Dwm, Suckless, Simple, yet Powerful 👍

In this video I discuss the Suckless's DWM (dynamic window manager) I show you how to install it, and cover the basics of how to use it. You can download DWM from suckless's website linked below
dwm.suckless.org/
Some reasons to use DWM from the Suckless website
dwm has no Lua integration, no 9P support, no shell-based configuration, no remote control, and comes without any additional tools, such as for printing the selection or warping the mouse.
dwm is only a single binary, and its source code is intended to never exceed 2000 SLOC.
dwm doesn't distinguish between layers: there is no floating or tiled layer. Whether or not the clients of currently selected tag(s) are in tiled layout, you can rearrange them on the fly. Popup and fixed-size windows are always floating, however.
dwm is customized through editing its source code, which makes it extremely fast and secure - it does not process any input data which isn't known at compile time, except window titles and status text read from the root window's name. You don't have to learn Lua/sh/ruby or some weird configuration file format (like X resource files), beside C, to customize it for your needs: you only have to learn C (at least in order to edit the header file).
Because dwm is customized through editing its source code, it's pointless to make binary packages of it. This keeps its userbase small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions. There are some distributions that provide binary packages though.
dwm reads from the root window's name to print arbitrary status text (like the date, load, battery charge). That's much simpler than larsremote, wmiir and what not...
dwm creates a view for each Xinerama screen.
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[@spencer2443]

Operating systems don't support C, C support operating systems!

[@adrulb]

Operating systems don't support C C doesn't support operating systems A C compiler supports operating systems

[@amalldekan1432]

@@adrulb ah yes the floor is made of floor

[@abhinavchavali1443]

@Nelson Dariel I used Instaportal. Much better than InstaPwn

[@encycl07pedia-]

C supports*

[@cianmoriarty7345]

@@adrulb it's both. The operating system at least as far as a user space application written is concerned is the kernel and the C library which wraps around it and the compiler. Yet all of that is written in C. Including the compiler which compiles all of it, including itself... this seems a circular and incredibly unsatisfactory answer, but it's actually how it works, and is called "self hosting". But the thing that solves the chicken and the egg problem the _original_ C compilers and compilers were far simpler and were written using a bit of assembler, and then a compiler that accepted the same language was then written in C. And then that made it far easier to extend the language and far easier to build better kernels and utilities and libraries and so forth until we have what you might think of as the "full C and Unix experience". But remember the standard C library, stdio and all that didn't even exist until *Version 7* of Unix! And not only that I believe in the start Unix was written not in C but B before they did a complete rewrite.

[@benjaminsteenhoek3842]

SLOC = Significant Lines Of Code i.e. no comments or “just braces”. Appreciate the overview!

[@MentalOutlaw]

ah, that makes alot more sense.

They should really switch it to just counting the semicolons. It's almost as good as SLOC, but it has the advantage of being trivially easy to count and no complicated definitions of what is “significant”. It also does not incentivise ugly code that just puts multiple statements on a single line.

[@Winnetou17]

@ But that would not count ifs and fors and whiles. And sometimes there's significant work done there.

[@zionlee1004]

@ i can also have a block of semi-colons like around 5 million semi-colons and it also wouldn't work

[@Maric18]

@@zionlee1004 any metric can be gamed

[@elosant2061]

The C pool, I c what you did there lol

[@Gornius]

Less is more. I used like 3 window managers before DWM and just DWM gave me what I wanted. Other WMs gave me headaches with their default behavior, so I had to look for workarounds, but suckless way makes it easier to actually make it your own, because you don't have to deal with that stuff and by default - thanks to the fact that it's REALLY minimalistic - it's easy to understand.

[@KingZero69]

love your vids... keep up the good work

[@MentalOutlaw]

Glad you like them!

[@stabby4574]

Wow 52 mb of ram. That's something. Might have to switch from arch to Gentoo soon

[@bayramkazk5112]

@Ali Burak really?

