" Traditional tiling window managers solve the hidden window problem preventing windows from overlapping. While this works well in some cases, it falls short as a general replacement for stacked, floating windows. "
In 10 years of working with tiling WMs productively on a daily basis this has been an issue exactly 0 times. Even in a world that is tailored to non-tiling WMs they just perform better. Period.
I used i3wm for some time, configuring default placements based on window metadata and used it for work. after some time I realised I’m 40 years old and shit like this is a waste of time. I just want it to think for me
I relatively recently switched from ion3 to hyprland - not having a predefined layout with rules where windows go was a bit weird at first, but got used to it pretty quickly. I have a bunch of rules about which desktop specific applications should go, but other than that just use dynamic splits at the cursor location, and then move windows around as needed.
Seems like using a window manager could be a whole rabbit hole. Where do you begin?
I’d recommend sway and waybar. Waybar offers some cool customizable templates. Currently I also use bemenu as a launcher and dunst/poweralertd for notifications. I make heavy use of stacked or tabbed layout during general use.
sway has pretty decent mouse support, but for optimal productivity try to get used to the keyboard shortcuts. As soon as moving/resizing windows and changing desktops becomes muscle memory it’s a whole different ball game.
start with i3wm/sway or openbox. openbox is a floating window manager so it should be more familiar and i3wm is a tiling window manager. personally i use kde nowadays but i always preferred tiling window managers when i chose to use one. it all comes down to your choices so first see if you prefer tiling or floating window managers and then go from there
According to the comments here, innovation should not happen because we already have something. It seems everything needs to be a Windows clone with extra settings and worse UI for it to be considered here. Nothing clean or new that could genuinely help the Linux desktop adoption in the mainstream. The FOSS Gatekeeping continues as always.
I think it is kind of sad that so many people are opposed to such innovations as this is truly what we need as an OS if we want it to be mainstream: differentiating features and a distinct experience. Not a clone that makes people think “oh it looks and behaves mostly like Windows, so it must work just like it!” and then run into a brick wall. I think the main reason people who switch to MacOS succeed and stay and even love it is because 1. MacOS is really easy to learn and 2. People go in not expecting to be like Windows, instead they expect to have to learn a whole new workflow.
If Linux could have such an experience I really think it could help sell the idea of Linux as a separate OS experience/product rather than something that looks and feels like a slightly worse Windows with no telemetry and no forced updates.
Yeah, GNOME is fine. I used KDE for years and got tired of the jank, so now I’m back in GNOME. It’s fine, it launches applications, browses files,and tells me the time, which is about all anyone really needs from a desktop environment. It does a lot more too.
I think it’s a great experience. It’s not for everyone, but nothing is. Use what makes you happy and cheer on projects that fit others’ needs, because the more people use Linux with different configurations, the more functionality we’ll all get and the more bugs will be fixed.
as a crusty suckless dwm user if this works as advertised I’ll switch
Hope they come to the conclusion they shouldn’t be doing it and stop.
Gnome to me was like a DE trying really hard to be like Mac, I don’t want that. I didn’t want any of what Gnome 3 was offering and I still don’t.
I have a Debian VM that I jump into to try out latest KDE and Gnome just to see how things are and I honestly do not want what Gnome is still trying to offer.
So I’d happily shit on it and then find that corner of it to hook out the remaining crap from my butt cheeks.
I’m glad you like it, but allow other to have their own opinion without making the assumption that people have simply not used it and that’s why they dislike it so hard.
I’m not shitting here shitting on GNOME but I haven’t tried it since gnome 3 released.
I got kinda stuck on tiling wms because I hate having to think about laying out windows and so this blog post is exciting! They’re very correct that tiling wms only partially solve the problem because you often have to tweak for proper line length or just deal with random void space in settings apps.
Obviously mosaic isn’t in yet, but if I wanted to dip into GNOME can it do (or are there addons or alternative more efficient things to try) for the following:
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snappy keyboard only application launching e.g. dmenu style.
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a way to activate a tiling wm mode for when you’re doing something like software Dev or at least a way to save and lock particular layouts?
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tell software to always open on a particular monitor?
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manipulate windows without using the mouse + move focus to different screens without using the mouse?
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display a string in the status bar (I assemble my status bar using a custom shell script which outputs a string. I’d like to not reinvent it)
Cause reading this blog I’m kinda keen to see where they take GNOME and get in early so it’s easier to learn.
Like I said, I last used GNOME 2 so it’s been a while and I’m sure in my head it’s unfairly judged.
