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Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

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Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#61

Post by fgonzag »

Kavelach wrote: post #45
mostlyk wrote: post #30

If anyone wants to try the NNN (Niri-Nix-Noctalia) dots. Feel free to use my flake, https://github.com/MostlyKIGuess/nix-flake-public .

I used window managers for years, but the hurdle of actually configuring stuff not-related to the WM itself (like setting up dark mode) made me switch to a full-fledged desktop environment. Thanks for mentioning Noctalia - it looks like exactly what I needed!

I was on the same boat as you. I installed noctalia after having tried and not really getting a perfect arch / niri / waybar setup.

I think I'm completely done after like 6 hours which is insanely fast, and it really is everything I ever wanted. It is cohesive, easy to style, has good defaults, includes essential programs like polkit agent and notification daemon / osd, has a ton of plugins.

I should have tried it so much sooner.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#62

Post by nickjj »

brightball wrote: post #39
nickjj wrote: post #2

Niri is so good. I've switched to using it about 5 months ago and it was legit the best computing decision I can remember making in recent history to move away from Windows. I have a huge amount of gratitude towards the author of niri. My dotfiles have always included an install script for setting everything up around command line tools, theme switching and more but it fully supports niri now too on Arch based distro…

Omarchy introduced a per-workspace toggle to scrollable mode like this. Press Win/Cmd + L and it switches from tiling to scrolling and back. I use it all the time now.

Yep, Hyprland recently added scrolling as a main line feature and since Omarchy is using Hyprland it can expose that feature.

I started with Hyprland when it didn't have scrolling built-in and all of the scrolling plugins were either really buggy or missing important features.

Ended up very quickly switching to niri and never looked back because I found it to be much more stable in general, plus niri handles multiple monitors in IMO the perfect way. niri is much different than Hyprland. It's not only about scrolling windows. It's how everything is put together and works together.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#63

Post by nickjj »

_rousbound wrote: post #56

For people that went from i3wm to Niri, I would love to be convinced. Being a i3wm(now sway) user, I tried Niri but found the following points a little bit uncanny: - (Cropping) Sometimes when I scroll by shifting focus, a little bit like 10% of the window I pushed to the left keeps appearing. I tried to configure Niri in such a way that never a tiny fraction of a window be cropped but couldn't manage. Not sure I mis…

=== SCRATCHPADS ===

I've avoided needing them because of 2 niri features:

- You can quickly tap alt+tab to focus the last previously focused window (assignable to a custom bind if you want)

- niri's CLI is very easy to work with so you can build a general purpose "launch or focus" shell script in a few lines of code

If you have something like Discord or any app you want to only be opened once, you can "launch or focus" it and now it's running somewhere. Somewhere as in, you can control which workspace it's on at your discretion.

Then if you launch it again from anywhere, you'll jump right to it instead of launching a 2nd instance and you can tap alt+tab to go back to exactly where you were before.

A nice effect is after it's been launched once it never interferes with your existing windows since nothing is getting opened again.

I'm after the end result of "let me access this program quickly no matter where I am", it doesn't need to literally follow me around every workspace to do that.

The launch or focus model can be applied to GUI apps and also TUIs.

=== SPATIAL MEMORY ===

niri's overview gives you a holistic view of everything. Status bars can also show you which workspaces are in use (and even open apps if you want that).

In addition to that, certain launchers like Walker have shortcuts to let you switch windows. This means you're only ever 1 global hotkey away from seeing a list of every window that's open and being able to fuzzy find switch to it in a second. I use this all the time. If you're not using Walker you can build this in a few lines of code since niri's CLI gives you a list of open windows.

My dotfiles have both things set up https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#64

Post by noplacelikehome »

mplanchard wrote: post #22
nolist_policy wrote: post #19

Slightly off topic: Does anyone know a window manager where you can map virtual desktops to real monitors? E.g. When I'm on the move I cycle through my virtual desktops on my laptop screen, but when connecting a monitor I want to cycle between my virtual desktops independently on either screen. While both screens share the same set of virtual desktops.

If I'm understanding the ask, I think niri has this. Workspaces for each output are independent, and switching between them only affects the focused output.

Niri can even do one better: if you configure a keybind for the move-workspace-to-monitor-next or -prev actions you can move entire spaces between monitors, with wrap around. You can do the same for a column of windows (by default an individual window, but you can stack windows such that only one is visible in a group or that they're all visible in rows). I'll usually split my chat/monitoring spaces from my active development ones so I can passively refer back to them whilst working on an active task.