[@toby3084]

@Ali Burak breathing is bloat too don’t forget that

[@toby3084]

@Ali Burak I need to try a custom kernel but yeah honestly having a pc is bloat I write code on paper

[@toby3084]

@Ali Burak yeah, but you get used to it.

[@petrifiedoak]

You could try atix with openrc

[@pullrequest1481]

I'm using arch and dwm flawlessly, i just love it than ever.❤

[@mynameisearlb]

Just installed SXMO on my pinephone as my daily and was looking at how to install patches. Halfway through the patch video I've decided that i need this on my desktop. Especially after you mentioned the C part. I've been learning C for two weeks (first programming language) and that had me sold. Hell, all i ever even do on my computer is use vim in a terminal session, with a few plugins installed, and have a KZbin video open to study how to do something specific in C. That fake fullscreen patch will save me tons of time.

[@anonymousperson45152]

Best explanation I have ever seen bro. Thank you a lot!

[@badwolf8112]

less lines of code doesn't necessarily make programs use less memory or be faster. using less memory is also not necessarily something that increases speed.

[@guisampaio2008]

But it might help.

[@sullivan3503]

2+2=4. 3*7=21. Oh sorry, I thought we were stating obvious facts.

[@theottomanfbiagency]

@@sullivan3503 well, yeah, less lines can be more efficient, its more about what those lines DO rather than what the actual number of them is, just like how there isnt much syntax difference between certain unsafe functions and safe functions in C. again, its what the code does rather than how much there is but dwm is pretty lightweight anyway, so both sides kind of loose

[@mustangrt8866]

but do u have 3D sprites in the code?

[@camwha5904]

glow in the dark intensifies

[@RedVRCC]

All hail templeOS.

[@SFSAtlas]

I started using DWM and it's nice

[@npc2071]

I literally know nothing about C or programming and have no idea why i installed void and dwm

[@ropersonline]

It annoys me that many WMs/DEs no longer let you mouse over all the way to the right edge of your screen to click/drag scrollbars. They put one of more columns of pixels between the actual edge and the scrollbars of maximised windows. So now you've got to specifically target the scrollbar instead of just moving to the edge. Does dwm support, or have existing patches that support scrollbars at the very edge?

[@kompicf]

you can set window border to 0 pixels if you want to do this

[@n0kodoko143]

Taking the plunge this week. You, Luke S, Distrotube, Wolfgang, Kai, Brodie (the list continues) have beaten me into submission. TRUTH about how things being diluted for accessibility sake has ruined too many things that I have loved in the passed.

[@armynyus9123]

Yes, these are about the list of people who DOS-ed my computing life last year, away from a perfectly configured OSX setup, finetuned over the course of 15 years or so... Now I'm on DWM and ST and yes, even SURF, on my MBP. I'm free now, I guess... ;-)

[@ILovePancakes24]

@@armynyus9123 you still have a mbp, making you a normie. How does it feel to have cucked hardware. I bet you drink starbucks and vote Democrat.

[@armynyus9123]

@@ILovePancakes24 Lol, c'mon, the hardware is ok, last good MBP, 2015 model, dropped many times, never broke. Last guy in the company with such an old computer, which I find cool because I own both. Ups am I in defense mode? Guess I'm replying only to tell you: Trump imho played a nasty role in this whole plot towards socialism / totalitarism - namely that of 'being like Trump', turning left wing softies off anything he said he stood for, e.g. climate alarm crap or how to handle flu.

[@nagitokomaeda3237]

@@armynyus9123 Towards socialism? Trump seems quite right-wing.

[@armynyus9123]

@@nagitokomaeda3237 Yes, my claim was: He played a role. 3D chess. The "white old man" who the MSM portraied as unpredictable, hateful, lying all the time. He sayed and partially did the right things, but with the wrong arguments. He was the hate figure of lefties who refused anything he sayed or did as unacceptable only because it was said or done by Trump. Example: His arguments against Co2 induced climate change. The real arguments he never brought forward. With him as spokesman for critisism it became impossible to talk with leftist guy about the scientific arguments, they refused to even listen, in fear of being in line with Trump, their hate figure number one.

