Ideal DE for Music Tracking & Mixing

[lykwydchykyn]

I'm no spring chicken (chykyn?) when it comes to Linux, and I've used about every desktop environment out there. At work I use Awesome WM, because it works well for a coding environment.

My DAW system right now runs GNOME, and while it's pretty as a summer day, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with its Window management -- dialogs and popup windows (plugin editors, e.g.) keep getting "lost", and I keep bumping the mouse into hot-corners (especially while moving between monitors). It has no "minimize", and seems to be designed for someone working in one application window at a time (which is definitely NOT my DAW workflow). One thing it does right is remember where I put a particular window the last time it was open -- for example, when working in qtractor I want the mixer window to always be on my second monitor. GNOME seems to remember that I put it there once and it always appears there.

I'm not worried about optimal performance and resource usage as much as I am worried about good window management. I'm tempted to go with AwesomeWM but I'm not sure I want to deal with something that technical while I'm being creative (and I don't relish the thought of writing up another rc.lua). Also think I'd be thrown off by the way the tiling WM resizes windows.

What do you think? What's your DE for your DAW, and does it do a good job of juggling lots of windows and applications?

[sysrqer]

I'm a big fan of awesome, anything else I try to use just feels wrong. It's definitely taken a while to get things set up how I want it though so starting from scratch wouldn't be much fun. For music stuff I tend to just use a floating workspace though so I don't have to worry about windows being resized.

I think anything would be fine really though, if you're not concerned about resources. KDE is the non-tiling option I've had my eye on for a while. Xfce is always a safe bet as well. I think it would just be a matter of finding what you like and what works for you.

[Luc]

I discussed that here:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14173&p=63580#p63580

[CrocoDuck]

I use GNOME 3. I used OpenBox in the past and I really liked it, but I am in the mood for eye candy now .

I suggest you to install GNOME Tweak Tool to activate the missing windows controls (minimize etc...). You will find many other options you might like to tweak. Also, have a look at the Extensions (there are few tiling extensions like this for example). You can install them from the web page and manage them with Tweak Tool.

I find that messing with few options and extensions boosts productivity a lot.

[English Guy]

I use XFCE, good old fashioned desktop paradigm, highly customisable.

[gimmeapill]

Long time Fluxbox user here (~15 years).
With more than half of my keyboard mapped to custom shortcuts and key chains, Window positions stored, I get stuff done from muscle memory and don't even think about it.
Anything else feels like being deeply stuck in goo

I do however use Gnome 3 applications (nautilus, eog, evince mainly - with the default gtk3 dark theme) and they surprisingly integrate pretty smoothly with the WM, without the bloated feeling. I think I found a sweet spot there, as it looks graphically consistent, does what I need, and nothing else.
If I had to move, that would probably be toward something like I3, Awesome or Sway (I3 port to Wayland).

Back to the music setup, my approach is simple: the less time spent fighting with the GUI scrolling menus and clicking on icons,the more things done.
One keyboard shortcut to launch qjacktl, start jack, rtirq, set the CPU governor, ajmidid,etc...
and another one per application.
That usually gets me from cold boot to productive state with guitarix + Renoise in ~20 secs (adding Ardour would be another story though).

So if you're happy with Awesome for work, I don't see why you couldn't build yourself a comfy music environment with another rc file.
Unless maybe if you want to look at something different when back from work - when you put your creative hat on (which would be totally understandable).

Cheers,

LX

[lykwydchykyn]

So if you're happy with Awesome for work, I don't see why you couldn't build yourself a comfy music environment with another rc file.
Unless maybe if you want to look at something different when back from work - when you put your creative hat on (which would be totally understandable).

Cheers,

LX

Yeah, I guess the issue is that if I have time to sit down at my music workstation, I want to be making music. As much as I love Awesome, it is kind of a maintenance liability (especially on a rolling release distro, the 3.4 -> 3.5 transition was painful). Maybe I just need to get over the hump of writing the initial rc.lua.

[gimmeapill]

Awesome, it is kind of a maintenance liability (especially on a rolling release distro, the 3.4 -> 3.5 transition was painful).

Yeah, I remember poking around with it around the time of the lua transition and not being particularly impressed, that really put me off actually.
At the same time, a work colleague didn't have any particular issue, he just ported his config and stuck with it like you did.
Seeing like gnome & kde guys treat their respective user bases when a technology transition comes, you can't really blame the Awesome guys either.

In comparison, my Fluxbox config files evolved gradually since 2002 - never did they screw up anything. If something broke, it was either me or the Debian packagers (the later issue was solved definitely 7y ago).
Still, I wouldn't imagine maintaining several machines with their own Fluxbox configuration, just too many things to remember - I think I understand your point

For a second system with a GUI, then I'd probably go for something point and clicky but low maintenance, like MATE, Xfce or Openbox with a taskbar, even if slightly less productive.

[Lyberta]

I like MATE, I've tried GNOME, KDE and XFCE but didn't like them.

[dsreyes1014]

I know this is a little old but have you tried Enlightenment 0.20.9. Memory footprint is small and speed is good. It has really good window management and developers have picked up the pace on bugfixes and releases. It does have a tiling option which I never tried if that's your preference.

[MattKingUSA]

Blackbox or xfce4 are my favorites.

EDIT: Woops you said DE. So xfce. Ubuntu studio default works for me.

[lykwydchykyn]

I know this is a little old but have you tried Enlightenment 0.20.9. Memory footprint is small and speed is good. It has really good window management and developers have picked up the pace on bugfixes and releases. It does have a tiling option which I never tried if that's your preference.

I tried it a few times back around v17/18 but something about it always rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it's worth another shot. I wasn't impressed with the tiling last time I tried it.

EDIT: Woops you said DE. So xfce. Ubuntu studio default works for me.

Eh, yeah, we're not being that picky. Window manager, DE, whatever. My hangup with GNOME is mostly in the way it manages windows, so window management is the actual problem.

For those listing their preference, is your preference from the environment itself (how it looks, resource footprint, etc) or that it actually does a good job of managing windows for the task of audio production?

[CrocoDuck]

For those listing their preference, is your preference from the environment itself (how it looks, resource footprint, etc) or that it actually does a good job of managing windows for the task of audio production?

Kinda both for me. I mean, GNOME is not lightweight, but I like the look and I am very comfortable with the way windows and virtual desktops are organized. I tend to go full screen with application's windows and I like to have a virtual desktop for each different task. With GNOME I can switch quickly and easily between many full screen windows on a desktop or between desktops with one key or a mouse movement. Also, the fact that virtual desktops are created automatically helps me a lot as I often spawn a new task out of nowhere (although usually I got just jack and connections, effects, loops and recording tasks running).

[chaocrator]

I know this is a little old but have you tried Enlightenment 0.20.9. Memory footprint is small and speed is good. It has really good window management and developers have picked up the pace on bugfixes and releases. It does have a tiling option which I never tried if that's your preference.

+1 for enlightenment. (i still prefer older 0.17 branch, but never mind.)
i use it as my daily DE since 2007, and it's simply the best for average DAW.

p.s. anyway, for my live/rehearsal setup, i use dwm