's a couple older ones where you're stuck with ST cuz it's kind of hardcoded into them and if you want to change it out, you have to do a whole bunch of work. Um the one I used was you can use whatever you want. So that that's always good. I I do enjoy the idea that you can put it whatever window you want, you know, as a scratch pad. I never considered doing two scratch pad patches before.

[00:25:38]>> Um and I'm kind of upset with myself that I've never tried. um because because I don't use DWM, but my my goal in life is to patch it as much as possible. So I um I'm gonna >> So the one is called Scratch Pad. I was just looking it up because uh I have a wiki now for DWM like and um it's called a scratch tag wins and it'll basically it allows you to elevate any window to a scratch pad on the fly.

[00:26:05]>> All right, so 01 in the chat asked what's a scratch pad. So, if you guys are watching the video, this right here is a scratch pad. It's basically well, it can be it's I use terminals for most of the ones that I have, but you can put any window you want. It lives in an an invisible workspace. You can bring it up with a with a key binding and it can be, you know, can appear and disappear however you want. It just kind of lives.

[00:26:28]Like, you know, I do something like this, I can bring up htop, let it do its thing, hide it, bring it back. It's still running. It just runs in the background. So that is is uh those are scratch pads. I use them extensively.

[00:26:42]Like I like I use them for everything. Like I have um I have SuperV for the volume like like Drew said. I have one for my music which is Sonic Tuy. You know, they're just all there. The entire bottom row of my key keyboard is filled with scratch pads. And then there's a shift modifier.

[00:27:02]So there's a whole bunch more there as well. So I'm I'm obsessed. are you using right now? Like like you're using Qile, I'm assuming, right now, right?

[00:27:10]>> Yeah. Yep. Qile right now. Yep. Um and I I probably have I think I have eight or nine. Probably 10.

[00:27:16]>> That's a lot different. Yeah, it's a it's a lot. And I use them all. Like they're all there. I probably I've actually been thinking about adding it like another cuz I actually only have two like blank terminals. I have super N and super shift N. And I'm thinking about adding like another one cuz sometimes I need a third one just like a blank terminal. All the rest of them have like running applications in them as they as they launch.

[00:27:38]>> Um, all right. We could do a whole show on scratch pads. We probably should not do that. All right. Uh, Nate, your second customization.

[00:27:47]>> Then we don't because I absolutely don't use them.

[00:27:50]>> We can't be friends anymore. I'm sorry, man.

[00:27:53]That's all right.

[00:27:54]>> We couldn't be friends just because you're an Eagles fan. But anyways, >> and and whose team has been to the Super Bowl, you know, in the last 30 years? I I freely admit Jerry Jones needs to u go somewhere. Anyways, but the fact of the matter is I think my next one that I like to do is for some reason since I've started using Kitty as my terminal. I can't stop help customizing that stinking thing.

[00:28:22]>> Such a good configuration file, man.

[00:28:24]It's just key pairs. There's no stupid Lua involved. So good. Sorry.

[00:28:29]>> Werm is still nice. is still on M machine, but Kitty's just a little bit more polished.

[00:28:36]>> Yeah, >> just to be honest.

[00:28:38]>> Yeah, I I listen I mean if we're just talking about window I'm sorry window manage in my brain. Um so if we're just talking about terminals Yeah, I agree that Kitty is outstanding. There's just no getting there's just no getting around. It's really stinking good. I choose I choose Wes term but if as a default for the projects actually I'm using ghosty because the the the configuration file is so much easier than anything Lua related you know it's just like oh you know here's your font here's this here's that and it's so stinking easy. Um so yeah I I get the fact that there's there's I think that there is better easier configurations.

[00:29:23]Kitty definitely being one of them.

[00:29:24]>> I'm sorry, but we have to ban that guy in the the chat that says go Pats. I mean, come on. I mean, it could have been worse. Said go Chiefs, I suppose, but not that much, you know, better.

[00:29:35]Sorry. Got got a little out of hand there. Ban that guy. All right. Um, my next one. So, I think I'm I think I'm a like a traitor to the to the Vim cause, but I'm an Emac user now. And um I Yeah, I I have spent um oh god, probably hundreds of hours over the course of the last year customizing my Emacs config to the tea.

