CLI in FOSS

www-gem

Hey everyone,

I run a blog dedicated to Linux, FOSS, and powerful CLI tools — the kind that make you feel like a wizard once you start using them.

I write about:

Hidden gems/overlooked tools in the Linux ecosystem
Practical command-line tools that boost productivity
Simple tutorials and real-world use cases
Tips for making your terminal workflow faster and more fun

If you enjoy discovering lightweight, open-source tools that just work (and maybe replacing a few bloated apps along the way), you may find something useful there.

Whether you're a seasoned Linux user or just getting comfortable with the terminal, there's something for you.

Hope to see you there! Happy hacking!

Anthony

Hey great blog you have there! I just skimmed through a bit and I have always wanted to try out a keyboard like the one you got there. I've always wondered how long it would realistically take to start using it effeciently, especially the ones that are similar and have the built in mouse ball.

As for vim, I've made a couple of attempts to learn it, but my patience always wears thin and I give up before becoming effecient in it.

Also: thanks for joining the forums and being the first to contribute - I hope you'll stick around a while :)

[Edit] I also see you mention rofi, does that work as a window manager - I've recently been setting up i3 on antiX core installation (to convert a Chromebook into a useable laptop) and while I absolutely have loved my limited experience in Tiling Window Managers, the setup and configuration sometimes can be tedious and time consuming (which to some degree can be part of the fun, but after a while I just want it to work). A bit of research shows that rofi often works in conjunction with windows managers, not as a replacement. What's your experience with setting up you environment - do you have any suggestions for a daily driver setup that is mostly hassel free to get up and running (my daily driver desktop is Debian Stable with gnome, but sometimes think about ditching Gnome, although quite honestly I do like it)

www-gem

Thanks for the warm welcome. I hope to see more people join and help bring this forum to life. Hopefully, it won’t end up as another unfinished project ;)

As for the Corne keyboard, it only took me a couple of weeks to get comfortable with it. The transition wasn’t too dramatic because you can build the layout exactly the way you want. Having the keys arranged in a way that makes sense to you really helps reduce the effort needed to retrain your muscle memory. My current challenge is getting used to the Colemak Mod-DH layout. That definitely requires more effort, and I’m not yet fully efficient with it.

Regarding Vim, I first tried it decades ago but never really explored its full capabilities. It was Neovim that truly got me into using everything this editor has to offer. It’s amazing how much it can improve your workflow—whether you’re taking notes, writing scientific papers, or coding. It adapts to virtually any context and can be customized to an impressively granular level. The downside, as you mentioned, is that it can feel confusing and frustrating at the beginning. Many people give up, which is unfortunate, because with a bit of guidance, it’s not much harder to configure and use than any other editor. As you may have seen, I’ve opened another post specifically about Neovim. Let me know if you’d ever like to give it another try. I’d be happy to help you get started.

www-gem

To answer you edit, Rofi is a window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement. It's not a windows manager.

Choosing a windows manager is a question of personal choice. Everyone out there will recommend their favorite, but there are several options because they serve different purposes.
First, as you noted, you need to know if you want a stacking, tiling, or dynamic windows manager. The Arch wiki is a very nice place to get some info, even if you're using another distro.
Then, you probably want to think whether you want eye candy stuff like animations, blur, shading. Maybe you want to use an information bar or a system tray. You may also have preference for the configuration language. If you're thinking about tiling windows managers, you can find a nice comparison table here.

My journey was to get rid of the stacking windows manager and desktop environment as fast as I could. So I moved to a tiling windows managers only system in that order: AwesomeWM (₃ years), i3 (₄ years), dwm (₃ years), bspwm (₄ years). Now, I've moved to Wayland and use Niri. If you ever consider moving to Wayland, you can find some compositors (Wayland version of X11 windows managers) here.
I've tested few other candidates but not long enough to mention them here.

This long post to disappoint you, because I don't really have a response for you. One of the power of the Linux community is that it offers plenty of options to satisfy anyone's needs. For that reason, the perfect daily driver setup that is mostly hassel free will vary across people, depending on their skills, needs, and expectations. Hope there's still some useful information in this post to help you finding your best candidate :)
I'd be happy to talk more about the ones I've tried if you are interested in any of them.