🖥️ 🐧 JDE – Jo's Desktop Environment

JDE is my minimalist desktop environment setup for Arch Linux based on spectrwm and polybar using Nord color scheme. The goal is to create a lightweight, reproducible, and easy-to-maintain system that uses modular shell scripts and clear dotfile management via GNU stow. This collection of scripts was created to restore my personal desktop configuration on new computers and document my setup. Use at your own risk!

This is work in progress

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✨ Features

• Window Manager: spectrwm – A minimal and efficient tiling window manager
• Status Bar: polybar – A highly customizable status bar
• Dotfiles Management: GNU stow for easy and transparent configuration management
• Compositor: picom for transparency and visual effects
• Terminal: alacritty as the default terminal emulator
• Application Launcher: rofi for fast application launching and menus
• Notification daemon: dunst
• Color theme: Nord color

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📋 Requirements

• A minimal Arch Linux installation e.g with EndavourOS or archinstall
• Internet connection for package installation
• Basic familiarity with terminal usage

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⚙️ Installation

1️⃣ Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/johausmann/JDE.git
cd JDE

2️⃣ Run the main setup script

/setup.sh

This script will:

• 📦 Install all required packages (X-org, spectrwm, polybar, etc.)

• 🔗 Set up dotfiles using GNU stow

3️⃣ Start the desktop environment

startx

Or you can start the session wit a login manager such as lemurs

🛠️ Manual Installation

If you prefer to run the setup scripts individually:

# Install system packages
./setup/01-install-packages.sh

# Set up dotfiles
./setup/02-setup-paru.sh

🗂️ Directory Structure

JDE/
├── setup.sh                     # Main setup script
├── setup/
│   ├── 01-install-packages.sh   # Package installation
│   └── 02-setup-paru.sh     # Dotfiles setup using GNU stow
└── dotfiles/                    # Managed configuration files
    ├── spectrwm/                # spectrwm configuration
    ├── polybar/                 # polybar configuration
    └── X11/                     # Xorg / Xinit configuration

🎨 Customization

All configuration files live in the dotfiles/ directory and are managed using GNU stow.

To apply or update configurations manually:

cd dotfiles
stow -t ~ spectrwm

See dotfiles/README.md for details on managing and extending dotfiles.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for more information.