[00:30:08]But the thing I've spent the most time on is the stupidest because of course it is. I have built my own theming engine for Q-tile or not for QT but for Emacs.

[00:30:17]And basically because what I wanted to be able to do was that every time I changed themes, which is often I changed twice before the podcast, I wanted to make it sure that every time I had Q had Python or good lord and I had Emacs open, it would automatically change the theme after I changed with my my theme switcher. So, if I switched to Grovebox Chadw, which is the one that I'm uh I don't know what I'm using now. If I change that, it would change to Grovebox for Emacs. If I change to paper color, it would change to paper color. If I change to Nord, it changed Nord. And it does automatically without me having to do anything with it. I've pro I think if I went into that that that ELISP file, it's probably close to 2,000 lines of just reax and parenthesis. Anybody who who actually knows anything about about uh EMAC at all, you'll know that e elisp is obnoxious when it comes to parenthesis. So sometimes you'll get to an end the end of a function and you'll just have close parenthesy 12 times, you know, it's just it's it's obnoxious. So that's kind of like that entire file there because it's just one function after another being defined and then called. Um but yeah, I I spent I I love that thing, by the way. I I talk about it like I'm ashamed of it, but I don't think I'd actually be happy with Emacs if I didn't have it. Um, so funny thing is it's just a rehash of what I did with them because I did the exact same thing with them. So, I've now done this twice.

[00:31:54]So, it's it's a thing that I actually had to do cuz I want my my editor to look like the rest of my system. So that's my my it's probably the one that I've I probably spent more time ringing and customizing Emacs than I have window managers in the last year. In fact, I know I have.

[00:32:12]>> So how many if you had to I know you have dot files somewhere on code now, right? Yeah.

[00:32:20]>> How many like would you call it fully riced window managers or what have you do you have that you go I like that one. I like that one. I like that one.

[00:32:32]>> Okay. So, I can actually read them. I have uh Hyperland uh which is old and out of date. I haven't used it very much. They're going to go to um Lua and I haven't done any of that stuff yet. Uh I have I3 which is my original i3 config that I still adore. It's so good. Um, but I don't use it as much as I used to.

[00:32:51]I have, um, let's see here. I have QL, obviously, and I have Neri. Uh, I've done a little bit of work in Neri. I haven't gotten to work very much. So, honestly, not as many as you'd think. I do actually do not have a BSPWM config in my main configs anymore. Um, I have a folder called old dots and in there I have awesome BSPWM, BS, DWM, um, Xmonad, OpenBox, um, and I think that's it. So, that those are all kind of like archived that I just don't use them anymore. Although, I watched your D BPWM video. I was like, maybe I'll have to use that again. I don't know. Anyways, uh, I think Drew, you're up next. I'm going to go with So, okay, customizations.

[00:33:44]This is a stretch because we were talking about ricing. Okay. Uh customizations in general. Can I just pull from that because I'm going to say aliases is a customization tool >> that uh I think is Yeah. I mean, I'm all about aliases and and making things easier for yourself in terms of like how to jump around in the terminal. Uh, yeah, aliases are the way to go. So, that's my new one.

[00:34:16]>> Drew, have you been creating an alias file for like years and just kind of like brought it with you or do you create a new one fairly often? No, I I decided that I was going to do that when I when I started scripting more and wanting like a more reproducible bash environment uh to actually put the docon the bash directory rather in my config um and then an aliases file and as well as keybinding file and so on and so forth. So yeah, I mean I it's easier to find that way and uh and easily much easier to um to modify so that you're you know your everything is in like one modular location.

[00:35:01]>> Yeah. What about your name? Do I How do you use your aliases?

[00:35:05]>> I I kind of have everything Well, everything's in one file for all my aliases, but I also Well, hold up.

[00:35:16]Um, >> no, no, no. This is not that right there.

[00:35:22]>> You are such a nerd.

[00:35:26]>> So, any system that I'm on, I can literally just pop this in with my USB floppy drive and get all my aliases back connected to the internet.

