/twmg/ Tiling window manager general

Low on precious screen real estate, or busy massaging your carpal tunnel
wrists damaged by waving a mouse around like an idiot? A tiling window manager
might be for you!

> Freedom from the mouse
With any decent twn, you're hand almost never has to leave the home row.

> High customizability
All well known twms are built with customizability in mind, either through a
config file, command line options, or in the case of dwm, editing the source
code directly.

> Efficient use of screen space
because each new window will split the screen one level further, the available
screen space is used optimally (yes, even when using gaps).

> L I G H T W E I G H T
using a tiling window manager forgoes the need for a bloated DE, simply
install any necessary software on top of the window manager to build exactly
the system you want with no cruft!

> Resources
i3wm - i3wm.org/
Babby's first twm, easily customizable from a central config file, has sane
defaults. Usable out of the box.

bspwm - github.com/baskerville/bspwm
Binary Space Partitioning Window Manager
bspwm is a tiling window manager that represents windows as the leaves of a full binary tree.

dwm - dwm.suckless.org/
Dynamic Window Manager written in C.
Slightly higher learning curve than most other twms, basic knowledge of C is
necessary for configuration as it takes place in the header file. Very
lightweight.

awesomewm - awesomewm.org/
Supports lots of features out of the box, less initial configuration necessary than some others.
Shares the concept of tags with dwm which can be more flexible than workspaces

herbsluftwm - herbstluftwm.org/
Manual twm with similar tiling system to i3
Can be reconfigured on the fly using herbstclient

> Brief introduction/ explanation
youtube.com/watch?v=Api6dFMlxAA

> Comparison of various twms
wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Comparison_of_tiling_window_managers

Aghhh
What is up my elite DWM bros? i3 noobs showing up in the desktop thread with i3gaps thinking they're the shit? LOL!

i3 (tabbed mode) mustardrace

Third for StumpWM

I like the idea of tiling wms, but the last time I installing i3 it messed up the notifications in kde, is there a way to avoid or fix this?

i3 is a dynamic wm tho.

What to use for OSX user?
>inb4 macfags

cyanide

I agree, tabbed layout is the shit
so are bspwm, awesomewm and dwm.

i3 nub here

1. Does flux work okay with i3?
2. Is there a way to replicate what tmux does where you can save session layout and have it start on the next time you run tmux?
3. I've noticed some anons seem to have i3 windows set up in a floating way, (not talking about i3 gaps) how do they do that?
4. Why does running nautilus for dmenu fuck up i3 so badly? Like it just fucks up the window you're in and you can't even kill the workspace? Is there a way to kill everything in a workspace or do you have to do it the "kill id" way?
5. Anyone here use i3 themes? Particularly Amiga themes? I saw some dude using a wm called pekwm and his Amiga theme was hot.
6. What file manager do people use? I guess ranger becomes useful when using i3.
7. I don't quite understand how i3 ties in with the existing hardware setup, I mean is it possible to make use of compositing and other ways in which hardware can be employed to take load off the CPU? I know i3 itself is lightweight anyway, I'm just OCD about the hardware actually doing what I bought it to do instead of everything going through the CPU.
8. Holy shit sorry about the number of questions, last one. Does anyone here use Wayland with a WM? Is sway the only one so far? I have a feeling Wayland may be the answer to my earlier question about hardware but I'm not sure.
9. Where would I set up fonts, font smoothing, color schemes in i3? The default color scheme is a bit shit 2bh

Well I guess the thread can stay bumped a bit now.

>so are bspwm, awesomewm and dwm
yes and they are superior to any purely tiling wm

A dragon dildo

2) you can't save sessions, but you can save a layout in json format and load it with a command or hotkey. the way they work is it opens blank placeholder windows in the layout and you configure the "swallow" option, which is some program. next time you run that program it gets swallowed by that window. so in the end you assign a hotkey to load the layout, then execute whatever programs you want swallowed to restore the layout. this isn't the same as sessions though, obviously.

3)$mod+shift+space gives you floating windows. $mod+left click anywhere on the window moves it, $mod+right click anywhere on the window resizes.

6) I use Thunar. Simple, works fine.

7) I'm not an expert on this but it seems pretty minimal. You have i3 on top of your X server, and then some compositor. Compton is a popular choice.

9) ~/.config/i3/config

>1. Does flux work okay with i3?
I dont know, i hate my screen looking all red
>2. Is there a way to replicate what tmux does where you can save session layout and have it start on the next time you run tmux?
I dont think so
>3. I've noticed some anons seem to have i3 windows set up in a floating way, (not talking about i3 gaps) how do they do that?
press mod+space by default
you can also edit the config and add a for_window a floating enabled. google it, or read the docs
>4. Why does running nautilus for dmenu fuck up i3 so badly? Like it just fucks up the window you're in and you can't even kill the workspace? Is there a way to kill everything in a workspace or do you have to do it the "kill id" way?
Because gnome sucks balls. just dont use nautilus. use "killall nautilus" to fix.
>5. Anyone here use i3 themes? Particularly Amiga themes? I saw some dude using a wm called pekwm and his Amiga theme was hot.
no
>6. What file manager do people use? I guess ranger becomes useful when using i3.
I use ranger
>9. Where would I set up fonts, font smoothing, color schemes in i3? The default color scheme is a bit shit 2bh
The i3 config file, or fonts.conf. I think the fonts pango in the i3 config writes to fonts.conf, so perhaps take that out? however if you use another de/wm they will probably do the same thing.

