I always have at least 4 windows open in a project workspace, those being a text editor, a file browser, a terminal, and a web browser.

Currently I use i3 with packages pulled in from XFCE to handle sessions and power management, plus xfce4-appfinder and xfce4-panel (started and killed with MOD keys of course) because I wanted something beyond d-menu / b-menu.

It all works very well and was easy to configure.