Anything that gets to get to the truth of the matter -- which is that the vast majority of the effort spent by developers and programmers on Window Managers and Desktops and Desktop Managers is mostly a waste of time.
Obviously, people can choose to spend their time how they want -- but I really wish more would consider the possibility that there's entirely too much energy spent on small changes related to just the tiny amount of time between "turning on the computer" and "starting your real work or fun in an application."
I think you are right for a lot of tasks. However, some tasks, arguably more and more for a modern developer, unfortunately involve switching between many different applications and browser tabs. A decently fast programmer will have to spend some time finding the best way to manage this in a way they can both release some working memory and switch quickly. Now, I personally don’t believe that’s worth designing my own windows manager. But I will simply be thankful for those that do.
I 100% agree -- which is why the WM space needs to be more like the "text editor" space and less KDE + Gnome et al trying to be the next Apple OS.
Make a WM (or two or ten) that one can customize to their hearts content and accept that people will customize it, e.g. Vim, Emacs, Atom, Sublime etc.
The key difference is the aggressive backwards compatibility and/or "customary use" breakage, supposedly in the name of user experience. Your Vim today will 100% work like your Vim tomorrow. Your Gnome today is going to break in some way eventually.
Very good points. I need a find an OS independent WM. My mix of BetterTouchTools, Alfred, Karabiner for Mac versus some AutoHotkey and PowerToys for Windows is quite the pain and, as you say, liable to break at any update. Any suggestions?
Obviously, people can choose to spend their time how they want -- but I really wish more would consider the possibility that there's entirely too much energy spent on small changes related to just the tiny amount of time between "turning on the computer" and "starting your real work or fun in an application."