Mouse Fan Tries Tiling WM

2026-02-26

Why

For fun :)

Real answer: I use my laptop too much. I wanted to make it harder for me to get distracted by switching to new keybinds, etc, so I didn't have the muscle memory to open the most distracting apps anymore.

First Impressions

I chose Sway. I was a bit overwhelmed by the new keybinds at first (I didn't look at them before I started) so I found a cheat sheet online and saved it so I could refer to it at any time.

I liked the ease of switching workspaces and wmenu. I didn't like the borders but couldn't figure out how to turn them off. Opening applications felt more intentional because I had to type their names in instead of just clicking on them. I use multiple terminal windows a lot, and opening new terminals and seeing them side by side is nice.

More setup I did

• Changing my wallpaper :)
• Finally removing borders (added a line of config to my Sway config file)
• Spending about an hour trying to figure out how to autoconnect to my home wifi
• Replacing wmenu with Rofi as my default launcher so I could actually see all of my programs
• Replacing the default bar with Waybar, then finding a config I liked
• Increasing my touchpad sensitivity so I could move my mouse faster
• Configuring Sway to assume my laptop was to the left of my monitor, not the right

Final results!

I was expecting the keybinds to be harder to remember, but the ones I use the most (opening Rofi, opening terminal, switching workspaces, exiting programs) really stuck in my brain. For the other keybinds, I still have to refer to my cheat sheet sometimes.

KDE Plasma really takes care of a lot of things for you. I had to reconfigure my wifi connections, etc through my terminal for the first time (though I probably could have used KDE System Settings, which I still have access to, I couldn't open it through wmenu and I didn't set up Rofi yet). It felt like starting to use Linux all over again. The troubleshooting process was fun though.

The default Sway config file is nicely structured and provides a lot of examples, which helped me figure out where to put my lines of config. Because the config is a single file, it'll hopefully be easy for me to port it to my next laptop or PC.

My favorite thing about Sway is probably being able to close programs with a key combo. It's very satisfying. Also, having a browser open to view instructions and a terminal command right next to it is useful. No more dragging my cursor down to the bottom of my screen to switch programs.

There's probably more I can configure (I want my custom cursor back!) but I'm happy with what I have right now.