You still need X11 or Wayland somehow. I would suggest something that can run in “kiosk” mode. That’s essentially what you want - boot a single app and run that.

If you don’t care about wayland, just install xorg-xinit (since you said Arch) and put this in ~/.xinitrc: exec steam -bigpicture

Run startx to launch it on its own. There may be other dependencies you need for steam or for games, but you don’t need a whole DE.

If you want, you can even enable auto-login and then set up auto-start by adding this to your ~/.bashrc (or whatever shell you use):

if [[ -z $DISPLAY ]]; then
  startx
fi

I’d recommend using something like Niri instead of mutter for the compositor as Niri is:

• Extremely customizable
• Meant to be used alone (unlike mutter which is for Gnome)
• Supportive of Wayland portals better than any compositor I’ve tried
• Very modern
• Pretty stable
• Making use of scrolling window management which is, imo, superior to anything else
  • You could force all windows to be floating if you want that traditional method tho

I’d also recommend using DankMaterialShell and simply providing a theming to get the appeal you want. It works well with Niri and provides all the system tools you need for an OS like bluetooth and audio management, application lookup, etc. It’s sort of a stripped down Gnome-shell for standalone compositors but way more customizable.

Then everything else can just be installed WINE apps.

I like Ardour. It’s got everything you need. It’s what I’ve been using for the past couple years now. It even supports VST2/VST3 plugins through WINE

I also recommend using yabridge to set up Windows plugins to work on Linux, but be warned there is risk of compatibility issues with plugins on Linux when buying new ones!

EDIT - Resources:

• Ardour website - https://ardour.org/
  • Recommend installing from your package manager tho
• Yabridge tool - https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge
• A few plugins that work:
  • Drum kit plugin I like (free) - https://www.powerdrumkit.com/
  • Voxengo SPAN (Frequency Analyzer, also free) - https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/
  • Luciano Dato’s Noise-Repellant (free) - https://github.com/lucianodato/noise-repellent
  • Typically use the built in LPF/HPF, Graph Eq, Reverb, and Compressor plugins. They work great

Wait a little while and low key Audacity 4 might release a fully capable DAW as well now that it’s adding better clip support, plugin support, non-destructive editing for some effects like compression, reverb, etc. Of course, it will be mainly for if you do a lot of recording. For electronic, Ardour would probably be better even after Audacity 4 releases.

Except that the Linux part of ChromeOS is still open-source and the growth of ChromeOS still would yield benefits to Linux users across the board.

It’s almost certainly much higher than that

First of all, ChromeOS is Linux. It’s a weird Linux, but it is Linux and can be made to run regular Linux software. It’s based on Gentoo. It’s not just “technically” Linux; it just straight up is. It’s even more Linux than Android is.

That adds another 2.69% up to 7.69%

But also, the 4.77% Unknown is almost certainly made up of primarily Linux machines.

So really, it’s a range of percentages anywhere from 7.69% to 12.46%. I would guess Linux users are at least 10% of the US market now

Source: The StatCounter pages the article is referring to for US: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america

World wide is also similar: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/

There we’re potentially even higher: 5.33% to 14.5%. That’s just shy of the worldwide Mac users! macOS + OS X is 15.35% worldwide.

The modern version of Gtk and its APIs started with the switch to Cairo back in Gtk 2.8 circa 2005. While Gtk 3 and 4 have undoubtedly improved upon Gtk 2, they fundamentally still work in a similar paradigm and still have all the crust of a 20 year old library. Like most old software projects, it has some level of backwards compatibility and deprecates and adds slowly. Gtk is, like, the definition of legacy, and Qt is in a similar boat. They’re OLD old.

I personally turn back on persistent sessions and history

I did as well.

My point is just that it makes sense to be the default in that browser given its inclination towards privacy.

just philosophically it should be kinda evident that over-concentration on one corporate controlled rendering engine isn’t a good thing

Totally with you on that point.

However, I feel now that Gecko has already lost. I was a long-time FF and later Librewolf user, but Websites don’t care to support FF as much, so I’d have important sites break. I’d have to have a Chromium-based backup anyway.

So I’ve now given up on that from. I have no real choice but to use Blink in some capacity.

Right. So perhaps Librewolf isn’t a good choice for Zorin OS

Could it have been because of Librewolf?

Some issues definitiely were, but I also noticed issues when going back to regular Firefox and on Firefox mobile and Mull (which is sorta like Librewolf principles but for FF Mobile).

it was mainly because Google could afford to implement new standards faster than Mozilla could

I think that’s exactly what happens.

It definitely wasn’t Firefox’s fault for the compat issues.

Websites would work for months, and then one day only work in Chromium browsers. Sometimes they’d come back. Sometimes only parts would fail. Sometimes they’d never come back. These sites were changing things and breaking Gecko compatibility, but never Blink compatibility. I’d try turning off all the privacy settings, disabling ad blockers and extensions too, but nothing could fix it except using a Blink browser.

So I don’t blame Firefox/Librewolf for this, but it also means I suddenly couldn’t, say, access my loan payment as an example in Firefox. That’s one that broke. I need that to work. It works in Chrome, but not in FF (actually I think it came back to working in FF eventually)

I was always having to have 2 browsers installed, Firefox-based for most things and a Chromium-based backup.