[00:35:35]>> I feel bad enough about myself in terms of my my self, you know, confidence and stuff. And then Nate just pulls out like I'm a bigger nerd than you are.

[00:35:47]But >> keep them all there.

[00:35:49]>> It would have been funny if you said, "Excuse me while I whip this out." But >> yeah, I am.

[00:35:55]>> For those you guys don't know, that's a Blazing Saddles reference. We can't talk about that. We also get cancelled. So, >> um, >> Nate, do you have like a do you have um like a Git or a reap uh some type of code or something like that where you just have your your like like your bash uh direct, you know? I do, but it's all private right now. I haven't really fully released them. I'm still on GitHub. I need to switch to Cobbert, but you know, >> lazy and child come on the way. Anyways, but yeah, I like to keep all my aliases.

[00:36:26]I will say the most funniest alias I do have is probably anal because I use anala and I for some reason type it wrong. Yeah, >> I have a whole section in my in my aliases where it's it's just the command backwards because I always do that. Um, so if you guys run in your terminal alias and then pipe it into WC-L, what is the number that that comes out?

[00:36:53]Just curious. For me, it's 321.

[00:36:56]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:36:58]>> That will include system aliases. So, it's not like all personal aliases, but still.

[00:37:02]>> Yeah, I'm not anywhere close. I'm only at uh 102 >> 164 actually. And there's lots of spaces and stuff. So >> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mine's going to be the same. Well, no, cuz if you just run aliases, it doesn't actually it doesn't cut out your >> I was just looking at the file. I was looking 164 lines in the file.

[00:37:19]>> Yeah. If if the alias command actually will just list all of your aliases on your on your system.

[00:37:25]>> Yeah.

[00:37:25]>> And if you pipe that in W, you see that, that'll give you all of them without the spaces. Um, but anyways, the um yeah, I my favorite one my favorite aliases are probably I don't know about favorites, but the most useful ones are the SSH ones because I could never remember an IP address to save my life and I don't want to write them down. They also change more than I need need them to. Um, but having them in so I can just write uh Jity so I can go shut the jity server down. I just type in Jity and you know it can go shut it down, right? I have the same thing for all my home lab stuff and it saves an enormous amount of time.

[00:38:02]Like, god, what is that IP address again? I'm never going to remember. Um, so yeah, those are probably my most useful one. Now, see, cuz I'm not on a real distro, my aliases are all stored in home manager. So, every time I have to add one, I have to rebuild the system in order to actually change it. But I haven't added I I don't add aliases very much anymore because that's the reason why I asked you Drew if if you had like a file that you know kind of like came along with you for over the over the years. It's kind of like a if if we were wizards we'd have a grimoire that we we carry along with us for years and pass on to our children. My the thing I'm going to pass down to my children is going to be uh my alias txt file.

[00:38:45]Merry Christmas little little Mr. Are you Z you're ZSH like exclusively?

[00:38:50]>> Yeah.

[00:38:51]>> Yeah. I stopped using mostly because of the auto suggestions and the um like the autofill and stuff like that. It just it's phenomenally much better without bash fish.

[00:39:03]>> Uh I use bash mostly.

[00:39:04]>> Yeah. Me too.

[00:39:05]>> Yeah.

[00:39:06]>> Yeah. I I was there for a long time. All right. Is it who is it your turn, Nate?

[00:39:11]>> No, I think it's Drews, ain't it? I think I just went, bro.

[00:39:14]>> I think I think it's Nathan.

[00:39:15]>> Oh, yeah. It's my turn. Let me pull up my >> Oh, actually, it might be yours, Matt.

[00:39:21]>> All right.

[00:39:21]>> I don't know.

[00:39:22]>> I did Emacs. Uh, it doesn't matter.

