I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager

Re:I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager by siraben on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @09:59AM (#25443286)

I've used i3 for several years[0], and it's one of my favorite window managers out there. I had a couple of failed attempts on Debian/Ubuntu but NixOS made it so easy to switch to i3 and use XFCE as the desktop environment, which is great when you want to use i3 but not worry about setting sleep settings/keybindings for volume and display, etc., so I recommend i3+xfce for anyone wanting to give i3 a try without investing too much time configuring.

Also, i3/Sway handles external displays well, better than macOS IMO. When a display is disconnected, macOS merges the windows into the laptop display, but on tiling window managers they just stay in the same workspace number, which can be switched to on the laptop display, this is much more predictable and simpler.

[0]

I switched to Sway recently, the main reason being is that when you have an external display with a different DPI than your laptop display (which in my case is a HiDPI Retina Display), it's quite hacky to get it work under X, but it works flawlessly in Wayland. See my user config[1] for more, let me know of any questions regarding program compatibility under Wayland.

The configuration syntax is essentially compatible with i3 as well.

[1] https://github.com/siraben/dotfiles/blob/master/home-manager...

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Re:I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager by adkadskhj on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @10:42AM (#25443873)

Hah, i've been debating switching to Sway for that mixed HiDPI reason. I've got a three monitor setup where 1 is 4k and the other two are 1080p. X11 has been annoying, with a handful of small compromises and gotchas, unusable without xrandr.

> let me know of any questions regarding program compatibility under Wayland.

What types of programs might not work in Sway?

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Re:I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager by siraben on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @11:29AM (#25444493)

xwayland helps mitigate this problem by letting you run X applications on Wayland, (though purists might differ).

I use alternate versions of Chromium, Firefox that are Wayland-compatible, see https://arewewaylandyet.com/ for more.

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Re:I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager by vlunkr on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @11:16AM (#25444304)

i3+xfce is an extremely underrated setup in my opinion. Unless you're going for something really lightweight, I think it's the best way to use i3.

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Re:I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager by activitypea on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @10:02AM (#25443336)

any tips on getting i3 and xfce to work together?

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Re:I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager by siraben on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @10:09AM (#25443426)

For NixOS it's just a matter of adding the following to your system configuration, I'm not sure about other distros.

  services.xserver = {
    enable = true;   
    desktopManager = {
      default = "xfce";
      xterm.enable = false;
      xfce = {
        enable = true;
        noDesktop = true;
        enableXfwm = false;
      };
    };
    windowManager.i3.enable = true;
    displayManager.defaultSession = "xfce+i3";
  };

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Re:I3: Improved Tiling Window Manager by skshetry on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @10:14AM (#25443486)

This guide[1] is pretty extensive, a bit old but still works.

[1] https://feeblenerd.blogspot.com/2015/11/pretty-i3-with-xfce....

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