The story and the dotfiles
The purpose of this project is to build up a keyboard-centric writing workflow on Linux. The specific case is configured on a PineBook Pro, an ARM-based laptop, but it should be reproducible on any Linux machine, from 64-bit workstations to 32-bit legacy systems, and including single-board ARM devices.
This adventure started with a very simple idea: the need of a silent, fanless, minimalist setup to work at night. But as I approached the last steps I realised I was feeling good for other reasons. A minimalist system brings a sense of efficiency. Avoiding all the unnecessary bloat in the major desktop environments is a challenging path, and it does bring some headaches. But it is worth the effort.
Once installed and configured, this workflow can be tweaked to the smallest detail. The path can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to bare bones Linux. But once you get the feeling, you can achieve unexpected productivity. A writing workflow around vim and dwm is somehow like a journey to the past, but it also feels like it makes a lot of sense. After working for several weeks on this setup, going back to my main desktop with KDE feels like a lot of bloat, like you're running hundreds of unnecessary processes to do exactly the same: writing, browsing and checking your mail.
I decided to share all the configuration process, basically for myself, so I could reproduce the steps in the future, but also, why not, to let others enjoy, and be more productive. If you're interested in any way, just keep reading the following chapters in any order.