How did I not know about PaperWM for this long?
I have been trying out PaperWM for about a week now. The basic concept is that of a GNOME desktop environment that is not limited by the width of your screen. You can scroll right and left infinitely on your open windows or up and down on your workspaces.
Given that most of my computing is done through GNU Emacs keybindings and CLI programs, it’s absolutely mind blowing how it made me forget about my laptop’s trackpoint almost entirely. I mostly use the three-finger motions to scroll through the windows and workspaces.
About the keybindings, I haven’t modified them at all and I think that they are good enough for my usage. For the time being, the ones I use the most are:
| Keybinding | Description |
|---|---|
| Super + Left/Right | Cycle through open windows |
| Super + I/O | Split windows vertically and unsplit them |
| Super + R | Resize window, useful to make another window’s content visible |
| Super + F | Maximize window’s width |
| Super + Shift + F | Toggle Fullscreen |
Now, to be honest, it even made me consider buying a Full HD display for my Thinkpad T495 (yes, mine has the awful 1366x768 display 😥). This upgrade alone might be worth an article as you have to dig up some information about your laptop to buy the correct display.
The last surprise to me was that the current PaperWM maintainer is currently not considering any kind of sponsorship program:
Many thanks all, Just knowing PaperWM is being used and appreciated is good enough reward for me!
— jtaala
This is a complex subject. On one side, it worries me that the project might just vanish or stops being supported if there’s no financial incentive for its maintainers to continue the work. I also understand that maintaining a financial infrastructure for this kind of work is hard and involves a lot more than code, which is the thing that the maintainer cares more about.
On the other hand, this also increases the trust I have on the software quality. The maintainer loves what he does and will probably care a lot about it.
Nonetheless, I really love PaperWM and wish all the best for the project!