[00:39:26]We We got into a little bit of a of a um of tangent there. All right. So, my one thing that I put a lot of effort in actually is making sure my terminal is set up the way that I want it to. So, I've been using ZSH. So, I have that set up. I have Zoxside. I can't live without Zoxide now, guys. I I I know that a lot of people poo poo it, but just being able to just type in CD, you know, partial letters that aren't spelled correctly and it will go to the directory where you need it to go is awesome. Um, being able to return back and forth and and go to different directories no matter where you're at in the system without typing a whole path just fantastic. Um, so Zoxside and I also have like a put a little bit effort into making sure the LS replacement that I use, which is EZA, I believe now, right now, um, it actually works well and and looks nice and and is functional and stuff. So, if I were to sit down like and set up a fresh system, the first thing I would do is make sure it has scratch pads and then I get my Emac stuff ready to go. And then I would work on the terminal, make sure it has the proper proper um shell and the the applications I need in order to actually make it work uh properly. Um I too use Kitty, but I don't I love Kitty, but I'm not really attached to a terminal as much as I used to be. Like I used to be like a big termite guy.

[00:40:51]Like I I would swear by termite before it was discontinued, right? And and then elacrity for quite a while. And I and I like Kitty a lot, but I could easily use something different. What I like about Kitty is the the the key pairs of the um configuration file. I don't have to worry about Lua. I'd probably use I I'd probably use Westerm Drew, but I I I cannot stand Lua. I I I just can't. Did you start off your um your Emac journey as a like challenge, a personal challenge, a time challenge, or I forget?

[00:41:27]>> So, there's a guy on a Discord named Darth Vader. Yeah.

[00:41:31]>> And he bet me that I couldn't do it.

[00:41:35]>> Oh, well, I won the challenge cuz I'm still going. I And he he had a similar challenge. which I don't remember was I'm pretty sure it was to use the same cuz he's he's a dro hopper and I challenged him to use open soua for the same amount of time I used Emacs. He failed long long ago. Um I I I I was uh declared the winner there. But the the thing is like I didn't expect to like it. So I I'd used like DoomX for a long time before that. Not a long time but previous to that. And the challenge was to use vanilla Emacs. And I've done that. And because I started out with vanilla, it's not vanilla anymore, fellas.

[00:42:14]One of these days I'm going to do like a a line count of all my config for Emacs.

[00:42:20]It's probably in the tens of thousands.

[00:42:22]It's crazy. It's like it's a huge obnoxiously long config file. Um cuz basically what I did set out to do was recreate Vim. Like it has all the Vim motions. It does all the the markdown stuff that I needed to do, which is just a bunch of rejects in in a in a file somewhere. Um, yeah. So, okay. Uh, how do you guys have uh more in terms of customizations that you want to share?

[00:42:48]>> Been scraping the bottle after one, bro.

[00:42:51]>> The only thing Drew customizes is key bindings.

[00:42:55]>> What What did you say, Nate? I'm sorry I missed that.

[00:42:58]>> I said I have one more.

[00:42:59]>> All right, go ahead and do your next one.

[00:43:01]>> That would be theming in general. I I have to have my themes.

[00:43:05]>> So that that thing that you said was a waste of time earlier is >> Yeah, that is totally a waste of time.

[00:43:10]But I I still have to have my themes because there's sometimes I like to set it on and, you know, change up the the look of things. Sometimes I don't like the blue. Sometimes I don't like the green. It just, you know, I got to change stuff up.

[00:43:22]>> So, do you use like GTK themes that that you switch between or is that how you >> Yeah.

[00:43:27]>> Okay. What's your favorite? What's your go-to? I should say >> probably Andromeda.

[00:43:34]Even though that's a kind of a blue theme, it's really subtle. It looks really nice. And the way that I do my terminals, it works really well with that. With that being said, I also kind of like is it Everest, I believe, is the theme.

[00:43:51]>> I like that one, too.

[00:43:52]>> Do you have like an icon theme that you go to as well, or like certain icons?

[00:43:56]>> Not really. I don't really switch my icons that much. I'm curious about that question for you, Drew. Do you have a favorite color scheme?

[00:44:02]>> So, I guess the answer is GitHub dark is my favorite one because that's the one I kind of like. Goat is like my default.

[00:44:13]Um, but I have grown to appreciate like Everest. I've grown to appreciate uh Moonfly.

