I’ve heavily customized my BSPWM TWM (bash configs and scripts), NeoVim configuration (extensions and custom Lua Scripts), Suckless Terminal Emulator (plugins and C compiled config file), and Librewolf Browser via userchrome.CSS and extensions, all on Artix Linux without systemd and near daily updates with occasional breaking changes.
That said, I release small to medium scale personal Web/CLI projects in my spare time and have noticed I just move through projects faster than my peers (self learning and bootcamp web devs). I type 100wpm when given a prompt via use of a split 40℅ ortho keyboard (yes, custom keybindings via flashed firmware). So I’m all in down the configuration rabbit hole, but am loving it and feel the massive initial time investment was worth it.
For me it’s not about efficiency (although tiling somewhat improves it) but rather basic comfort. With stacking wms windows constantly overlap each other, and then I have to constantly re-arrange them, alt-tab like 75 times to find the one I need, etc, and tiling does solve this issue pretty damn well.
I switched to hyprland over christmas when I didn’t have much I actually needed to do and now I definitely do things more efficiently because of it. You just need to pick the right time to switch
After using multiple tiling compositors over the years, I’m pretty much set in how my system works. There’s not much I have to do, except the occasional tweak to keybinds for launching apps, adding some window rule or changing my monitor layout. Those are things I’d have to do on any DE and they don’t take any longer.
Until I need something unexpected not yet set up by me, e.g. switching keyboard layouts. But it’s been a long time since I needed to do any of that. That’s the beauty of config files stored in git: Once it’s set, just forget about it.
Edit: I do agree though, the time it took to arrive where I am is considerable and definitely not something I recommend to others who value their time.
I agree, using WM is like a using a car, its obviously easier to use something ready out-of-the-box but it does not feel as good as customizing your own. Just like people treat cars as their identity you can do the same in your computer and the fact that in some cases you can achieve better performance in your workflow. To me it is like any investment, if it shaves some little time every day, eventually it will pay off.
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