https://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Sun, 10 May 2015 21:18:28 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/I switched to i3 on one of my machines (Debian testing) after using various traditional desktop environments for years, and I am still lacking alternatives to some auxiliary programs which are shipped with such desktop environments. I could of course install those programs separately, but I'd prefer a lightweight solution with as few dependencies as possible. After visiting many web pages with titles of the form "the best *n* Linux *bla bla programs*" and some digging around in distro wikis, I am still looking for suggestions for following types of programs: * **file manager with automount support** (I am currently accessing files directly from console and handling mounts with udisksd.) * **network manager** (Gnome and KDE front ends of NetworkManager come with many dependencies, so I'm currently using wicd, which lacks VPN support.) * **sound manager** (AlsaMixer is not bad, but clicking a trayer icon is easier than opening a terminal window and typing "alsamixer".) * **image viewer** (Until now I used my web browser as an image viewer.) * **PDF reader** (I don't want to use Adobe's proprietary reader, so I am currently using Xpdf, but I really miss features like mouse wheel zooming, printing options etc.) Mon, 18 Aug 2014 14:41:26 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4519#post-id-4519[List of desktop-agnostic applications](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Common_Applications) Volume control: bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec amixer set Master 5%+ unmute bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec amixer set Master 5%- unmute bindsym XF86AudioMute exec amixer set Master nmute And I'll tell you a little secret about software: Power, versatility, low resource usage and a light code base almost never go hand-in-hand with dumbed-down convenience. Automatically mounting external drives is a good example. Any file manager that includes that as a feature is almost certainly going to be part of a desktop environment, or at least will not be any lighter than what you'd find in one from a desktop environment. If you want the lightest file management solution you'll have to do without auto-mounting---unless you're willing to write your own udev rules, or use any of the handful of third-party scripts to automount outside the file manager that are floating around.Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:41:04 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4519#post-id-4519https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?comment=5987#comment-5987Works for me. Simple, needs no special attention, but trying to figure out how to bind my real mute key to the bindsym execution.Sun, 10 May 2015 21:18:28 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?comment=5987#comment-5987https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4575#post-id-4575 - Automount / File Manager `udiskie` is a very nice automounter (with optional tray icon). I highly recommend `ranger` as a file manager, gorgeous software - well worth getting to know. As mentioned it doesn't automount but there's no need to conflate these tasks. - PDF Reader Seconding `zathura` (I'm using it with the nice mupdf rendering backend) - contrary to smlx's answer it does have printing etc. - Network Manager Check out `connman`. It's fast and light, although I can't recommend a specific frontend, the GTK one is OK but not great. Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:15:04 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4575#post-id-4575https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?comment=4580#comment-4580ranger is great +1Sun, 24 Aug 2014 18:26:29 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?comment=4580#comment-4580https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4573#post-id-4573I went through a similar process a few years ago when first switching to a tiling WM. Here's what I've settled on: * file manager with automount support - I use `spacefm-gtk3`; it uses udisks for automount. But `thunar` or `pcmanfm` are also good options (both use gvfs). Also check out `ranger` for a cool CLI file manager (though it doesn't do automount). * network manager - I just installed `network-manager-gnome`. At some point, if you want the functionality you'll just have to install the dependencies (and the dependencies aren't *too* bad..). * sound manager - I use `pasystray` - full pulseaudio control from the system tray. * image viewer - I use `sxiv` - it's the vim of image viewers. * PDF reader - `zathura` is great to quickly read small documents, but on the occasions that I need the extra features (like print, table of contents), I use `evince`. There were also some other features I missed from a full DE: * Clipboard manager - I use `parcellite`. * Notification daemon. `dunst` is too simple for my liking. For example it doesn't handle multi-head setups well, and custom placement of notifications isn't possible. I use `xfce4-notifyd` instead. * Power management - very handy for a laptop. I use `xfce4-powermanager`. Note: I've used the Debian package names, but most should be available in other distros. Sat, 23 Aug 2014 10:00:04 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4573#post-id-4573https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4522#post-id-4522 file manager with automount support: - Thunar with volman (just launch "thunar --deamon" on start) PDF reader: - if u use firefox as ur Browser u can use Firefox for pdf'sMon, 18 Aug 2014 17:15:47 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4522#post-id-4522https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4564#post-id-4564#### Network manager In my config on I use: # network manager (always runs) # (I have no idea why --no-startup-id might be a clever choice, it is used on various websites) exec nm-applet nm-applet is nice since it fits great into my i3bar and does have a nice clickable menu if you want that #### File Manager with automount Sorry, never used one. #### PDF I like okular, but some friends of mine tell me that mupdf is more "pure unix". There are around 10^10^10 pdfviewer out there, choose one. #### Sound Like ANOKNUSA said before it is not hard to create shortcuts for this. I use exactly his lines of code in my configuration file.Fri, 22 Aug 2014 12:26:09 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4564#post-id-4564https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4567#post-id-4567Here are my 2cents: I like my computer plain and simple, but I still want all the goodies. ;-) So here are some of my currently used "desktop" programs **filemanager** > `pcmanfm` It's great to acces any samba share with `gvfs-smb` **network manager** > `nm-applet` **sound manager** set $psst --no-startup-id set $update && killall -SIGUSR1 i3status bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec $psst pactl set-sink-volume 1 -- -5% && pactl set-sink-mute 1 0 $update bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec $psst pactl set-sink-volume 1 -- +5% && pactl set-sink-mute 1 0 $update bindsym XF86AudioMute exec $psst pactl set-sink-mute 1 toggle $update Only use the multimedia keys from my notebook. **image viewer** > `feh` **pdf viewer** > I used to use `apvlv`, no switched to `zathura` and I am very happy with it. Both viewers support vim keybindings, what more could you ask for. Fri, 22 Aug 2014 21:07:21 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4517/desktop-programs-to-use-with-i3/?answer=4567#post-id-4567