Master Your Desktop Be a Window Wizard
Tutorials – WM Tiling
Regular window managers are so 2016 – install a tiling WM and work faster, smarter, and cooler.
Despite all of the vast gains seen in technology over the last few decades, user interfaces on desktop computers have remained pretty much the same. We have insanely fast CPUs and graphics cards to make our windows wobbly, and we have truckloads of RAM to run countless apps simultaneously. But we still tend to have the same kind of setup on our desktops: a program launcher, a taskbar or list of running programs, a "system tray" area, various windows scattered around, and so forth. Even the desktop environments that have bucked the trend in recent years, like Gnome 3 and Ubuntu's Unity, still keep most of the basics that we've been using since the Amiga Workbench days.
Now, you could argue that this is a good thing. User interface design has been refined over the decades, and we're all used to how WIMP (windows, icons, menus, and pointing device) setups work, so why change it? Why throw all of this away for something novel and "experimental" that requires learning a whole new workflow?
Well, sometimes that workflow can make you faster. A lot faster. Look at the command line, for instance: We Linux and Unix geeks know that it's not as pretty or welcoming as a flashy GUI, but it gets many things done much more quickly. Prodding the mouse, going through tabs in a dialog box, fiddling with sliders and radio buttons – who wants that when you can just type in a command and get your flippin' work done?
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.