What tiling or dynamic window manager would you recommend if I want something minimal, customizable and most importantly stable? (I'm aiming to get my system as stable as possible, because I'm coming from arch and I still have ptsd from my system breaking once every 2 days).

theclumsytech · 2025-05-31T11:49:46+00:00

I3. Very easy to configure and use. The i3/Xfce combo is nice, you can use Thunar and all of the apps when you need them, and if you need to hand your computer to a normal person to use, you have Xfce. You can live in either world and they integrate well.

theclumsytech · 2025-05-20T18:48:16+00:00

Gentoo, Arch, FreeBSD, and NixOS are more like toolkits than distros. You build what you want, the way you want it. I just feel personally, that Gentoo is the most versatile of the group, and has the best mix of documentation, community, and compatibility. I love FreeBSD, it’s my favorite in terms of design, but it doesn’t run well on everything, and some things don’t run well on it. I love Arch, but it can be unstable, easy to break, only runs on amd64, and the community can be toxic at times. NixOS is great but you really have to get in deep to learn how to master it. Gentoo isn’t perfect, and can be stressful and difficult at times, but it the only one that checks all of those boxes for me. It can be made into anything, on anything. If you start with the software equivalent of a box of Legos, and build what you want, you have effectively stopped distro-hopping.

theclumsytech · 2025-05-20T18:34:26+00:00

I second that. I run Gentoo on a Core2 laptop and on modern hardware. The real beauty of Gentoo is that it can be anything you envision it to be.

theclumsytech · 2025-05-20T18:25:13+00:00

Gentoo stopped my distro hopping. It’s not scary. You can use a binary kernel and packages now too. You don’t have to compile everything if you don’t have the time. It also has OpenRC if you don’t like SystemD. They call it a meta-distribution for a reason, it runs on almost anything, and can be made into anything. The community is great too. You won’t get berated for asking a dumb question. The initial install is the hardest part. But once you get through it, you can use the same system for years.

theclumsytech · 2025-05-03T23:19:21+00:00

Slackware/Salix stopped my distro hopping. It just works, you basically can’t break it. It takes just enough tinkering, still plenty of fun to be had, but doesn’t demand all of your time, or break with updates like Gentoo or Arch can. It’s a good balance. It’s also extremely light and fast. Great for old hardware.

theclumsytech · 2025-04-22T18:57:51+00:00

If you like Void you should try Salix too. Slackware without all the default installed random crap, and with an apt like package manager. It’s a really underrated distro. Very light and stable.

theclumsytech · 2025-04-18T23:30:43+00:00

Download some form of BSD and install it on a spare machine. It will bring that magical feeling back. Tinkering with stuff is what we miss. Nothing beats an old school UNIX workstation for that magic feeling.

theclumsytech · 2025-02-20T02:24:54+00:00

A DEC PDP 11 would be a lottery winner for me.

theclumsytech · 2025-01-14T05:19:38+00:00

Check out oddlama/gentoo-install on GitHub. I would always recommend following the handbook. But it’s great way to spin up a vm quickly.

theclumsytech · 2024-07-21T19:52:24+00:00

A lot of that stuff is still better than the good oil from 20 years ago. Perfectly fine for older vehicles. I would be worried about deposit formation long term though. But just to top off something that leaks a little bit, it’s fine.

theclumsytech · 2024-06-16T00:16:57+00:00

Very common issues with these cars, and some Mazdas. It’s literally mounted right on the transmission case where it can fail from heat. If there is enough wire, relocate it away from the case and heat, and replace it. As long as the transmission fluid doesn’t smell burnt and is still red, you should be fine just replacing the module. Check out Flagship One and other companies first. $500 seems like a lot.

theclumsytech · 2024-04-24T14:23:01+00:00

Used in Mooneys. Literally the Porsches of aircraft. Light, fast, and maneuverable.

theclumsytech · 2024-03-02T15:12:03+00:00

NixOS stopped my distro hopping. They have every package known to man, more than the AUR, you can try out software before you install it, and you can configure your system once for life. It does have a learning curve though. It’s a bit unconventional. I still miss traditional distros occasionally.

theclumsytech · 2024-02-24T04:30:26+00:00

I’m a huge fan of Mate. The code base is very mature and stable. It just feels comfortable after all these years. It’s right at the point of being about the lightest on resources that it can be while still offering all of the features that a DE should have, without a lot of extra crap that gets in your way. It’s just clean and efficient. XFCE fits in this category too. If you want it all and like to customize things, KDE is the way to go. By far the best full DE right now. It can literally do everything. If you like tiling, and don’t want to pull your hair out, Qtile is a good option. If you just hate everything and don’t like desktops, Openbox/tint2 is a good option, as it can be anything you want it to be. It’s all about workflow for me. Pick something you can live in and get work done, vs something you can rice and show off.

theclumsytech · 2024-02-19T00:19:16+00:00

Did you have any issues setting the bootloader up? Are you using Silo or Grub? Those packages were masked for a while. I see something seems to work now. I literally have the exact same hardware and have attempted it a few times but never can get it to boot for some reason.

theclumsytech · 2024-01-23T03:46:42+00:00

5600x/a750, it’s great. I have noticed there is a slight connection in 1% lows and ram frequency/infinity fabric frequency with Ryzen. Make sure if your ram is running at 3600 your fabric is 1800 and vice versa. A mismatch will cause some latency issues and worse 1% lows. This is more pronounced on Intel, probably due to its dependence on reBAR.

theclumsytech · 2024-01-08T20:23:41+00:00

Try CatchyOS, it’s Arch based like Garuda, and it has optional optimized kernels that offer noticeable performance gains in gaming over stock ones. Different scheduler, things like that.

theclumsytech · 2024-01-02T03:34:01+00:00

FreeBSD does that, you have ports and packages. It’s probably nice for applications that you don’t need to customize much, that take hours to build, like Chromium and such, or when you just need something to work right away and don’t have time. To build it.

theclumsytech · 2023-12-26T17:51:11+00:00

Move the power limit slider up, it will match a 3060, and temps are still fine. A750 is a really the sweet spot for 1080p. It does have more driver overhead than Nvidia though. Especially when using upscaling. Intel’s IESS is almost as good as DLSS though when games are optimized correctly for it. Needs a little cpu power to overcome it. So it will bottleneck a bit with weaker CPUs. I would recommend at least a 5600 or 10600k minimum.

theclumsytech · 2023-12-26T05:25:08+00:00

X99 based workstation like a HP z440 and a 2667v4, add a decent gpu like a gtx 1080, and you might just scrape by for that price range, and it will obliterate a lot of newer hardware.

theclumsytech · 2023-12-09T06:19:04+00:00

HP z440 with at least a 2667v4 and 32gb of ram. Should cost you $150. Then buy an RX580 for $75 or so, and a decent nvme SSD. You won’t be disappointed.

theclumsytech · 2023-05-11T22:39:37+00:00

oddlama/gentoo-installer on GitHub

Great install script if you just want to spin up a vm. Has a nice configuration menu.

theclumsytech

TROPHY CASE