[phyrrus9]

So, I recently remembered how much I miss arch linux, but I have also grown rather attached to DirectvNow, which doesn't work at all in linux. Then I remembered I have VMware, but I hate having to have the vm console window open and constantly switching between them.

My solution: x11 forwarding and a baseline arch linux install. So, finally I get to tile things how I want them. Let me know what you guys think about the tiled layout I'm using.
I've got 5 monitors, in two arrays (3x1 and 2x1), but to keep this image small I only took a screenshot of the first logical monitor (3x1).
The chrome windows are just carefully resized to be approx the size as one physical monitor.
There are two xterm instances, one with green text and one with blue text
on xterm 0, I'm using screen that is split horizontally once and vertically once, allowing me to have a nice wide system shell, a nearly square IRC console, and another nearly square console that is SSH to a server I use for web hosting as well as my serial console for network equipment.
xterm 1 is used for pianobar (a command line pandora radio client).
Task manager is thrown in there for extra stats.

(image is quite large)

Spoiler:

Full size image

Also, this is my 128th thread! I've now completed 8 full bits of threadwork, yay!

[mothered]

Although fluctuating, that's some Intense CPU activity you have going there.  Love the layout, no complaints whatsoever.

Then I remembered I have VMware, but I hate having to have the vm console window open and constantly switching between them.

I certainly agree with this. If there was better Interchangeability, It'll make life a lot easier. I have 6 VMs running simultaneously and don't enjoy the task of switching between screens.

[phyrrus9]

Although fluctuating, that's some Intense CPU activity you have going there.  Love the layout, no complaints whatsoever.

Then I remembered I have VMware, but I hate having to have the vm console window open and constantly switching between them.

I certainly agree with this. If there was better Interchangeability, It'll make life a lot easier. I have 6 VMs running simultaneously and don't enjoy the task of switching between screens.

Lots of stuff happening on this machine at any given time. Usually about a billion chrome tabs, directv, a couple virtual machines, and VS.

[mothered]

Although fluctuating, that's some Intense CPU activity you have going there.  Love the layout, no complaints whatsoever.

Then I remembered I have VMware, but I hate having to have the vm console window open and constantly switching between them.

I certainly agree with this. If there was better Interchangeability, It'll make life a lot easier. I have 6 VMs running simultaneously and don't enjoy the task of switching between screens.

Lots of stuff happening on this machine at any given time. Usually about a billion chrome tabs, directv, a couple virtual machines, and VS.

100+ tabs alone (also depending on the nature of the webpages opened at the time), can consume a considerable amount of memory. And that's aside from the memory killer of multiple VMs.

I'd easy have around 120+ tabs open and 6 VMs running on my system with 32GB of ram. In combination with other tasks, the available memory has come as low as 3GB at one point. Ram Is volatile, so no problem In getting It back.

[Nohbdy]

So, first thing first, I think Arch is a giant security disaster waiting to happen.

Secondly, it's a terribad idea to post screenshots without double checking their contents.

Thirdly, you should upgrade to Hexchat.

Fourthly, While I understand the purpose behind tiling on the desktop environment, I find it's not for me. I feel like it hinders the ability to absorb as much information as possible from a window, as it artificially restricts the size of a window. With a non-tiled window manager, I have the ability to de-prioritize, say, email, or Twitch, on a temporary basis, and don't feel constrained to limit what's on my screen.

Fifthly, I feel like having performance monitoring applications, such as Task Manager, be open constantly is overkill. Tools such as task manager, htop, strace, et cetera are meant to be diagnostic, and having such tools open constantly is asking for premature optimization where it isn't needed.

[mothered]

I feel like having performance monitoring applications, such as Task Manager, be open constantly is overkill. Tools such as task manager........are meant to be diagnostic

I beg to differ.

I have Task Manager running In the background on 6 systems, and by no means Is that an overkill. Monitoring my CPU and In particular Ram usage (when running 6 simultaneous VMs combined with other resource-hungry tasks) Is paramount.

[Nohbdy]

I feel like having performance monitoring applications, such as Task Manager, be open constantly is overkill. Tools such as task manager........are meant to be diagnostic

I beg to differ.

I have Task Manager running In the background on 6 systems, and by no means Is that an overkill. Monitoring my CPU and In particular Ram usage (when running 6 simultaneous VMs combined with other resource-hungry tasks) Is paramount.

If you're running into memory usage failures, you've done something wrong along the ways in my opinion. If you're running VMs on a personal computer or a labstation, you should keep account of how much memory you allocated, so as to not allocate more memory than your system has.

With CPU, again, I'd reassert my stance that task manager, strace, htop, et cetera aught to be diagnostic. You only really need to check CPU utilization if something feels slow and you need to figure out what is wrong. If you're checking it before there's a problem, you're introducing premature optimization into the system.

[mothered]

If you're running into memory usage failures, you've done something wrong along the ways in my opinion.  If you're running VMs on a personal computer or a labstation, you should keep account of how much memory you allocated, so as to not allocate more memory than your system has.

My post was relative to "Task Manager" being an overkill as per your comment:

I feel like having performance monitoring applications, such as Task Manager, be open constantly is overkill

Not to worry, I appreciate your feedback.

You only really need to check CPU utilization if something feels slow and you need to figure out what is wrong.

Not the case at all.

Your system can run fine with no significant Impact on performance with 80% CPU usage, yet that magnitude (on a consistent level) Is too high In anyone's language, hence monitoring Is Imperative.
Again, appreciate your feedback.

[phyrrus9]

If you're running into memory usage failures, you've done something wrong along the ways in my opinion.  If you're running VMs on a personal computer or a labstation, you should keep account of how much memory you allocated, so as to not allocate more memory than your system has.

My post was relative to "Task Manager" being an overkill as per your comment:

I feel like having performance monitoring applications, such as Task Manager, be open constantly is overkill

Not to worry, I appreciate your feedback.

You only really need to check CPU utilization if something feels slow and you need to figure out what is wrong.

Not the case at all.

Your system can run fine with no significant Impact on performance with 80% CPU usage, yet that magnitude (on a consistent level) Is too high In anyone's language, hence monitoring Is Imperative.
Again, appreciate your feedback.

Who says I don't have it there for diagnostics? I've only got a relatively stable clock, when a deadlock happens its nice to have some information about what happened up to that point (clock, utilization, temperature, etc) to debug which value needs adjustment.

[mothered]

Who says I don't have it there for diagnostics?

If this pertains to me, I mentioned nothing of the sort.

My post Is relative to the member's comment (and belief), that having Task Manager constantly open Is an overkill. I can't make sense of that. I also reiterate the fact that monitoring Is Imperative, hence when Issue(s) are experienced, diagnosis (where warranted) can commence to rectify the problem based on the findings/Indicators of the active monitoring.