Tiling window management

KDE Tiling Extension

This is a slightly different type of product for this section, as it's not a standalone application or utility. Instead, it's a script for KDE users that makes KDE operate as if it was running a tiling window manager. A tiling window manager, such as xmonad, i3, or bspwm, takes full control of where windows are placed on the screen. Starting with a single application taking over the entire screen, new windows will split the full screen display according to which layout has been selected. It may be purely columns, for example, with each new application subdividing the screen into vertical slices for each window. But layouts can also be more complex. The user can drag the borders between the window panes and define new layouts too, perhaps splitting both vertically and horizontally, depending on your own needs.

Tiling window managers are very useful and gaining in popularity, but using them often means you also lose access to many of the convenience features that make Gnome and KDE popular, for example. KDE's Tiling Extension is one possible solution. It's a set of third-party scripts that can either be downloaded by clicking Get New Scripts in the KWin Scripts configuration panel, or directly from the project's GitHub page. When activated, the script takes over control of window placement and size, making KDE feel very much like it's running a tiling window manager. Hotkeys allow you to change the layout, and the mouse can still be used to resize and move windows from one slot to another (try holding the Alt key and click drag). Turn off tiling for specific types of windows, such as dialogs, or applications, such as Yakuake, and disable tiling completely for separate virtual desktops.

Project Website

https://github.com/faho/kwin-tiling

Tiling can be disabled or enabled per desktop, application, and window type, for the best of all worlds.

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