Herbstluftwm is my favorite window manager

[@donaldmickunas8552]

I can see the appeal of Herbstluft to someone into a lot of ricing. I’m more minimal with regards to ricing than I use to be. So, dwm (a WM I vowed a few years ago I would never use) is what I am using today with one plug-in. I even stripped functions from the dwm.c file because I had no need for them. So, I’m in a very different place in my computer journey. Minimal and functional is more my jam these days. Having said that, I do like the look and functionality of your system. Well done and nice video.

[@JakeLinux]

I'm not big into customization like some people are, I do a little then some and less than others, but i agree with your sentiment that minimal and functional is best.

[@jonbikaku6133]

Amazing! This is pretty much where I've ended since the last 1.5 years or so. Hopped every mainstream twm just to come down to a minimal, clean manager! Also ricing dwm is just as possible as with any other manager, mostly because a lot of stuff uses external libraries like polybar, eww etc.

[@magetaaaaaa]

One benefit to this is that you may be able to define your setup in something like Ansible or some other infrastructure as code configuration. The simpler it is the easier it can be defined in code. Easier to move around than large system images. I am pretty far from having this but see the power of it.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@magetaaaaaa I see products like Ansible as solutions for large server applications. However, for the home user, it seems like using a sledgehammer to pound in a tack. I continue to be amazed at the power of shell scripting. Yes, there is a learning curve but that would be true for any coding application. My backup and restore solution is all in scripts which I’ve built and refactored to meet my needs. The advantage for me is that I’m less exposed to the whimsical changes in big packages which can break my backup solution. I’m also not adding a lot of coding which increases my attack surface. I use snapshots locally as a fallback in case I need to restore the system. I certainly don’t include them in my backup plans. Why? My situation is far different from that of a large server farm. I don’t need to keep my computers up and running 24/7. Besides, I’ve streamlined the install process. I can reinstall the same setup in less than 2 hours which works for me. Like I said, I’m pretty minimal. I’m retired with the time to tinker as much or as little as I wish.

[@Selbstdenkender]

This made me subscribe! Btw i also like your other content. Fun fact: I never used herbstluft but now I'm hooked and in my next free time I'll start with it. People might just be intimidated by the name and go to i3 or something else. Although herbstluft being "autumn/fall air" in German with its cute tree logo is quite a catchy name imo.

[@JakeLinux]

Welcome! Thanks for the sub! Herbst is a great window manager, I can't sing it's praises enough.

[@borremoonkey]

Thanks for uploading. I've really come to enjoy Ratpoison because of your vids, and I like what I see with Herbsluftwm so I'm going to give this a try

[@JakeLinux]

I'm glad you enjoyed the videos, ratpoison is a great window manager and so is herbstluftwm. Thanks for watching,I appreciate it.

[@raphael2407]

Herbstluftwm with it's manual framesystem is the only twm that makes total sense to me. Plus, I love the name. I'm german xD

[@JakeLinux]

I gotta be honest, the name, even though I know I pronounce it incorrectly is what initially drew me to this WM.

[@pandasticus]

I forgot about this WM and I have it installed and configured haha I was spending a bit of time in Openbox and I came back to this now after seeing your video and I forgot how awesome it is. Herbstluft and Ratpoison are the only tiling WMs that come naturally to me, I just prefer manual tiling it seems.

[@JakeLinux]

I love ratpoison, need to update my videos on that one too

[@WildVoltorb]

Double borders! That's exactly what I was looking for on a tiling window manager! That's so overlooked by the others, but it really makes the difference. Sometimes it's hard to see which window is active against the wallpaper. Might give hurbsluft a try. Thanks for the review!

[@JakeLinux]

I like the double borders as well. Great for customization

[@furredBird]

@@JakeLinux did you configure it to have the stuff in the video?

[@JakeLinux]

@@furredBird I did configure it, still need to tweak a few things but am happy overall with the way it turned out.

[@furredBird]

@@JakeLinux nice. also question. i cant find very much on shortcuts so how do i access my applications on the wm?

