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.

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

I rely on cli tools for a lot of things too. Here’s a list:

tmux: terminal multiplexer
zsh (with fzf zsh completion): shell
fzf: fuzzy finder
doas: sudo replacement
bat: cat replacement
fd: find replacement
advcpmv: cp/mv replacement
eza: ls replacement
zenith: htop replacement
trash-cli: trash management
neomutt: email client (notmuch is a most recommended addition)
neovim (and plugins): text/code editor
buku: internet bookmarks manager
tut: mastodon client
ucollage: image viewer
udevil: (un)mounting removable devices and networks without a password
magic-tape: youtube search/download and more
rofi: used with scripts to do a lot of things
pass: password manager
yazi: file explorer
iwd: wireless manager
khal: calendar and webdav sync with vdirsyncer
taskjuggler: complete task manager
newsboat: feed aggregator
fwupd: firmware updater
chawan: web browser
ncmpcpp: mpd-client
duf: disk usage
abook: contacts manager

I have some of them detailed here.
This GitHub also has a long list.

Edit: added abook and duf to the list

Emacs is a nice one as well. Its approach and purposes are just different. But in my opinion difference has a lot of benefits, so long life to all the editors and a big thank you to the wonderful devs who offer these tools to us (remember to buy them a coffee or more if you can).

I personally started with vim and I’m now using neovim for years. And I have to admit that it’s just an editor… But a perfectly optimized one.

It requires some efforts to learn the basic useful features (like horizontal and vertical motion) but I quickly saw its potential. What made me stick to it and willing to invest even more efforts is the fact that you build it to fit your needs like a glove through the interface customization, no limit and powerful keybindings remapping, and a collection of plugins for everything (without making it slow or bloated). With the right plugins, this editor can handle any regular typing or specific coding language, and makes your workflow way more efficient thanks to a great project management approach and/or speedy fuzzy finder file explorer.

I’ve barely started a series of posts dedicated to this incredible editor. Whether or not you’re using a vim or neovim, I’d recommend to stay curious because there’s other editors out there to be aware of and one may prefer them. I’ve tried quite some of themwhen moving to neovim but this one was just the one for me.

The 13 has touchscreen option as well but I’ve missed the budget limit. My bad!

I don’t own one but I’m looking at the framework 13 for my next machine. It has great reviews and fully support Arch. Its price is the main criticism against this machine, though there’s some arguments to justify it but no need to open a trolling post :)

I used to use the famous Zathura for a long time, but it’s really minimal. Sioyek is an incredible pdf reader so overlooked.
Amongst a lot of other things, it lets you:

• quickly preview or jump to figures/references/equations/tables… (even if the PDF does not have links)
• search paper names in any search engine you like (defaults are google scholar and library genesis) by middle clicking on their name or using keybindings
• mark locations (using lower case for local mark and upper case for global mark) or create bookmarks for quick navigation
• highlight text
• save annotations in a local database or embed them in a new version of the PDF file to share them with others
• automatically reload a file when it changes

I wrote a brief overview of it quite some time ago.

Seems outside of what one would expect from a terminal. There’s dedicated app to handle this task.

As others said, the Arch wiki is so well made that it should be the only source you need. Videos will not bring you anything given your background. The main difference with other distros will be the package manager.

A video about the install process will just be someone reading the wiki to you, and a video to “explain” pacman to you will be overkill ;)