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Minimalist Linux Setup For Programmers Who Want to be Productive

Shalitha Suranga 4 months ago 2 min read

People use various sorts of Linux distributions according to their preferences. Indeed the selection of the desired Linux distribution simply depends on what work you do with Linux. Some articles say “Best Linux distros.., Top Linux distros in 2020, etc” But my opinion is that there is no perfect Linux distro that will match 100% with your preference. But one/or some of distro(s) can be tweaked a bit for matching what you expect.

Here is a cool thing I found from Reddit.

Image credits: Reddit

I have been using Ubuntu distribution for a couple of years now(recently upgraded to the latest LTS edition). Here are some tweaks and configurations I used to fit it with my preference, maybe you also like this configuration as it will increase your productivity with the help of the minimalism concept.

Main view-port

View-port — without the top bar, a screenshot by the author
View-port — with the top bar, a screenshot by the author

Desktop

I am having only 2 desktop icons(Home folder and the trash bin). I usually clone code repositories into $HOME/Projects/ .In fact, I am using an eye-friendly neutral wallpaper that will not distract day to day work.

Top bar

Top bar is always hidden in the view port and it can be toggled only by using the F11 key(In case of switching networks or checking time). Hide top bar GENOME extension was used to do this tweak.

Resource monitor GENOME extension was used to get the indicator of network usage. But I deactivated the visibility of icons(two different icons for WiFi is not the way to go with minimalism) and also enabled the WiFi network status only because I never use ethernet cable with my current laptop.

Dock

I re-positioned Ubuntu dock into the bottom of the screen also by changing icon size to 20x20 pixels. My favorites section consist of just Terminal, Chrome, Files, VScode, VLC, Skype, System monitor and Screenshot, For other applications I will quickly activate main search with the keyboard.

Software

I always prefer the cloud-first approach, In other words, If I need to get some work done I always try to use a cloud application before hitting apt-get install … . The reason is that your operating system eventually becomes an abandoned store of software if you install separate software for each and every need unless you don’t clean unwanted software frequently which will never happen basically.

Some cloud apps I use frequently

  • Google Docs and Sheets
  • Aww whiteboard — For any sketching work
  • Google search for literary anything — calculations, unit conversion etc.

And following native/hybrid apps are frequently used too

  • VScode
  • Chrome
  • VLC media player
  • Terminal
  • Skype
  • System monitor
  • Screenshot

Terminal

The terminal is having a small amount of transparency and styled with the color scheme. Other than those simple adjustments it is basically having the default appearance.

Terminal window, a screenshot by the author

Shalitha Suranga

Senior Software Engineer at 99x | Apache PMC member | Open Source Contributor (Author of Neutralinojs) | Technical Writer

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Tags: linux minimalist operating systems productivity ubuntu

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FactsOverflow (also known as FO) is an educational non-commercial blog that publishes stories mostly about computer science and programming. This website contains articles written by volunteers who need to show their findings, experiments, and open-source-related activities to the right community.

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