[@connormichalec]

Awesome video, after a couple months of dealing with kde's bugginess, I'm switching to dwm

[@just__khang]

I was on the same boat too. My first exposure to linux was kde. While it had a lot of functionality, it is buggy with the desktop itself. Havent had any since switching to dwm

[@copper4eva]

12:05 Good lord that memory usage (or lack thereof). I guess that's what you get by installing gentoo? I'm an Arch user here, and thinking about getting into gentoo for potential performance gains, and using runit (although I could use artix for that).

[@MentalOutlaw]

You'll definitely get better performance with gentoo, but you're going to have to figure out what optimizations work best for you and conpile your packages accordingly. If you have a second pc or a pc strong enough to run multi core VMs i strongly recommend using that to figure out the majority of tweaks you have to make before installing to hardware

[@yadtahir9443]

I was an Arch user for two years and I switched to Gentoo last year. From my perspective, performance gain is 5% at most if you are lucky. Frankly, it is not worth it, especially if you have a new buffed-up processor. However, I would say Gentoo learns from Linux philosophy greatly by giving FREEDOM. The power of choice is superb and I enjoy it immensely.

[@iandonaldson56]

I used Gentoo for about a year before switching back to Arch. I loved it except it was a pain in the ass at times. The main reason i switched back to Arch is because I needed Genymotion to work with Android Studio and Virtualbox for a school assignment. There was a version conflict with Genymotion and Virtualbox, and I didn't have the time to mess around with it so i did the quicker solution, which was switch back :( In hindsight I probably could have just used the most recent binary version of virtualbox or built it and its dependencies manually from source, but whatever. I miss portage sometimes lol

[@paultidwell8799]

Thank you so much.

[@combatjeyj6234]

I didn't think i would end up listening to a history lesson about a Master and his slaves wresting for space on the screen

[@Celdrith]

Bruh

[@deathfromthekrypt]

golden channel

[@Matt-pc9vw]

Mind sharing whatever you used to make the topbar show the name of the file you have open instead of just the terminal name?

[@Maric18]

"its not worth it to lower the standards so that stupider people can use it" i heartily disagree, there should always be something that is easy, preconfigured, and dumbed down as far as possible, while still being secure and generally good, for people who don't have the time, energy or interest to put the time in. I dont think ALL programs/projects should do that, but by your logic people who cannot cook something, should not eat it, people should not wear what they did not weave, people who cannot build their car from parts should not own one and people who do not understand all of the financial market and tax structure of their country, with all the loopholes and so on should not be allowed to own property. Humans specialize. There should be things made by specialized people for those that do not specialize into their field. There absolutely should also be things where you can bring your full specialization to bear without having to wait for the slow ones, but that elitism goes a bit far, i think.

[@Coffeeratgaming]

honestly i think your miss what his point actually is and that on basis that making somthing directly noob friendly but limited certain feature or just never adding them can be annoy for more adavnced uses but this doesn't mean more appropriately noob friednly program shouldnt exist but wouldnt say every should be aiming create noob friendly program over a feature rich

[@eac-ox2ly]

I came here to comment exactly this.

[@ISAK.M]

In my humble elitist opinion I just think that understanding things is vital to use them. So if u r too stupid then u just cant use it. To me its just odd why any1 would do something they dont know anything about.

[@Maric18]

@@ISAK.M do you own/operate a car, do you pay taxes, do you buy food from restaurants, do you read books? some stuff obviously requires some training, like a drivers license for a car, but you dont need to know how every single thing in your car works. How much do you know about editing and publishing a book, hell how much do you know about running a youtube channel or the youtube server/caching infrastructure and all the AI projects... yet here you are, commenting on youtube, probably without understanding googles NLP AI fully. Lets face it, things have a user end for a reason. Something where you only need to know the bare minimum to be able to use it. In my original comment i said that there should absolutely be an "expert" option where people that know a lot can do a lot, but if you build things for other people to use, there should be some defaults that work.