[00:44:24]and I've grown to appreciate um yeah, I'm gonna say Groove Box, Matt, just to make you happy. That's But I don't know that that's true.

[00:44:33]>> But let's be honest, if somebody could actually figure out how to do a Mac OS dark theme on Linux, that would be just perfect.

[00:44:42]>> The reason why, okay, so I'm going to take some [ __ ] for this, but you know, I'm going to do it anyway. When I did when I when I God, I hate You know what?

[00:44:51]I'm going to stop myself because I was about to No, you got to say it now.

[00:44:55]>> Okay. When I decided that I was going to do the the Butterbean XFCE, I remember those words coming out of your your mouth, Nate. And so I opted for the MacOss type theme for XFCE.

[00:45:16]I don't And that's the I'm that's where I'm going to stop that discussion right there. But I because I thought, "Yeah, Nate's right about that. I'm gonna try that." And I got [ __ ] for it and I'm okay with that. So >> I have as a owner of a Mac, their Dart theme is good. Sad thing is the rest of their operating system is garbage.

[00:45:35]>> Yeah. So >> No, no, no. It's not garbage. It's just soulless.

[00:45:40]>> It has no soul.

[00:45:42]>> No. I'm going to stick with what I had what I said first. It's garbage. It's It's not It's not It's not good. I will say that their auto resume upon startup is both good and also bad because it's good like if you want it to work. It's bad if it pops up, you know, after a power outage. And like Da Vinci Resolve was halfway through something and it just takes forever for the computer to actually start up again. Um, sorry.

[00:46:13]Actual experiences there. All right. But um All right. So, for me, my favorite theme is obviously Gruff Box. Um I switched to it, by the way, uh while you guys were talking. Like, it's I >> I want to know what's in second place, though, Matt, cuz I mean, everyone in the freaking world knows it's Groupbox.

[00:46:30]So, >> so you guys can't you guys can't see this, but everybody else. So, if I go into my theme switcher here, it's just a roy thing. I have I don't know 200 and some odd different layouts and color schemes. It's it's there's a ton of them.

[00:46:47]>> So I have Grubbox, Dra Dracula, Nord, Capuchin, Ever Force, Monkey, One Dark.

[00:46:52]I'm not going to read them all, but I had a ton of them, right? And um >> if I had like a second one that I use the most, it's probably something like Kanagawa or Tokyo Night. I use those quite often. I like Monachai and Ever for Grovebox is the one that I come back to the most often. The other ones kind of come through and and I go through like moods like I'll be in an Everforce mood, I'll use that for a, you know, a week off and on. Uh or I'll be in a monokai mood or whatever. Um and then there's like one called like um what what's it called?

[00:47:33]It's It's called Fluromo Fluro Machine.

[00:47:37]F L U O R M A C H I N E. It's very very um retro style. I could actually switch to it now. Um it looks like this for those anybody wants to know. It's it's purple. It's very uh neon kind of thing.

[00:47:53]And um >> isn't the the one of the popular is it Dracula or something that's like really popular?

[00:48:00]>> Yeah.

[00:48:00]>> Yeah. and purplish, >> too. Yeah, >> it's a good one. There's There's one that's kind of better. It's called Darkula, >> and it's it has most of the things other than it takes the purple background out, makes it kind of like a darker background. It's really good. Um, but anyways, there w there was a an entire episode if you guys are interested. Um, going back in like the lore of the Linux cast, Tyler and I did an entire episode on uh themes.

[00:48:32]>> Yeah. Color was that color schemes like and then you guys like um >> um >> tier ranked them or something. Yeah.

[00:48:40]>> Huh.

[00:48:40]>> It was like a tier list or something.

[00:48:42]>> Yeah, you tier listed it.

[00:48:43]>> Yeah. And there was a there was a fight.

[00:48:45]I think Tyler gave in.

[00:48:48]>> I'm sure there was because I'm sure that Gruff Box wasn't in the S tier or he didn't want it to be in the S tier or something. I don't know. It has to be there. All right. Anyways, I think we'll go ahead and and move on to the nuggies of the week, unless you guys have anything else you want to talk about in this. No. Okay.

