The Regolith Linux desktop now supports Ubuntu 19.10.
We wrote about Regolith Linux (a distro) and the Regolith desktop (a DE) earlier in the year — and the topic proved incredibly popular with many readers.
So I’m pleased to hear that the Regolith experience is now available on Ubuntu 19.10, aka the latest version of Ubuntu.
While I recommend read our earlier post out for a comprehensive look at what Regolith is, what it offers, and why it’s (imo) pretty cool, I’ll recap the essentials:
Regolith Linux is lightweight Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 19.04 that uses the Regolith desktop by default.
The Regolith desktop is made up of several packages and tools. It takes an i3 window manager fork (i3-gaps), add a bunch of tiling window manager niceties (like rofi), and tops it off with a sane set of usable defaults.
What particularly nice about the Regolith desktop is that you do not have to install the Regolith Linux distribution to try it out.
You can install the Regolith desktop on Ubuntu 19.04 (and other flavours) by adding the Regolith Linux PPA to your software sources.
And it’s this PPA — to circle back to the point of this particular post — that now provides packages for Ubuntu 19.10 too.
Phew! We got there in the end!
If you fancy going hands on with this i3-based desktop environment you can — just keep in mind that tiling window managers are keyboard-centric and this can feel very alien if you’re using to mousing your way around things.
Keen to sample it?
First, to add the Regolith PPA to your software sources run this command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kgilmer/regolith-stable
Next, to install the Regolith desktop on Ubuntu 19.10, run this command:
sudo apt install regolith-desktop
Finally, sign out of your current session and, from the login screen, pick the Regolith session. Then sign in.
The desktop is pretty “empty” by default, so smush the Super + ? buttons to reveal a keyboard shortcut cheatsheet, or press Super + Space to open the app launcher and launch an app.
You can return to the regular Ubuntu desktop (or another DE) by logging out of the Regolith desktop (Super + Shift + e) and, from the login screen, choosing a different session to sign in to.
via Popey