[@LinkEX]

Seconded - both regarding the double border feature, as well as the review. I was sold at 8:58 when I saw that stacked windows could even be marked separately from tiled windows. Simple, elegant, effective.

[@LinkEX]

I just looked into Herbstluft again thanks to your nice hands-on demonstrations with your own changes. I always end up going back to KDE since it's just so incredibly customizable. E.g. setting window positions for individual programs, as well as launching them on startup. But the complexity can also be its detriment when the changes are hidden so deep within the menu, and fiddling around can easily result in forgetting where I changed something. If Herbstluft can also define custom behavior for particular programs (e.g. a predefined screen position or desktop to show with other programs), I'm eager to switch.

[@JakeLinux]

There is so much you.can do with HLWM, I have not even scratched the surface.

[@magetaaaaaa]

I had used Gnome for a long time and tried KDE. It seems like some of the styles stayed and I don't know where they are now because of the exact problem you described - too many menus, too many places to change things. Gnome has the opposite problem - it's not very customizable without the extra Gnome-tweaks package.

[@bhavyakukkar]

herbstluft can define custom behavior for particular programs using rules that get triggered for window title names/class names (based on plain or regex match) which can then assign attributes like tag (what desktop it opens in), floating ('on' if it should float by default and not tile) and floating_geometry (precise coordinates of the window rectangle). I don't think herbstluft will remember the position a program was in before being closed, but it wouldn't be too difficult to script that behavior, someone possibly already has. if not, I might do it

[@InterDimensionalOwl]

Hi, I am new to the channel. I have been using i3 (and tiling window managers) for a few months now; I really enjoy using tiling WM and couldn't go back to a DE. Your demo of Herbstluftwm is impressive, so many little details and features I have trying to emulate in i3. The config file is logical and readable. Plus it looks fantastic :) I will be looking for an install/ricing guide and will give it a try. Are there any decent distros that offer a pre-configured Herbstluftwm to test it out? Thanks for sharing. Edit: sorry just noticed this video is 11 months old, sorry for the late comment.

[@JakeLinux]

No sweat, welcome to the channel. I know that you can get herbstluftwm pre installed and configured on arco Linux. I also have a script (I'm reworking it at the moment so it is in maintenance mode at the moment, but will be available again soon) that will install a preconfigured version of herbstluftwm on void(glibc, not musl) or arch based system.

[@InterDimensionalOwl]

@@JakeLinux Thanks. I will keep an eye out for your updated script, I think it would be cool to try Void and Herbstluftwm.

[@borremoonkey]

was there anything extra you had to setup for Herbstluftwm on Void Linux? I set it up on my openSUSE Tumbleweed drive and it was working great. I installed the package on Void and pretty much followed the exact same steps and configuration yet when I log in, its a black screen with only my mouse cursor working..no keybinds work

[@JakeLinux]

Nothing I recall, just installed herbstluftwm and built my configuration.

[@thenextpoetician6328]

The herbster. Lots to love very little to dislike, and less popular than it deserves.

[@JakeLinux]

Agreed

[@TheInfinityReaper]

First off, great video, glad to see you making more videos on HerbstluftWM again. The configuration looks pretty great, a lot of functionality that I also use in my i3 setup, the way it handles themes is pretty neat too. I've been interested in HerbstluftWM for a while now, and thinking whether or not to give it a try. One question as someone who's not so familiar with it; as you mentioned its configuration file is essentially a bash script, is it necessary for it to be bash, as in using bashisms, or could it also run as a normal shell script and be run in a different shell, for example 'dash'?

[@JakeLinux]

Thank you, I would have to look into that, I know it has great documentation so you could check there. Did you remove bash from your system?

[@N0zer0]

you can use any language for the configuration file, not just bash, but dash, lua, python, awk, perl, whatever. Just use a different shebang like #!/bin/blahblah. Also note, that you don't have to use bashisms in Bash, it's compatible with POSIX shell too.

