This is a collection of my preferred small improvements to make using Linux more comfortable.

Remapping the Caps Lock key

We don't use caps locks that much these days, so I tend to remap it to something more useful. in this case, I set it to the super (Windows) key when it's held, and to the escape key when it's pressed once.

Setting it to the super key makes some keybindings easier to type. for example, I've mapped Super+d to open my app launcher rofi, Traditionally Super+r would be a bit hard on your hands but capslock+d is much more convenient to press.

I also set it to escape when pressed once because I use escape regularly as a Vim user.

You can add this script to the top of your shell profile or in your .xsession if that's what you use, but you need to have setxkbmap, xmodmap, xset, and xcape installed

# Map the caps lock key to super...
setxkbmap -option caps:super
# But when it is pressed only once, treat it as escape.
killall xcape 2>/dev/null ; xcape -e 'Super_L=Escape'
# Map the menu button to right super as well.
xmodmap -e 'keycode 135 = Super_R'
# Turn off the caps lock if on since there is no longer a key for it.
xset -q | grep "Caps Lock:\s*on" && xdotool key Caps_Lock

Use sudoedit to edit protected files

When trying to edit files files that require elevated privileges, you will at some point run into one of these problems

• You forget to run your editor with sudo and are thus unable to save your changes
• In case you run your editor with sudo, you use your editor with its default configuration rather than your precious config that you perfected to oblivion. gross.

Both problems can be solved with sudoedit, simply run sudoedit /etc/your-protected-file.sh and it will open the file in your preferred $EDITOR with your config.

In case, it opens in nano then you likely didn't set up your $EDITOR correctly, add the following line to your shell config and source it to fix the issue.

export EDITOR="nvim" # or any other editor

I was going to include "setting up simple window manager" into the list but I realized that it's a much larger challenge than the rest of these small changes, if you want to improve your life, look into setting up an i3 or something similar

So that's pretty much it, I hope you enjoyed the article and I'll see you in the next one!

if you've enjoyed this article,consider buying me a coffee. currently I am saving up for a better microphone!