this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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I love this. I'm thinking of making another partition on my laptop so I can have a separate OS with no desktop environment. Reclaiming my attention span has kind of been a project for me this year. I was casually exploring how to make a setup like this with an e-ink screen, but e-ink displays are more expensive that I was hoping.
They're way too expensive especially on bigger sizes. I want one as my second monitor but I won't be able to get one soon.
By the way, you can still create a distraction-free environment for yourself with GUI. Just go with a minimal setup, something like Niri, Sway, river etc. (Openbox, bspwm, i3wm, Xmonad, dwm if you prefer X11).
The key points for distraction-free is to have a minimal desktop and using a program launcher like d-menu, fuzzel or rofi. TUI programs also help a lot. This way you won't need a second OS setup and can do everything in the same installation because TTY is restrictive for certain things.
There are also distraction-free GUI programs that you can use. For example I prefer ghostwriter as my go-to markdown editor, Apostrophe is also great if you prefer GTK. Depending on your use cases, there are a lot of programs like these.
You can use VNC+an old e ink tablet you already have.
I actually have a howto on my blog about this but I dont think you can reach it due to the internet blackout in my country.
https://alavi.me/blog