[@TheInfinityReaper]

Thanks for the reply, checking the documentation is a good idea! And no, I have not removed bash from my system, I was just curious if I could run the config in a different she'll, I read that dash is faster and lighter, so I was wondering if that was an option :)

[@TheInfinityReaper]

Thank you for your response and for answering my question, that is really good to know. Do you know of any examples to take a look at?

[@nsavch]

wow double borders is a really nice feature, thanks for showing it

[@JakeLinux]

You're welcome, thanks for watching.

[@mrkrud]

very nice dotfiles! just happened to choose Herbstluft on a whim as my first tiling WM when I tried arcolinux. I keep feeling drawn back to it after trying out so many others. HL might well be home for me. I find I don't need so many options as I used to. Don't need all that updating like with arch so maybe time to try it on some minimal debian build

[@JakeLinux]

It is my go to at the moment, I have found Qtile to be quite good as well lately so I have been switching back and forth between the two.

[@scottb4029]

I took your advice on looking at herbstluftwm again. I am a convert i3 was fun and a great starter wm , but herbstluftwm is my next step. I find the keybindings to be intuitive. I have gotten reasonably good at bash and am excited to the possibility of writing some stuff for lemonbar and other apps. I also downloaded void on one of my phones, to give a peek. Currently I am discovering alpine Linux for my mobile equipment. Jake, what do feel are the best features of void linux?

[@JakeLinux]

That's awesome, Herbst is a great WM. The features that keep me on Void are: 1: runit, this is much easier to use than sysd in my opinion, I don't get the errors or issues that I frequently had using systemd, it is also lightening fast at boot. 2: XBPS and Void.src pkgs, there are tons of packages in the repo and void.src is akin to the aur just not as big. 3: stability in a rolling release, I came from arch which gave me few issues, but it did have an occasional "crash", void has not failed me once.

[@magetaaaaaa]

I have never used a window manager before. The configuration files almost remind me of writing CSS or something, where you are defining the look and feel in code.

[@JakeLinux]

That is one of the perks of a stand alone window manager, you get to make it look and feel how you like.

[@bhavyakukkar]

some applications that are used often with window managers are even literally styled with CSS! (aside from GTK and QT themes that have always used CSS) Example: waybar

[@kriansa]

Herbstluftwm is the main reason I don't migrate to wayland. The manual frame system is everything I ever wanted without knowing it existed.

[@JakeLinux]

Agreed, I am doing an Artix setup and told myself I was going to try a different window manager, keep fighting the urge to just install my herbst setup and call it good.

[@Zellonous]

It's 2022 and people still can't migrate to Wayland because it's still basically beta. 14 yo. Soon it will be as old as x was when everyone decided X needed a replacement.

[@kriansa]

@@Zellonous yes it's true, but it's slow bc the entire ecosystem have to migrate as well. as many open source projects lacks funding, it's a naturally slow progress. Big and better funded projects are already there, namely kde and gnome, but indie wms such as hlwm have no motivation to migrate, unfortunately

[@torsten.breswald]

ah herbstluftwm is so great, except some really exotic features it can pretty much do what all other window managers can do at the same time, if you wanted to you could simulate any other window manager with its behaviour out there ... on the fly when you have lots of freetime, you might wanna test my setup by catching my dotfiles, maybe in a vm to not brick your own stuff, you know. the pywal powered theme + wallpaper switcher you probably will like, the lack of vim controls maybe not :) the layout manager is pretty much like yours

[@JakeLinux]

I have perused your dotfiles and have been thinking of doing just that, in a VM of course.

[@lucastavares3518]

I can't get over how good this wm is just stumpwm got close to it

[@JakeLinux]

It is highly underrated

[@JakeLinux]

Never got stump to work right on my system, have put it on the shelf for now, someday I will try it again

[@pivad1388]

what's that menu that's popping up? is that rofi? or something baked in Herbstluft

[@JakeLinux]

Those are my personal creations made using fzf.

[@pivad1388]

@@JakeLinux they look really great, damn.

[@JakeLinux]

@@pivad1388 thank you, I appreciate that.

