About 3 years ago, I decided I’ve had enough of Windows 11s bs and decided to switch to linux. Started with linux mint, got familiar with the terminal and basic linux concepts. Then I moved to fedora and loved it. One day I stumbled upon a subreddit called r/Unixporn. Its a place were linux users customize their desktop environments and share their setups. It really inspired me to explore this thing called Hyprland and build my own setup.

With a goal I switched to Archlinux and configured Hyprland on it. Customised every single detail to my liking and made it truly my own. I even setup a dotfiles repo to keep track of all my changes and have a backup of my setup that I can easily reuse on other machines. Even made a really dramatic youtube video showcasing it lol.

Coming from a desktop environment like cinnamon, the range of options, customisations and animations I had in hyprland was truly amazing. I was really into Fear and Hunger at the time and customized it according to the game’s aesthetic. This took a lot of trial and error, but eventually I settled into something that felt just right.

I used this for 2 years, sinking deeper and deeper into the hyprland ecosystem. I was suddenly so fast with computers! Everything I wanted was a keybind away! But somewhere inside me I knew I had to move on. There was this lingering itch in me that I couldn’t explain but things needed to change. Maybe its because of the years of using Custom Roms in my phones, The constant anticipation of a new kernel, A new feature update, The desire to try bleeding edge Roms. The thrill of wiping out my phone’s data constantly rechecking if I had made a backup or not, The CrDroid boot animation with the creepy eye image animating in my face was a different kind of high. I really missed that feeling. I’ll leave this story for another time.

Basically I knew I had to switch sooner or later.

When I discovered Niri I tried to switch to it right away but something felt off, It didn’t support multiple config files yet 😭. The system was great. The idea of an infinitely scrolling row of windows was really sitting right with me. But the lack of multiple config files made me put it off for later.

Eventually they added support for it and I made the switch as soon as I could. Its been about a month of using Niri and I really like it! The overview of all my active workspaces and a screenshot utility baked in are really nice. Especially in Android Studio, my workflow has significantly improved. I use a single 27 inch monitor and viewing every part of my workflow was difficult on hyprland. Now I can easily isolate the emulator, the file window, the terminal, the debugger, and all studio stuff in a single workspace and easily scroll/sweep through them. Same for every other application.

I am using Quickshell for the Bar and widgets and while I am still getting used to it, It works really well with Niri. It consumes a bit more RAM than just using rofi and waybar but its infinitely more customizable. I think I’ll stick with this for years to come.