[00:49:04]>> All right. So, the nuggies of the week are the last part of our podcast that we do every single week. basically is just discoveries that we've had or things that we want to share with you guys, apps, tips, tricks, any of that kind of stuff. And uh we share these things with with you in the nuggies of the week. So Drew, your nuggie of the week, please.

[00:49:21]>> Okay, I'm going to I'm going to say Neoam.

[00:49:28]Okay, I I know this is not going to mean anything to anybody, but here's the thing. Um I am literally the worst Neoim user maybe ever. And I uh I took it upon myself this past week to completely butcher the Neoim config that I have and start a new thing where all the key bindings and everything is exactly like Genie.

[00:49:57]And so I have transformed a a neoim configuration to be like exact not exactly but but very genies and so that when you uh start you know you have a you have a a file that you're open or and then you you hit control S to save it and control Q to quit and so on and so forth. So yeah, Neoim is my nuggie of the week. Yeah. Okay. Uh it's a fantastic little letter editor there you got, Drew.

[00:50:34]Nice discovery. All right. Uh this is my is all my fault, by the way. Uh >> yes, it is.

[00:50:40]>> Your Yeah, your your your nugie of the week.

[00:50:43]>> Mine is even better. Mine is Make MKV.

[00:50:47]>> This guy, >> as you can see, we put a lot of effort in this episode. But no, on a on a serious note, I've actually been using Make MK MKV quite a bit lately cuz uh ripping off like DVDs and Blu-rays. It is one of the best application softwares for like ripping actual Blu-rays. I've not seen anything better without having to pay, you know, like $200 something dollars for a Windows application. In our heads, Matt, we were thinking when his mate Nate said make MKV, I'm still thinking of merge uh MKV tool nicks.

[00:51:24]That's what that's because that's the one I've been using and pimping for a long time. So, yeah, Nate, you're on your own on this one.

[00:51:31]>> Yeah, you actually put effort in.

[00:51:33]>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, at the same time though, this it is one of the best.

[00:51:37]Like, if you have some media that you don't want to have actual what they call dry rot that can happen to any kind of disc, then use make MKV. It works really well.

[00:51:48]>> It is a good piece of software. All right, so here's the epitome of no of low effort. Uh, my my my nuggie of the week is Qile. And if if you wonder h has Matt used in the past as a nuggie, the answer is yes. Has he used it more than once? Also, yes. Um, several times, but this time I have a good reason. So, well, I don't have it's not a good reason. Okay, it's actually it's it's a good reason in that it fits the topic of the episode. So, um, I have slowed down on writing, but I've also gotten into Python and learned quite a bit of Python, not just because of QL, but because I've been doing some coding, right? And one of the things that I've kind of been playing around with is animations in Python. And I was I sat here and wondered, could I add animations to the Q-tile bar? And the answer to that question is yes. It is actually fairly easy. If you want to see how I did it, you can look at my files.

[00:52:48]I'm not going to go through in the Python this now, but if you're watching the video, you can actually watch the group bar, which is the workspace switcher up there in the upper right hand corner, the background of the current workspace will move and actually fly over to the next one. So, if I go to zero A, I can actually see it. So, it moves back and forth between those two things.

[00:53:13]>> And it will do that for all of them. It just kind of slides over, slides back and forth. For those of you who use way uh a a quick shelf type thing in uh in Hyperland or Neri or whatever, you're not you're not surprised by this at all.

[00:53:26]But on an X11 window manager using Python, I managed to get animations in my bar and I was quite happy with myself. So I wanted to share it. It wasn't just a troll uh to to use Q tile again. It it was actually I think it only ended up being like 27 lines long.

[00:53:46]Now you remember I it's it's a little bit of a cheat because I that's that group bar is actually a custom group bar widget. Um because by default you can't dictate colors based on workspaces with the default work group bar. So I've created my own group bar, but that's that been done ages ago. So this was just 27 lines in addition to that. Um, so probably would have been more if id had to add it to the traditional group group bar or group box. I think it's actually group box um widget, but it was easy. So I guess it was easy if you if you know a little bit of Python. So I did have to make a slight correction.

