I’ve recently got Void Linux running on an old laptop of mine. I’ve temporarily installed Qtile so I can run a web browser, but my aim is to use a Wayland compositor. (I know Qtile can be run under Wayland. It doesn’t work on my end.)
I’ve narrowed my choices down to 6 options:
- Weston
- Wayfire
- Enlightenment
- Hikari
- River
- LabWC
Which do you think would be best?
The only one on your list I’ve ever touched is Weston.
Feel free to ignore me if you’re married to that list but I’m a huge fan of Sway. I can’t imagine ever switching. It’s pretty much “i3: Wayland Edition”.
I can see not wanting to use it because it’s based on wlroots, though. The nonstandard wlroots extensions to the Wayland protocol are a bit controversial and have security implications. (Though no more security implications than X11, which I get doesn’t inspire confidence.)
Hum never heard about the wlroots nonstandard extensions, always thought they are following the protocol word by word… Going to search for those security implications.
The really short version is that the Wayland designers are still debating how to best allow clients to do certain things like intercept key presses or take screenshots in a safe way. The makers of wlroots on which Sway is based got tired of waiting for a standard and safe way to do those things and added their own insecure and nonstandard APIs for allowing that.
That said, X11’s way of doing those (and many other) things is if anything more insecure than wlroots’ way.
Try Sway. Format your usb stick with Ventoy2Disk and you’ll never re-format your usb stick ever agin. Just drag and drop Manjaro Sway and try it out in live mode to see what fine tuned Sway can offer for you. It uses wlroots.
I already have Void Linux installed and I already use i3 on my other laptop. I’ll give Sway a go.
The idea of trying Manjaro Sway (or any distro) in live mode is that you run it from the usb and don’t install anything onto your hardware. It’s fully functional desktop but no need to install/format your storage.
I’m running River on Void Linux and must admit that I’m really happy with its user experience. The development is quite transparent and the founder/main developer is well known in the Zig community, there’s also a talk about creating River by him.
As far as I know, Weston is not really meant for being used on a normal desktop (not really sure anymore).
Wayfire is awesome if you like animations, but it wouldn’t be my case personally.
Can’t say much about the others unfortunately.
