From 0f453ad099344794a6c7897b787f1e990305dfe4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Sadeep Madurange Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2025 22:31:21 +0800 Subject: wip: post on Unix. --- _site/archive/desktop-unix/index.html | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++------------- 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-) (limited to '_site/archive/desktop-unix/index.html') diff --git a/_site/archive/desktop-unix/index.html b/_site/archive/desktop-unix/index.html index 02d4325..82acb97 100644 --- a/_site/archive/desktop-unix/index.html +++ b/_site/archive/desktop-unix/index.html @@ -67,27 +67,39 @@ Capitalism’ by Professor Shoshana Zuboff documents in detail unassailable evidence and poignant consequences of the surveillance activities by these corporations.

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The year 2020 transformed my personal computing experience. In March 2020, I -stumbled upon Arch Linux and discovered that I could customize my desktop -environment to look and work any way I liked. I exercised that newfound freedom -to create a Matrix-themed setup:

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Conversely, Unix-like operating systems are open to the user to use them as +they deem fit. They do not spy on their users, sell hidden agendas, and some, +like OpenBSD, do not show commercial interests whatsoever. The following is a +screenshot of my custom Arch Linux setup in 2020. It uses X display server and +i3 for window management, Urxvt terminal emulator made translucent with the +help of the Xcompmgr compositor.

Arch Linux

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The system employs the X display server and the i3 window manager. The terminal -emulator used is Urxvt. The translucent effect is achieved with the help of the -Xcompmgr compositor. This sort of setup was popular among minimalist Linux -users.

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In February 2024, I switched to an OpenBSD system with Xenocara (the OpenBSD -build of X display server) as the display server and i3 as the window manager:

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The following is an equivalent setup on OpenBSD from my 2024 desktop:

OpenBSD i3

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Unlike Linux, OpenBSD includes a coherent desktop environment out of the box. -Except for the window manager, for which I prefer a tiling one, I’m now using -the default OpenBSD setup. For the window manager, I use dwm from the Suckless -team.

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This degree of customization is impossible with commercial operating systems. +The operating system vendor sets firm boundaries around how the machine should +be used. As a consequence, the user is forced to suffer slow animations, +arrangement of windows, and blatant infringements of privacy.

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The conceptual elegance and technological superiority of Unix-like operating +systems lie in how programs developed independently come together to accomplish +complex tasks. For instance, to read and reply to an HTML email on OpenBSD, +Mutt, my email client, requests credentials from Pass, which retrieves +credentials and requests GPG to decrypt them. With the decrypted credentials +Mutt fetches the email, opens the Lynx browser to render the HTML content. To +reply, I press Shift+R key, which opens Vim, the text editor I use for all my +text editing tasks. I prepare the reply and press ‘y’ to dispatch it.

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The entire process of handing control from one program to another is seamless +and instantaneous. The magic is in the fact each of these programs are +developed by different programmers, without so much as exchanging an email to +make sure that they can interoperate. In fact, none of these programs were +designed to interoperate for the specific use case of sending an email. The +interoperability is a direct consequence of how Unix was designed.

Files: dotfiles.tar.gz

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