Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

Dusty · 2005-06-30 03:09:55

Why is it that all the tiling WMs (ion, wmi, wmii, lars, ratpoison, etc) are also minimalist window managers? Tiling is wonderful, but wouldn't it be nice to have some fancy eyecandy graphics too?

Dusty

droog · 2005-06-30 03:21:42

Why cant you use one of the tiling wm's to manage the windows in a de like gnome or something?
I think iphitius uses xfce + ion and gets the best of both worlds. i'm sure you could find some combination that works for you.

sweiss · 2005-06-30 07:57:58

I was actually trying to implement such a feature using KWin's API. But I've put that on hold for the time being...

iphitus · 2005-06-30 08:31:34

I'd love pixmap + anti-aliased font support in ion3, it would make it *perfect* for *me*.

Dusty · 2005-06-30 14:38:43

droog wrote:

I think iphitius uses xfce + ion and gets the best of both worlds. i'm sure you could find some combination that works for you.

Do you really do this iphitus? That would be something interesting...

Dusty

nggalai · 2005-06-30 20:05:18

I use wmi with GNOME in the background. i.e. I run Nautilus and loads of GNOME-Daemons, wmi for window- and task management. Works perfectly; but then, I don't need gnome-panels which I imagine would be quite hard to get proper support for in a tiling window manager ... If somebody has any idea how to run gnome-panels properly in wmi, please share it with us!

 4219 ?        00:01:21 X
 4256 vc/1     00:00:00 wmi
 4257 vc/1     00:00:01 gnome-settings-
 4258 vc/1     00:00:00 gpilotd
 4259 vc/1     00:00:00 gnome-volume-ma
 4260 vc/1     00:00:00 statustext.sh
 4262 vc/1     00:00:04 gkrellm
 4279 ?        00:00:00 gconfd-2
 4287 ?        00:00:00 bonobo-activati
 4322 vc/1     00:00:00 xscreensaver
 4360 ?        00:00:00 firefox
 4374 ?        00:00:00 run-mozilla.sh
 4379 ?        00:00:49 firefox-bin
 4390 ?        00:01:06 rhythmbox
 4397 ?        00:00:00 python
 4451 ?        00:00:15 gaim
 5780 ?        00:00:00 ptal-mlcd
 6359 ?        00:00:03 nautilus
 6362 ?        00:00:00 gnome-vfs-daemo
 6371 ?        00:00:00 mapping-daemon
 6436 ?        00:00:10 evolution
 6449 ?        00:00:00 evolution-data-
 6466 ?        00:00:00 evolution-alarm
 9424 ?        00:00:00 gnome-terminal
 9425 ?        00:00:00 gnome-pty-helpe
 9426 pts/0    00:00:00 bash

Dreameen · 2005-06-30 20:20:46

What's all the tiling about and why it is so great? Can it be used in Kde?

xerxes2 · 2005-06-30 20:25:40

Dusty wrote:

Why is it that all the tiling WMs (ion, wmi, wmii, lars, ratpoison, etc) are also minimalist window managers? Tiling is wonderful, but wouldn't it be nice to have some fancy eyecandy graphics too?
Dusty

tiling wms is mostly used by geeks and they should code and learn stuff and not look at some fancy graphics, 8)

less eyecandy => less code => less bugs => less crashes => less loss of important stuff

just look at ion2, it's stable as he** , no bloat and crap,

phrakture · 2005-06-30 20:32:23

and phrakWM - it's so minimal it doesn't even exist! 8)

sweiss · 2005-06-30 21:16:36

xerxes2 wrote:

Dusty wrote:
Why is it that all the tiling WMs (ion, wmi, wmii, lars, ratpoison, etc) are also minimalist window managers? Tiling is wonderful, but wouldn't it be nice to have some fancy eyecandy graphics too?
Dusty
tiling wms is mostly used by geeks and they should code and learn stuff and not look at some fancy graphics, 8)
less eyecandy => less code => less bugs => less crashes => less loss of important stuff
just look at ion2, it's stable as he** , no bloat and crap,

I actually need my desktop to look right in order to be motivated for some real work. But that's just me I guess.

iphitus · 2005-07-01 00:30:37

Dusty: I only use the xfce settings manager, so I can get GTK themes. I used to use the xfce panel, but it was having stability probs wigth it.

But hey! take a look at this.

https://iphitus.no-ip.org/screenshots/010706.png

the mod dock plugin rocks

xerxes2 · 2005-07-01 08:54:54

sweiss wrote:

I actually need my desktop to look right in order to be motivated for some real work. But that's just me I guess.

i know what you mean, i used kde for six years and was a real wimp then, but i transformed gradually....

kde -> xfce4 -> openbox -> ion2

look at a painting on the wall(your real wall) for inspiration, that's what i do,

phrakture · 2005-07-01 15:05:12

xerxes2 wrote:

sweiss wrote:
I actually need my desktop to look right in order to be motivated for some real work. But that's just me I guess.
i know what you mean, i used kde for six years and was a real wimp then, but i transformed gradually....

I can't do that myself... I tend to get distracted... my working setup is a fullscreen urxvt with a background (so it looks like a console framebuffer, but fonts are cooler).