Niri offers a wonderful workflow; it really is an excellent piece of software.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#65

Post by noplacelikehome »

hmokiguess wrote: post #40

Give me Niri on macOS pleaaaaaase. I tried the variants but it’s not there yet, I want native trackpad gesture integration, either no animations or buttery smooth ones with full control, blur please, and everything else.

I sympathise with this. I don't use macOS by choice, but because my employer forces me to do so as the security team has a dated understanding of the state of desktop Linux and MDM software.

The challenge with macOS window managers seems to be handling movement of windows between spaces, particularly when the display configuration changes (e.g. when docking and undocking a laptop, or opening and closing the lid). I've tried Yabai, AeroSpace, OmniWM, Hammerspoon w/ PaperWM.spoon, and Rift. None of them have delivered the level of polish Niri achieves.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#66

Post by phren0logy »

carlosjobim wrote: post #20
phren0logy wrote: post #5

If you are on a Mac, check out OmniWM, which has a Niri layout, in addition to one that's more like Hyprland. It has made my work on MacOS much more pleasant. https://github.com/BarutSRB/OmniWM I posted about it a bit ago when I just started using it, and it's been really great. Highly recommended.

I'm sorry, but they have the worst demo video I have seen in my life. Nobody will want to try their software after watching that video. If you watch it, you will probably want to uninstall it, even if you're already a user.

If that’s all it took to deter you that thoroughly, I think you can confidently say that you are outside of the target market. Which is 100% OK!

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#67

Post by phren0logy »

noplacelikehome wrote: post #65
hmokiguess wrote: post #40

Give me Niri on macOS pleaaaaaase. I tried the variants but it’s not there yet, I want native trackpad gesture integration, either no animations or buttery smooth ones with full control, blur please, and everything else.

I sympathise with this. I don't use macOS by choice, but because my employer forces me to do so as the security team has a dated understanding of the state of desktop Linux and MDM software. The challenge with macOS window managers seems to be handling movement of windows between spaces, particularly when the display configuration changes (e.g. when docking and undocking a laptop, or opening and closing the lid). I'v…

No, they don't, but I'd still take OmniWM over not having it.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#68

Post by jrm4 »

bbkane wrote: post #57
jrm4 wrote: post #38

Slightly offtopic and it's odd because I'm asking for something that feels like should exist though, like, I get that I have no right to it. This, for X, but not under Gnome or KDE? Even better, perhaps as just a script or something under Openbox? (might be time to get into the vibecoding...)

What's keeping you on X? Some apps still broken for you? I switched to Wayland a few months back and it's been pleasantly boring

I teach online and Zoom + screen sharing on Wayland is just not there yet.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#69

Post by likeclockwork »

foltik wrote: post #13

I’ve gotten so used to the tiling WM workflow of quick-switching between a bunch of different dedicated fullscreen workspaces and managing windows with pure keyboard. Each workspace typically has a single app, or terminal with tmux, but occasionally I’ll split two apps side by side. Would love to hear the perspective of anyone who switched from a similar workflow to Niri. How does the mental model shift?

That's not actually tiling, is it? To me that reads like fullscreen with workspaces.

If one uses a manual tiling window manager like i3 or sway and a large monitor one can divide the screen into separate work areas that each host multiple applications based on their role in one's workflow and use less workspaces.

Scrolling makes a similar but different workflow practical on small screens where flexibility matters.

Re: Niri 26.04: Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor

#70

Post by dyates »

saintfire wrote: post #46
dyates wrote: post #8

I switched to Niri at the end of last year after over a decade on i3.[1] Having horizontal scroll unbounded by my monitor size and workspace count unbound by the number of shortcut keys I have configured has been very freeing, and the graphical stuff is nice too. My only remaining pain point is that its X compatibility layer, xwayland-satellite, does not yet support drag and drop between X and Wayland programs.[2] [1…

I'm in a similar boat, but I've found where I once habitually put things in the same workspace every time and was able to trivially recall them, I now end up all over the place. Also I've been missing scratch deeply. I'm sure it's solvable with some diligence and config changes, but I haven't invested the time yet.

I'd agree with sph about having one workspace per activity. I've never had a rigid workflow with lots of permanent named workspaces, but I have a workspace-naming script that lets me label my numbered workspaces after they've been set up.

Other things that help include a fuzzel-based open window searcher and, to be honest, restrained use of Niri's flagship scrolling feature. Most of my workspaces most of the time are the same size as my screen, with the scroll used very sparingly for usually temporary overflow.

I guess it also helps that I never used the i3 scratchpad so I don't miss it.

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