We’re at the end of the guide and we’ve installed very few programs. Let’s see how few, and I’ll classify them, too.

It’s simple to get a list of the software you’ve installed in FreeBSD:

Installed Packages

# Kernel Extension / FreeBSD
drm-515-kmod
en-freebsd-doc
pkg
vim

# Console-Mode Survival
diff-so-fancy
git
links
tig
tmux
vorbis-tools
wget

# Console-Mode Optimization
doas

# Lightweight Graphics: Wayland + Sway
foot
fuzzel
grimshot
librewolf
noto-emoji
sway
swayimg
swaylock-effects
wtype
zathura
zathura-pdf-poppler

NsCDE and XOrg

# Bloat is beautiful: NsCDE / Xorg
arandr
nedit
nscde
pavucontrol
pcmanfm
rxvt-unicode
xorg
xvt

If you want that Solaris CDE-like look and feel, you might want to look into “NsCDE”. The trouble here is that when I start mucking about with this, I fall into the pit of no bottom that is the X system. Thankfully ChatGPT has been a godsend (sorry AI-haters, it did a great job adjudicating .xinitrc versus .Xresources versus window-manager-specific scripts)

While NsCDE is nostalgic, I find myself so comfortable and fast in Wayland + Sway, that when I’m actually doing work, it’s hard to think about using something else. I think for Udemy + Book + Coding that my NsCDE setup might be an ideal focusing configuration.

The Efficient Mystery of WindowMaker

I also tested out the gloriously minimalistic, NeXT-inspired Window Maker interface (alternative .xinitrc specified at call to startx time). I used this theme back in my earliest Linux days with the glorious gigantic Debian swirl on tan marble look.

Its also nice, but these mouse-heavy window managers feel so, so clunky compared to Wayland+Sway. But then, as I was working on this post, I started to get the hang of WindowMaker (again) and, honestly, if I needed a minimalist window manager that wasn’t mouse-less (i.e. tiling), I think I’d use this. It’s ridiculously fast to load. It’s incredibly efficient. Editing menus can be easily done via editing Lisp-like nested expressions (or Python tuples). It’s so, so nice.

Medley

I’m also pleased to report that Medley worked out of the box in Wayland + Sway through Wayland’s XWayland interface. We haven’t bundled that up as a FreeBSD install pkg or source port, but I hope we will soon!

You can also see it running under Windowmaker above. Awesome!

Programming

It’s handy to have Python around when you need to do some automation (WHICH YOU SHOULDN’T – GET BACK TO JUST FOCUSING!). But, if you do, then you probably want to have an interpreter about. # pkg search python3 will find you a recent candidate.

For real programming, I use a (Debian) server virtual private server. This makes my laptop yes, even this one, disposable. Drop it on a train, bad bounce off of a bed in Paris (actually happened to a Chromebook on the way to CDG) – toss it, get the new $150.00 laptop and reinstall. I’ve written about this workflow previously.

• freebsd
• unix
• operating_systems
• window_managers

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