[@felixisme]

​@@ISAK.M it's really humbling how you set up and developed your own version of KZbin to learn how the platform really works before coming here to contribute, I strive to be like you one day.

[@harrikah]

Its available in the archlinux AUR

[@usersomeone58]

i can dwm in void and alpine withiut compiling man i can even get dwl on alpime if enable testing repos

[@IceQub3]

whats common to Apollo rockets and DWM?

[@einzman7298]

If stupid people can't ask stupid question then there will never be smart person

[@bravefastrabbit770]

4:00 *World of Warcraft: Cataclysm LFR* checkin' in

[@osobowoscrealistyczna2852]

Can DWM be used in FreeBSD?

[@ichaa3tech]

Have u tried bspwm its my favorite window manager . but definetly gonna try dwm in the future

[@cunjoz]

let's all just love Lain. that's the path to happiness.

[@ichaa3tech]

@@cunjoz for surr

[@majorgamerjay5221]

lets all love lain

[@kaibauer-derrick8068]

I saw dwm on windows, and thought it was this dwm. Funny thing... Imagine Windows 10 using foss...

[@miscstuf]

Nice content! How did you change the screen resolution?

[@whyunosubcribe433]

I think he was using a VM for part of it.

[@KamilUrbanskiStudio]

You can just change your xorg config and modify the resolution you want

[@KamilUrbanskiStudio]

Or use xrandr

[@drumF_4200]

with xrandr, you find your display output and supported screen resolutions

[@OmegaMusicYT]

You are actually Luke Smith

[@rafainfernal]

What is the background color of your terminal? Any links to your config?

[@just__khang]

I think it is #282828. It is a reallt popular color for not super contrast appearance.

[@bettercalldelta]

i used the firefox color picker tool and it says "#1d1f20"

[@VidarrKerr]

What happens when Wayland is everywhere, migrating over to dwl? I am about to install and run dwl. I don't have high expectations, but I am optimistic.

[@dougtilaran3496]

Wayland ? You'll be too old to type before that crap is "everywhere"

[@VidarrKerr]

@@dougtilaran3496 LOL. Yeah.

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

It's already here ​@@dougtilaran3496

[@MrDeejayjfx]

what about the dwm status bar?

[@nnywadd]

@@bruno-zc1jo did you call based black man "it"? Saged and reported.

[@joaopauloalbq]

So you don't really use Gentoo and dwm?

[@ahmadj1064]

Yeah he uses it in a VM

[@alexestefan7521]

What are the shortcuts for his GitHub rice?

[@xrafter]

👍

[@boredstudent9468]

Fedora had dwm as binary, using the dwm-user helper tool, which checkes for changes and recompiles on login if necessary. But in Version 32 it's not (yet) available anymore.

[@michaelplaczek9385]

It's available in apt-src

[@legkamran]

Just use tmux... Mostly tiling wm using for terminals... Why need remember so much keybindings? Floating wms more user friendly for me, I hate when application openning full screen by default... And I am not using statusbar... Created dmenu script as statusbar... İts showing me brightness,RAM usage,Volume and etc. ... I am using JWM and DWM both, but DWMonly for its easy to set multi-monitor than JWM... Dmenu is gift for every *nix user :) Thanks for video!

[@aedd3307]

Why not use dvtm instead of tmux? it's tmux but with more sane defaults and similar to dwm.

[@legkamran]

I will try it... I like tmux's attach I can continue everything different tty...

[@aedd3307]

@@legkamran dvtm is only a terminal multiplexer, it leaves these attaching feautures to be taken care of by another program called abduco, it's all in the man page.

[@legkamran]

@@aedd3307 I just check it... abduco is fucking cool! but dvtm cant highlight my vim :( I am finding a way to support 256 colors... but if we look which is better I am still thinging tmux doing it better...

