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Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

adereth.github.io

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Re: Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

#31

Post by gizmo686 »

CJefferson wrote: post #17

I currently use xmonad, along with the gnome top-bar to get applets, network configuration, etc. I have found this the easiest way to move into tiling window managers. It still annoys that tiling window managers all seem designed to be hard to use to configure, almost as a matter of principle. I see no reason that a tiling window manager can't still be easy to use (for example, I use the mouse as much with xmonad as…

I think the problem is that tiling window managers have never been mainstream, so they are all targeted at people who would go out of there way to install a tiling window manger. By contrast, even non-mainstream composting window managers have the benefit of seeing how the mainstream ones do things to be usable (and have had more effort put into them in general). Another problem is that tiling window managers are (almost?) never part of a complete desktop environment. They may pay lip service to this (in the form of a basic start-menu type thing), but for the most part they are simply window managers. With composting window managers, no one (except the developer) thinks of the WM by itself.

Re: Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

#32

Post by gizmo686 »

yarou wrote: post #7

I've used awesome before, and I was quite impressed. Once you get the hang of shortcuts, you tend to be vastly more productive than if you were using a traditional or compositing wm. I grew up with a compositing WM, but the transition was easy enough. I'm curious if the advent of mobile devices (i.e. smartphone, tablet, etc) would lead one to choose tiling WMs over the traditional kind.

It looks like Windows 8 's metro interface is a basic tiling WM. It isn't very featured, but it can show multiple apps at the same time, and will automatically split the screen between them (without overlap).

Re: Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

#33

Post by nilved »

z0r wrote: post #30

The combination of xmonad, dmenu and emacs --daemon has brought me great joy. The way I use computers has changed completely since starting down the tiling window manager road. It's a shame that getting the configuration for them right can be such a pain, but it has been well worth the trouble!

No doubt. I've used Arch and awesome for a few months now and it's remarkable. The increase in efficiency and usability is made most apparent when I need to use OS X again.

I only started using dmenu yesterday and I've already written a few scripts I've found very handy: passphrase autotyping[0] and music playing[1] to name two.

[0] https://github.com/devlinzed/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/dmenu-...

[1] https://github.com/devlinzed/dotfiles/blob/master/bin/dmenu-...

Re: Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

#34

Post by tomrod »

drcode wrote: post #6

Anyone know if "Notion" works as well in the latest Ubuntu releases as suggested by the author of the post? (i.e. XMondad got jacked pretty badly in Ubuntu 13.04 and now requires lots of low level linux voodoo.)

Shucks. I haven't upgraded yet to 13.04. Should I skip it on by for 13.10 when it comes out? If not, what voodoo did you do?

Re: Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

#36

Post by sliverstorm »

thinkersilver wrote: post #10

I'm really surprised that he left out i3wm. It's lightweight and the tiling placement is surprisingly intuitive and simple. Here's the Google Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnYN2CTb1hM

i3wm is the most difficult to get used to, from what I've seen. As always, more configuration (in this case of window layout) makes for steeper learning curves.

Re: Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

#38

Post by sliverstorm »

Reasons why you shouldn't try a tiling window manager:

Well, mostly if you use tools that have a "view portal" or depend heavily on pop-out style toolboxes. The WM is constantly resizing your windows, which makes it a chore to keep everything adjusted, and pop-out style toolboxes are pretty much best at on-top usage by nature, rather than tiled.

I use CAD software on a regular basis, and while I managed to make a tiling WM work for me for maybe 6 months, returning to a floating WM was a relief. If you work directly with text all day, I bet they are great, but for me...

Re: Why You Should Try a Tiling Window Manager

#40

Post by stormbrew »

sliverstorm wrote: post #36
thinkersilver wrote: post #10

I'm really surprised that he left out i3wm. It's lightweight and the tiling placement is surprisingly intuitive and simple. Here's the Google Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnYN2CTb1hM

i3wm is the most difficult to get used to, from what I've seen. As always, more configuration (in this case of window layout) makes for steeper learning curves.

On the contrary i3 is the only one I've started using and stuck with. The configuration is simple, the commands not horribly difficult to use or understand, and it's pretty damn good at dealing with multimon, even dealing with randr display names natively.
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