this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
15 points (69.2% liked)
Linux
12644 readers
462 users here now
A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)
Also, check out:
Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I recently checked out KaOS' new iso with niri. It did look neat, but it had exactly the issues I just described. The window management shortcuts were unfamiliar, it took me like 15 minutes to figure out how to change keyboard layouts (in part because the general presentation suggested that there was probably a GUI method, but there wasn't), I couldn't even make dark mode work easily.
I could probably make niri work for me if I really wanted, but it's a lot of work for no real benefit. I'll probably just end up moving to sway in a couple of years when it becomes really unreasonable to keep using X11, since that one is actually designed to feel similar to the window manager I'm currently using (i3).
The good news is that something like this already exists; just goes to show it’s a matter of time before more refined options are developed.
As an aside, there are now plugins for Noctalia Shell, including a pretty good “Keybind Cheatsheet” plugin, which may make it easier to pick up and play with things like niri.