[@legkamran]

@@aedd3307 nevermind :P A_STANDOUT solved... it must be by default by the way...

[@fojico1234]

“keeping stupid people away” is a bad attitude and makes me hate that I’m about to use this DWM now.

[@magnusanderson6681]

Thats the way he's phrasing it, but the real attitude is probably, "I'm too lazy to make this easy to use, and that is a good thing because it keeps it as small as possible"

[@fojico1234]

@@magnusanderson6681 Of course this phrase doesn't tell anything about him and it's not important.

[@tylermurphy2231]

i mean sure he phrases like that but in realy its more of about having people who actually willing to read the manual

[@nelduarte311]

@@tylermurphy2231 How can I read a manual after read a phrase like this one?...

[@carlosvaladao]

I wanna a WM that doesnt need X base. Is there?

[@some_random_pog]

sway is the most popular. there are others which i have not heard of, check out arch wiki

[@just__khang]

dwm has a fork based off wayland. I never use it so I cannot say how good it is.

[@fgclue]

i was gonna watch this but windows decided to say u gotta update (feel free to call me dumb for using windows 11)

[@ohdude6643]

Master-slave terminology... Oh my...

[@zuaipel-ck3694]

What about c++

[@just__khang]

suckless people hates c++ and likes c. They are puritans.

[@lolocomotive8553]

dwm is the window manager of windows lmao

[@Skythedragon]

How did you manage to only use 52 mb of ram?

[@ligayadelapacion4164]

By using arch

[@Skythedragon]

@@ligayadelapacion4164 How? My arch install hogs up a good 400mb, no x11, while my gentoo one only takes 70mb, no x11

[@ligayadelapacion4164]

@@Skythedragon its a joke lol. Gentoo is the most efficient linux os so far so im just joking because people think arch is the best while gentoo is much better.

[@modables]

@@ligayadelapacion4164 what about void

[@enrott8560]

dwm... the only thing where you download it like your on windows... but on gentoo

[@neroprojekt]

Meanwhile: Its in APT and PACMAN :) but just Compile out off GIT to have the actual version

[@michgingras]

wow, you are saying that DWM is not for stupid people, that is a very smart thing to say, we all respect more for this !

[@tsunamio7750]

You read dwm, I read dum. dum dum :DDDDDD Me smart'

[@empress6470]

when u read it as dum. u just cant stop.

[@meanmole3212]

Can you play duun on it?

[@eygs493]

i like your channel

[@maxemore]

In my ideal world, every program has a basic mode for the "normies" (that word is stupid) and an advanced mode that's hidden by default. This way it sells to everyone (larger userbase = more money) and it satisfies the fine-tuning needs of more adept users.

[@Xumatro]

Seems nice but I like bspwm too much :)

[@MentalOutlaw]

I haven't tried that WM yet, what do you like most about it?

[@Xumatro]

@@MentalOutlaw First: it's just the WM no bar or other things I don't need, I'll end up installing my own (polybar) anyway. Second: It's very easy to configure plus it's bash scriptable, in fact, it's config file is a bash script. Third: bspc gives you the chance to change things without editing a configuration and can be used with sxhkd (hotkey deamon). And last: it has very good multi monitor support.

[@dependencyonlove8751]

dwm is in apt-get. Just tried it.

[@bioemiliano]

A week ago my computer with Manjaro broke, so I said "Fuck it, let's finally go for a SO that I can control more" and installed arch with i3. Then, my computer died again. Now I installed again in another computer and fucking i3-gaps won't even read the damn config file, there's no shortcuts cause of that, so, unusable. I wil try if I can configure and use dwm.

[@just__khang]

How's going? If configuring is too difficult then you can find people already configured stuff.

[@bioemiliano]

@@just__khang I used it for a week or so and my computer imploded again. After a lot of procastination I'm installing again

[@not_herobrine3752]

@@bioemiliano its been two more weeks, have you installed dwm again yet?

