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Yesterday, I decided to perform a clean install of Linux on my main box (Garnet). After a little distrohopping, I ended up settling once again on openSUSE Tumbleweed.
Since I have the specs, I usually run KDE Plasma on this machine; but openSUSE now ships Plasma 6, and I would say that it is currently still a little rough around the edges. However, I still wanted to run Wayland and I do not want to go back to GNOME.
So I installed Wayfire. I used to use MATE+Compiz and I figured that, since MATE seems to be Wayland-ready except for Marco, I'd be able to run the MATE desktop on top of Wayfire. I was wrong. I tried switching the WM to Wayfire in the settings, but the only option was Marco. I tried launching the desktop and panels from inside Wayfire, but it was buggy and certainly not suitable for production. I eventually gave up.
So I installed River. I spent around an hour writing my init script and pulling together components; then I logged out of the compositor and something strange happened. Instead of returning to the display manager, I was presented with the blank background River had had when I logged in in the first place; except this time no key combinations worked, and I couldn't switch to a TTY either. The same problem occurred when I rebooted and logged in normally. I eventually gave up.
So, what to do? Well, the thing I feel Wayland is missing is a lightweight desktop environment. It has plenty of compositors, and the big two desktops have made the switch; but we're probably not going to see Xfce or MATE running smoothly on Wayland for a while yet. As such, I'm going to try to create my own.
Assuming I actually find the time to make it, the new desktop will be called the Aster Desktop Environment, named after the Asteraceae family of flowering plants, which were originally known as Compositae. This is a reference to both the composite nature of the desktop, and the fact that the Wayland equivalent of a window manager is known as a compositor. The long and unweildy name could be shortened to either ADE or simply Aster.
Aster will initially be cobbled together from components of other desktops and projects, but I hope to replace parts of it with my own code when and if the project becomes more popular. Currently, the plan is to use:
I also plan to write my own logout UI, as the only options available are wofi and wlogout, which don't quite fit what I had in mind for the desktop.
You can find AsterDE on Codeberg. If it still seems worthwhile later this year, I'll move it to the X-Industries Codeberg.
EDIT: Replaced mate-panel with sfwbar.
EDIT 2: Updated post to reflect that I have created the desktop.
First Published 2024-04-12 12:24 BST
Last Edited 2024-04-14 22:26 BST