Oh, and for a great distraction, check out lavaps (did I put that in the AUR? *scratches chin*) - it's basically top that works like a lavalamp (more memory = larger blob, more CPU = blob floats upward)

Mr Green · 2005-07-01 15:39:35

xerxes2 wrote:

less eyecandy => less code => less bugs => less crashes => less loss of important stuff
just look at ion2, it's stable as he** , no bloat and crap,

ion2 not bloated

sweiss · 2005-07-01 18:19:36

xerxes2 wrote:

sweiss wrote:
I actually need my desktop to look right in order to be motivated for some real work. But that's just me I guess.
i know what you mean, i used kde for six years and was a real wimp then, but i transformed gradually....
kde -> xfce4 -> openbox -> ion2
look at a painting on the wall(your real wall) for inspiration, that's what i do,

I actually used XFce4 for a year and then moved to KDE. I realized that I pay for more RAM not for it to stay unused. Also due to my need (or better yet wish) for bidi support in the window titlebars, I'm forced to use a toolkit based WM/DE.

Still the idea of tiling does sound interesting and sometimes efficient, that is why I'd still try implementing it, when the time is right. I don't think I've uncovered KDE's full potential yet.

deft · 2005-07-06 11:49:38

On a related subject, I'm quite happy with PekWM at the moment - seems to have a nice balance between having nothing on the screen, and having nothing on the screen, heheh - loading it up, I'm on around 43 mb ram, which is nice - quite like the iconify option, and simply being able to middle click at the edge of the screen to bring up any particular window - all in all, a nice, "uncluttered" "desktop"

Dusty · 2005-07-06 14:33:40

wmii-2 is going to be almost everything I thought wmii-1 was going to be. By the time they release wmii-5 or so, its going to be a tiling powerhorse.

Dusty

ozar · 2005-08-24 00:06:44

Hey guys, this is to all of you that use the tiling layout built into your WMs:

I've been playing around with wmii-2 and ion3-devel for a few days now and really like certain aspects of both, but the tiling layout is keeping me somewhat disturbed. I don't like horizontal scroll bars in my windows at all, so when I have more than a few windows open, here they come. Now, I understand that the windows can be maximized and the scrollbar goes away, but then the window is huge on my 19" LCD. I'm tempted to stick with the "float" layout, but then it feels like I'm losing out on a big part of what these WMs are all about.

Is there some secret to liking the tiling layout, or is there some feature or technique that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance!

SleepyDog · 2005-08-24 01:47:20

ozar wrote:

Hey guys, this is to all of you that use the tiling layout built into your WMs:
I've been playing around with wmii-2 and ion3-devel for a few days now and really like certain aspects of both, but the tiling layout is keeping me somewhat disturbed. I don't like horizontal scroll bars in my windows at all, so when I have more than a few windows open, here they come. Now, I understand that the windows can be maximized and the scrollbar goes away, but then the window is huge on my 19" LCD. I'm tempted to stick with the "float" layout, but then it feels like I'm losing out on a big part of what these WMs are all about.
Is there some secret to liking the tiling layout, or is there some feature or technique that I'm missing?
Thanks in advance!

You can try using a floating split in ion3 (accessible via right-click)

ozar · 2005-08-25 20:37:52

Hey there, SleepyDog... already tried that but it's not really what I'm looking for either. I do appreciate the suggestion, though. 8)

phrakture · 2005-08-25 21:43:09

In wmii-2 I use the "tiled" interface. Somewhere in the configs, you can adjust the default split (i do mine like 80/20 because I have a widescreen).
You get one main window and a bunch of smaller windows on the right. When you switch to one of the smaller windows, you can hit "$MODKEY+Enter" to "zoom" the window - which swaps it for the "big" window... i find that's the most useful layout. If you want something floating you can always middle (or is it right) click the titlebar to "unmanage" it.

ozar · 2005-08-25 23:02:21

Thanks for the recommendation, phrakture.

Now that you mention it, I remember running across that setting while checking out the different config files, but I haven't tried changing it just yet. I'll experiment with it some because it does sound promising.

Thanks again!

Arch Linux

#1 2005-06-30 03:09:55

Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#2 2005-06-30 03:21:42

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#3 2005-06-30 07:57:58

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#4 2005-06-30 08:31:34

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#5 2005-06-30 14:38:43

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#6 2005-06-30 20:05:18

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#7 2005-06-30 20:20:46

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#8 2005-06-30 20:25:40

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#9 2005-06-30 20:32:23

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#10 2005-06-30 21:16:36

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#11 2005-07-01 00:30:37

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#12 2005-07-01 08:54:54

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#13 2005-07-01 15:05:12

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#14 2005-07-01 15:39:35

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#15 2005-07-01 18:19:36

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#16 2005-07-06 11:49:38

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#17 2005-07-06 14:33:40

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#18 2005-08-24 00:06:44

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#19 2005-08-24 01:47:20

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#20 2005-08-25 20:37:52

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#21 2005-08-25 21:43:09

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

#22 2005-08-25 23:02:21

Re: Tiling WM ?= Minimalist WM

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