[@kurdm1482]

Did you do it, after 2 year

[@danielokita2539]

xmonad tho, does the same this just in a better language

[@tuzu3953]

dwm is in apt

[@ixp8605]

dwm = small boi

[@clark985]

sorry

[@clark985]

I'm sorry

[@clark985]

That was an accident

[@rustprogrammer]

Black man says slave. Proof that changing master branch to main doesn’t matter.

[@domsch1302]

I had that discussion with my sister some time back. The point is: For many people it doesn't matter at all. But for some it does. For those using the term Master/Slave it's a minor inconvenience to switch to using Main/anything else. But for some people it means a lot to see those terms gone. I'm also firmly in the "you're to sensitive" camp on that. But it's no inconvenience for me to just say Main instead of Master, and in return i don't hurt some people. Fair tradeoff in my book.

[@Mbeluba]

@@domsch1302 it's about not accepting the ridiculous way of thinking that makes people upset about it and not letting them influence your behaviour. You shouldn't yield to nonsense, not even the inconsequential nonsense.

[@Lmao-ke9lq]

@@domsch1302 when you're gonna accent these stupid analogies, they'll bring more stupid things to do and at the end its gonna be illigal to even say these words. Never give up before stupidity/censorship

[@meanmole3212]

@@domsch1302 For many people it does not matter, but for someone like me it means a lot if people of color would not use the word white to describe the ethnic white people as we are the global minority. The preferred word would be heavenly light. Not really a big thing in practice, but still I think it's a fair trade-off to ask them to do this as my day might get ruined otherwise. Cheers!

[@lolnjeoglondajmejejplejlis3365]

no C doesnt give me hibbie gibbies silly

[@rivubardhan6376]

Don't like your choice about not letting novices enter in new area...you were a novice too...☺️ Anyway your opinion is your opinion.

[@scoringdigitsson.5194]

iam one of those stupid people. sad. i just want to learn. i had to ask stupid questions. f.

[@RedVRCC]

Well that looks like a royal pain in the ass to use...

[@armynyus9123]

4:08: Sound's like... they don't have adopted... Ada's CoC then? Isn't that a hard requirement for any Software Development?

[@guisampaio2008]

I am a novice that could ask stupid question. : (

[@just__khang]

Yea it is hard to ask stupid questions with dwm sadly. But dont be discouraged to learn.

[@rutebug952]

12:31

[@VulcanOnWheels]

"Stupider people"...? I'm done with this video.

[@RedVRCC]

Yeah he's a toxic elitist linux turbo nerd.

[@adrianprayoga335]

dwm is simple, only if you are C programmer

[@redrush-hp9li]

Nah 💀

[@ohdude6643]

"If C gives up the hibigibies, ..." - then what the hell are you doing with DWM?

[@skryvvara]

Yeah, there’s no point to make tech accessible to all those stupid people… Jeez

[@TheMBL-rv1od]

Dwm is cool, but Xmonad rocks.

[@CJ123]

nah

[@GonzaloOviedoLambert]

DWM works like hell in comparision with i3, yes, it is more powerful, but i3 is faster!.

[@sunofabeach9424]

configuration in a header file is... wow... I think some yaml or at least lua would be way better...

[@user-sj7lk5lg3x]

did u watch the video?

[@sunofabeach9424]

@@user-sj7lk5lg3x no

[@bhavyakukkar]

in essence that is awesomewm, even though it's drifted apart from being just a dwm clone. i want to say its configured in lua but it feels more like a lua framework of its own

[@bhavyakukkar]

@@anon8510 you do not need to worry about injecting logic errors into the app when configuring in lua

[@bhavyakukkar]

@@anon8510 f*cking up the lua config doesn't f*ck up the C app that it extends

[@MarkusIfquil]

I love gatekeeping software and being elitist

[@Forty-Juan]

This but unironically. If you can't read the manual, you shouldn't use a pc

[@rivubardhan6376]

And its master stack layout not the master slave layout.... It is not necessary use those words...🤷🏼‍♂️