Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)

Most screenshots for these well known guys are quite boring. Coincidence? I think if you want to be good at something you need focus.

Maybe what we need is a screenshot of their brain thinking

The more 'h4ck3r' screenshot you have with useless toys at /r/unixporn in Reddit, the less you actually know about computers.

Most i3 setups there are for showoff; cwm has better defaults and conmuting between tags it's far more manageable than fighting with tiles where often the window resolutions are either useless or scramble your content.

Also most fluxbox or *box users will have far better setups than i3 ones because they use their actual setups to do actual stuff instead of posting screenshots.

Hard disagree. The fact that they have customized their system to such a degree shows they do know how to use computers. I think you're trying to conflate that with other things like programming ability, which are orthogonal.

Boring is good.

Stock ubuntu LTS is the biggest flex.

Coincidence? No, these are people for whom the computer is a tool. My smartest and most productive colleague run stock KDE and a more or less unconfigured Vim. He truly does not give a shit.

They are just old school. When you learn coding before GUIs were mainstream, you don't care that much about exciting UIs.

Heck, Kernighan was one of the original developers of Unix. In 2015 he was already coding for more than 40-50 years, more time than most from Hacker News are alive. The only constant from that time is the terminal, so no wonder most people in the post gravitate towards that

Wrong. Knowing to customize a theme != knowing to use a computer != knowing how computers work.

I can say I know computers and how they work pretty well, but these days I have much better things to do to learn the best way to themes my shell so that it matches my waybar, and that both switch colourscheme when dark mode activates. I could learn if I wanted, but I’m not a teenager anymore; I don’t care. Incidentally, when I had the time concern myself with GTK themes and wallpapers and Compiz, my knowledge in computers was a tenth of what it is now.

It would be like saying a car decorator is the most expert of mechanics.

So you're telling me my juiced-up i3 with the anime girl and equalizer in the background doesn't make me the hacker wizard I thought I was?

This. Nowadays I just use Zukitre for GTK/Qt and the Tango icon theme, it suits TWM/CWM and any other minimal WM without tons of effort. A dull gray theme combines with everything, even with my Cyan titlebars for TWM (they make a great contrast with red borders and wheat yellow icons/menus). You know, I want to use my computers and the titlebars stand out like crazy. And, actually, I've just borrowed an old color config used from a university.

The background?

       xsetroot -solid gray20

I never understood the trend on dark/bright modes; the gray themes from my childhood/early teens with W98SE (and used by Mac OS 7/8 too) are just neutral and barely 'sit there'.

Everything is OK. I love looking at desktops, but I became old to put the effort. I think you are a bard more than a wizard.

I love nature pictures, so I collected a few from all seasons, and now all my customization is every 3 months to change which season’s wallpapers to rotate from.

I can adjust my car's interior temperature to +/-1F and play music from my phone, but if you think that makes me some sort of auto mechanic genius...