Что если рабочий стол сделать бесконечным? Linux WM из будущего

Core idea: “Infinite desktop canvas” window managers (Linux)

The video contrasts classic desktop “stacking” (freely placed, overlapping windows) and tiling (automatic grid layouts). It notes that real user choice often depends more on habits and the interface model than on objective “correctness.”

However, both approaches still limit users because the workspace is constrained by:

• Screen size
• Workspace/layout rules

The video then introduces a more radical concept: the desktop as an infinite canvas—a space you can pan/scroll/zoom freely, where the display behaves like a camera viewport over a potentially unbounded workspace. This is presented as both futuristic and potentially confusing (“how do you never lose the window?”).

To explore this idea, the presenter reviews three Linux projects implementing infinite-canvas behavior.

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1) Drift VM (Wayland; touchpad-first)

Overall feel / maturity

• Presented as the most convenient and well-developed of the three.
• Feels like a nearly complete window manager, with clear controls, configuration, hotkeys, and expected desktop basics.

Installation

• Can be installed via AUR (for Arch-like systems).
• On other distros, it can be compiled from source.
• After login, you start in an empty black infinite canvas where you can:
  • move
  • zoom
  • scroll
  • open a terminal

Configuration

• By default, it needs extra setup to feel fully “desktop-like.”
• The presenter mentions copying config from an etcftm-like folder (subtitle wording is imperfect) and/or copying ready-made settings from an Extas folder in the source.
• Configuration is described as living in a typical config location (subtitles mention something like config.toml, though exact paths are unclear).

Desktop behavior / interaction model

• Infinite canvas metaphor: your screen is a viewport camera.
• When two windows are brought together, they snap into implicit groups that can be:
  • moved
  • resized
  • viewed together
• Unlike tiling or conventional workspaces:
  • there’s no fixed workspace grid
  • overlap happens only when you choose it

Touchpad & gestures

• Designed for laptop + touchpad.
• Supports gestures for:
  • panning the canvas
  • zooming
• Mouse use is still possible.

Hotkeys (examples)

• Win + Enter: open terminal
• Win + D: open launcher
• Win + Q: close window

How it avoids “losing” windows

It includes multiple navigation methods:

• jump to the nearest window and choose a direction
• view all windows
• “home” (return)
• save canvas positions as bookmarks

The configuration includes a custom script to search through open windows for quick navigation.

Visual features

• The background can be part of the canvas, rendered via a GLSL shader (procedural shader program).

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2) VXVM (X11; “DVM spirit” + infinite tags)

Positioning

• Described as near-classic in the same spirit as Drift VM.
• The subtitle frames it as minimalist—“software that sucks less.”
• Emphasizes:
  • compiling from source
  • avoiding extra bloat

Key concept: infinite tags

• Extends DVM-like logic with infinite tags.
• The screen again acts like a viewfinder for a larger surface to help you avoid getting lost.

Maintained familiar DVM features

It keeps DVM-like concepts such as:

• tags
• lightweight behavior / simple control logic
• focus by window
• foco mode switching
• status bar

Movement & focusing controls

Configuration includes separate keybinds for:

• moving the canvas
• returning to the beginning
• centering windows
• focusing in a direction

Customization is done by editing config.h and recompiling.

Modularity

• Some capabilities are included as modules (not only patches).
• Modules can be enabled/disabled via a modules file.

Making it a usable environment

To reduce the “bare WM” feeling, you can install:

• an animation bar
• rofi for launching apps
• dunst for notifications
• color customization via a tool mentioned as PWall

The presenter stresses: turning a bare WM into a full environment is up to the user.

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3) Hel (Havel?) — very unusual mouse-driven infinite scrolling floating WM

Discovery & first impression

• The presenter says it was found on Reddit.
• It’s immediately different from the other infinite-canvas WMs, both visually and interactively.

Design & inspiration

• Described as a scrolling floating window manager for V/Wayland (subtitles: “Vand”).
• Controls are inspired by a 1988 “Robopike” article (as stated in subtitles).
• The system is framed as transferring ideas from older Unix/Plan 9-like interfaces into a modern setting.

Interaction model

• Mouse-button combinations power almost all controls.
• Instead of traditional keyboard hotkeys, it uses mouse button chords heavily.
• The presenter emphasizes this is a different way of interacting with the desktop, not just a strange WM.

Included tools

It includes its own tools, such as:

• a terminal
• an editor
• a control panel (or something similar)

Documentation / practicality

• Nearly no proper documentation.
• Default configuration may not include a traditional application launcher.
• Assumes applications are run from the terminal, making it hard to use as a practical daily replacement for a normal desktop.

Verdict

• Feels more like an interface artifact: inconvenient yet curious, even “addictive.”
• Not recommended as a daily driver, but worth trying to understand what “strange window managers” can be.

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Main speakers / sources (as mentioned)

• The video’s presenter/narrator (unnamed in subtitles), referencing their own channel, Boost supporters, and a Telegram community.
• Referenced projects:
  • Drift VM (Wayland)
  • VXVM (X11)
  • Hel (Havel) (mouse-driven infinite scrolling floating WM)
• External inspiration mentioned:
  • a 1988 Rob Pike article (as stated in the subtitles)