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AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

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Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#141

Post by SZJX »

maherbeg wrote: post #39

I'd be curious to know how it is different than Amethyst. Amethyst has gotten much more stable recently and I really enjoy using it. The text based config seems pretty nice at a first glance, but I'm not sure if it's worth switching.

I've been using Amethyst so far, but I immediately liked Aerospace more. The main gripe I have with Amethyst is that it throws windows in a very sluggish and unreliable fashion. With Aerospace, windows get moved to different workspaces/monitors in a flash and the move never fails. I also like how it completely ditches MacOS built-in workspaces, which, as the author argued, is rather unsatisfactory, in favor of its own virtual workspace solution, which finally makes handling a multi-monitor setup a bearable and even somewhat enjoyable experience.

Actually, in my Linux days I moved from i3 (which Aerospace is based on) to xmonad (which Amethyst is based on), but on MacOS Aerospace just feels quite better. None of the 3 WMs on MacOS comes close to what a true WM on Linux can offer, but I guess Aerospace is as good as it can get.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#142

Post by SZJX »

This is great! I've been using Amethyst so far, but I immediately liked Aerospace more. The main gripe I have with Amethyst is that it throws windows in a very sluggish and unreliable fashion. With Aerospace, windows get moved to different workspaces/monitors in a flash and the move never fails. I also like how it completely ditches MacOS built-in workspaces, which, as the author argued, is rather unsatisfactory, in favor of its own virtual workspace solution, which finally makes handling a multi-monitor setup a bearable and even somewhat enjoyable experience.

(I couldn't use yabai on my work computer as it requires disabling SIP, which the author of Aerospace explicitly argues against, which I find reasonable.)

Actually, in my Linux days I moved from i3 (which Aerospace is based on) to xmonad (which Amethyst is based on), but on MacOS Aerospace just feels quite better. None of the 3 WMs on MacOS comes close to what a true WM on Linux can offer, but I guess Aerospace is as good as it can get.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#144

Post by ctippett »

pimlottc wrote: post #126
lednax wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use spectacle and it’s no longer supported

Another option is the ShiftIt plugin for Hammerspoon: https://github.com/peterklijn/hammerspoon-shiftit

Also this: https://github.com/szymonkaliski/hhtwm

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#145

Post by irth »

feep wrote: post #80
irth wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can get windows-style alt-tab with https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/

Right. Got it, love it. But it won’t work with AeroSpace. I mean, it will work, but it won’t work with all windows from _visible spaces_. Because ever window from _every space_ will be in the current space (tucked in the lower right corner).

ah, right! Apparently I didn't read your first comment properly, sorry about that.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#146

Post by irth »

Jaywalker9988 wrote: post #138

Nice!! I'm going to have to play with this. Now what I really want to see, and I'm surprised doesn't exist, is an addon for or replacement to Spotlight that works like dmenu in that I can write scripts which use it for input like: printf 'one\ntwo\nthree' | dmenu -l 3 -p "Which one? " I use that in so many scripts on my main machines and would love to share them with macOS folks. I'm really surprised its not in somet…

There's a clone of dmenu - https://github.com/oNaiPs/dmenu-mac, but it doesn't integrate with Spotlight or similar.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#147

Post by irth »

nbobko wrote: post #59
carabiner wrote: post #53

Man I hate the name. Has nothing to do with aerospace, but it does seem like a fad in software to take on some stolen valor from a far more interesting field.

1. The "AeroSpace" name means a space for your windows without friction 2. I myself consider the virtual emulation of workspaces to be the strongest feature of the AeroSpace. If I could disable the workspace switching animation in yabai or Amethyst (with SIP enabled, of course), I'd probably not bother myself creating AeroSpace. That's what the "space" part in the app name means. It resembles the strongest feature of…

re 2: an added benefit of not using actual macOS spaces is that it seems (at least from my limited usage) to be much more reliable than yabai (not blaming yabai here, of course).

I also tried implementing an i3 like workspace numbering/creating on top of yabai - it was an uphill battle due to how limited native macOS space management is and I never finished, so thank you for creating AeroSpace :)

I actually use it in tandem with yabai now - I added an "exec-on-window-hide"[0] option similar to "exec-on-workspace-change", and use it to make the hidden windows transparent (and to make them visible again)[1].

I wonder if hooks like that would be a good way to have a nice middle-ground to let people who don't care as much about SIP to extend upon AeroSpace's model?

I'll probably send over a pull request for your consideration soon.

[0] https://github.com/irth/AeroSpace/commit/54b48aa0edf9817031c...

[1] https://gist.github.com/irth/0bc96778c6073c756d3bb657f1bfe8b...

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#148

Post by lonesword »

I have used both aerospace and yabai, and aerospace was far more simpler to configure. I really like it. Thank you for the great work!

I had to unfortunately stop using aerospace due to some bugs. If I switch from workspace a to workspace b, sometimes aerospace keeps switching back to workspace a. It is annoying when you are trying to press the unmute button in the middle of a call but aerospace keeps taking you away from that workspace. The root cause could be that the apps that I use (internal tools) are misbehaving. I'll file a bug report if I can reproduce it on my personal mac.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#149

Post by positus »

happymellon wrote: post #13
andrewla wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, I don't think there's a lot of value in these. I hate the MacOS environment as much as anyone, but all the attempts to create tiling managers have resulted in strange unusable quirky behavior. You're better off just sucking it up and using the native UI until you get sufficiently familiar with it that it rarely gets in your way too much. Meanwhile keep lobbying your employer (assuming that you ar…

Completely agree with this take. No matter how sophisticated these Mac Window Managers get, MacOS will always mess with the windows because it knows better than you. That's why people buy Macs, and it's not going to change. If you don't like this, then you actually don't like Macs. It's opinionated, and it's opinions do not match yours. I would have liked window snapping, but instead we have 1/2 baked split screen vi…

I buy computers that run macOS for a couple reasons:

- it’s generally smooth and stable from a UI standpoint

- it has mostly sane defaults

- it has great font rendering

- the video and audio subsystems are rock solid

- it has access to every development tool I need daily via homebrew

It seems like there are generally two perspectives:

- “I shouldn’t have to change the way I want to do things”

- “I don’t mind changing to another way of doing things”

The first group I think has a harder time with macOS.

A while back I decided to experiment with only using the default first-party apps for macOS for everything, and it greatly changed the amount of OS customization I did from that point on. I still live in iTerm for most of the day, but I don’t really feel hindered by the OS in any way anymore.

From my experience Windows actively attempts to subvert my clear, authoritative commands, second guesses every admin instruction, interrupts me with focus changes and dialog boxes instead of giving the active window absolute priority (this happens sometimes with macOS, too), and comes with bloat right out of the box. When this developer thinks about a hostile OS, Windows 11 is rhe first thing that comes to mind.

Re: AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

#150

Post by lisnake »

better_sh wrote: post #33

This is great! I find the one thing I miss the most from i3 that none of the macOS tiling managers seem to have is i3bar, or a minimal bar that displays what space I'm on, how many spaces I have, cpu/ram usage, etc. I've tried to find configs that emulate this with Spacebar [0], but haven't been able to find anything [0] https://github.com/cmacrae/spacebar

Aerospace shows which space you on in menu bar
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