One day I realize that it doesn’t make sense to use a FF-based browser, since if I have to have a Chromium-based backup anyway, I might as well just use a Chromium browser. I didn’t want to use a it, I’m generally against it Blink, but I feel that Gecko has already lost the war. I have no choice. FF is not long for this world

It has to be the default tho, bc the whole point of Librewolf is that it’s trying to by default be untraceable and private.

It’s very easy to disable that and re-enable cookies and the like, but your default experience will fundamentally be private, which is its goal

What’s wrong with Brave?

• Based on Chromium so good web support
• Decent privacy
• Built-in adblock
• Easy to customize
• Open Source

It’s the browser I’ve chosen to use after getting fed up w/ Gecko’s terrible web compatibility these days (coming from Librewolf).

What’s wrong with it? How is it evil?

Slint

I really like Slint.

It has Python bindings, tho you wouldn’t know it from the docs as it’s brand new bindings.

However, it does WORK, and it works well.

Just look for python files in the examples and reference the slint docs (it uses its own UI lang for that stuff anyway).

I’m currently making an application in Python using Slint, and I really like it.

It also supports embedded systems, the web, and multiple languages, AND since it has its own UI lang, you can reuse parts of your UI code across different codebases

It seems to suit your use case.

Godot

Other than that, I second Godot.

HOWEVER

Godot’s GD Script is not Python but rather a Python-like language. (in fact, in some ways, I’m glad it’s not; there are things I prefer in GD Script).

This is important as you may want to use specific Python libraries which won’t work with Godot!

You can, however, use GD Native to bind C++ code and thus C++ libraries, so you’ll still be able to get done whatever you need to get done.

Iced

If you’re not tied to Python, then I recommend the Rust library Iced as it is a very intuitive system. I really enjoy working with it.

Although, that said, Slint has great support for Rust, so maybe I’d recommend Slint anyway if you were gonna change language.

Warning Against Legacy

Avoid GTK, Qt, and TK at all costs imo. Also WinForms if ur on Windows.

They’re old and crusty, and their APIs suck to use, even modern versions, and despite being aged, they’re buggy still, not robust “tried-and-true” methods.

It’s also hard to do dynamic stuff with them.

Just not well designed systems. Important, valuable to know bc they’re used all over, but not well designed

Immediate

I would also try ImGUI.

It’s meant more for gamedev UIs rather than Apps themselves (tho I’ve made a couple in it)

BUT

It’s a totally different way of doing UI called “Immediate” bc you program the elements in a big loop, rather than event driven.

It’s interesting and worth trying as a learning experience

React

And ofc, the Javascript/Electron world is huge and React is very popular with lots of tools. At least read up on it.

Well, it’s gotta be a tiling system. And a good one. At this point I can’t function in a non-tiling environment. Specifically a manual tiler with an auto-tile a la i3 w/ i3-alternating-layout or a dynamic tiler that still let’s you break stuff (doesn’t really exist).

It’s just a better way to use a computer, and I can’t go back. It’s so much nicer. I would stop using a computer before I go back to dragging windows around.

And that rules out most DEs. It rules out Mac OS and Windows, as well, but at least on Windows I can almost get by with Fancy WM. It’s “okay.”

And speaking of just getting by, that’s Polonium with KDE. KDE is pretty good as an “environment,” but it doesn’t have a tiler that meets my needs, or at least I thought it didn’t until recently. Then I discovered Polonium. It works pretty well. Used it for several months (and still do on one machine). It’s very bare bones tho, and is hard to configure the handful of floating windows I do want like popups. So KDE is just scraping by.

GNOME on the other hand has the excellent Pop Shell 2. But well, GNOME is GNOME. It’s buggy when you try to use it a different way than intended. God forbid I want Qt, Gtk2, Gtk3, Gtk4, and libadwaita apps to all look nice on my system! It’s clunky, but the tiling is excellent at least.

Now you mention XFCE. So what about that? You could use i3 as the WM for Xfce. I used i3 for years and years and years as my WM and know how to build a DE around it. Why not use Xfce + i3?

Well, the thing is X11 is as good as dead, and while XFCE now supports Wayland, you can’t use a tiling system with the Wayland version of XFCE.

So what does that leave me?

Nothing. At least for a full on DE, which is what you asked.

There is not a single (pre-made) Desktop Environment that suits my needs. Not a one. Either it doesn’t support good tiling, is too rigid, or hasn’t switched to Wayland.

My only options are:

• Roll my own DE built around Hyprland/Sway, and since I’m on nvidia, those aren’t fantastic options (albeit Hyprland works a lot better on Nvidia these days), and that’s what I’m using.
• Deal with the slight annoyance of the under-implemented Polonium in KDE

Right now I’m on Hyprland. May go back to KDE bc multi monitor is being weird on Hyprland rn.

My one hope is that COSMIC polishes itself up and gets to its first real release.

That’s why kernel anti-cheat is effective

Is it actually effective tho?

Sweet! Now that 4.20 is officially released it’s in Nixpkgs. That means xfce4-panel is 4.20 in unstable

Might go back to Hyprland from KDE now that there’s a half-decent bar for Wayland compositors!

Sweet! Now that 4.20 is officially released it’s in Nixpkgs. That means xfce4-panel is 4.20 in unstable

Might go back to Hyprland from KDE now that there’s a half-decent bar for Wayland compositors!

KDE fs

Or roll your own via a compositor and various tools a la Hyprland

Tbf the devs said “compatibility layer”

No bc of camera proprietariness