I’m understanding that to mean when someone customizes their linux setup, but historically all the “rices” I’ve seen have been with tiling window managers and crap like that.
I use a lot of tools found in these keyboard-centric setups, but at the core my system is debian and xfce. I have it modified to my liking though. Does that counts as a “rice” ??
No clue, never came across this.
Silly definition, of that I agree. No idea why it’s called “ricing”. The following is a direct quote from a bit of research I found online:
"Ricing is a term that has been used in the computer and technology world to describe the act of customizing the appearance of Linux. The term originated from the practice of modifying a car’s appearance, specifically by adding decorative features such as spoilers or other embellishments to make it look more appealing. Ricing involves making changes to the user interface, icons, themes, fonts, and other visual elements of Linux to give it a unique and personalized look.
While some may view ricing as a harmless or a way to express creativity, others see it as a pointless waste of time and resources. Critics argue that ricing serves no practical purpose and can even be detrimental to the functionality of the OS. They claim that it can lead to instability, slow performance, and other issues that can negatively impact the user experience."
Source: Ricing - Slang Meaning and Examples - FastSlang
I’ll agree that it does refer to tricking out your desktop. Now, why it’s called “ricing”, I saw another post (Reddit, so take it for what it’s worth) with this analogy as to the origins of the term:
so you are 17 years old and have honda civic; You put spoiler on it, ugly bodykit, bigger exhaust, lower it, some tacky rims… This is usually done with japanese cars so from rice a ricer term came. It is insulting term, a car that is all attention but no performance. But the term came also in to the IT world and people who overly modify and play with their desktop enviroment are also called ricers.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/rswg4j/what_does_ricing_mean/
Github suggests
A curated list of awesome tools and technologies to make your Operating System look beautiful
One interpretation I can give you for shure - not really definition though.
As a videographer every now & then I get to a wedding.
When the couple exits the church after the happy “I do”, they often get a visible amount of seeds on top of their heads, usually there are some residues on the floor.
I would call this happening “ricing” if I’d translate into english.
They used to use punch card chad for that.
All I do - I use Gnome - spend about a half hour or so installing and tweaking Gnome extensions to make my desktop machine look like the two MacBooks either side of it… rounded corners, apple application icons (and a dash/dock), apple style window control widgets and moved to the left…
I don’t think that’s ricing… I usually set a wallpaper - but - I hardly ever see it or my desktop - the desktop is for running application windows…
Whatever it means, Im so happy that I havent to adopt every new nonsense.
The way DE’s are going these days, you may have to adopt de-ricing to recover your peace of mind.
So customized my zsh, fastfetch and use conky, is this also ricing?
To me that is normal customizing.
Ricing is something outrageous and useless… like putting a spoiler on your car. So 20 copies off xeyes on your screen maybe?
I like to adapt things like conky, KDE of course, etc. But just for self-purpose, look how cool everything looks to me, I find embarrassing.
You probably mean that everyone adapts their browser or their email program - this is normal but no ricing?
If so, I see it that way!
That is normal.
Before graphics screens, people used to print pictures using the variations in optical density of printed characters… I think it is called ASCII art today.
Perhaps not quite useless, but close.
So yes, making it look appealing might be normal or , if taken to extremes might be ricing. But who cares, it is your machine.
That’s always been the justification for any of the myriad childish ‘customizations’ we see. We don’t really care, ricers, what color your hammer is, we just want to see if you can build things straight and plumb. If not, your toys are simply a manifestation of self indulgence. And, BTW, you probably run Arch.
Again and again funny whom the translation also translates Arch. It makes no sense 
Thank you for asking the question I’ve been thinking! I figured it was an allusion to ricer cars (I.e. tuning Japanese cars), but I wasn’t quite sure what customization was considered ricing in Linux. I’m still not quite clear, tbh.
If you’re wondering why the term ricing is used specifically, it is because sports car appearance customization was (is?) popular in Asian countries where a lot of rice is grown and consumed.
I rice at least once a week - you see, I like eating rice.