[@callisoncaffrey]

Herbst - The 'er' should sound like the "er" in "heretic" or the "ar" in "Paris". Luft - like the "Lou" in "Louis C. K..". Yours is almost there I'd say. You probably know it's German and means autumn air. I've never heard of the window manager though. Looks nice. I prefer Openbox, because I just need something to draw windows now and then. The split thing I do too though, but in tmux.

[@JakeLinux]

I know quite a few people who use openbox, I tried it one time and could not get used to it, maybe I will give it another go and see what happens.

[@callisoncaffrey]

@@JakeLinux I'm not trying to convert you. If you like your autumn air windows by all means. Though you've written something similar beneath where I said I prefer OpenBSD, which makes both comments now just seem insincere. Well, if it works for you, I guess. But I doubt you'll be hearing from me again. Best of luck though.

[@JakeLinux]

@@callisoncaffrey nothing insincere about either comment, I have a second laptop that I like trying different distros and operating systems on and if you could see my daily driver you would see I have about 8 window managers installed. I use certain ones but like to try them all, as much as is possible.

[@callisoncaffrey]

@@JakeLinux Still seems fishy. If you have tried openbox and it wasn't for you, why say you would again if I haven't even remotely claimed it's better in any way? I'm also not all that invested in this. You were recommended twice by the algorithm. So I guess if you get recommended again, I'll see what you have to offer, but I'm not convinced you aren't following the public relation handbook to a tee.

[@JakeLinux]

@@callisoncaffrey well, thanks for watching as long as you did, if you feel I'm insincere, ok, that's your call, but I am always willing to give programs another look, they are constantly changing. Thanks again for watching and for your input, despite what you may think, I do appreciate it.

[@idjdbrvvskambvvv9007]

those scripts are goldddd

[@JakeLinux]

Thanks

[@KizukiKotataki]

Is it possible to swap frames in hlwm? i dont think it's possible though

[@JakeLinux]

Herbstclient shift will swap open frames

[@KizukiKotataki]

@@JakeLinux That moves the current window app to another frame. Not necessarily swapping two frames arrangement in the monitor.

[@JakeLinux]

@@KizukiKotataki I guess I'm not sure what you are asking for then.

[@KizukiKotataki]

@@JakeLinux It's when you split the screen. For example, you split it horizontally and then vertically so you get a total for 3 frames: left, top right, and bottom right. Then you swap top right and bottom right frames.

[@uuu12343]

I used to use herbstluftwm during my phase of window manager hopping However, I've been jumping between bspwm and herbstluftwm after discovering bspwm and I'm more of a fan of bspwm's style of minimalism and letting me use sxhkd for keybindings instead of the custom config With that said, herbstluftwm had the better window management movement, so I kinda miss that I might give herbstluftwm a shot again because bspwm's master-less movement being restricted to just left, right, up and down is kinda annoying

[@JakeLinux]

I never got the love for bspwm, it never really impressed me like it did others. But hey, to each his own.

[@uuu12343]

@@JakeLinux Yeah, I get what you mean I think what got me with bspwm was (ironically) the lack of a built-in bar, the usage of sxhkd and the bspc for more robust customizable But this is also found in berrywm, so it's not a concept that's solely with bspwm I'd say, more like I haven't explored widely enough

[@torsten.breswald]

actully you could parse the sxhkd config and feed that into a bash script and source it within the herbstluftwm autostart

[@derek123wil0]

Go back to Herbstluft. Use it with sxhkd and herbstluftwm-client command.

[@larsthomasdenstad9082]

Looks good. I like tiling wms, but it's been a while since I ran Linux on the desktop.

[@JakeLinux]

Thank you, what do you run currently?

[@larsthomasdenstad9082]

@@JakeLinux Oh, I just use WSL and Alpine Linux in k8s. I use Windows on the desktop. :) Sorry! :D

[@JakeLinux]

@@larsthomasdenstad9082 whatever works for you, I got no issues with that.

[@B1ADE99]

Not too many good content creators anymore everyone this is a rare sight

[@JakeLinux]

Thank you

[@thexavier666]

What would you say the best reason to choose herbstluft over bspwm?

