After recently installing a new system, I had a rude awakening when I realized I’d been tinkering with broken dotfiles for over a year. It’s time to simplify things. I’m considering adopting popular dotfiles with established installation processes and leaving my existing setup behind, transferring essential configurations initially and addressing the rest over time. What I’m looking for, above all, is a dependable installation process that not only configures the dotfiles but also handles the program installations required for them to function seamlessly. Your suggestions and insights are much appreciated. Thanks! 🐧💻
I recommend against setup scripts for window managers, because it makes it difficult to change components without understanding the consequences. In my opinion it’s better to copy each config file manually, which makes it easier to later suit it to your needs.
It’s more work to get a good starting configuration, but it pays off over the years of using it. Nothing prevents you from copy parts of someone elses config to quickly get started.
Edit: LARBS been around for a many years so it’s a good choice, since it’s likely to be maintained for years to come.