.files

These are my dotfiles. As of 2022, my operating system of choice remains to be Arch Linux. I also like Fedora, but I don't use it for anything serious.

NOTE: This readme is currently WIP and may change drastically. You are free to study and take whatever you want from these dotfiles, but avoid executing any commands that change a lot of stuff.

History

I have been using GNU/Linux since 2012 and Arch Linux since 2017. My setup was originally i3 before I switched to bspwm. In 2021, I added Sway, although I like switching between GNOME and Plasma as well.

In 2022, I installed Gentoo, but returned to Arch Linux shortly thereafter. For an explanation on why, as well as some other design choices, read the Technical section.

Old Screenshots

Over time my tastes in desktop environments have changed. For nostalgic purposes, here is a collection of screenshots of my usage of GNU/Linux over time.

2018

2022

Features

The biggest advantage my dotfiles have is a consistent setup between GTK and Qt applications across multiple window managers. Making GUIs look nice on bspwm was a major task for me, and I'm satisfied with the result. Qt applications also work well under GNOME, with a consistent theme if you're using Arc for everything.

Usage

Since these are my personal dotfiles, they are tailored specifically to my use case.

There are 3 different ways you can use this repository.

1. Use my dotfiles as inspiration and only install what you need
2. Install all my dotfiles on your computer, a server, or something else
3. Replicate my entire Arch Linux system with minimal effort

1. Use my dotfiles as inspiration, and only install what you need

My dotfiles are managed with GNU Stow. Dotfiles are separated based on program, and each directory contains relevant information about those dotfiles.

In the event that you want to try out some of my dotfiles, I wrote a Makefile that makes installing and uninstalling dotfiles easy. For example, to only install vim dotfiles use:

make install package=vim

Similarly, if you want to remove the vim dotfiles you just installed, use:

make uninstall package=vim

2. Install all my dotfiles on your computer, server, etc.

If you want to use all the dotfiles in this repository, use:

make install

Note that if a dotfile already exists then stow won't override it, so this works best on new user accounts that don't have any dotfiles on them yet.

3. Replicate my entire system with minimal effort

Technical

Throughout my journey with GNU/Linux, I learned a lot about how computer systems work, including how to use systemd, networking, package management, filesystems, configuration files, and other cool stuff. I also had to deal with a lot of edge cases when it came to different versions of software, such as certain features not working due to conflicting library dependencies.

Previously I used media keys for media keybinds. Since I now use super for those commands, keybinds should work on any machine.

Support and contributing

If you have any questions about my dotfiles, feel free to open an issue. You can also contribute by submitting a pull request.