Love thy Mouse 🐭
Tags: productivity, writing, linux, ux
Published: 2022-11-16 07:10:57

For the past 3 years I have been dead-set on using the mouse as little as possible. To some, this may sound absolutely ludicrous, but to developers, oftentimes the mouse just gets in the way. 

You see, 10x developers have this thing called **flow** where they get so enveloped into their code, and are cruising and churning out code so quickly that having to lift their hands off the keyboard to grab the mouse becomes a huge problem.

Notice how this 10x developer keeps their hands on the keyboard AT ALL TIMES.

![A 10x developer vibing](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/yo2foaolog0bav60l81c.gif)

This is maximum efficiency. 
This is maximum productivity.

This was (kind of) my mindset for 3 years. I do believe there's tremendous benefit to the before-mentioned, but I also think it's an elitist (and stubborn) mindset to be in. Keyboard-only is not always best.

So how did I break this mindset? The answer is simple.

I bought a Steam Deck.

![A Steam Deck](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/k4v458qrb6133x7ctjdy.png)

No, this isn't an advert for Valve, though I do feel the purchase has been 100% worth it. I've always had a soft spot for handhelds, and I knew that I wanted to buy one the day it was announced.

The day I got it, I found out that it had a Desktop environment which runs a themed KDE Plasma (at least at the time I'm writing it).

So I opened up the Steam Deck's "Desktop Mode" and the first thing that caught my eye was the [absolutely stunning theme](https://store.kde.org/p/1294174). 

![Screenshot of KDE Plasma Desktop](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/2u2tkl59ch9h6mr9ae0m.jpg)

Take a moment to bask in it's beauty.

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Beauty aside, I found the interface incredibly easy to use, which is a huge accomplishment given that you are navigating a desktop environment with what is essentially a video game controller with a screen. Think about it for a moment. Operating a Desktop with a controller and actually enjoying it. KDE + Valve somehow made it work.

**KDE 💘 Valve**

I was so impressed that I decided to install KDE Desktop on my laptop to give it a closer look.

I took some time to configure things in it like virtual desktops, keyboard shortcuts, etc to mimic i3 and also installed some themes. I wanted a desktop environment, but I also wanted to be able to navigate and move windows using only the keyboard.

I also found a nice Firefox extension called [tridactyl](https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl) that provides easymotion and vim bindings.

I've been with this setup for about a week now and I think it's here to stay. I get the best of both worlds. A beautiful interface that's easy to configure, and a ton of keyboard shortcuts to move around it. Did I say that I love how easy it is to configure KDE?

Would I do it all again? 

Hell yeah! 

I learned so much about getting things to work in Linux (I ran i3/Arch btw for a while), was introduced to the magical world of easymotion, and have a killer workflow now because of it. I've also amassed a healthy amount of [dotfiles](https://github.com/devnoot/dotfiles) in the process 🚀

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