--- title: The Real Reason I Like niri and Vim — Nick Janetakis description: An opinion piece arguing that niri (a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor) and Vim/Neovim share a common trait: they let you accomplish the same action... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-i-like-niri-and-vim-nick-janetakis-qfk051lnp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Real Reason I Like niri and Vim — Nick Janetakis | daily.dev og:description: An opinion piece arguing that niri (a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor) and Vim/Neovim share a common trait: they let you accomplish the same action... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-i-like-niri-and-vim-nick-janetakis-qfk051lnp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/QFK051lNP.png og:image:alt: The Real Reason I Like niri and Vim — Nick Janetakis og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Real Reason I Like niri and Vim — Nick Janetakis **[Nick Janetakis](https://daily.dev/sources/nickjanetakis)** · 5 min read · 39 upvotes · 4 comments ## Summary An opinion piece arguing that niri (a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor) and Vim/Neovim share a common trait: they let you accomplish the same action multiple ways (keyboard shortcuts, mouse, gestures), which reduces friction and keeps users in a flow state. The author extends the idea to programming languages (Python vs Ruby) and CLI/API design, arguing that while flexibility is good for tools you interact with in real time, less choice is often better for APIs and CLIs since it reduces cognitive overhead. Concrete examples include niri's window/workspace navigation shortcuts, Neovim's multiple ways to jump to end of line, kubectl's CLI design, and Python's argparse abbreviation matching. A demo video with timestamps accompanies the write-up. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@andradei** · 2 upvotes > That's what I've been using for a while now. Niri promotes a really nice workflow, stability, and a good configuration experience. **@baz14** · 1 upvotes > the most convenient GUI is the one that doesn't require a mouse 😁 > > Tiling workflow is really convenient and speeds up work significantly. Personally, I prefer Cosmic, but Niri is really cool. **@sohanemon** · 0 upvotes > hyprland has the scrolling feature too **@agustinbarrientos** · 0 upvotes > Mouse, keyboard, and gesture aliases feel great in an interactive tool, but I'd keep the saved config canonical so teams don't inherit three spellings for the same action ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Day to Day Window Management Workflows and Why I Picked niri — Nick Janetakis](https://daily.dev/posts/day-to-day-window-management-workflows-and-why-i-picked-niri-nick-janetakis-7ogcg8x7r) · Nick Janetakis · 13 upvotes · 1 comments - [How Is niri This Good? Live Demo \+ Config — Nick Janetakis](https://daily.dev/posts/how-is-niri-this-good-live-demo-config-nick-janetakis-0zkbipqvy) · Nick Janetakis · 72 upvotes · 7 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#vim](https://daily.dev/tags/vim) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-i-like-niri-and-vim-nick-janetakis-qfk051lnp) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Real Reason I Like niri and Vim — Nick Janetakis","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-i-like-niri-and-vim-nick-janetakis-qfk051lnp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-i-like-niri-and-vim-nick-janetakis-qfk051lnp"},"datePublished":"2026-09-01T12:03:28.151Z","dateModified":"2026-09-01T12:03:58.086Z","description":"An opinion piece arguing that niri (a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor) and Vim/Neovim share a common trait: they let you accomplish the same action...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b4f50841cf3bc706828202076bf779c5?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b4f50841cf3bc706828202076bf779c5?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Nick Janetakis","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Nick Janetakis","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/05b22e1c43b541059edfaba1ccc944e6","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/nickjanetakis"},"commentCount":4,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-i-like-niri-and-vim-nick-janetakis-qfk051lnp","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":39},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}],"keywords":"linux,vim","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nick Janetakis","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/nickjanetakis"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Real Reason I Like niri and Vim — Nick Janetakis"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-i-like-niri-and-vim-nick-janetakis-qfk051lnp","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"That’s what I’ve been using for a while now. Niri promotes a really nice workflow, stability, and a good configuration experience.","datePublished":"2026-09-01T15:41:48.468Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/QFK051lNP#c-MyBOuOxth","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Isaac de Andrade","url":"https://daily.dev/andradei","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2653546?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"the most convenient GUI is the one that doesn’t require a mouse 😁\nTiling workflow is really convenient and speeds up work significantly. Personally, I prefer Cosmic, but Niri is really cool.","datePublished":"2026-09-04T06:02:45.721Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/QFK051lNP#c-lUWcYiJfk","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Baz","url":"https://daily.dev/baz14","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKd2iFU8YS4sV-rBJptuYSF8EHeQnm23N_dcXE1uON7_GMIlZg=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"hyprland has the scrolling feature too","datePublished":"2026-09-04T05:36:06.022Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/QFK051lNP#c-iHt3g6DVA","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Sohan","url":"https://daily.dev/sohanemon","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--cK3uPdCV--/f_auto/v1740375304/avatars/avatar_VA8r71eGEp21nwGpaZGKh"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Mouse, keyboard, and gesture aliases feel great in an interactive tool, but I’d keep the saved config canonical so teams don’t inherit three spellings for the same action","datePublished":"2026-09-02T02:51:49.085Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/QFK051lNP#c-LoZYw8MVQ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Agustin Barrientos","url":"https://daily.dev/agustinbarrientos","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--5ayxQnqn--/f_auto/v1788281802/avatars/avatar_wQYYVe5Tbj0NJ7C7qPoa8?_a=BAMAMicg0"}}]} ```