Alot has been built around notmuch so its integration is better. On a daily use, I’ve never noticed any issues or latency with notmuch in neomutt though. I was considering Alot as well when looking for a terminal email client but my understanding was that it doesn’t allow for IMAP folders creation within the app. You have to use mbsync and that would slightly friction with my work email workflow. Please let me know if this has changed or if I’ve misinterpreted things. Also, while the neomutt documentation can be quite intimidating, I felt the Alot one to be too limited.

For calendar invites I use mutt-ics to display them nicely and a keybinding associated to a simple khal to seamlessly add them to my calendar. For contacts I use abook.

After years in Neomutt I’m still open to other tools though. Why would you recommend that Alot over Neomutt?

Sorry, I will not talk about browsers in your list because I’ve tried them and my personal preference goes to chawan for these reasons:

• has CSS layout support
• has HTML5 support with various encodings
• can display Inline images in terminals that support Sixel or Kitty protocols (opt-in feature)
• offers basic JavaScript support via QuickJS (opt-in)
• supports HTTP(S), SFTP, FTP, Gopher, Gemini…
• has built-in viewers for Markdown, man pages, and directory listings
• has Incremental loading
• uses multi-processing, so several buffers can be loaded at once
• offer mouse support, bookmarks, and protocol handling extensible by users

If you want to check another option, there’s also brow.sh.

Hope this helps in your web terminal journey :)

Bmm may be a viable option: https://github.com/dhth/bmm
I’m just not sure it can handle folders, but you could use tags as folder names to replicate this behavior ;)

Drawing the line between each category indeed takes some time. Our brain is not use to this approach anymore. Perseverance is key, but it’s kind of a commitment.

Your organization will vary with your usage. If you’re looking for something suitable for work, I would highly recommend the PARA approach. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/

I’ve tweaked it to my needs. Combined with fzf, it makes my workflow so smooth and efficient. https://www-gem.codeberg.page/sys_stay_organized/

It didn’t scare me more than “Zathura” ^^ Hope it will eventually get the love it deserves.

Thanks! I think Sioyek is really overlooked.

Unless you have already made a decision and feel strong about Zathura, I’d like to mention Sioyek. It’s definitely an underrated pick for terminal PDF readers. It works just as well as Zathura, and can even go wayyyy beyond it.

I’ve carefully reviewed your post, and I may have overlooked the reasons why some believe you’re using Wayland, especially since you’re currently using i3. Anyway, I’ll talk about X11 ans Wayland options.

i3 is indeed capable of launching programs via keybindings and supports full mouse functionality. However, it does require significant configuration. To be frank, all tiling WMs necessitate customization. Additionally, many tiling WMs benefit from the installation of a separate tool to serve as a panel bar. Tiling WMs share the concept of shipping with a functional minimal configuration, allowing users to tailor their setup precisely to their preferences.

Here are - to my humble personal opinion - the “easiest” tiling WMs for X11:

• i3: you know it
• awesomewm: comes with a panel, menu, and widgets out of the box.
• bspwm: very lightweight and minimalist. Unlike others, it will require the use of sxhkd to define keybindings. The config is shell-script based, which may feel easier to some compared to lua. This was my preferred option before moving to Wayland and having tried awesomewm, i3, and dwm for years.

And for Wayland:

• sway: drop-in replacement for i3. It uses the same keybindings/config style as i3.
• niri: this one technically uses a “scrollable tiling” model (windows arranged in columns on an infinite strip) rather than the traditional tiling resizing. Due to this model approach, it could be intimated to you but it can achieve great things and may be just what you need for a 11" screen because you can have an infinite number of full/half screen windows that you can scroll horizontally or vertically (thanks to stackable windows and infinite workspaces number).

Talking only about tiling WMs I’ve used, but there may be great/better options out there. You can quickly check the list of features on their respective github page and watch videos to see what each of them can offer. Detailing all their features here would not be digestible.

Edit: except very few tiling WMs (I can think of two), they all fully support the mouse to click or move/resize windows.

I 100% agree with this comment. Also, if that “once-a-year single command” bit was about my comment, I’d have appreciated the shout-out 😄
If not, all good — I was literally talking about copy-pasting a line from the Arch or package page. It’s nothing technical; it’s basically similar as running a pacman command.

Arch has certainly a specific target audience. That’s true for every distros. The magic of GNU/Linux — you get to pick exactly how much chaos you want in your life. From super-polished plug-and-play distros to full DIY mode, there’s something for everyone. Nobody should ever be forced to use a distro. Again, it’s a personal choice and the one that will make you enjoy using your system. Arch is meant for people who have time and desire to build their system and write a bunch of config files. In that sense, yeah, it’s a technical distro, and that certainly not make its users anything special. I’m still and will forever be a Linux noob compared to a lots of people.

I’ve been using Arch for over 15 years, and honestly, I never check the news before updating. Once in a while, I’ll get an error — maybe once a year — and the fix is always just running a quick command I find on the Arch site or the package page. Takes seconds, no drama.

I’ve only managed to break my system twice, and both times were 100% my fault. Even then, recovery was easy: just chroot in and run one command.

As for updates, doing them regularly (daily, weekly, or monthly) is recommended. No need to go crazy with updates. Too frequent updates are actually discouraged. Arch is a rolling release, so your packages and dependencies get updated together — meaning things don’t randomly break. Skipping updates won’t nuke your system either, and if something ever goes sideways, you can just downgrade and be back up in no time.

Welcome :) The myth that “Arch isn’t user-friendly” will probably never die — and neither will “Arch is unstable.” I’m honestly relieved you didn’t dare push the door to join us 😏
If you ever switch machines, you can check how Arch is supported on tons of laptops here.

