Live data from Hacker News

i3 4.18

i3wm.org

101–110 of 188 posts

Re: i3 4.18

#101

Still no gaps support on main branch. Devs don't care about what their users want/need. Happy bspwm user here.

I wonder why that is, but I never understood the appeal of gaps. It's wasted space. I wonder if people who like gaps like bezel on their screen too.

Some gaps users claim that due to visual impairment, it helps them differentiate windows from each other. I guess you could use larger borders instead but gaps certainly look nicer than that.

Re: i3 4.18

#102

I've been using i3 for a few months and can never see myself going back to working without it now. I must say that I think it makes most sense when you have multiple monitors though.

Is there a way to force certain workspaces to always be on certain monitors?

Yes. On my system, for example, I like to pin odd-numbered workspaces to my left screen and even-numbered workspaces to my right screen:

  workspace $ws1 output DisplayPort-0
  workspace $ws2 output DisplayPort-1
  workspace $ws3 output DisplayPort-0
  workspace $ws4 output DisplayPort-1
  workspace $ws5 output DisplayPort-0
  workspace $ws6 output DisplayPort-1
  workspace $ws7 output DisplayPort-0
  workspace $ws8 output DisplayPort-1
  workspace $ws9 output DisplayPort-0
  workspace $ws10 output DisplayPort-1

Re: i3 4.18

#103

I guess tiling window managers should be considered more of a specialized niche tool, and in that it is commendable that i3 does such a good job of it. I do really admire it for being so light-weight on resources compared to a lot of the other more popular WMs. I say a niche tool because I've never really understood why someone would prefer a Window Manager that places a lot of constraints than one that lets you cont…

>Even Microsoft switched from a tiling WM from Windows 2.0 on wards and has stuck to it Yet they've been steadily adding tiling features since Win7. Don't believe me? Grab any window in Win10 and drag to any of the corners.

That's true. But my original point stands - they've found that the majority of users prefer stacking windows as that's easier.

Re: i3 4.18

#104
post #77

For anyone here who loves i3, but has always had trouble getting full integration to work on their laptop ( sleep, screen brightness, etc. ), check out the Regolith project[0] It's a curation of several tools combined with i3 that gives a pretty fantastic gnome/i3 experience. Similar to spacemacs and emacs. [0] https://regolith-linux.org/

This looks cool. I didn’t immediately see anything mentioned, but can I set this up as an alternative WM and select it in my gnome-login-manager screen? Or do I have to install it as a completely separate DM?

Also, is this really only for Ubuntu?

Re: i3 4.18

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about other tiling WMs, but i3 does let you stack windows. In the default config, super-s makes a vertical stack and super-t makes a tabbed stack. Most of the time it's easier to keep different windows in different workspaces though. My first five workspaces are always 1. Browser 2. Browser 3. Code 4. Messaging apps (in a vertical stack) 5. Terminals Pressing the number for the workspace where you keep t…

Stacking in that case refers to stacking in the z-direction, ie. a normal 'floating' window manager

Yeah, I meant overlapping / floating freely resizable windows.

Re: i3 4.18

#106

I have been using i3 for a long time and here are some advanced features that I'd love it to have. 1) Workspaces of workspaces Let's say I'm working on five projects at the same time. Each project usually has totally different workspace configurations. For example: Project1 might have workspaces 1: dev, 2: mail, 3: tail -f access.log Project2 might have workspaces 1: photoshop, 2: mypaint, 3: shell Project3 might hav…

Notion seems to have my ideal tiling paradigm for the same reasons you describe, however it seems to be kind of buggy with modern applications, with repect to window and input focus especially.

Re: i3 4.18

#107

I've been using i3 for a few months and can never see myself going back to working without it now. I must say that I think it makes most sense when you have multiple monitors though.

I have a desktop with 3x monitors, and a laptop. And I find it's different but equally useful in both scenarios.

My desktop, i only use 1 workspace per monitor. and i3wm is there just for tiling across large monitors.

My laptop, I only have 1 monitor so I basically mimic a multi monitor setup with workspaces, but tile less since the screen is smaller.

Re: i3 4.18

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way to force certain workspaces to always be on certain monitors?

Yes. On my system, for example, I like to pin odd-numbered workspaces to my left screen and even-numbered workspaces to my right screen: workspace $ws1 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws2 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws3 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws4 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws5 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws6 output DisplayPort-1 workspace $ws7 output DisplayPort-0 workspace $ws8 output DisplayPo…

You can have your cake and eat it to-

  set $monL DP-1.3
  set $monR DP-2
  
  set $ws1L "1L"
  set $ws2L "2L"
  ...
  set $ws1R "1R"
  set $ws2R "2R"
  ...

  workspace $ws1L output $monL
  workspace $ws1R output $monR
  workspace $ws2L output $monL
  workspace $ws2R output $monR
  ...
  
and upidate bindsyms (maybe add a modifier to switch right workspaces..?)

  bindsym $mod+1 workspace $ws1L
  bindsym $mod+2 workspace $ws2L
  ...

Re: i3 4.18

#109
post #77

For anyone here who loves i3, but has always had trouble getting full integration to work on their laptop ( sleep, screen brightness, etc. ), check out the Regolith project[0] It's a curation of several tools combined with i3 that gives a pretty fantastic gnome/i3 experience. Similar to spacemacs and emacs. [0] https://regolith-linux.org/

If you are looking for a distro with i3 preinstalled, Manjaro i3 edition is another option.

https://manjaro.org/download/#i3

Re: i3 4.18

#110

I guess tiling window managers should be considered more of a specialized niche tool, and in that it is commendable that i3 does such a good job of it. I do really admire it for being so light-weight on resources compared to a lot of the other more popular WMs. I say a niche tool because I've never really understood why someone would prefer a Window Manager that places a lot of constraints than one that lets you cont…

The exact scenario you're describing is a great use case for tiling WMs. I couldn't imagine doing it with windows that occlude each other. In fact, I've been using tiling WMs for over a decade now, and I find my colleagues' use of stacked windows gives me anxiety. You never know where anything is, and they have to constantly alt-tab to find it, or hunt for it with their mouse. The key to effective use of tiling windo…

> in the grand scheme of things, [Spaces] is a relatively recent addition...

It's not that new. Spaces were added in 10.5 (2007).

Post reply on HN