Why you'd want a TILING WINDOW MANAGER, and why I DON'T
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Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
00:44 Sponsor: Squarespace
01:45 What's a window manager?
06:02 Advantages of Tiling WMs
09:40 Why I don't like them
14:39 Sponsor: Tuxedo
15:44 Support the channel
#Linux #tiling #windowmanager #linuxdesktop
All desktop environments provide a window manager, it's in charge of displaying your windows, handling their position and state, as in maximized, minimized, the size of the window, the current focused one, and everything along those lines. On top of these baked in window managers, you have tiling window managers.
Stuff like i3, hyprland, sway, awesomeWM, BSPWM, XMonad, qtile, ratpoison and a lot more.
Some are manual tilers, some are dynamic. Dynamic tilers will open each new window following something YOU defined.
Basically, you have plenty of choice, but tiling window managers will replace your current desktop with something that is more meant to be used with a keyboard, without much user input, to maximize the use of your screen real estate. So, let's look at why you'd want to use a tiling window manager.
The first, obvious advantage is that you never get anything overlapping anything else, unless you actively choose to do so. On a regular desktop, you'll have to move windows out of the way, or minimize them, or resize them, and this is basically wasted time; it's time not spent using the computer and accomplishing something.
The second advantage is that it sort of removes the need to use the mouse or the touchpad 99% of the time. The only time you'll probably need to use it is to interact with the contents of the window itself, like clicking a link in the web browser, or clicking a button in a window.
Another advantage is resource usage. A tiling window manager generally doesn't bring with it a whole system of panels, overviews, app grid, menus, effects and more, meaning that you don't load as many things in memory as with a complete desktop.
A big advantage is also screen usage: without a big panel and a dock, tiling windows always uses the most space available on your screen.
So, with so many advantages, why wouldn't I use a tiling window manager?
Most desktops already give me enough of the tiling features to suit my use case. Using KDE, or GNOME, I can already tile my windows if I want to. I can drag them to any corner or edge and have them use that screen size. In KDE, I even have a full tiling manager that I never use because I don't need it.
Sure, this edge tiling doesn't give you as much flexibility as a full tiling window manager, but for me personally, it's more than enough. And it all comes down to my use case: I make videos.
Which means I have 2 modes: research / writing mode, and video editing mode. In the first, I need 2 windows: A browser for research, and QOwnNotes to write. Sometimes, I'll use a virtual machine as well, but tiling this on a laptop display doesn't make sense, so I open it full screen on a virtual desktop.
In editing mode, I have my video editor, Davinci Resolve, in full screen. Again, not something a tiling WM would help me with.
My panel autohides behind windows, so it doesn't take up space, and while I do have title bars, I also don't have gaps between my windows when they're tiled, or between a window and a screen edge, so I'm actually pretty sure it's the exact same screen space usage.
I also don't lose out on configuration, at least on KDE: I can change all these shortcuts, I can change how windows open by default, they remember their previous size, it works. And finally, most of the time, I work on a laptop. It's a 16 inch screen, but it's still a laptop. And tiling there is just completely inefficient and makes things way too small.
What I'm saying is that yes, a tiling window manager is really useful, and cool, but it's NOT for every use case and every user.
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eshep
in reply to The Linux Experiment • •Fantastic! By far, the best style of video you've ever put out. I love reviews of stuff that offer advice in the way of; "here's a thing, a really good thing, but it might not be what you need/want". People need to use what works for their needs. But at the same time, you'll never know if something may be better for you unless you go play with it.
I've played around with almost every window management concept available for the past 20 years, they all have their place. In doing so, I've found that tiling in general is redundant to proper exploitation of virtual desktop capabilities, and hotkey configuration. For example, in #e16, I have multiple "desks", which are separate virtual desktops, and a 2x3 set of "areas" in each one which act more like what are commonly known as "virtual desktops". When I open a new program, I first place it on the desk and area I want it, then open a wm dialog for that window which allows me to select what I want the wm to remember for that program, such as location/size/border/opacity/etc. Now,
... show moreFantastic! By far, the best style of video you've ever put out. I love reviews of stuff that offer advice in the way of; "here's a thing, a really good thing, but it might not be what you need/want". People need to use what works for their needs. But at the same time, you'll never know if something may be better for you unless you go play with it.
I've played around with almost every window management concept available for the past 20 years, they all have their place. In doing so, I've found that tiling in general is redundant to proper exploitation of virtual desktop capabilities, and hotkey configuration. For example, in #e16, I have multiple "desks", which are separate virtual desktops, and a 2x3 set of "areas" in each one which act more like what are commonly known as "virtual desktops". When I open a new program, I first place it on the desk and area I want it, then open a wm dialog for that window which allows me to select what I want the wm to remember for that program, such as location/size/border/opacity/etc. Now, every time I open that program, the wm places its window where I told it to remember. I've also set a few hotkeys for throwing windows to an adjacent area, or the same area on an adjacent desk, and ones for maximizing (full/horizontal/vertical) using only the available space. Using these methods gives me all the benefit I want from a tiling window manager combined with features of one that doesn't, all packed into a very small resource footprint.
And the bit where you mention grabbing and moving/resizing windows with mouse+key is one I would say is a tough contender with highlight-middleClick for the spot of best feature in any gui environment.
Cătă
in reply to The Linux Experiment • • •@The Linux Experiment Windows also has some tiling capabilities, even some default keyboard shortcuts (that cannot be changed though).
In the ideal word, you'd have apps that wouldn't need to integrate with anything. Everything could be fitted the way you'd like: A window manager, a dock, an email client, a web browser, a text editor, a terminal etc. - just mix/match any of these according to your tastes. But I agree, there's a hell of a lot of stuff that can be accomplished by using the integrated experience of the DE of your choice.
R3.L5.R3
in reply to Cătă • • •to expand upon the Windows tiling point, there's an optional MS add-on utility you can install that enables additional tiling features that function in the same way as #KDE Plasma's new (v5.27) tiling interface -- it's called FancyZones, part of the Powertools suite: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzones
(...and this Windows utility existed way before Plasma 5.27. I wouldn't be surprised if the Plasma tiling interface was inspired by FancyZones!)
PowerToys FancyZones utility for Windows
learn.microsoft.comCătă
in reply to R3.L5.R3 • • •@R3.L5.R3 Oh, yes. Forgot about PowerToys. Really useful.
The KDE team might have stolen the idea from Windows, or, as @The Linux Experiment mentions, they just got inspired from the tiling window managers to create such an environment.
MsDropbear42 [venera] 🐨♀🌈🐧🦘
in reply to The Linux Experiment • • •R3.L5.R3
in reply to MsDropbear42 [venera] 🐨♀🌈🐧🦘 • • •if by any chance you're keen to learn in the future, having a wallpaper or desktop widget that's just your personal WM keybinds cheat-sheet helps! 😎
(You can also go old-school and have a print-out of the keybinds by your side, haha.)
Some WMs also come with a dedicated hotkey popup (and it updates itself as you change your keybindings!). One of the main reasons I love Awesome WM. 🙂
eshep
in reply to MsDropbear42 [venera] 🐨♀🌈🐧🦘 • •You sure bout that? How does your KDEPlasma session handle window placement, movement, resize...etc?
eshep
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