Recently, I’ve been admiring the unqiue, personalized desktop environments showcased on r/unixporn. I love the ability to customize your digital space and how ricing combines both creativity and functionality to empower users. Though I unfortunately don’t daily drive Linux (yet), I was inspired to explore what customizations I could do within the bounds of being on MacOS.

I switched to Alacritty as my terminal emulator for its speed, simplicity, and efficiency. I switched to Raycast as a quick launcher because it’s like a more powerful version of Spotlight, with the ability to create custom commands or scripts and add various extensions. I made the dock as small as possible and hid it so my windows occupy almost the entire screen. Most importantly in this process, I began using Yabai as a window tiling manager and Skhd for the keybindings. This, in addition to installing tmux and configuring it with more intuitive keybindings, has been revolutionary in streamlining my workflow and reducing mouse usage. I can’t believe I’ve been living and coding without it. Lastly, I hid Apple’s top bar and installed sketchybar to complete the aesthetic and further hide traces of Apple.

Though my setup can sometimes be a bit buggy and I’ve noticed a slight increased strain on power, I’m very happy with the improvement to both the look and productivity of my workspace. There’s still a lot more that can be done.

Also, I went to the first MIT Swapfest of the year recently and bought myself a Thinkpad which I will most definitely boot Linux on. The ricing journey will likely continue there…

Rice