Someone got the graph showing used ram/resources of different WMs/DEs?

Anyone have any experience with echinus? Was using dwm myself but got tired of recompiling each time I wanted to test a configuration change.

What's the point of a compositor? Is it for floating windows?
The only thing I know they do is drop shadows, which I don't like.

transparent windows, like the semi transparent terminal windows

drop shadows, blur, transparency, vsync (prevents tearing)

noob here
just installed debian+mate
what wm should I try?

Gimme dat wallpaper.

i3 and awesome are both good choices. i found i3 easier to configure though.

cheers mate

no problem mate.
if you are going with i3, i highly recommend looking at luke smiths i3 videos on youtube. i recently reconfigured my system and i got a whole lot of ideas from his videos/config files on github.

will do thanks

just use redshift, don't know about flux though

that girl sure knows her window managers, great video btw, had no idea what tree tiling based wms were until now

First for herbstluftwm

What would you guys recommend for Wayland?
Currently using sway.

advantages over i3?

Windows are stored in frames and are automatically tiled in 4 different styles.
Frames behave like i3 windows.
That means if you close a window in a frame all the other frames stay uneffected and it doesn't fuck up your layout unless you close a frame.
It's also easier to write scripts for certain layouts etc because herbstluftwm can be configured through herbstclient. Just write a bash script with your commands and you're done.

The mix of manual and automatic tiling is the thing I like the most about it.

Someone in last thread asked how to use xresources colors in i3. Put this at the top of your i3 config file

# use colors from Xresources
set_from_resource $cbg background
set_from_resource $cfg foreground
set_from_resource $c0 color0
set_from_resource $c1 color1
set_from_resource $c2 color2
set_from_resource $c3 color3
set_from_resource $c4 color4
set_from_resource $c5 color5
set_from_resource $c6 color6
set_from_resource $c7 color7
set_from_resource $c8 color8
set_from_resource $c9 color9
set_from_resource $c10 color10
set_from_resource $c11 color11
set_from_resource $c12 color12
set_from_resource $c13 color13
set_from_resource $c14 color14
set_from_resource $c15 color15

This works if I set color like this:
*.color15: #ffffff or *.color15: WHITE
But can I make it read variables directly:
#define WHITE #ffffff (set from WHITE instead of color15)

Pretty cool user

What's the deal with S_baseN syntax for colors in .Xresources?

I have used awesomewm for a while, but a newer version broke my config and now I have to start from scratch. Is there a way to use the default theme and overwrite or add specific things so I don't have to rewrite my shit from scratch?

Thats what made me drop awesome years ago, after losing my config and having to start from scratch all the fucking time. Fuck awesome

Can you use WMs along with DE? I've only seen people choosing either DE or WM at login page.

Most DEs come with a Window Manager built in. In case of XFCE is XFCEWM. In the settings you can just tell to not start xfcewm and instead start i3 for exemple. xfce my require you to kill xfce-desktop as well

WM in that case will only be used on windows, right? Taskbar and everything else will be provided by DE?

What's a good bar? I want to rice mine a little bit and i3bar is unfit for ricing.

Window managers are just window managers. They don't provide anything else.
Polybar is easy to configure and really versatile.

Is there a way to split i3 config into modules?

You could pull a grub and make a folder with multiple files and then run a script that combines them to the actual config.

Yes, xfce panel will still be running along with any other software that you may have configured. Tho, the i3 settings will still work as well. Make sure you dont have the same for i3 and your DE

How did you set up sway?
Are you on Debian or Fedora?

that default wifi name, just like mine

B-but i3+compton looks really nice...

Tips for slstatus?

Can any user vouch for a tiling wm helping with carpal tunnel and wrist pain? Pic related is my life right now

>gaps

it helps you use the keyboard more
if using the keyboard more will help you then it will help you
good posture will probably help more
getting to the gym every now and then will actually fix it

Fuck user, I feel you. Using one myself too. I've tried everything including a vertical mouse and trackball and nothing helps. I'm still on KDE but I'm getting pretty good with the keyboard.

I don't use window borders so I use 4px gaps to distinguish the windows.

>getting to the gym will actually fix it
Nope. I used to be (still am but cts is dropping my motivation) ripped af but I still got it.

...

you actually excercised your wrists?
like, from every position?

I've been seeing a doctor(a physiotherapist?) for a year and I've followed her instructions and it's still getting worse by the day. I do have some metal tightening the skin and previous nerve damage on my elbow, which might make the wrist a little worse too. Sucks.

it should be like super low impact training. like 1lb weights.
in any event if you manage to learn to type without moving your wrists it should help. my fingers have developed problems tho. might be dependent on the keyboard weight.

Neither, arch linux.
I just followed the guide on the arch wiki.
You basically just copy the default conf from /etc/sway/config to ~/.config/swqy/config and then modify that file.

To start it you just run 'sway' from your command line.

If you have windows you can get an animated version through Wallpaper Engine