Step 1: open a terminal emulator of your choice. There's no step 2 because you are already done. All features, 0 dependency on your mouse.
You're welcome :)
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
You could use terminal for everything, but first you must learn to use terminal.
Even better, after your machine boots up, press ctrl+alt+F(3-6) to access TTY sessions and then there is no mouse at all. Plenty of TUI apps work just fine here too.
Don't install a GUI and you can just skip this step
Difference being you can still do things like launch steam games as long as you have a DE installed even if you’re using TTY primarily.
I was mostly being tongue in cheek, but I think it might be possible to launch steam in big picture mode, rendered by Gamescope, from the TUI. No DE required.
Oooh fascinating! I’m gonna have to try that myself. Bring us back to DOS days of computing.
Yes this works but not with flatpak steam unfortunately.
To achieve this you will need a tiling window manager like Sway, Hyprland, or i3 and try to use as many CLI-based programs as possible for everything else. For browsers, there are projects like Nyxt (and some others I can't remember) that allow you to use vim or emacs like shortcuts to browse around.
However most GUI apps probably won't support an all-keyboard workflow so you will still need one. Depending on what software you use, however, you could make the vast majority of your regular computing mouse-free
Additional browser option: https://www.qutebrowser.org/
luakit works similarly too
I did mention tiling managers already. Other comment has me interested in NixOS, and I think I'll be changing my plans to account for both. It's a nerdier setup now, RIP Bazzite.
I love Mullvad browser, though. It's a great "peace of mind" browser. I'll stick with it for now, but I will be looking into Nyxt. Might take a while.
Thank you!
I would strongly recommend not to dive into NixOS yet.
It has its benefits and I think it's awesome, but it has a bit of a learning curve and you already have plenty of learning to do with going mouseless and the whole interface stuff. You do not want to deal withbreakages in unstable NixOS, or broken Nvidia drivers in stable.
If Bazzite's immutability is holding you back, just switch to another distro you are familiar with: Be that Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE, whatever.
Hyprland is the most complete and configurable tiling window manager today, so definitely start with that. You can install it in any Linux distro.
I have Arch familiarity already, and I'll use it if all else fails. I'll read into NixOS beforehand and decide, but I am a quick and determined learner. I want to expand my experience with this build. Won't do anything stupid--promise!
I'd like to argue the other way: jump into whatever you find interesting and do stupid shit.
Unless this is a computer that your job relies on or whatever, then it doesn't matter how much shit you break, as long as you're learning what to not do next time.
It's pretty much how everyone who is all 'oh no! be very careful and take small steps!' started, but they've just forgotten about having done that.
(I've broken so much shit both personally and professionally, but it just served to make me less stupid in the future. Or uh, at least unlikely to do the same stupid thing twice.)
Arch with i3/sway is what I'd recommend then. NixOS seems really cool, but I've heard it's very difficult. Also it's going to be much easier to test stuff out on Arch, then once you have a full setup you like, you could try Nix.
I'd recommend Neovim too, with some nice extensions. That's what I'd start with, and you can start on MacOS. I wouldn't feel at home in the terminal without it, and I think you'll really want it for setting up everything else. I'd almost say that vim or emacs is a prerequisite for something like NixOS.
Between vim and a tiling wm, you're going to have enough of a learning curve to start, I think.
I use a firefox plugin on librewolf and i3 (since qubes doesnt support wayland). Mostly works but still some things that require mouse for other gui applications.
Don't run a window manager and you don't need a mouse at all. No problem.
Just don't start X and your problem is solved.
So true, now how do I play Monster Hunter
On your Steam Deck?
In the Linux world we have this great training routine called broken updates that forces users to regularly rediscover the magic of text mode. If you're lucky enough to run a specialized graphics card you get to experience this almost every update.
We have a similar program for training users how to cope without WiFi.
Not anymore if you run an immutable system
Lol on nixos I've broken my gui twice so far. Keeping old configurations is nice but I learned the hard way that I should have been keeping copies of my configuration.nix
I haven't tried any ostree based distros yet.
You can always break your GUI yourself, but I was talking about updates breaking it.
It's really easy to go mouseless on Linux/Unix. Just use as many TUI programs as possible since none of them will be mouse-oriented.
Also check out this list: https://github.com/erikw/vim-keybindings-everywhere-the-ultimate-list
A lot of people (myself included) like vim keybindings and want them in other programs, and of course using vim keybindings is inherently mouseless.
Off the top of my head, some software I use:
I don't use them, but you can also use something like Mutt, Neomutt, or Aerc for an email client, and use CLI bittorrent clients and password managers.
LibreWolf with Vimium-C? Could I do this with Mullvad?
EDIT: Upon second thought, I feel like this might be very easily identifiable, and break the entire purpose of Mullvad
Yes, exactly, installing additional add-ons for Mullvad browser (except noscript) defeats the purpose. I also find it annoying whenever I have to use Tor Browser or Mullvad Browser because I have to use the mouse.
