{"slug": "dank-material-shell", "name": "Dank Material Shell", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.593, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-11-30", "latest": "2026-09-01", "why": "I am running Niri with Dank Material Shell, and it is excellent", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I am running Niri with Dank Material Shell, and it is excellent", "icon": true, "domain": "danklinux.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://danklinux.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Dank Material Shell", "DankMaterialShell"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 792262545, "item_id": 49516409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516409", "by": "mplanchard", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use niri with the \u201cdank material shell\u201d desktop shell and get status bar, notifications, clock, suspend/resume, etc. all \u201cout of the box.\u201d", "excerpt": "The nice thing about wayland is you can easily combine a compositor/window manager with a wayland desktop shell and get a lot of the stuff you used to have to fiddle with when using like i3 for free. For example, I use niri with the \u201cdank material shell\u201d desktop shell and get status bar, notifications, clock, suspend/resume, etc. all \u201cout of the box.\u201d", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop shell", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 766452993, "item_id": 47903312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903312", "by": "mplanchard", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can also just install niri and something like the \"dank material shell\"[0] and be off to the races", "excerpt": "I recently switched to niri after bouncing off it about a year ago, and this time it stuck. One thing I learned in the process was that the custom wayland desktop world has the concept of a \"desktop shell,\" which provides most or all of the additional components you might want on top of your compositor, rather than having to separately install a top bar, manage suspend/hibernate, figure out notifications, etc. You ca", "context": "NixOS user", "use_case": "desktop shell on niri", "switched_from": "", "story": "Niri 26.04 was just released (scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor)"}, {"id": 742119073, "item_id": 46382442, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46382442", "by": "0x38B", "date": "2025-12-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "bundles things like a bar, launcher, and control center that one normally has to assemble piece by piece", "excerpt": "My brother has a 16, and it\u2019s been good for him. It is big and chunky, more so with the GPU module; only a few paragraphs into the blog post I felt the author was trying to fit a big square peg in a round hole, and then blaming the square peg for being big and square. That is to say, it\u2019s a big, heavy, expensive laptop. My brother works shifts in a remote location and from what I can tell, the 16 is great for that: y", "context": "Linux user with Framework laptop", "use_case": "bar, launcher, control center for WMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm returning my Framework 16"}, {"id": 737581777, "item_id": 46098861, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46098861", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2025-11-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am running Niri with Dank Material Shell, and it is excellent", "excerpt": "I love it. I am running Niri with Dank Material Shell, and it is excellent\u2014 just keeps getting better with each release.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop shell", "switched_from": "", "story": "Niri 25.11 released with alt-tab and other improvements"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "mplanchard", "context": "NixOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903312", "date": "2026-04-25"}, {"by": "0x38B", "context": "Linux user with Framework laptop", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46382442", "date": "2025-12-24"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["desktop shell", "desktop shell on niri", "bar, launcher, control center for wms"], "compared": [{"slug": "niri", "name": "niri", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499854", "title": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47902416", "title": "Niri 26.04 was just released (scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46375174", "title": "I'm returning my Framework 16", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46097051", "title": "Niri 25.11 released with alt-tab and other improvements", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 792262545, "item_id": 49516409, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516409", "by": "mplanchard", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use niri with the \u201cdank material shell\u201d desktop shell and get status bar, notifications, clock, suspend/resume, etc. all \u201cout of the box.\u201d", "excerpt": "The nice thing about wayland is you can easily combine a compositor/window manager with a wayland desktop shell and get a lot of the stuff you used to have to fiddle with when using like i3 for free. For example, I use niri with the \u201cdank material shell\u201d desktop shell and get status bar, notifications, clock, suspend/resume, etc. all \u201cout of the box.\u201d", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop shell", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 766452993, "item_id": 47903312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47903312", "by": "mplanchard", "date": "2026-04-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can also just install niri and something like the \"dank material shell\"[0] and be off to the races", "excerpt": "I recently switched to niri after bouncing off it about a year ago, and this time it stuck. One thing I learned in the process was that the custom wayland desktop world has the concept of a \"desktop shell,\" which provides most or all of the additional components you might want on top of your compositor, rather than having to separately install a top bar, manage suspend/hibernate, figure out notifications, etc. You ca", "context": "NixOS user", "use_case": "desktop shell on niri", "switched_from": "", "story": "Niri 26.04 was just released (scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor)"}, {"id": 742119073, "item_id": 46382442, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46382442", "by": "0x38B", "date": "2025-12-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "bundles things like a bar, launcher, and control center that one normally has to assemble piece by piece", "excerpt": "My brother has a 16, and it\u2019s been good for him. It is big and chunky, more so with the GPU module; only a few paragraphs into the blog post I felt the author was trying to fit a big square peg in a round hole, and then blaming the square peg for being big and square. That is to say, it\u2019s a big, heavy, expensive laptop. My brother works shifts in a remote location and from what I can tell, the 16 is great for that: y", "context": "Linux user with Framework laptop", "use_case": "bar, launcher, control center for WMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm returning my Framework 16"}, {"id": 737581777, "item_id": 46098861, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46098861", "by": "christophilus", "date": "2025-11-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am running Niri with Dank Material Shell, and it is excellent", "excerpt": "I love it. I am running Niri with Dank Material Shell, and it is excellent\u2014 just keeps getting better with each release.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop shell", "switched_from": "", "story": "Niri 25.11 released with alt-tab and other improvements"}]}