X11 DEs have a built in wm. For example xfce has something like xfce-wm. If you disable it’s autostart and replace it with a different one like I3, you get the benefits of both worlds.
Compositors in Wayland work that way because the whole thing is a monolith.
i’m currently on ubuntu, but many of the packets being 15 years out of date is starting to get annoying
Use an external package manager. For simplicity I suggest flatpak or snap. I prefer nix, but the setup is more complicated. That way you’ve got a rock solid system, but fresh or bleeding edge userland packages.
X11 DEs have a built in wm. For example xfce has something like xfce-wm. If you disable it’s autostart and replace it with a different one like I3, you get the benefits of both worlds.
Compositors in Wayland work that way because the whole thing is a monolith.
Use an external package manager. For simplicity I suggest flatpak or snap. I prefer nix, but the setup is more complicated. That way you’ve got a rock solid system, but fresh or bleeding edge userland packages.