Dux: Free, open-source Wayland desktop shell with file manager and theming(duxlabs.dev)
63 pointsby indigodaddy2 hours ago14 comments
  • shortformblog23 minutes ago
    Been using this for close to a year (wrote about it here when it was still called Dank Material Shell: https://tedium.co/2026/01/29/niri-danklinux-scrolling-window...); it is endlessly slick, and I think good enough to help mainstream Niri.

    It also just added official support for atomic distros like Bazzite; it was previously kind of an annoying gap given the popularity of those distros.

  • jeffnashan hour ago
    I was confused for a second, but turns out DMS rebranded the 'Dank' to 'Dux' a few weeks ago [1]. I've been running DMS + Niri for nearly a year now with no intentions of switching anytime soon. Given how often I've historically changed shells/DEs, this is the ricing equivalent to settling down, getting married, and having kids.

    [1] https://duxlabs.dev/blog/v2-0-release

  • nylonstrungan hour ago
    DMS is extremely solid but at this point is becoming more all-encompassing than I honestly want

    I've been wanting to try Noctalia with this River-based multi-paradigm compositor (which supports DMS) https://github.com/greenm01/triad

    • hxiian hour ago
      I knee-jerk moved to Noctalia because the Mango functionality was broken (due to config syntax change). Guess is a good opportunity to switch back.
    • jauntywundrkindan hour ago
      Funny you say that, I just started doing specs, planning for a river based compositor based on Niri & Umbriel. After mentioning the idea a couple months ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49093022

      Umbriel is a Niri- like scrolling wm from the Noctalia devs, have really been enjoying it. But I do want something more configurable, easier to play with. And river certainly seems like the main go-to base for that.

      Running Noctalia is a must for me. It's a great shell, from a great team. The v5 took a lot of lessons from the past & really spun a very elegant beautiful new user product with a great architecture. Great stuff, not to be missed imo. Happy convert from DMS too.

      • nylonstrung4 minutes ago
        That's awesome, I'm excited to see what you come up with because Umbriel is definitely cool.

        I def recommend studying that Triad project: it excites me because it represents the idea that if River had an extra layer on top of you'd have the WM customization potential that normally just comes with building a custom WM or compositor but through config and having Niri/Noctalia/DMS compatibility solved by default

  • mariocesar44 minutes ago
    I use it daily. There was a learning curve since I was used to GNOME Shell, but Niri and the ability to build my own widgets with QML ended up being the killer features for me. I've built several custom widgets and small apps, and I'm happy with my workflow
  • darkwi11owan hour ago
    https://wiki.xfce.org/releng/wayland_roadmap My most anticipated development roadmap these days.
  • toddmorey40 minutes ago
    Currently running Noctalia and interested in anyone who has switched to Dux & can talk out pros and cons. Particularly interested in creating custom widgets.
  • m0opan hour ago
    if you install it on top of gnome , the design of a show-apps gnome extension i made for myself which is android inspired would fit really nicely with this i think. https://github.com/y0av/cubby
  • miladyincontrol32 minutes ago
    I dont mean to be too pedantic but open source for a linux desktop environment kinda should go without saying?

    Rather, I couldn't imagine using a closed source one.

    • darkwi11ow31 minutes ago
      They exist, for example SteamOS has closed source desktop shell based on Steam client
  • bashhq_r15 minutes ago
    so its a full shell now not just a theme, wonder when it becomes heavy enough that people start wanting something lighter on top of niri
  • maelito34 minutes ago
    Curious to see the difference with Regolith.
  • andxoran hour ago
    The design language looks heavily ChromeOS-inspired.
    • ashenkean hour ago
      It's a design based on Material Design, created by Google and used in Android and Chrome OS, yes
    • irq-1an hour ago
      It's made with Quickshell and "Quickshell is configured in QML, a simple language designed for creating flexible user interfaces." - https://quickshell.org/
  • aw4y41 minutes ago
    nice project, bad naming :)
    • hmokiguess33 minutes ago
      why?
      • Tox4623 minutes ago
        ever heard of an Italian guy named Benito Mussolini?
  • m0opan hour ago
    looks pretty cool ill give it a try!
  • tarpittan hour ago
    nice I might switch to this. I'm just using sway and a couple of gnome things clobbled together