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A lightweight desktop, built on X11, designed to be fast and easily customiziable
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Flow Desktop 🚀

Flow Desktop is a modern, ultra-lightweight Linux desktop environment engineered for efficiency and customization. Built with modern C++, leveraging XCB, GSettings, and GDesktopAppInfo, Flow Desktop is designed to be minimalistic yet powerful, making it an excellent choice for low-resource systems and users who demand performance without bloat.

Codeberg Repository: Flow Desktop

✨ Technical Overview & Features

🌟 Lightweight & Efficient Architecture

  • Developed using C++17 with STL, ensuring fast execution and easy maintainability.
  • XCB-based taskbar enables direct, low-level interaction with the X11 windowing system, minimizing dependencies.
  • Optimized event handling to reduce latency and improve responsiveness.
  • Uses GSettings for persistent configuration management.

Proper memory management

  • Proper xcb(flush)
  • Better memory management
  • No-leak teechnology

📏 Modular Taskbar System

  • Efficient XCB-based Taskbar
    • Direct low-level interaction with the X server ensures minimal overhead.
    • Multi-button layout: Apps, Terminal, Settings, Volume, Theme, About, Logout.
    • Designed to be extensible—new functionalities can be added easily.
  • Application Menu 📂
    • Automatically scans XDG_DATA_DIRS for .desktop entries.
    • Launches applications via GDesktopAppInfo, ensuring compatibility with standards.

⏰ Real-Time System Clock

  • Continuously updated via an asynchronous event loop for smooth performance.
  • Optimized rendering to avoid unnecessary refresh cycles.

⚙️ Configurable & Themeable

  • User Configuration Support (~/.config/flow-desktop.conf)
    • Set custom wallpaper paths and theme colors dynamically.
    • Parses user preferences efficiently using GIO APIs.
  • Live Theming 🎨
    • Dynamically toggles desktop theme colors.
    • Supports on-the-fly UI adjustments without requiring a restart.

🔊 Integrated Audio Controls

  • Uses PulseAudio for real-time volume adjustments.
  • Supports both on-screen volume indicators and keyboard shortcuts.
  • Direct integration with pactl ensures smooth audio management.

🛠 Optimized Codebase for Extensibility

  • Written with modern C++ practices, avoiding unnecessary memory overhead.
  • Modular design allows easy customization and feature expansion.

📋 Requirements

To run Flow Desktop, install the following dependencies:

  • XCB Development Libraries (libxcb1-dev, libxcb-util-dev, libxcb-cursor-dev, libxcb-shape0-dev, libxcb-render0-dev)
  • GIO Development Libraries (libglib2.0-dev, for GSettings and desktop file handling)
  • C++17+ Compiler (g++ or equivalent)
  • Meson & Ninja (for build automation)
  • Lightweight Window Manager (Openbox recommended)
  • PulseAudio Utilities (optional, for volume control)

On Debian/Ubuntu, dependencies can be installed with:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install g++ pkg-config libxcb1-dev libxcb-util-dev libxcb-cursor-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-render0-dev libglib2.0-dev

🛠️ Building & Installation

🔨 Building from Source

  1. Clone the Codeberg Repository 📥

    git clone https://codeberg.org/flow-desktop/Flow-Desktop.git
cd Flow-Desktop

  2. Compile the Source Code

    g++ flow.cpp -o flow `pkg-config --cflags --libs xcb xcb-util xcb-cursor xcb-shape xcb-render gio-2.0` -std=c++17

  3. Launch Flow Desktop 🚀

    startx ./flow

⚙️ Configuration & Customization

Editing Configuration File

Flow Desktop settings are stored in: ~/.config/flow-desktop.conf

Example configuration:

wallpaper=/path/to/your/wallpaper.jpg
themeColor=0x444444

Modify the file to customize appearance, behavior, and UI elements.

🎮 Usage & Shortcuts

Taskbar Controls

  • Apps: Opens the dynamically-generated application menu.
  • Terminal: Launches the default terminal emulator (xterm).
  • Settings: Provides a basic configuration interface (stub for future expansion).
  • Volume: Displays volume adjustment window; keyboard shortcuts supported.
  • Theme: Instantly toggles theme colors.
  • About: Displays version, authors, and acknowledgments.
  • Logout: Terminates the desktop session gracefully.

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Super/Windows key: Opens application menu.
  • Volume Keys: Adjust system volume (PulseAudio integration).

🤝 Contributing to Flow Desktop

Code Contributions Welcome!

Want to improve Flow Desktop? Follow these steps:

  1. Fork the project on Codeberg.
  2. Create a new branch: 
    git checkout -b feature-name
  3. Make changes, commit, and push: 
    git commit -m "Describe feature"
git push origin feature-name
  4. Open a pull request with a description of the updates.

Contributors should follow the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct for a welcoming community.

📜 License & Open-Source Commitment

Flow Desktop is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for full details.

🌐 More Information