I currently use xmonad, along with the gnome top-bar to get applets, network configuration, etc. I have found this the easiest way to move into tiling window managers.<p>It still annoys that tiling window managers all seem designed to be hard to use to configure, almost as a matter of principle. I see no reason that a tiling window manager can't still be easy to use (for example, I use the mouse as much with xmonad as I can, and would like to be able to use it more).
I'm not familiar with notion or ion3, but I've used all of the other tilling managers listed. I really like AwesomeWM as a starting point because it comes sanely configured, and does not rely on haskell like Xmonad. Awesome is configured via Lua scripts, Lua might not be the most popular language but it's easier to pick up than Haskell and has a smaller dependence base.<p>Besides notion/ion3, which I am not familiar with, all these tilling managers are automatic. You select a layout directive like<p>- place all windows horizontally,<p>- place all windows in a grid,<p>- place one window filling 2/3rd the screen and the rest stacked in the remaining 1/3rd<p>There are other tilling wm's like i3, wmii, bspwm, and herbstluftwm which are manual tilling managers. i3 and wmii are probably the best ones to start with, but herbstluftwm is my favorite.<p>With manual tillers you typically split the workspace into multiple frames and windows are automatically arranged in those frames.<p>Here is an impressive gif of bspwm, a manual tilling window manager [0], and here is the reddit thread where the creater talks about his configurations [1]<p>[0] <a href="http://paste.unixhub.net/index.php/NlKe/" rel="nofollow">http://paste.unixhub.net/index.php/NlKe/</a><p>[1] <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/1m0ea1/arch_bspwm_why_bspwm_watch_this_screencast_and/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/1m0ea1/arch_bspwm_...</a>
The combination of xmonad, dmenu and emacs --daemon has brought me great joy. The way I use computers has changed completely since starting down the tiling window manager road. It's a shame that getting the configuration for them right can be such a pain, but it has been well worth the trouble!
I'm happy with tiled windows in Acme (editor/IDE) for daily work. The layouting algorithm (a simple one) does the right thing most of the time :^)<p>My usual mode is Acme maximized on one screen, and browser, email and IM spread on the other.<p>See it in action in rsc's screencast: <a href="http://research.swtch.com/acme" rel="nofollow">http://research.swtch.com/acme</a>
If you're on OS X, I've found Slate to be the best option: <a href="https://github.com/jigish/slate" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jigish/slate</a><p>It's open source, has a simple text file based config, and is generally more configurable than most other similar tools.
I kind of use tiling in OSX. Most of my apps are running full-screen on two monitors, and I swipe across desktops to get to other apps. Of course, I am <i>able</i> to stack apps on top of eachother, but for the most part I don't. I have a desktop for sublime, a desktop for sequel pro, a desktop for a browser. In the event I need to look at two things at once, it's easy enough to drag things around.
I've used awesome before, and I was quite impressed. Once you get the hang of shortcuts, you tend to be vastly more productive than if you were using a traditional or compositing wm. I grew up with a compositing WM, but the transition was easy enough. I'm curious if the advent of mobile devices (i.e. smartphone, tablet, etc) would lead one to choose tiling WMs over the traditional kind.
<i>Eventually, you probably will stop relying on these things and do everything with the keyboard</i><p>I read so much about why Tiling is Great because the Mouse is Awful.<p>I think the mouse has its place. For writing code and text I have my hands on the keyboard—which means I also want to create and move windows with the keyboard.<p>But when I'm in a web browser, or a game, or any number of other GUI-centric applications, my hand is already on the mouse. Which means I want a visual dropdown for launching applications, and I want to drag and resize windows with the mouse.<p>I love my Tiling because it doesn't waste space. To me, Windowing is just silly; why would I ever want large swathes of my desktop empty, and applications overlapping each other?<p>But I don't understand the mouse-versus-keyboard argument. I want both to control my WM with both, because I use applications with both.
Some questions from someone who likes the idea of a tiling window manager but doesn't quite see how it would work better than compositing. I'm coming at this from KDE. My top applications are: firefox, thunderbird, eclipse, sublime text, and terminator.<p>When I'm browsing, I like to have firefox in the middle of my screen. If it's stuck off to the side somewhere or buried amongst other tabs, I'm going to hate it. How do I make that work?<p>Eclipse is going to be full screen. I assume that's not going to be difficult.<p>Now with all that, I get someone asking me a question via skype. How do I get notified? Currently I get a nice notification via the taskbar. Do I lose the concept of notifications?<p>What about for widget-like things (cpu/network/etc)? Do people use conky or something like that in a tiled window?
I'm really surprised that he left out i3wm. It's lightweight and the tiling placement is surprisingly intuitive and simple.<p>Here's the Google Talk:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnYN2CTb1hM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnYN2CTb1hM</a>
I've settled on ShiftIt [1], which gives me more partial desktop control at a good price (free). There was a good post, a while ago, on the various options for OSX [2].<p>I've also noticed that, because I use a widescreen and split my web browsers into two columns less-than 1000px wide, every Twitter Bootstrap site thinks i'm on a mobile device and collapses the grid layout.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt</a><p>[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4059820" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4059820</a>
Reasons why you shouldn't try a tiling window manager:<p>Well, mostly if you use tools that have a "view portal" or depend heavily on pop-out style toolboxes. The WM is constantly resizing your windows, which makes it a chore to keep everything adjusted, and pop-out style toolboxes are pretty much best at on-top usage by nature, rather than tiled.<p>I use CAD software on a regular basis, and while I managed to make a tiling WM work for me for maybe 6 months, returning to a floating WM was a relief. If you work directly with text all day, I bet they are great, but for me...
I use "sort of" Tiling WM. I have 4 screens in portrait mode and always maximize windows across single screen. I never have to scroll or press alt-tab.<p>BTW: KDE and XFCE WM has some basic tiling support as well.
I use Mint 15 XFCE on all my machines, I did try i3wm and a few others (i3wm for a couple of weeks) but it always had a couple of silly niggles on 3 screens (cursor jumping back to the middle of the screen when I tried to move it to another screen drove me crazy).<p>I've found XFCE with the keyboard shortcuts (built-in) to tile to top,left,bottom,right,fullscreen work really well and fit my model of usage (which is mostly open new source file, split screen).
At work I spend all day in Windows 7. The best thing I've found is WinSplit Revolution, which is nice but leaves a lot to be desired. (Unfortunately switching to Linux just isn't going to happen, for a number of reasons. But I get to use dwm at home, which I really like.)
On Linux i tend to use dwm (and dmenu), it doesn't have many features but then I don't really want anything more than a quick and easy way to fill a couple of workspaces with terminals, editors and browsers.<p>On Windows 8, WinKey + Left or Right are handy shortcuts.
Anyone know if "Notion" works as well in the latest Ubuntu releases as suggested by the author of the post?<p>(i.e. XMondad got jacked pretty badly in Ubuntu 13.04 and now requires lots of low level linux voodoo.)