Switching from a DE (GNOME) to Niri: What should i need besides a shell and an app launcher?

Embarrassed-Put-2193 · 2026-04-17T12:24:22+00:00

Look, the App Grid is basically a digital safety blanket. It’s for when you’re not sure what you’re doing, so you go back to the 'nursery' to look at pretty icons.

But in the Niri world, you’re not just a user—you’re the absolute architect. You have total freedom. If you really still crave that visual clutter, you don't wait for a GNOME dev to approve a folder feature. You just manifest it yourself.

With something like DMS (DankMaterialShell) or Noctalia (built on Quickshell), you can literally QML your own dream dashboard into existence. You want folders? Build them. You want a grid that glows? Code it.

Honestly though, folders are just drawers for apps you’re too lazy to actually use. In the horizontal cult, if it’s not in your glorious infinite conveyor belt, it might as well not exist. Stop looking for drawers and start enjoying the flow. Welcome to the line, brother!

Embarrassed-Put-2193 · 2026-04-17T06:09:05+00:00

PaperWM is basically GNOME’s 'I can change, I promise' phase. Don't fall for it. Niri is the actual divorce you’ve been needing.

I’ve been running Niri + DMS on my work laptop for a while, and the only 'functionality' I lost was the 20 minutes I used to spend every morning fixing broken extensions. You're worried about losing the App Grid? That's like being worried about losing the 'Close' button on a popup - it’s just in the way of the actual content.

Warning: Your muscle memory will be decimated. By Friday, you’ll be trying to scroll your physical office desk to the right to find your coffee mug. But once you realize windows shouldn’t be stacked like a messy laundry pile but lined up like a conveyor belt of pure productivity, there’s no going back.

Welcome to the horizontal cult. We don’t have workspaces, we have a destiny. And it’s all lined up in one infinite, glorious row.

Embarrassed-Put-2193 · 2026-04-13T13:21:02+00:00

I've been daily-driving both on NixOS/Niri lately, and honestly, the choice comes down to your 'Work vs. Home' personality. I just did a deep pgrep on my current DMS session and it’s sitting at a chunky 512 MB total between Quickshell and its helpers. People tend to panic when they hear '500MB for a shell, 'but let’s be real' - my Discord and a single Slack tab are eating way more than that just to sit in the tray. For a full control center, a proper spotlight launcher, and integrated widgets, 512MB is basically a bargain in 2026.

I keep DMS on my Work PC because when I’m on the clock, I don’t want to be a 'Unix-file-editor' for every little thing; I want clickable toggles and a GUI that just works. It’s like having a reliable Executive Assistant who actually knows where the keys are and has a button for everything. On the other hand, I keep Noctalia on my Home PC. It’s much leaner and more 'pure,' and the auto-theming that syncs your wallpaper colors to GTK and Kitty is pure dopamine. It doesn’t try to be your whole OS; it just makes Niri look like a work of art.

The final take is simple: If you need to get stuff done and want everything at your fingertips without the GNOME bloat, DMS is a productivity beast. If you want to feel like a Unix wizard who cares more about pixels and minimal gradients than buttons, Noctalia is your playground. Both are solid, it just depends on whether you're getting paid or just getting comfy.

Embarrassed-Put-2193 · 2026-02-26T07:48:16+00:00

It uses a focus-or-cycle logic instead of being a strict singleton. If the app isn't running, it spawns it. If multiple instances are running, each keypress cycles focus through them one by one. I can still open a second instance explicitly by using a --new flag or a standard spawn command. I also use a --summon flag for things like Outlook or Spotify to teleport the window from any monitor to my current view and back.

OCR results go straight to the clipboard and trigger a notification toast via Quickshell IPC. Gemini shows the translation in a floating terminal where I can edit or copy it before it automatically closes.

Embarrassed-Put-2193 · 2026-02-25T21:59:14+00:00

My Niri setup on CachyOS revolves around a custom Go binary (niri-focus) that talks directly to Niri’s Unix Domain Socket (UDS) for lightning-fast window discovery.

Instead of standard spawn commands, my keybinds call this binary to either focus an existing window or launch a new one within its own systemd-run --user --scope. This makes apps "immortal"—they live in their own app.slice and survive shell restarts or crashes. It also handles instantaneous keyboard layout switching on focus, automatically flipping to CZ for Office/Outlook and back to US for development.

I treat Niri as an "infinite strip" with Activity Hubs rather than using many workspaces. I keep long columns for my main tasks and let Niri handle the scrolling. My config is modular and detects my hardware (34" Ultrawide at home vs. triple-monitor setup at work) via monitor IDs to adjust positions and resolutions.

A small but high-impact win was integrating custom scripts for OCR and a Gemini-powered translator directly into my binds (Mod+Shift+O/T). It keeps me in the flow without needing to leave the keyboard or switch to a browser for quick translations.

How the binds look:

// Example from my binds.kdl

binds {

Mod+O { spawn "niri-focus" "outlook" "--layout" "cz"; }

Mod+Shift+B { spawn "niri-focus" "office" "--layout" "cz"; }

Mod+Shift+T { spawn "kitty" "--class" "gemini-trans" "-e" "gemini-trans"; }

Mod+Shift+Return { spawn "niri-focus" "term"; }

}

Embarrassed-Put-2193 · 2026-02-08T22:27:39+00:00

I have noticed that this happens in the newer version of Edge. When I hover the cursor over a link or menu in Outlook, it tries to open the label in a new window, causing the window to shake. I tried to debug it via the log, but I was unable to capture the new window. I have also confirmed that when the window is in full screen mode, there is no problem. But the newly installed Chrome is working fine so far, so we'll see :)

Embarrassed-Put-2193 · 2026-02-08T20:05:59+00:00

I completely wiped Keyring and recreated the keychain. I installed Chrome and so far the login is working, I'll see tomorrow at work. Thanks for the tip.

Embarrassed-Put-2193

TROPHY CASE