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A Tiling Desktop Environment

bitcannon.net

131–140 of 143 posts

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#131
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > I started out as a kid with DOS > Great strides in medical advancement or human growth hormones? Is this a joke, or scepticism about the timeline? It's certainly possible to have started out as a kid with DOS; I did, too, although it was just before Windows 3 came on the scene.

I'm sure this was a joke meant to play on the sentence "I started out as a kid with DOS", which when humorously twisted around could be interpreted that as a child, he was a computer that ran DOS. Stop all the downloadin.

Yep. Thank you.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#132
post #82

I use i3 on a Linux laptop, I really enjoy it. Too bad nothing exists like that on Windows. Snapping or splitting 2 windows side by side (the Windows 10 snap feature) isn't enough. On the bright side most of the other features that you would use along side a tiling wm can be used in Windows, and it's very good. - AHK to manage global hotkeys and remapping keys - Keypirinha to launch apps / folder paths with fuzzy sea…

On Windows you can create programs that rearrange all windows but the title bars and frames are handled by the applications themselves, using defaults or overriding them. So you can arrange the windows the way you want but you can’t really prevent them from moving when the user drags the title bar.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tiling was all that was available in Win 1.0! Absolute best tiling WM for your 286.

Wasn't tiling the only option in Windows 1.x, other than full screen?

Well it didn’t support overlapping windows so those are the only remaining options.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#134
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take is that Apple kind of invented the overlapping windows paradigm, the Xerox Alto didn’t have that concept, IIRC. Also, dragging something from the desktop and dropping on a floating window was a major breakthrough, which is kind of incompatible with a split screen model. Personally, on small screens like the original Mac, I think the floating/overlapping WM worked perfectly. On a 30” however, it’s a bit silly.

Apple kind of invented the overlapping windows paradigm They preceded the X Window System?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System#Origin_and_ear... - X announced in June 1984

The Macintosh was introduced in January 1984

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I realize that Macos is very much a cursor OS I used to hate that fact, until I got a keyboard without numpad. The smaller distance between keyboard and mouse makes a huge difference. I realized, that the mouse is actually faster in many situations. I still use Vim, Launchbar, Magnet and 'CMD Shift /' (Menubar search), but now I am far less annoyed when I do need to switch to the mouse.

Does anyone make left-handed keyboards with the numpad and the PageUp, etc. block of keys on the left? I saw a positively ancient one at a friend's parent's house years ago, but that's it. That would solve the problem of moving the mouse closer, while still having a full keyboard. It would also put the numpad closer to the Tab key. Alternatively, I could use the mouse with my left hand. My friend actually did this wh…

A while ago there was a 65% 'Southpaw' keyboard on reddit -- https://www.reddit.com/comments/75djfk

There are others if you do a search for left-handed keyboards.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#136
post #82

I use i3 on a Linux laptop, I really enjoy it. Too bad nothing exists like that on Windows. Snapping or splitting 2 windows side by side (the Windows 10 snap feature) isn't enough. On the bright side most of the other features that you would use along side a tiling wm can be used in Windows, and it's very good. - AHK to manage global hotkeys and remapping keys - Keypirinha to launch apps / folder paths with fuzzy sea…

Full disclosure: I am the author of MaxTo.

Have you looked at MaxTo? https://maxto.net

It does not work in the exact same manner as i3wm does; it lets you decide on a set of regions that windows are maximized into (the regions can be a non-uniform grid). This lets you focus on one task at a time. It has great support for hotkeys. At the moment I believe MaxTo is the closest you'll get to i3 on Windows.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#137
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always feel claustrophobic without virtual desktops. I use them to split out windows in groups according to task, with keyboard switching for speed. i3 and Vim let me keep my hands off the mouse.

Six windows on the same screen? That's way too crowded; I rarely have more than three. Virtual desktops are natural to use, don't enjoy working without them. I use i3wm and often move between windows using the mouse.

You can easily fit 6 windows of apps that aren't wasteful of screen space on one monitor, even without overlapping them. I find that quality Mac apps scale gracefully, whereas things like Gnome 3 apps have giant CSD chrome and don't scale particularly well. And if you do overlap windows, you can fit even more if you arrange them well so they're easy to access quickly.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#138
post #42
post #15

I so agree with this, though I have a slightly different take. As someone who can't part with my GUIs, I'm nevertheless super jealous of all the i3 folks. As such, what I want is basically i3 in a gnome window. That for me would be the best of both worlds. I can do all my fancy i3 stuff but still have a crisp, efficient UI to get settings/stuff done when it's about ease of use, not speed.

You could go the other way - i3 supports floating windows, so you could default to floating, or have default vary by program.

The issue isn't about whether you have floating available, it's about whether you have the batteries-included of a full DE. Bars, Settings, Networking, volume control etc. You can set all of these up with individual programs if you're a dogmatic adherent of the unix philosophy. But, it doesn't make for a very cohesive experience, and getting it all set up can be an enormous timesink. Different people have different levels of tolerance for that kind of incidental complexity.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#139
post #82

I use i3 on a Linux laptop, I really enjoy it. Too bad nothing exists like that on Windows. Snapping or splitting 2 windows side by side (the Windows 10 snap feature) isn't enough. On the bright side most of the other features that you would use along side a tiling wm can be used in Windows, and it's very good. - AHK to manage global hotkeys and remapping keys - Keypirinha to launch apps / folder paths with fuzzy sea…

Full disclosure: I am the author of MaxTo. Have you looked at MaxTo? https://maxto.net It does not work in the exact same manner as i3wm does; it lets you decide on a set of regions that windows are maximized into (the regions can be a non-uniform grid). This lets you focus on one task at a time. It has great support for hotkeys. At the moment I believe MaxTo is the closest you'll get to i3 on Windows.

Yep. It was one of the first apps I tried in this category. I know a lot of people prefer having pre-defined layouts but I'm not a fan of that. I'm often always moving windows around slightly in size and really lean on the wm or tool auto-adjusting things on the fly.

Re: A Tiling Desktop Environment

#140
post #15

I so agree with this, though I have a slightly different take. As someone who can't part with my GUIs, I'm nevertheless super jealous of all the i3 folks. As such, what I want is basically i3 in a gnome window. That for me would be the best of both worlds. I can do all my fancy i3 stuff but still have a crisp, efficient UI to get settings/stuff done when it's about ease of use, not speed.

i feel like i know where you're coming from here, this isn't exactly what you're describing, but it's pretty dang close. really made the transition to window tiling far less intimidating than i imagined. https://regolith-linux.org/

I'm gonna try this it looks really good and exactly what I want.
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