I use Librewolf for my "normal"/fingerprintable/non-anonymous browsing, but I still try to reduce fingerprintability (don't have too many add-ons installed, RFP is on ofc, I have letterboxing etc).
To be fair, if you want to reduce fingerprintability but still browse the web with just your keyboard, the TUI web browsers could work. Obviously they're pretty uncommon, but I imagine you'd look like any other user of lynx/w3m/etc. So you'd be quite unique but I'm not sure if you'd be distinguishable from other users of the same browser.
XMonad would make that exceptionally easy. If you want to try it, I’d recommend doing it on NixOS and just forking a working config that uses a tiling window manager. This is a great config that I used as the foundation for my own: https://github.com/gvolpe/nix-config
Very, I only really use my mouse for playing video games at this point. You don't really NEED to use Emacs/Vim/etc, but they do help a lot. Ranger (file manager), cmus (music player), qutebrowser (web browser, full featured unlike Lynx, which I do still like, but I use eww in place of it most of the time), etc, etc. Tons of stuff that can make your setup far, far less mouse dependent. Starting with learning the terminal, then using a twm is how I got to the point where I am now where all non-necessary mouse functions are replaced by keyboard keys. Just note that it did take about ten years to get here, though that wasn't me actively searching for ways to do it, more just naturally making my computer work how I wanted it to without the specific end-goal of zero mouse usage.
Edit: Forgot to include that I did most of this before learning Emacs at all. I've used nano for most of my time on Linux, only switching to Emacs last August. Only thing I didn't have before that was cmus. It also works as an email client, but ehh... I don't feel a strong need to switch away from Thunderbird at this point in time.
Completely, if you look at tiling window managers.
If you're a gnome user check out PaperWM as well as Search Light (which is like Spotlight or whatever its called on Mac).
And Vim really is that good. I started using it a few years back and I can't imagine using anything else. There's a bunch of Vim alternatives, like Helix or NeoVim if you want to explore.
One of the early window managers was called Rat poison for this very reason.
As you're doing a bazzite build, it'll come with KDE/GS connect so you can use your phone.
We don't have a window manager in the Ublue space yet other than community images, but fedora atomic offers a sway spin, it won't be bazzite, but it'll run games just as well for the most part.
You can launch steam games from terminal pretty easily.
Browsing can be done with Vimium on Firefox.
Just tackle the times you touch your mouse one issue at a time and you could try putting the mouse in a different room to create a small barrier between you and using it.
I have done a lot to make my environment nearly 100% mouseless. The only exception is gaming. You just need a mouse for most modern gaming.
That said, it requires a large amount of personal customization. If you edit files/code, look into Vim/Neovim. Heck, just learn Vim Key bindings. Sorry, not sorry, it's worth it.
Install vimium in your browser so you don't have to use a mouse nearly at all while browsing the internet. Learn how to use it.
IMHO a tiling window manager is a must if you want to make your setup as keyboard centric as possible. i3 is a good starter. I currently use BSPWM, but there's quite a few to choose from, and they all are roughly the same once you have your keyboard shortcuts in place. Make sure to combine it with an application launcher like dmenu or rofi. If you need a status bar like i3bar, use one (I personally go without).
Get very very familiar with the terminal. You'll know you're down the rabbit hole far enough when you can connect and troubleshoot a WiFi/Ethernet connection without using the mouse. Imho, you don't really need a file manager, though it's nice to have. I do have one on hand just in case, but just a terminal and the good ol' ls command is good enough for me.
Also look into ortholinear keyboards (acronym is OLKB) if you truly want to fly. Pricy investment, but your hands will thank you later, and once you are comfortable with that, the combination of an OLKB with a tiling window manager WILL make you fast.
I became obsessed with foregoing the mouse from 99% of my day to day use of my computer a couple of years ago and it is very very satisfying. Learning curve is high. But IMHO totally worth it.
As others have suggested, getting more familiar with the terminal and using a tiling window manager will help a lot. And yeah it's a great idea to learn Vim or other advanced terminal editors. I use Helix+Zellij for development, Vim for system configuration, and i3 or Sway for GUI stuff. Also check out w3m for simple web searches.
If you want to get rid of the mouse entirely, you can also try using a programmable keyboard with mouse support. I don't use a physical mouse anymore because I do most things in the terminal, and when I do need a mouse I just use my keyboard to move the cursor. For super mouse-heavy tasks like image editing it's good to keep one around or use a Wacom tablet
Way back when we didn't have X we just lived in the CLI console, text mode, no bitmap buffer. Then, when X came up you used the rodent to point at xterm windows. If you're used to OS X, wait, MacOS, you're going to try recreating equivalent functionality on Linux, which seems a lot of work. Have you looked into adding a trackpad?
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