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AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS

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31–40 of 173 posts

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

#32
post #30
post #28

Nice to see another twm on macOS. Somehow over the past few years Windows became the more vibrant platform for twms (vs macOS) with developers (including myself) trying to push the envelope and introduce many quality of life features you still won't find even in Linux twms today. https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm https://github.com/dalyIsaac/Whim Hopefully this new entrant will dri…

I'm curious, what kind of features that are not found on Linux ?

For one, tools like Shortcat aren’t really possible on Linux afaict, since it relies on MacOS’s fantastic accessibility API.

https://shortcat.app/

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

#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

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

#34
> Homebrew installation script is configured to automatically delete com.apple.quarantine attribute, that's why the app should work out of the box, without any warnings that "Apple cannot check AeroSpace for malicious software"

Can someone ELI5 what this does? Does it impact AeroSpace only, or something globally on my Mac? Thanks!

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

#35
post #4

> Doesn't require disabling SIP That's very interesting! I've been hesitant to use similar WMs as basically all required disabling SIP. Anyone knows what AeroSpace is doing differently that it can work alongside SIP? Edit: found this in the README: > AeroSpace will never require you to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). For example, yabai requires you to disable SIP to use some of its features. AeroSpace will…

I wonder if following the mouse for focus would be doable without disabling SIP. It's one of the features I didn't even see in other macOS WM.

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

#36
post #7

Oh, I like the fake Spaces approach. I have considered trying that by minimizing windows, but would never get around to it. Tiling is doomed to sadness on macOS, because of lack of APIs. But this is probably the most performant approach. Have used yabai, but only for moving windows and focus-follows-mouse. Not for tiling. Because flaky (not yabai’s fault). Thanks nikitabobko. Looking forward to trying it as soon as I…

I get around that by using the Stack and I flip between windows with alt+h/alt+j

Command+Tab is global window switch. The ones above are for "local" switching in the context of the workspace.

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

#37

Can we stop pissing and moaning about notarization? macOS isn’t Linux and this isn’t 1994. Given the cybersecurity threats of the world today, signing by a central authority makes some amount of sense for apps on consumer OSes.

As long as Apple's glorious code signing scheme can still easily tricked by a single xattr call [1], I'm fine with it. I've just got a feeling that that won't be forever.

[1] https://github.com/nikitabobko/homebrew-tap/blob/main/Casks/...

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

#38

> Homebrew installation script is configured to automatically delete com.apple.quarantine attribute, that's why the app should work out of the box, without any warnings that "Apple cannot check AeroSpace for malicious software" Can someone ELI5 what this does? Does it impact AeroSpace only, or something globally on my Mac? Thanks!

It impacts only AeroSpace

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

#40
post #20

What is the difference in user experience between this and Yabai? I don’t think the SIP issues for Yabai is a big one, no one I know who uses Yabai disables SIP, and they seem to enjoy it. Is the i3 stuff the difference? Personally I use a utility that allows resizing and moving windows with the mouse from anywhere on the window when holding a modifier combination, like Fluxbox. Not as automatic, but also never flaky…

I have used both extensively and I prefer AeroSpace.

Multi monitor support is the killer for me, but there are other small wins.

When you move a workspace in Yabai to a new monitor, it changes it's ID so you can't keep using keyboard shortcuts to access it (alt+2 breaks because it is no longer workspace 2, it becomes 11 or another number). I can move workspaces between monitors easily with alt+m and alt+shift+m.

The other feature is that windows snap instantly without any Mission Control animations. That is a big one that really irks me.

Those are the two features that I need most days and I find Yabai completely unusable because of the lack of workspace support

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