I'm running KDE with the least obtrusive taskbar possible --> Should I be using a different WM?

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nosfyt@reddit

That's what I do, cause I just don't use the taskbar, more of a keyboard shortcut kinda guy

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The unfortunate thing about a lot of WMs (especially Wayland ones) is that you need to put in a lot of work to set everything up. And even then, they don't have the best portal support. Using a DE such as Gnome or KDE saves a lot of work.

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maximilionus@reddit

And diving a little bit deeper, let me put together a smol ~~de-motivational~~ list of features that do not come with basic Window Manager that you probably need and will have to research the alternatives:

Basic system apps like Clock, Calculator, Image Viewer, etc.
Built-in Screenshot/Screencast features.
Notification daemon, to show you... notifications.
Launcher. To search, organize and run software.
Status bar. For current system status, tray icons and workspace indication.
Lock screen. Yes, even that.
Automatic mounting software. To mount USB drive filesystems.

A Window Manager is simply a manager that manages windows. Nothing more. Complete freedom for your personal “ecosystem” of your choice, but only if you are truly interested in configuring and maintaining all of this.

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p-wing@reddit (OP)

This is where I got WM confused/synonymized with DE

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Able-Reference754@reddit

There seems to be a lot of confusion and it's probably because people are constantly incorrectly using outdated X11 terminology when talking about Wayland.

With X11 it used to be a stack of DE (Gnome, KDE, Xfce) - WM (like Mutter, KWin etc.) - Display server (Xorg), and maybe a compositor (to merge windows etc. to a single image etc.)

In Wayland it's just a compositor and optionally a DE. Except now a compositor has the roles of the display server, window manager and compositor.

People now commonly nonsensically tend to call using a compositor (usually a tiling one) without a DE as "using a wm" as if desktop environments don't also have compositors with window managers. It's silly nonsense spewed by noobs.

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MeanEYE@reddit

This is one of the reasons why I like current Gnome design. Single bar with access to everything which presents some information and notifications. And that's it. It gets out of my way and lets me do my work. But all of this can be easily called upon when needed. I'd love it if they went even more minimal since current design eats some of the precious vertical space, but I've learned to live with it.

Bottom line is, use whatever you feel comfortable using. That said there are more minimal DE/WM combos out there with lower resource footprint, but you have to hack around them to get the remaining functionality. I use to use i3 for years, but as applications evolved I had to hack around everything. Start print servers, configuration servers, constantly hack font hinting, mouse acceleration, etc. It's just annoying. Switched to Gnome, recreated behavior somewhat and am happy now.

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MilesAhXD@reddit

perhaps you could also use autohide if it fits for you

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KnowZeroX@reddit

You can just make it hide altogether.

Or if you don't multitask windows much, there is option of a global menu bar which would combine the menu bar and the taskbar to save space.

Personally I just keep my taskbar on the right as horizontal space is less useful than vertical space for me

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p-wing@reddit (OP)

I did that 20+ years ago when I was still on Win98, but 4:3 and 5:4 monitors had a premium for horizontal space instead of vertical. Until an hour ago I had it floating with a second panel going vertically for the Launcher and the taskbar. I really need the clock to be horizontal and have access to the volume bar.

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KnowZeroX@reddit

I also like the clock to be on bottom right, so what I did is this for right side vertical:

open apps
show desktop
activities
workspaces
notification icons
clock
menu button

In this way, the clock is on bottom right like I am used to

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thomaspeltios@reddit

i dont even have a taskbar on my kde right now, i open apps via krunner

i have a real life window so i can tell time and a calendar for dates

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p-wing@reddit (OP)

Yeah, I was thinking about that today as I was paring this down even further. At some point I wouldn't be too shocked if I ended up in a tiling WM, but I'm far too reliant on/precise with the mouse.

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Craftkorb@reddit

If it works for you, and you're happy with it, why not stick to it? To save five megabytes of RAM you don't even notice?

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p-wing@reddit (OP)

Well, I love KDE but the computer is 14 years old. It's always had 8GB of RAM and an SSD, and still runs like a champ if I don't over-tax it - other KDE distros like Kubuntu and Cachy over-tax it, and it gets a little sluggish.

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bugeyedtwat@reddit

haha its soo tiny!

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ipsirc@reddit

My girlfriend said exactly the same thing.

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bugeyedtwat@reddit

lol knew someone was gonna say this

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ipsirc@reddit

Yes, i'm very proud of my ultra compact netbook Fujitsu B110: https://www.n-tv.de/img/incoming/origs25314428/5572791278-w0-h0/5690148.jpg Every girl love it.

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p-wing@reddit (OP)

This is an image of about a quarter of my desktop (I'm still running an old laptop on 1366x768). I basically use this thing like a Chromebook now, but with the occasional software tinkering. Playing around in KDE has made me realize I prefer the smallest panel possible, especially with my lack of resolution.

I'm dual-booting into CrunchBang++ right now and trying to replicate this in tint2, but it's slow going with my level of knowledge (not much).