Customizing the Mac to behave like Xmonad

have you tried Mendeley?

I did consider, but I bet that the solution would feel like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Even if I use Arch Linux, I want to be sure the hardware is working

To chime in here, IMO what sets Tyler apart is that it takes control of a window as soon as it is created, whereas AFAIK all other offerings leave the windows alone until you use keyboard commands to resize them.

It is indeed promising, but like you I cannot recommend it to anyone until they have fixed several critical bugs.

Going to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts and looking for Mission Control and Keyboard & Text Input reveal a number of shortcuts which may or may not be enabled (the same way swipe settings are 3f or 4f)

Here you will find the following shortcuts:

    Mission Control
    Application windows
    Move left a space
    Move right a space
    Switch to desktop N (number of entries up to N appearing  varies with current number N of dynamic Spaces)

Also:

    Move focus to active or next window

By default and depending whether you upgraded to Lion and what your previous settings were the base mod key may be Command, Control or Command+Control. If you installed from scratch it's Control.

Then, shortcuts are:

- Ctrl+Up/Down to enter MC/App Exposé

- Ctrl+Left/Right/1/2/3/4 to change Spaces (works on the desktop and in MC)

- Command+` (and Tab/Shift+Tab) cycles apps in App Exposé.

- Arrows allow one to select a window in App Exposé

On a laptop, the touchpad is right below the keyboard and I usually trigger MC with a 3f swipe, F3 or Control+Down (depends on my zone level) and select the window with index (when swipe-triggered) or thumb (when keyboard triggered). When using a mouse, I'm using a Logitech MediaPlay at home and a Logitech MX900 at work, which have two awesomely placed thumb buttons, which map perfectly to Mission Control and App Exposé (the button choices appear in the rightmost combos in System Settings -> Mission Control if you have a sufficiently buttoned mouse). Using another mouse than Magic Mouse I lose the brilliant touch/inertia scroll, but the two-finger double-tab gesture is completely ridiculous and a total pain.

Comparatively, Command+Tab is only fine when I'm toggling between two apps which have a single window, else the whole target app windows cover the previous one, which defeats my extensive use of Window Magnet. Also I have 1) a high chance of not landing into the proper window this way, and 2) a high chance of toggling between three apps, in which case Command+Tab is inefficient. Also I find it egregious that one keeps open Command+Tab by keeping Command down, then drill down to App Exposé, where you have to release command before moving with arrows and subsequently select a window with Return when it could be Command all the way then release to exit.

Also, when moving between terminal windows and tabs I use the build-in Next Window/Tab shortcut (Command+Left/Right, with Shift for tabs). I bound the same keys in MacVim for consistency.

Besides there's still lack a (non third party) keyboard way to:

- navigate between window groups/windows in MC

- add a new space

- move windows between spaces