[@JakeLinux]

I would have to say the sanity of HLWM over BSPWM. Things are a little more straight forward on HLWM. At least to my brain. BSPWM is a good window manager, very similar to HLWM, but given the choice it is Herbst everyday in my book

[@glidersuzuki5572]

Same here bro. It's sad that it doesn't support wayland. Honestly, that's the only thing that's keeping me from jumping to wayland

[@JakeLinux]

I have not messed with anything Wayland, I have a request to check out hyprland so that will probably be my first experience with it, see what all the fuss is about.

[@glidersuzuki5572]

@@JakeLinux I think the closest thing to hlwm, in wayland, is sway becuz i3, hlwm and sway are all manual tilers and have stacking mode. (Windows on top of each other in a tile)

[@JakeLinux]

@@glidersuzuki5572 sway is gaining steam in the popularity dept, I need to check it out too.

[@VioletJewel1729]

You could patch dwm to have the herbbstbstsltlsustft borders. Also, most window managers are just too much for me. I like simplicity because "limitations" foster creativity (for me). By limitations I don't mean detrimental limitations. Rather, I mean "inability to perform extremely complex management that I rarely - if ever - use because 70% of the time I have one window open per workspace and 29% of the time I have 2 windows open". Of course, I love the creativity and beauty of others' setups, but I guess that's just who I am, and I thought I would share my workflow. I use a slightly patched dwm that I pull/rebase every few months, and it's just really simple and fast. And then I have a very patched st and use tabbed where a new window starts in the PWD of current program. I find I almost never more than 2 windows per tag/workspace, and I like the dwm functionality and simplicity.

[@JakeLinux]

I love dwm, it is one of my favorites when I just want to play around, I build it over and over with different patches, minimal patches, as many patches as I can, whatever I feel like doing.

[@elmariachi5133]

When VIM is not painful enough ..

[@JakeLinux]

Are you saying herbstluftwm is painful to use? I think it's got to be one of the easiest ones to use.

[@elmariachi5133]

@@JakeLinux LoL, I don't know, because honestly I swapped the video .. I watched a video about 'ratpoison wm' in parallel and this comment was meant to be there xD

[@JakeLinux]

@@elmariachi5133 that I understand, although info like ratpoison as well.

[@StrelokRadist]

Could you suppress the sibilants? It will be easier to listen.

[@JakeLinux]

Will do what I can.

[@Little-bird-told-me]

If you are theming person, perhaps your should try _leftwm_

[@JakeLinux]

Not huge on theming but I have had a request to use leftwm on my new Artix setup and create my own theme, so that may happen.

[@Little-bird-told-me]

@@JakeLinux Bravo ! Meanwhile, have you tried Spectrwm ? any thought appreciated as I am tying to decide between herbs and Spectr

[@JakeLinux]

I have used spectrum, it is a good WM, between Herbst and spectrwm I would have to say I would choose herbst

[@Little-bird-told-me]

@@JakeLinux thanks. cheers.

[@itsfish8672]

GVJ.

[@JakeLinux]

TY

[@nathanruben3372]

Such a disturbing name, I can not pronounce it, I can not type it, I always type wrong and can not find shit.

[@JakeLinux]

The name is definitely different, but it is just German, so I guess it is normal for them.

[@nathanruben3372]

@@JakeLinux Typical German. Overly and unnecessary complex.

[@MoreChannelNoise]

it's not, your fooling yourself, stop living in a fantasy world and get a grip, lol, just kidding

[@JakeLinux]

But I like my fantasy world, everyone is my friend here.

[@MoreChannelNoise]

@@JakeLinux yeah, I guess fantasy worlds are the best.

[@JakeLinux]

@@MoreChannelNoise sometimes they are for sure.

[@DotLevine]

omgooodness I may have to switch from xmonad 😍

[@JakeLinux]

I love xmonad, I used it for a long time, but Herbst finally overtook it, I still boot into xmonad on occasion but Herbst is home.