I've been exploring Linux for about a year now, trying out different distributions, but I still consider myself a beginner. I'm interested in trying out some window manager and compositor combinations instead of jumping into full desktop environments. I'm looking for suggestions on something that doesn't require extensive configuration and can primarily be set up with a graphical interface. It's crucial that it can handle multiple monitors with varying resolutions and DPIs, ideally working with Wayland, so I can arrange these displays easily through a GUI without messing around with coordinates or config files. I'm not too reliant on keybinds at this point—I'm open to learning but would appreciate a solution that feels somewhat familiar to me coming from Windows/KDE. Recently, I tried out KaOS, which features Niri/Noctalia, but I found the lack of GUI options for managing display scaling a bit limiting. Currently, I'm using three different distributions: I dual boot my main machine with one up-to-date distro for testing (Manjaro), a more stable one (Solus), and I also have a laptop with Rhino Linux, an Ubuntu variant. I'm open to switching things up if needed!
1 Answer
If you want to stick to a GUI for most of your configuration, you might want to reconsider going with a desktop environment (DE) rather than just a window manager. Window managers are often minimal and intended to be customized heavily, which usually means diving into config files rather than a graphical setup. You can start with a pre-existing setup created by others to avoid building everything from scratch.
Are there any specific presets or options available in distros that could help a newcomer?