You’re correct partial upgrades are unsupported. Arch follows a rolling release model, meaning there are no fixed “versions” of the system. Instead, everything is continuously updated. Each package is built and tested against the current state of the rest of the system in the Arch repositories. That package was compiled against the latest system libraries in the repos, not necessarily the ones on your machine.

Your proposed “workaround” may work if the package is standalone and has few/no dependencies. Again, ArchLinux strongly recommends full system upgrades (pacman -Syu) rather than only reinstalling/upgrading a single package, because library or dependency mismatches can occur if your system is out of sync.
A safer approach may be to use “pacman -S package --needed” which will avoid removing it first and automatically handles dependencies safely.

I had some similar concerns before buying my Framework 13. The community here helped me a lot to confirm that this is a great laptop. After 3 months of use I’m still in love with it (got mine on sale).

I had a Dell XPS 13 before that, and tested lots of mainstream brands over the years (Lenovo, Acer, Vaio… and dinosaurs like PB, Toshiba). All within a budget of ~$1200-$1500. They all did a decent job and the XPS13 was certainly the best,  but they all end up going to the trash because of hardware failure after 4 years max.

I wanted to move to a company that cares about Linux and with Framework, hardware issues will not cause death of my machine anymore. I’ll be able to have my machine longer, or upgrade it for a fraction of the price of a new laptop.

https://www-gem.codeberg.page/sys_Framework13-1/ https://www-gem.codeberg.page/sys_Framework13-2/

Also, along my research before opting for Framework, I’ve heard mostly about starlab, purism, tuxedo, and system76. There’s obviously pros and cons for each brand as well as difference in opinions based on individual experience, but a common criticism for these (including Framework) less marketed brands is the price of their machines. Lots of people don’t realize that there’s reasons for a slightly high price.

You’ve just entered a rabbit hole that will push the boundaries of your control on your system.
Now, I’m not 100% sure that I’ve correctly understand what you’re looking for. If you’re after a file manager for nvim or tmux, then I would second yazi for your terminal as previously mentioned. Or you could go bare bone and use the command line straight with the help of some features like zsh and its competition, call to past arguments, zmv (and glob expression)…
For nvim, you can use the default tree explorer for basic usage. More advanced features can be found with telescope for example. I personaly opted for fzf-lua. Both can be used in other plugins as well to make things very easy and powerful. Just to cite a few, I’m using fzf-lua with obsidian (which, despite the name, doesn’t require the tool of the same name) and snacks.

I was about to suggest the framework as well, but I don’t have to :)
I would just add that the build quality is at least equal to any mainstream brand like Dell or Lenovo, and you also gain in repairability/upgradability which will make this laptop last forever (every single piece is replaceable) or upgradable for a fraction of the price of a new laptop.

I wrote a first impression and 2.5 months review if you’re interested.

Didn’t hear of pimsync before. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t think I’m ready to switch yet based on its current limitations, but I’ll definitely keep an eye on it.

I’ve tried a few options, but I’ve stuck with khal for years now.
It works smoothly [1], supports multiple calendars, syncs with vdirsyncer (details in its documentation), and provides both CLI and TUI interfaces that make events easy to see, edit, and manage.

The CLI interface is especially handy for integrating khal with other apps like neomutt and taskwarrior for example. For instance, I have a keybinding that lets me export calendar invites from neomutt directly into khal. There’s also a list of tools (including one for khal) listed in the neomutt documentation if you’re curious.

I use it to manage both my personal and professional calendars, syncing them bidirectionally with vdirsyncer. The only drawback I’ve encountered is that some commands can be a bit cumbersome—but I solved this by writing my own script to make khal’s commands more intuitive for my workflow. That flexibility could be seen as another strength of khal ;)

[1] That’s my experience, but others here have reported it can be slow in some cases.

Tiling WMs are incredibly powerful tools for boosting productivity. Over the years, I’ve tried several: awesome, i3, and dwm. Eventually, I settled on bspwm, which I’ve used for years. It offers far more than you’d expect from a traditional tiling WM—especially thanks to its excellent IPC. That’s why I couldn’t switch to Wayland for the longest time—none of the available options came close to what bspwm gave me.

But just two days ago, I discovered niri, and it completely changed my perspective. It felt like the first time I ever used a tiling WM—like a whole new world had opened up.

Niri fits into the same category as bspwm but takes window management even further. It introduces infinite horizontal scrolling, a novel approach that complements traditional tiling layouts. Combined with a robust IPC (something essential for my workflow), niri allows you to arrange windows dynamically in ways I’ve never seen before—including tabbed layouts that act as a vertical counterpart to its horizontal scroll.

Here’s a short video that only scratches the surface of niri’s potential, but it’s enough to spark your imagination about how customizable and flexible it really is. Personally, I’m deeply grateful to the developers for giving me a reason—and a way—to finally switch to Wayland. I had been desperately waiting for a reliable, robust, and fully-featured tiling WM for Wayland—and what I got was a unicorn I never even imagined.

Rofi is certainly a great choice, though it relies on scripts to customize it to your needs. These scripts can be anywhere from extremely basic to insanely complex but you have to create them.
Personaly I use it as:

• an app launcher
• a clipboard manager
• an infobar to show things like the date/time, memory usage, disk space, battery level, wifi signal…
• an omnibar to perform an internet search, quick units conversions
• a calculator for simple math
• a bookmark manager (list, open, edit, add, remove)
• a password/2FA token manager (list, edit, add, remove, autofill internet fields)
• a wifi manager
• a vpn manager