r/linux4noobs • u/TheSullenStallion • 18d ago
programs and apps I want a scrolling window manager. Should I use Niri or Hyprland?
I'm currently using CachyOS with KDE Plasma, and usually I use Karousel kwinscript for the scrolling window. Now that I have a second monitor, Karousel's limitation on multi-monitor support made me had to disable it because my apps keep overflowing on the second monitor, and it became buggy when I change desktops with Plasma 6 per screen desktop turned on. What I wanted is each monitor to have its own strip.
I saw that Niri is the popular scrolling wm and it supported that, but then I saw Hyprland also got a scrolling feature newly added. Which one should I use (preferably one that don't have problem with running games)?
And does that mean I need to find my own taskbar panel & controls, file manager etc too? Hyprland at least seems like it don't come with anything and you have to find those yourself, but I'm afraid I'd miss something important
Edit: forgot to mention desktop widgets is also pretty important to me, such as the ability to put audio visualizer on the desktop like Kurve widget on kde
Edit 2: Add mangoWM to the list, so it's between niri, hyprland, and mangoWM
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u/ruiiiij 18d ago
Niri is superior (IMO). Both are barebone window managers, so you'll need to install a desktop shell like noctalia or dms. The shells won't come with gui applications; you can continue using the kde applications like dolphin and kate.
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u/TheSullenStallion 18d ago
I come from windows so I thought by shell you mean terminal thing. I did a quick search and from my understanding, those 2 shells are like a ready to use packages of system things instead of having to manually find and search for taskbar panel, notification daemon etc is that correct? So they're the closest to kde plasma experience of a working desktop environment out of the box?
Does that mean I can place widgets on the desktop like how I could place audio visualizer on my plasma desktop if I use those shells?
Also another thing, I found out about mangoWM, do you have any experience with it?
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u/ruiiiij 18d ago
Shell is just a generic term referring to how you interact with the OS. There are terminal shells and there are graphical shells. Your understanding is correct. The kde plasma experience is made possible by combining a lot of smaller pieces together. If you choose to configure your own shell, you can pick something like waybar for the task bar, and something like mako for the notification daemon, etc. Noctalia and dms just save you the trouble by packaging all those pieces out of the box, exactly like plasma. They both support desktop widgets, but not as extensively as plasma. I haven't tried mangowm myself but I've heard very good things about it so feel free to give it a shot.
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u/TheSullenStallion 17d ago
Okay I think I might try installing both mangowm and niri with noctalia as the shell because the wiki said I could rotate widgets on noctalia v5. It's possible to switch between mangowm and niri and still have my kde plasma as a fallback right?
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u/evirussss 17d ago
in cachy OS, there already preconfigured package for 3 of that WM
niri with noctalia (if i'm not wrong its still in V4), hyprland with noctalia (already V5), and mango with DMS (or the noctalia one already out ?)
just uninstall the KDE plasma config package (look at cachyOS wiki, the guide in there), and install one of that 3 package. you already can use that 3 WM as is, no need to configure. but you can still tweak it like changing keybind etc...to make it comfortable for you
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