[00:54:24]>> I said dry rot. I'm thinking of in a carpenter cuz that's what I've been working with lately is wood, but it's actually called disc rot. They're two separate things.

[00:54:34]>> Yeah. Okay. So, that is the podcast for tonight. We actually did manage to make it to a whole hour, which is a shocking surprise. Um, so there's we do have a little bit of housekeeping to take care of. The first one is if you're interested in the Linux user group, we do two of those a month. The next one is a week from Thursday, I think. Um, and it will be another open mic night where we just kind of take off on whatever topic suits our fancy. We won't do a a dedicated topic, but we also do an early one, which is the second Thursday of the month at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. Uh, join us for that one if you want it to actually exist in another month. So, the last one was basically just a podcast.

[00:55:17]It was just the three of us and a couple other fellas. It was fine. We did end up doing okay. Um, but it was a little sparsely populated. Um, it might have just been the day too by and lack of advertisement on my part. Who knows? Um, but anyways, if you you're interested in Linux user group, two of those a month, make sure you join us. If you're interested, you can go to our get.linxcast.org and find the calendar for the next one there, so you kind of always know where and when and how and all that kind of stuff. So, uh, that's that. The second one, if you want to watch us live on a podcast, you can do that every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. We haven't been very good at stretching them together lately just because of things. Um, but you know, we can't help that. Every once in a while, this is going to happen, but we will work on doing that better going forward.

[00:56:05]Uh, you can watch us live 8 o'clock PM Eastern time on the Linux Cast YouTube channel. If you can't watch the live version, we do put out an edited version on Saturday evenings. That's edited by Mr. Nate. Thank at least for now until he goes and off and has himself a child.

[00:56:19]That's selfish.

[00:56:21]>> I'm not having a child. My wife is having a child.

[00:56:24]>> I'm pretty sure she's going to require your help, Nate. I'm >> Well, yeah, but still.

[00:56:28]>> I'm sorry, honey. I can't take care of the child. I have to go edit the Linux cast. I could buy diapers or a new monitor. You know, there's going to be priorities, unfortunat.

[00:56:40]But anyways, thank you, Nate, for editing for the podcast. We appreciate that. You can you can catch that on the Linux cast on Saturday evening or you can catch it on any podcaster that you prefer, including Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pockycast, all those things. If the podcaster that you choose to use offers the ability to leave a review and you are uh feeling generous, you can leave us a review. We'd be really appreciative of that. It would really help us out. We're aiming to be the best damn podcast ever. And you guys help us be better by leaving a review and letting people know how awesome we are.

[00:57:12]Just feed our egos and we will be happy about it. If you have negative things to say, you can say those things, too.

[00:57:18]>> That's what's Reddit That's what Reddit is for.

[00:57:20]>> Yeah. just pull out your inner Redditor and you can uh be as negative as you please to be. Uh anyways, that is the podcast. If you want to get in contact with us, email at the linxcast.org is the email address. Uh you if you need to contact with the guys, that's still the best way I can just forward it on if I if I need to. Uh you can find Nate on the YouTube at Natepix Techworld. Uh he does have a YouTube channel. He don't know how to use it. Um eventually he'll make another video. Um even it's just like sorry can't make videos anymore.

[00:57:57]And uh Drew he he made a video on BSPDM just recently which was awesome. And he also does some streaming every once in a while as well. So you can catch him on just the guy Linux because he's in fact uh a DR maintainer. I mean just the guy Linux.

[00:58:13]We're going to troll him till the end of time. Uh it's just going to be a thing.

[00:58:16]Um, and and if he if he does that butter kernel thing that someone suggested in the in the thing, we he needs an intervention.

[00:58:25]>> I'm waiting for the butterc >> Yeah. All right. He's going to rewrite his entire dro in Rust and we'll know we've lost him.

[00:58:35]All right. Anyways, just a guy Linux on YouTube. Make sure you catch him. I'm the Linux cast on YouTube. Subscribe, like, all that stuff. We will see you guys next Tuesday with another awesome podcast. We will see you that.